Still No Respect.

This screen shot is from ESPN's TV Personality, most known for his radio show, and for being the lead anchor on the often comical Sports Nation, Colin Cowherd. His quote may be all I need as a proper title. The Ravens were a 9.5 point underdog going into Denver. Very, very few analysts gave the Ravens any shot at all at beating Peyton Manning and the Broncos. However, I will admit, I was nervous about the Denver game, as many fans were. The stats seemed to speak for themselves: the Broncos had won 11 straight; Manning was 8-1 against Ray Lewis and the Ravens; Flacco had never been consistent on the road; and of course the 34-17 loss in week 14. But the Raven's overcame all of the nay sayers to beat the Broncos in double overtime, 38-35. Surely taking down future Hall of Fame QB Peyton Manning would get the Ravens some national respect, wouldn't it? Simple answer... NO.

As shown above, national media still doubts the Ravens ability. Cowherd says the "patriots are a machine right now," leaving the Raven's with no chance of winning. But didn't Cowherd learn from anything his ESPN college? ESPN reporter Ashley Fox became a well known figure in Baltimore last week when ESPN published a picture of Ray Lewis with the caption "Thanks for all of the Memories, because Sunday was your last NFL Win." This was in reference to the 24-9 Raven's victory over the inspired Colts. Ashley Fox did not stop at disrespecting Ray Lewis, she furthered her statement by comparing Peyton Manning to a Mac Book, a machine. She said that the Raven's would have to take a "hammer to the screen" or "pour beer on the keyboard" of this Mac Book to win. Bu the Raven's did win, by out playing the Broncos on offense, and containing Peyton Manning long enough to force a "hardware malfunction." So if the Raven's just outplayed one machine, why does Colin Cowherd think they won't out play another.

I do understand that the Patriots are playing with 'machine-like' characteristics. Tom Brady threw for 344 yards, and 3 touchdowns. The Patriots team totaled 457 yards, and scored 41 points. Make no mistake, those are impressive numbers. However, those impressive numbers are extremely similar to the Ravens numbers on Saturday. Flacco threw for just 13 fewer yards; he threw for just as many touchdowns, the Ravens totaled 22 more yards than the Patriots, and came up with just 3 fewer points. So if the Patriots are a machine on offense what does that make the Ravens? How can you say that one team is a machine and the other is not?

Looking Forward

The Raven's will travel to New England on Sunday to play the Patriots for the chance to go to the Super Bowl. Not only is this a week 3 rematch, but it is an AFC Championship game rematch from last season.

In Week 3 and in last years AFC Championship Game, Flacco has simply out-dueled Tom Brady. Not only has Flacco been on fire, the Raven's defense has been stout against Brady.

Many analysts on ESPN, and many fans are concerned about the high flying offense that Brady brings. If you watched the Patriots - Texans game on Sunday, you saw that much of their game plan relied on getting the ball deep to Lloyd. Cary Williams is expected to be matched up against Lloyd, and many analysts are marking this as the key match up. However these same analysts are forgetting about what Cary just did up against another deep threat in Decker. Decker was allowed catches in tight coverage, but nothing over the top, and nothing deep. For the most part Cary shut down the deep threat, and is expected to do the same Sunday. They are also listing the match up between the O-line and Wilfork as a key match up. However in the last two match-ups, Wilfork had only 1 sack, and 7 total tackles. Wilfork was also kept quiet in the run game, see how the Raven's were able to rush for over 100 yards in each game, and that was before the break out of Pierce, and the vastly improved O-line play.

The nay-sayers are once again standing loud against the Ravens, few giving them any chance at all. Yet they forget the Week 3 victory, and the Raven's stunning victory of the Broncos. I assure you that this weekend will once again prove that analysts clearly know nothing, which is why, as Chris Berman always says, "that's why we play the game."