The Browns travel to Baltimore today to take on the Ravens. Baltimore can clinch a playoff spot (and possibly the AFC North) with the win they're extremely likely to get, while a Cleveland loss will mean that the Browns will have posted a perfect 0-6 record against divisional foes this season. In his preview, The Rhino asks the following question: Is there anything more infuriating to the average Browns fan than the success that the Baltimore Ravens have enjoyed?
The Browns travel to Baltimore today to take on the Ravens. Baltimore
can clinch a playoff spot (and possibly the AFC North) with the win
they're extremely likely to get, while a Cleveland loss will mean that
the Browns will have posted a perfect 0-6 record against divisional foes this season.
Is
there anything more infuriating to the average Browns fan than the
success that the Baltimore Ravens have enjoyed? To me, the sight of Art
Modell hoisting the Lombardi Trophy is even more crushing than Edgar
Renteria's World Series winning 11th inning single off of Charles Nagy
in 1997. After all, Edgar Renteria was just doing his job. Modell was
an incompetent ass who was hell bent on passing on his franchise to his
pathetic son, David "Honey" Modell. Fortunately, he failed miserably at
that, just like he's failing with the efforts at revisionist history
intended to get him into the Hall of Fame.
Anyway, that's all in
the past, but what isn't in the past is the fact that the Baltimore
Ravens continue to absolutely own the Browns. They're 10-5 against
Cleveland since the team returned, including last September's
heartbreaker at the Stadium. The Ravens have won six of their last
seven games, and over that same stretch, Steve McNair
has completed over 68% of his passes and thrown for eight touchdowns
and only two interceptions. McNair spreads the ball around pretty well,
as shown by the fact that Todd Heap has 59 catches, Derrick Mason has
59 catches, and Mark Clayton has 57 catches.
Baltimore's running
game is nothing special. Overall, the Ravens rank near the bottom of
the AFC in rushing, ahead of only Oakland and guess who?
Jamaal Lewis has scored seven TDs and, with 877 yards so far, has a
shot at another 1,000 yard season. But Lewis is only averaging 3.5
yards per carry and has rushed for more than 100 yards only once this
season.
As always with Baltimore, the story of their success
isn't the offense, it's the defense. Once again the Ravens boast the
NFL's most stifling defense. In addition to leading the league in total defense, the Ravens have just about lapped the rest of the AFC when it comes to turnovers. They've created a total of 32 turnovers,
nine more than the next best team in the conference, and lead the
entire NFL in turnover margin with +16. (I'll give you three guesses to
figure out who has the worst turnover margin in the league.)
There's
nothing like playing a hot team with a great defense on their own field
with your second string quarterback after a humiliating loss, is there?
You know what, though? These are exactly the kind of games that the
Pumpkin Helmets usually show up for. Just when the wheels appear to
have come off, they throw together something that looks like a
professional performance. With what Baltimore has on the line this
week, I can't imagine they'll play as badly as they did the last time
these two teams met. I don't think it will be particularly close, but I
doubt that the Browns will be as atrocious as they were last week.
I'm going to say Baltimore 27, Cleveland 13.