Friday, January 14, 2011

Glad to see it

Don't know what's going to happen, the Ravens season could very well end tomorrow. If it does, I think the Ravens fan base is at least happy about one thing.

Obviously the Ravens fan base has a ton to be happy about, overall. Three consec seasons in the playoffs, three seasons with at least one postseason win. The fan bases of 20 to 25 other teams would gladly trade places. It is silly not to be grateful for what we have in this team. Compare to what fans in Carolina had to endure this season, or fans in Detroit this decade.

Yet it is a fact that there have been frustrations for Ravens fans this season. I think the thing is, thru the season there was never any sense that the Ravens had played a complete game. They had eked out some wins in games that really shouldn't have been that close. They struggled to put teams away. 12 wins is a lot, but for most of those games it seemed they did not play up to their abilities. Some of it was luck: for a long stretch of the season they did not get good turnover luck. Some of it was conservatism on offense, in a year where the fans expected a more wide-open attack after the signing of Anquan Boldin. But whatever the cause, the Ravens looked like a team that was not hitting on all cylinders.

That is what was so great about this past week, the Ravens 30-7 win over the Chiefs. The defense dominated, with sacks and turnovers. The offense capitalized, scoring opportunistically off of the turnovers. The kicking game was very solid, pinning the Chiefs deep. Flacco completed 73.5% of his passes, with 2 TDs. Rice, McGahee et al rushed for over 140 yds. Heap was over 100 yds receiving. Boldin had a TD catch. Just a complete performance.

I almost feel like we can be happy now, because we've finally seen one great, complete performance out of the Ravens. We don't have to wonder what could have been: we've seen them play the way we thought they were capable of playing.

And now of course we have Steelers week, which is another thing Ravens fans can be thankful for: to be part of what most national observers agree is the best current rivalry in the NFL. The playoff match between these teams two years ago, was the single most brutal football game I've ever seen. Like every other fan of these two teams, I look forward to tomorrow's game with a mixture of excitement and fear.

Prediction? Pain.

1 comment:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EHhwxRls2Y&feature=related

    When it's game time, it's pain time.

    ReplyDelete

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