Ravens Crush Raiders
6:31 PM EDT Sunday, September 17 2006
I just got back from the Ravens 2006 home opener. As you can see from by photos, the Ravens gave Steve McNair a hero's welcome, with flames and jets. We got off to a quick start, but a holding penalty left us with just a field goal on the opening drive. That seemed to be the theme for the day as the Ravens had trouble converting in the red zone, and what I call the yellow zone, from the 20 to the 40. Stover racked up 4 field goals as the Raiders offense set up the Ravens offense nicely all day. The Raiders, just as was promised by the Sports Guy's readers, were in a word, pathetic. Fumbled snaps, interceptions, sacks, safeties, just horrible. Brooks was pulled as QB after just 4 plays, and Walter did seem to play better, but the score could have been much bigger than 28-6. The Ravens picked up a garbage TD late, but had chances to score many more times.
Despite winning 28-6, the Ravens didn't play that well. The defense was their typical dominating self that we've started to take for granted, but McNair and the offense looked shaky at times. We're off to a 2-0 start, but we've got to play better if we expect to keep up with Cincy and Pittsburgh. The AFC North is definately the best division in the league, so we can't just count on our defense to win games for us. But all in all, my 18-1 $10 bet on the Ravens to win the superbowl is looking pretty good right now.
