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Ravens @ Denver Week 1 - Ravens Return to Mile High

6 years later after his head coaching debut, John Harbaugh enters his first season as a Super Bowl winning Head Coach. It has to be a great feeling! If you’ve ever competed in any team sport in your life, no matter what it was, you’ve probably imagined yourself winning a Super Bowl at some point. Winning a Super Bowl is the stuff dreams are made of and John has the ring to prove to all that he has been there and done that. Five years as head coach with five Playoff berths with at least one win. Three AFC Championship appearances and last year his first AFC Championship and Super Bowl win. Very impressive for his first five years by any standard.

John’s coaching skills will be tested in 2013, as the off season was rough to the Ravens post championship. The Ravens lost 9 starters from their Championship 2012 starting squad due to retirement, salary cap cuts and free agency. No other Super Bowl winning team has ever turned over that many players. Ray Lewis retired after a legendary career, taking and ‘his dogs in the house’ back to Florida. The next time Ed Reed gets an interception in a Ravens game, Baltimore will fall silent, he’s now a Texan. The preseason injury bug took away Dennis Pitta with a dislocated hip.The 2013 Ravens is a new team, reborn from the ideals of John Harbaugh. He will have a target on his back in 2013, but he has the capacity to bring the Lombardi back to Baltimore a few more times, even if its not this season. The defending World Champion Baltimore Ravens find themselves in Denver’s thin air today, with Coach Harbaugh looking for his 6th consecutive season opening win in his 6 years of coaching.

One of the best moves Harbaugh made last year was upgrading his Offensive coordinator to Jim Caldwell. Under Jim Caldwell's guidance, the Ravens offense and Joe Flacco blazed a path straight through to their Super Bowl victory. Scoring an average of over 30 points a game in their last 5 games, the Ravens dominated the field on the ground and in the air. Joe will be working from Jim Caldwell's re-vamped Ravens playbook this season. It will likely give Joe the flexibility to control the tempo, using a balanced running and passing attack. There will be more quick plays over the middle and sides, along with some deep bombs to his re-tooled receiving corps featuring Torrey Smith and Jacoby Jones. The ground game will remain punishing. Lead blocking provided by fullbacks Vonta Leach and rookie Kyle Juszczyk, should clear paths for Ray Rice and Bernard Piece to take advantage of with nearly every touch. The Ravens offensive line will have to play hard to protect Joe. Even though Denver's pass rush is going to be limited having lost Elvis Dumervil, and Von Miller’s suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, the Broncos will dig their way to Joe if allowed. The Ravens need to execute their plays quickly. Good reads from Flacco, great hands by his receivers, and blocking form everyone else. No penalties and no turnovers. To win this game the Ravens will likely need to score at least 30 points against Peyton Manning’s arm and offence. Joe Flacco has to lead the Ravens to it.

It will be strange looking out at the Ravens defense with no 52 on the field, especially knowing that there never will be another to don that number on this team. Time passes then the names change, the ‘next man up’ always comes along. Daryl Smith will never replace Ray Lewis, nobody can, but Daryl has shown he is a solid linebacker and can handle his own and has a spot leading the Ravens defense on the field. Terrell Suggs has a new tandem buddy in Elvis Dumervil, giving the Ravens one of the best pass rushes in the league on paper. Lardarius Webb will return to the backfield opposite Corey Graham who has been playing great. New defensive ends Chris Canty and Marcus Spears will help sure up the edges and contain the running game. All of this is important because Peyton Manning will be looking to pick apart the Ravens defense for every yard and point he can take. Dean Pees and his defense will have to bring some exotic looks, and rush packages to get to Manning before his quick and often deadly release.

The Ravens and John Harbaugh are aiming to become the 8th team in NFL history to repeat as Super Bowl Champs back to back. Harbaugh and Flacco are looking to bank on their perfect season start record together for the season opening night. The Broncos are going to be playing with a chip on its shoulder after it’s postseason loss to the Ravens last year. Denver has not forgotten Joe Flacco, Jacoby Jones and their version of the ‘Mile High Miracle’. Denver’s been planning it’s revenge for 8 months now and Joe and Jacoby are looking for their next dance while they are in town. This game will be a tale of two quarterbacks picking mercilessly on the weaknesses of the other's defense. It’s going to be a tough one for the Ravens. But I believe they will pull this one out.

My Call:

Ravens 30

Broncos 24

Odds:

Current Line: Broncos -7.5

Opening Line: Broncos -7

Over/Under: 48

WK 10 Raiders vs Ravens - Ravens go for 15 straight at home! #OAKvsBAL

The Ravens are back home at M&T Bank Stadium this week after being away or off for almost a month. This will be the first home game Terrell Suggs plays since his amazing return from his achilles injury and should have the Ravens Nation Army whipped up into a Balls So Hard frenzy! Currently sitting at 6-2 The Ravens are expected to be able to take care of business at home against the 3-5 Raiders who have never beaten the Ravens at home. As a matter of fact, you have to go back to 2006 to find a Raiders win against the Ravens. Both teams are feeling the pain of injuries and both will need to game plan outside of their usual box to earn a win at the big crabcake Sunday. Offensively speaking the Ravens continue to be an enigma. While all the talent any NFL team could hope to have is present on the Ravens, the team has issues stringing together impressive offensive play game by game and quarter by quarter. The only consistent thing I see on the Ravens offense is the running game when O-Coordinator Cam Cameron remembers he has a Pro Bowl running tandem in Ray Rice and Vonta Leach. Last week against the Browns, Rice and Leach had their numbers called more than any other game in the 2012 season, and helped lead the Ravens to their 6th win. When the Ravens get the running game going, it makes Joe Flacco a better QB than he is without it. The running game sets up and sells the play action and allows Flacco’s receivers to get open down field for some big plays. However, Joe must continue to work on his progressions and stop staring down his receivers. He blows at least a dozen plass plays a game by staring his first read down from snap to throw. It is so frustrating to watch happen game after game, year after year. If Cam calls some good plays without outsmarting himself, and Joe improves his stare down issue, this could be a great week against the Raiders. Last week the Buc’s rookie runner Doug Martin slashed the Raiders for over 250 yards and four TD’s. Both John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron need to keep this in mind and prioritize the running game. However, if Cam forgets about the run, and Joe locks on his primary at the snap until he throws, the Raiders defense could have a lot of fun in Baltimore.

Carson Palmer will be without his star running backs as both Darren McFadden and Mike Goodson are out. This is going to push the Raiders to put the ball in Palmer’s hand more often than not and test the Ravens pass defense. This actually plays in favor to the Ravens defense which has had a tough time stuffing the run this season but heaps pressure on the Ravens secondary who have struggled at times this season without Pro-Bowl Corner Lardarius Webb. I’m hoping that ever since the running game for the Raiders will be mostly null, that Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata gets a lot of rest for his injured knee and shoulder. Ngata has commented this week that his injuries are not allowing him to do what he wants most of the time. This is something that needs to be addressed sooner than later as we need a healthy Ngata going into the meat of the Ravens schedule. The Ravens will need to rest Ngata, and lean more on Suggs, Reed, Smith, Williams, and Pollard to make things sizzle on the defense.

The Ravens have all they need to get a home win and end up 7-2 Sunday. The Ravens offense and Cam Cameron must play smart, and not screw themselves out of point making plays. Defensively the Ravens must adhere to the ‘Bend but don't Break’ mentality that they have been sticking to most of the season. As stated before, I pray that Haloti watches this game from the sidelines, we need him to rest for next week and beyond. Oddsmakers are looking to the Ravens to extend their NFL leading home game winning streak to 15 wins against the Raiders and so do I. GO RAVENS!!!

My Call...

Raiders 17 Ravens 31

Odds & Trends... Opening Line: Ravens -7 Current Line: Ravens -9 Over/Under: 46

Last meeting: 1-30-2010 - Ravens 21 Oakland 13

Baltimore has won 14 straight regualr season home games, teh NFLS longest active streak.

The Ravens are 4-0 all time versus akland at home.

Etcetera...

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