The decider of the Baltimore Ravens-Tennessee Titans AFC divisional playoff game this week should be a different one than usual:
Team with the most bodies still standing at the end wins.
The violence in that game will make those MMA contests look like a slap fight between two kindergarten kids.
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| The Titans and Ravens will give each other their best shot. (US Presswire) |
We'll have Albert "Stomp a head" Haynesworth and his gang in one corner and Ray Lewis and his nasty friends in the other.
Would you want to step into that middle of that fracas?
The game should also make the Ravens start thinking 2000 all over again. The Ravens won the Super Bowl that year, going to Nashville and upsetting the Titans, who were the No. 1 seed, along the way. The two teams were in the same division then and that rivalry was fierce.
They still don't like each other. The Ravens, who dominated the Miami Dolphins 27-9 on Sunday to earn the only A in my weekly grades, just might be ready to make another Super run. To do so they will have to go through the No. 1-seeded Titans again at their stadium.
Baltimore won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer playing quarterback in 2000, which tells you how dominant their defense was that season. The defense is good again, but this time they will try and win it with a rookie quarterback in Joe Flacco.
Flacco passed a major hurdle Sunday by winning his first playoff game -- on the road -- which should help calm him for next week. He's a far different quarterback than the one who lost 13-10 to the Titans in Week 5.
He was picked off twice in that game and threw for just 153 yards. He only threw for 97 yards to the outside receivers. He's much more comfortable throwing it down the field now.
Picking the Ravens to make a run to the Super Bowl is now a trendy thing. But you can bet the Titans will be ready to stand toe-to-toe. Jeff Fisher always has his team ready to pay.
As good as the Ravens are on defense, Tennessee was better this season. The Ravens gave up 15.2 points per game while the Titans allowed 14.6 points a game.
The key next week will be which quarterback makes plays in the passing game. I joked with somebody that this will be a game that matches two teams playing not to lose, rather than to win. That's dangerous in the playoffs. Mistakes happen. The Titans found that out in losing in 2000 when they had a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown and an interception returned for a touchdown.
The team that plays to win will win this one.
It sets up for a great early game next Saturday. The other three games also feature teams that met earlier in the season.
The San Diego-Pittsburgh game is a rematch from Week 11, a game the Steelers won 11-10 and made many gamblers unhappy with the non-touchdown call at the end of the game.
This San Diego team, which
In the NFC, the Arizona Cardinals head to Carolina to play the Panthers, trying to exorcise their East Coast demons. The two teams met in Week 8 and the Cardinals blew a big lead in losing 27-23.
The Eagles, who beat Minnesota on Sunday, play the Giants at Giants Stadium. They met twice as NFC East rivals this season, including a 20-14 Eagles victory in Week 14 at New York. The Philadelphia defense, which played well against the Vikings, gave up just 211 yards of offense that day to the Giants.
"We're dangerous," Eagles corner Asante Samuel said.
But not nearly as dangerous as the conditions will be next Saturday in Nashville. Get the doctors ready.
| Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009 | |||||||
| Arizona Cardinals 30, Atlanta Falcons 24 | Prev. Grade | GPA | |||||
| Cardinals: The biggest thing about their victory was how well the defense played. They shut down the Atlanta running game and had a touchdown off a turnover, the big play of the game. They also ran the ball better than expected. |
| 2.42 | ||||
| Falcons: Without the running game, they put too much on Matt Ryan and he made a couple of key mistakes. Michael Turner looked off to me. His fumble for the touchdown was the big play. The defense got pushed around some and didn't get much of a pass rush. They'll learn from this. |
| 2.96 | ||||
| San Diego Chargers 23, Indianapolis Colts 17 | Prev. Grade | GPA | |||||
| Chargers: Darren Sproles was sensational and won this game for the Chargers. He did it all. The defense came up big as well. Anytime you limit the Colts to 17 points, you had a good day. Philip Rivers made it happen in crunch time. |
| 2.42 | ||||
| Colts: The defense came apart in the final two drives, which cost them the game. The penalties on that last drive were killers. Peyton Manning put up some numbers, but didn't make the plays in the fourth quarter. Anybody see Marvin Harrison? |
| 2.49 | ||||
| Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009 | |||||||
| Baltimore Ravens 27, Miami Dolphins 9 | Prev. Grade | GPA | |||||
| Ravens: Ed Reed did it again. The man is amazing. He had two picks, returning one for a touchdown. Joe Flacco had a good first half to get the offense going. They will be tough next week for the Titans. |
| 2.96 | ||||
| Dolphins: They just don't do enough on offense. The running attack was shut down, and they don't throw it well enough. The defense played OK. They need to find more weapons for that passing game. |
| 2.55 | ||||
| Philadelphia Eagles 26, Minnesota Vikings 14 | Prev. Grade | GPA | |||||
| Eagles: This one goes to the defense. Aside from one run by Adrian Peterson, they kept him bottled up and Asante Samuel had a pick for a touchdown. Donovan McNabb made some timely throws and the 71-yard screen pass for a touchdown by Brian Westbrook was the clincher. |
| 2.75 | ||||
| Vikings: It's really hard to win when you don't have a quarterback. Tarvaris Jackson isn't good enough. He struggled in a big way. The pick was a killer. The Minnesota pass defense had a rough go of it too, although they were good in the run game. |
| 2.55 | ||||
