I haven't blogged since the Super Bowl, and I probably won't blog again for a while (at least not until the draft), but the 2009 schedule was just released, and it's worth taking a quick look at the way the upcoming season breaks down for the hometown team. One thing you can count on, there are games that look easy right now that will look a lot tougher when they get here, and there are games that look tough now that will end up looking much easier. The most one can do, therefore, is to say: IF LAST SEASON'S RESULTS CARRY OVER INTO NEXT SEASON ... which of course they never do.

Still, IF LAST SEASON'S RESULTS CARRY OVER INTO NEXT SEASON, here's how things look right now for the purple and black:

WEEK 1: VS CHIEFS (2008 record: 2-14): There aren't many sweeter ways to open the season than at home against the woeful Chiefs. Matt Cassel gets his first test right away, and even with our aforementioned caveat, a Chiefs win here would qualify as a major upset. Were this game in November or December I might temper my confidence (slightly), but in Week 1, for a team that last played in the AFC Championship game and blew out nearly every inferior team it played in 2008, anything less than total domination by the Ravens would be inexcusable.

Continue reading "Breaking Down the Ravens Schedule, part I"

So, ten weeks and nine games into the season, what is it fair to say we have? One probable loss (at New England), four TCOB games (i.e., no excuse for losing, not if you want to be Super Bowl champion: home against KC, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Denver), and an equivalent number of toss-ups (at Cincinnati and Cleveland ... mostly because they're division games, at Minnesota, at San Diego). Leaving us with an intriguing stretch run that features two games against the Super Bowl champions, one game against Peyton Manning and his flying circus, and one game against a team that could very well be looking for its first victory since December 2007.

WEEK 11: VS INDIANAPOLIS (2008 record: 12-4): We haven't beaten the Colts in 6 tries. Any reason to believe it'll happen this time around? For starters, it's an ordinary, Sunday-afternoon home game: no playoffs, no prime time, no special meaning for Baltimore fans to get worked up about---just two teams gunning for a victory late in the year. The Colts will be coming off their annual prime time slugfest with New England. So we might be just a little bit fresher (though we'll be coming off a Monday-nighter against Cleveland). Betting on the Ravens in this series is getting to be like betting on the Cubs to win it all ... still, we've got to get a W one of these years. Don't we?

Continue reading "Breaking Down the Ravens Schedule, part II"