What it takes to beat the Ravens

Ok, so now that I've showered after dousing myself with cheap beer as a result of our miraculous regular season, it's now time to look ahead to the Playoffs, where the real men play.

I'm sick of hearing about Baltimore's win against us earlier this season.  Their victory seems like years ago, and if anyone really takes the early part of the year seriously, they'd be pointing to Indy's 31-3 victory against this same Baltimore team in September.

However, let's not forget that the Ravens are a formidable team, having recently  giving a beatdown on Dallas and should have won against Pittsburgh.  So what should we look for, how are we going to attack them, and what's in our favor?

1) Pass Rush is most important:  I'm very concerned about our pass rush.  Even in the Jets game, we didn't hurry Brett Favre at all.  We were lucky that Favre missed a bunch of open receivers, and also threw all of his interceptions even when he wasn't pressured, he just made bad throws.  He had all day to throw, and picked us apart.  Again, thank god Brett Favre gave us "gift" INTs.  I'm also not too enamored these days with Joey Porter.  He's been completely missing for three full games (except for one big play at the end against San Francisco).  Joey, there's no time like the present to carry the defense on your back.  Joe Flacco is not going to make the same mistakes as Favre unless we get some pressure on him.  Especially for a rookie in the playoffs, we need to hit him early!

2)  Our passing game will hinge on the receivers:  Miami will be using Fasano and/or Martin-Haynos to occupy Ed Reed in the middle of the field.  This means that our receivers will be needed to make plays without Reed in their face.  Baltimore will also be playing many guys in the box to neutralize our running game and the wheel routes to Ricky and Ronnie.  Ted Ginn, Davone Bess, and Brandon London will be needed to win this game.  It's all on them to get open.  Each one of these guys showed a lot of mettle against the Jets.  Even London's one catch was a crucial 3rd Down conversion on a touchdown drive.  My guess is that someone who nobody expects will come through bigtime.

3) Time of possession is key: Early on in the Jets game, the Fins made some mistakes and appeared to play tight.  However, I was very encouraged because we had the ball most of the time, which always seems to pay off for us late in games.  We really need to win this battle to tire out this defense.  We may not score every possession, but getting a few 1st downs on every drive will be key.

4)  This is not week 7:  Many things that occured in that first game probably won't happen again.  Chad Pennington, in a rare mistake, gift-wrapped a TD to Terrel Suggs that certainly won't happen again.  Jason Ferguson and Paul Soliai didn't play on the interior defensive line due to injury and disciplinary issues, respectively.  This led to a big rushing day for Baltimore, which I doubt happens this time around.  Ferguson, and even Vonnie Holliday have been playing lights out.  They believe this is their last best shot to make a serious run, and they're playing like it.  

5) Baltimore doesn't have the intimidation factor:  Baltimore seems to relish playing the role of intimidator.  Maybe it's the aura of Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, but whatever it is, it won't exist in this game because Miami has already played these guys.  We've already played their physical style of ball, and I think that will help our team mentally prepare against these guys.  The following exchange sums it up perfectly: One reporter asked Tony Sparano what he thinks since Baltimore already beat us the first time this year: Sparano said " yeah, so what, the Jets also beat us the first time."