Ravens Mania by Ron Benamor…

Purple Friday in Baltimore… this town and surrounding NFL media markets are out-of-control excited for the AFC Championship game which will be played Sunday in Foxboro at 3 P.M. EST.

Here’s Ron Benamor again with an inside-out look at both the local and the national anticipation for this big game:

Ravenous Ravens….  by Ron Benamor

This Sunday the Ravens battle the Tom Brady and the New England Patriots for AFC supremacy and the ultimate prize, a trip to Indianapolis for Super Bowl XLVI.

 “The Patriots are sitting pretty” –ESPN
“The Patriots are nearly bulletproof at home” –CBS Sports
“There’s no way the Ravens will match scores with Tom Brady” -Sports Illustrated
“Patriots will win BIG” -Jerry Rice

All week long Baltimore Ravens players, personnel and fans have relished the role as an underdog. ESPN and sports media alike have scrutinized the Ravens and are giving them no shot against the explosive offense of the New England Patriots. The Ravens offense isn’t good enough, Joe Flacco is too inconsistent, they have aging defense blah blah blah… The last thing you want to do is anger the Ravens with bulletin board material. Trust me when I say this, the Ravens are listening, they’re watching, they are waiting patiently for this Sunday, when all hell will break loose in Foxboro.  It seems like people are using this past week’s games as an indicator of who will win come Sunday. Yes we all know that the Ravens struggled against the Houston Texans, and that the Pats dismantled Tebowmania and the Denver Broncos. But this Sunday will be different. I’m here to give you three reasons why the Ravens will win come Sunday.

   Patriots haven’t beaten a team with a winning record this season: The Patriots 13-3 mark this season should come with an asterisk. They haven’t played a team of the Ravens’ caliber first of all. Second of all they haven’t beaten a single team that made the playoffs, let alone a team with a winning record. And to make matters worse, they haven’t beaten a team with a top ten defense. Contrastingly, the Ravens have beaten 7 top ten defensive units, and 6 playoff teams. Even Tom Brady said it himself, stating that, “This is the best team we’ve played all season”. People seem to have forgotten the last time we played the New England Patriots in the playoffs, oh right, Ravens won 33-14. I know they didn’t have Gronk or Hernandez, but they did have a defense that was drastically better than this year’s team, and they also had one of the greatest receivers of all time in Randy Moss. Baltimore didn’t have big play ability as they do now with Torrey Smith, and the Ravens corners then were shaky at best.

  Patriots terrible pass defense will get exposed: The Pats are ranked 31^st in the league in pass defense. A statistic like that will ignite Cam Cameron to take more shots down the field and give Flacco an opportunity to show the world exactly what he’s made of. New England knows that our offense revolves around the run game, so they will zone in on Ray Rice. In turn, this will lead to more passing opportunities. People are writing off the idea that Joe Flacco alone can keep him in this game. But I believe he will have a huge game if he is given his fair share of chances to throw the ball down the field. Remember, although his statistics are sub par, Joe Flacco had to play in a division with Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, all top ten pass defenses—not to mention games against San Francisco, the New York Jets, Jacksonville, Tennessee and San Diego whom are all top 15 pass defenses. The Patriots defense will be the lowest ranked pass defense the Ravens will have faced all season. To makes matters worse their rush defense is ranked 17^th in the league. Joe knows that it’s going to take an exceptional offensive performance to win this Sunday. During a Wednesday press conference Flacco said this, “Look at who has won Super Bowls the last handful of years – great offenses.” Flacco continued, “It is an offensive game now. It really is. It is tough to argue that. … If you were to bet, I would definitely bet in the next 10 years more than five teams are going to win it because they have good offenses, not good defenses.”

  The Ravens are hungry: Baltimore has to be one of the most underrated teams in the NFL. Seems every year they win 11+ games and make it to the playoffs. Yet they still haven’t made it to the big stage since 2001. Ravens vets like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed understand that it’s now or never. Opportunities like this don’t come very often and players are beginning to understand this. Baltimore knows that all it takes is one win. This team is disciplined and very well coached, so believe me they will come prepared Sunday and give it all they’ve got. This won’t be the Ravens team that we saw lose to Jacksonville, Tennessee, Seattle or San Diego. Rather, I expect a resilient Ravens team that took down Pittsburgh twice, something critics said the Ravens couldn’t do. Joe Flacco has been in the hot seat all week, and although he doesn’t show it, I’m sure he’s keyed in on proving people wrong. In addition, analysts and critics truly believe that the Ravens defense can’t stop Tom Brady and the New England offense. The last thing you want to do is ignite a Ravens defense known for their ferociousness, bad boy swagger and hard hitting.
 
A few weeks ago I meet Lardarius Webb in Fells Point at a local restaurant. I told him that all we want here in Baltimore is for our football team to do what its capable of doing, winning the championship. He replied, “This is our year”, he then winked at me and walked away.