I waited a few days to write this column, following what was for all Ravens fans one of the bitterest losses ever suffered by a Baltimore sport team.  It helped that I had to leave for Atlanta on business early Monday morning, sparing me what I was told later was several days of excruciating Baltimore radio sports talk.  It’s all a matter of perspective; my colleagues in the Southland, Falcons fans all, said to me “Your team went to the Conference Championship game and you’re complaining?”   Well, let me get my licks in here and be done with it.  I don’t want to disparage what was a great, great year.  It was exciting, we won every game that we played at home, we had a 1st round bye, we beat 7 teams that made the playoffs.  But….   We were there….we were there!!!  IF Lee Evans tucks that ball away; IF Billy Cundiff makes a kick he’s made hundreds of times; IF John Harbaugh calls a time out wi...

Fran the Fan  The Ravens beat a tough Houston Texans in a tight, tense game that, after a blow-out 1st quarter, turned out to be much closer than the final score indicated.  I listened to the radio broadcast from my end zone seat and Gerry Sandusky accurately gauged the mood and emotions of what was the largest crowd in Ravens’ history.  Things were tense and anxious.  The Texans were beating the Ravens on both sides of the ball.  Comments on the Ravens’ play-calling flew back and forth.  The inability of the offense to provide any kind of spark after the 1st quarter flurry of points had everybody simultaneously shaking their heads and cursing Cam Cameron. We all thought that, after Ed Reed’s acrobatic interception, the Ravens would run out the clock and many fans headed to the ramps.  Uh, let’s wait a minute…After failing to get a first down, we were treated to another heart-stopping finish as T.J. Yates lofted Ha...

OK, I admit that I blew the wild card games last week.  The two teams I got right (Saints and Texans) won by wider than predicted margins, and I was simply smoked on the other two.  The Falcons were totally dominated by the Giants, and the Steelers were too banged up to compete against the Tebow Karma.  Good thing I don’t make a living at this prediction stuff. Before I get into this weekend’s games, I have to note two items:  First a word for Ravens fans who’ll be attending the game at M&T Bank:  According to the Houston Chronicle, the Ravens–Texans game is turning out to be the hottest ticket in the NFL playoffs.  Ticketmaster claims the average resale price for tickets to the Ravens-Texans is $451, fully $100 more than the second highest price for the Saints-49ers game.  The article noted that almost 18% of the tickets bought on resale have gone to Texas buyers.  Now that doesn’t mean that Texans’ fans...

It’s nice to sit back and analyze playoff games that, for once, don’t involve the Ravens.  Like many of this site’s readers, I’ve evaluated and reevaluated each team’s chances to move to the Divisional Round.  With the exception of the Denver Broncos, any team that has made this far has a chance of playing next weekend.  I expect most of the games to be close.  Here are my Wild Card picks. THIS WEEK’S PLAYOFF PICKS Cincinnati at Houston, Saturday January 7th 4:30 PM (NBC) For the Ravens, this is the most important game of the Wildcard weekend.  It will decide whether the Ravens play the Steelers in the Divisional Round on January 15th or the Conference Championship on January 22nd.  The Bengals, with rookie quarterback Andy Dalton, have been the surprise of the AFC this season while Houston finally made the playoffs with the sudden demise of the Colts. The Texans backslid into the playoffs losing their last 3 games...

The Ravens earned a long-sought playoff bye and home game by beating the Bengals in a game that was just a little closer than the final score indicated.  Many football pundits had the Bengals winning this game, thus banishing the Ravens to another 5th seed road tour to the Super Bowl.  But the Ravens were having none of that.  It was a close, well-played win over a competent opponent.  Some have called football a game of inches.  It was never better illustrated than the win over the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday.  A Bengals field goal attempt that missed……just right.  Ravens ball at the 26.  A Cincinnati punt that would have put the ball in play for the Ravens inside their 1 yard line - except for an errant Bengals elbow on the goal line………  Touchback, Ravens 1st and 10 on the 20.  A generous spot of the ball by the officials on a Cedric Benson line plunge gave the Bengals a first down.  A review of...

A win this Sunday.  That’s all.  After 16 weeks, it comes down to this.  The Ravens are playoff bound, but need to either win this game or have the clearly improbable take place – a Steelers loss in Cleveland – to get their first home playoff game since January 2007.  Given their performance on Christmas Eve against an overmatched Browns team, I’m not exactly brimming with confidence. The Ravens started out strong and then took their collective feet off the necks of the Browns.  In the end they needed a rookie mistake by a Browns’ defensive lineman Phil Taylor, who was tricked into blowing a snap count on 4th and 2, to give the Ravens 4 fresh downs and seal what had become a nail biter.  For all intents and purposes, the playoffs begin for the Ravens at Paul Brown Stadium this Sunday.  So much is at stake now and, for me, its worrywart time. WORRIES: v  Special Teams:  I wrote last week that special teams p...

Thank you, Jim Harbaugh.  Because of the beat down your 49ers gave Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers Monday night, I gratefully changed the original title of this column – Road Kill.  The Baltimore Sun used it earlier in the week in one of their on-line editions, but I would have easily acknowledged its prior use because it fits the state of the Ravens so precisely.  Home and Away.  Jekyll and Hyde.  Alpha and Omega.  The Chargers game was their worst all-around performance of the year.  By the middle of the 3rd quarter I was silently berating myself…..I’m taking a vacation day on Monday so I can stay up and watch this???  I can only wonder what Ravens fans who made the trek to San Diego felt like. And thanks Jim, for breathing life back into the Ravens home playoff game hopes.  Sunday night, fans had given up hope of seeing a home playoff game and were silently – some of us not so silently – cursing our de...

That’s the caption on my Ravens PSL Owner Card.  Relentless.  That’s what the Ravens have been since that dispiriting loss to the Seahawks 3 weeks ago.  With solid wins over 2 good teams and one retched one, the Ravens are rolling and it looks like Cam Cameron has finally found the winning offensive formula.  It’s very simple, really:  Give Ray Rice 20 touches per game, minimum.  Run him.  Throw to him.  Every game.  For the Ravens, the road to the 2011 playoffs is now crystal clear.  Win and you’re in. Win every game and you’ll probably have home field advantage throughout the post season.  Be Relentless.  Let’s do some Studs and Duds. DUDS: v  The Kicking Game.  The only one cause for worry at this point.  Billy Cundiff can’t miss the chip shot field goals in the playoffs like he did in the Browns game.  He’s perfect at home, but barely over 50-50 on the...

What is going on with the Ravens?  Can’t stand prosperity?  Can’t carry over a big win to the next week against lesser competition?  The Ravens lost again, on the road, to another crappy team that, on paper, has no business staying with the Ravens after the 1st quarter.  I’m still ticked about Sunday and I don’t know quite what to write.  I don’t know how to write this column without sounding like a whiney bitch.  But here goes…. What I know: v  John Harbaugh has said this week that he has “no problems” with Cam Cameron’s play calling.  Well, I really think you should, John.  Nobody else in the league mistakes Joe Flacco for the ole’ gunslinger, Brett Favre, and neither should you or Cameron.  v  The Ravens play best when the pass/run ratio is closer to 50-50. The 82%-18% pass run ratio in the Seattle game didn’t come close! Against the Seahawks the Ravens ran 54...

Among pro football fans, “The Drive” is a well-known acronym for the offensive series in the 4th quarter of the 1987 AFC Championship Game in which John Elway, in a span of just over 5 minutes, led the Denver Broncos on a 98 yard drive against the Cleveland Browns to tie the game with 37 seconds left in regulation.  Denver eventually won the game in overtime with a field goal, 23-20.  It’s part and parcel of Broncos lore and the forlorn history of the Browns.  I watch The Drive on highlight shows every year and I’m still amazed at what Elway did on the cold dirt of Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. This is an appropriate segue to talk about “The Drive, Baltimore Style,” the equally amazing 2 minute and 6 second series led by Joe Flacco in which he marched the Ravens on a 92 yard, 13-play drive to victory over the hated Pittsburgh Steelers by the same, exact score, 23-20.  It may not have taken place during a conference champ...