The Ravens went and took care of business on Sunday by shutting down the Cleveland Browns and clinching their 3rd playoff berth in as many years under HC John Harbaugh.  It was the running game that did the work offensively and Ed Reed who stymied youngin’ Colt McCoy on the other side of the ball.

The Ravens knew well in advance that they would need to win to stay on par for a possible AFC North title with the Steelers, who man-handled the Panthers on Sunday.  Ray Lewis vowed to keep Browns RB Peyton Hillis from stomping up another 100+ yard day as he did in their week 3 showdown. Lewis and the Ravens D kept that promise as they held Hillis 35 yards on 12 carries.  To make matters worse, Ed Reed terrorized McCoy for 2 interceptions and made his way up the record book ladder for 52 career INT’s.  The defense smothered the Browns and held them to 280 yards total for the day and a lowly 27.0 passer rating for McCoy.

Offensively, Cam Cameron put it to the ground with 161 total yards rushing as Ray Rice contributed 92 yards on 25 carries.  Joe Flacco went about his work quietly, only throwing for 102 yards and 2 TDs.  His two TD’s were to T.J. Houshmanzadeh and Derrick Mason in the  second and third quarter.  And just to make sure the World Cup kicker that is Billy Cundiff gets his points, the Ravens added 2 FGs of 27 and 40 yards.

Overall it was an efficient day for the Ravens.  The Ravens still have a shot at the AFC North title with a win over the always stubborn Bengals, but they also need the Browns to beat the Steelers.  A win and some help would mean a bye week and a home game in the playoffs.  Here’s to hoping Santa can deliver some New Year’s gifts…

Santa and the scheduling Gods of the NFL gave the gift of the Ravens 2010 season by allowing them to close with 2 games against the bottom feeders of their division in the Browns and Bengals.  One team could have been on the brink of ascension (Browns) and the other is waiting for the implosion to end (Bengals).  The Ravens make the quick jaunt to Cleveland this Sunday to play the Browns and hopefully secure their place in the playoffs.

With the Ray Rice show in full effect last week, its seems as though Cam Cameron may have finally realized the keys to the palace/playoffs resides in their ability to get Rice running and catching dimes from Joe Flacco.  Or maybe Cameron was holding back and keeping Rice ready for a run deep into January.   Who knows, but the key to this game will again be their ability to use Rice to get them in an offensive rhythm.  In their week 3 contest it was Anquan Boldin who announced his arrival in Baltimore with an eight-catch, 142-yard, three-TD day.  With CB Eric Wright on the physical and mental injured list, Boldin will have the pleasure of getting at rookie Joe Haden who may in fact be Wright’s permanent replacement for the future.

Browns RB Peyton Hillis played like a monster in their last meeting eating up 144 yards on 22 carries.  Hillis put the first of many nails in the coffin of former Denver coach Josh MacDaniels who traded him away for Brady Quinn.  Hillis is not the only player that has announced his arrival for prime time.  Browns QB Colt McCoy has solidified his place as the #1 qb with wins over the Patriots and Saints.  But McCoy will need to be aware of the beast that is Haloti Ngata and not to mention the other beast of Terrell Suggs.  McCoy will be faced with multiple schemes that Greg Mattison can come up with to confuse and challenge the young QB.  With the Ravens D struggling in the second half of games to keep points off the board it will be essential to keep Hillis and McCoy in check.

The Ravens are primed to clinch a playoff spot with a win on Sunday.  It is imperative for the Ravens to clinch the easy way and not allow a team possibly playing to keep their coach Eric Magini employed to deter them.  Taking care of business is what makes champions.

Licking their wounds and an extra day to prepare, the Ravens will fly to Houston for a Monday night showdown versus the Texans.  The Ravens have yet to lose consecutive games this season and this stat shouldn’t change when they come up against the worst passing defense in the League.

The Ravens are now in the home stretch of their season with 4 games remaining and 2 of those on the road. Their road to the playoffs will begin when they face a Texans team that is donating 287.4 passing yards a game and  388.8 total yards per game.  If the Ravens receivers don’t put up some ridiculous numbers on Monday, it will be time to put them on the express train to the vacants.  Derrick Mason has “hadanattitude” of sorts for their weak offensive output and he is quite justified.  Joe Flacco should have ample time to throw where his arm desires as the Texans have only 19 sacks this season.  But this will not help his habit of holding the ball too damn long.  It is with strong hope that QB coach Jim Zorn is the equivalent of the methadone clinic for Flacco’s habit.

Defensively, the Ravens will be charged with stopping Arian Foster who leads the League in 4 statistical categories including rushing yards (1,230) and touchdowns (15).  Every time Foster gets the rock he is averaging a nickle per carry.  So it is more than safe to assume Foster will be on duty to test the Ravens’ run defense.  Terrell Suggs, coming off his best performance versus the Steelers will be getting at Texans QB Matt Schaub before he is able to connect with the best wide receiver on a suspect team in Andre Johnson.  Ed Reed and his secondary will be challenged to keep Johnson from making big plays.  The Ravens secondary played well last week and they should survive the Johnson threat.

The Ravens are in a situation where they cannot fall 2 games behind the Steelers in the standings, therefore, the Ravens need to go on a 4 game stretch of great offensive output and defensive stops.  The Texans are in a situation where if they can just win a game and go on a win streak of their own (which they have a tendency to do late in the season), they could make the playoffs in the tightly contested AFC South that could come down to the final week.  The Ravens are facing a desperate team, but they still have the taste of defeat in their mouth from last weeks disappointment.  Look for the Ravens to rebound and Flacco to get dimes to his receivers.

For almost 4 quarters the Ravens were besting the Steelers at the Nest.  But then late in the 4th, Joe Flacco would make two colossal mistakes that would cost the Ravens 1st place in the North and a possible bye week in the post season.

If nothing else, Terrell Suggs was the man on Sunday night.  He abused the replacement offensive lineman of the Steelers and terrorized Ben Roethlisberger.  It was Suggs’ night to perform and he did his job almost to perfection with a game that we haven’t seen from him in quite some time.  No one could hold him down as he pressured the pocket and got Big Ben moving on his heavily taped foot with 1.5 sacks and 5 hits on the QB.

But Suggs and defense could not do it all.  If there is one thing Cam Cameron must be doing this week, it is making Flacco count to 3.  With a Dick LeBeau blitzing team or any other blitzing team, he cannot continue to hold the ball past 3 seconds.  It’s year 3 and Flacco should know better, but this lesson keeps having to be learned the hard way.  This lesson was learned again as “Head and Shoulders”, Troy Polumalu came flying in, stripped the ball which resulted in a touchdown.  This touchdown would prove to be the nail in the coffin as Flacco would short arm a fourth down pass, ending the game.

The offense once again sputtered and failed to produce in the second half.  The question remains “Where is the high powered offense?” Why can’t the offense just air it out and beat a secondary that is as suspect as the Steelers?  Derrick Mason has every right to be angry as well as the rest of the off season acquisitions. The identity of this team uncertain and Cameron has to find a solution to the problem. If they are going to advance to the playoffs and deep into January, the Ravens can ill afford to have a tale of 2 different halves as they did against the Steelers.

“Ouch!” “Ohhhh!” “Wow, that hurt!” “He just got blown up!”

These are just some of the things you will find yourself saying every time the Ravens play the Steelers.  With both teams each having one of the best defenses in the league over the last few years, the sounds of the game can be just as scintilating as the game it self.  With AFC North standings and playoff implications on the line, the Steelers visiting the Ravens for a Sunday night prime time game with the best rivalry in football, almost guarantees thrills and excitement.

Both teams are somewhat limping into this contest with significant injuries.  QB Ben Roethlisberger suffered what appears to be some sort of foot injury in last week’s game against the Buffalo Bills.  He was spotted rocking the ankle boot this week in practice, but was taking all the snaps.  This injury is the result of their offensive line suffering through injuries to Flozell “Holding, 10 yard penalty” Adams and Max Starks.  The shuffling of players has Big Ben doing his fancy footwork in the club on the field routine trying to avoid the pressure.  With Ben and his protection on the mend, DC Greg Mattison will have the opportunity to let the Ravens’ front 7 loose on Big Ben.  Terrell Suggs and Jarret Johnson will have to get pressure on Big Ben and put that ankle to the test.  Meanwhile, Haloti Ngata and Ray Lewis will get to work on stopping the Steeler’s leading rush man, Rashard Mendenhall.

But if the Ravens are to come out successful on the defensive end, it will be up to Ed Reed and his secondary to keep second year man with the speed to blow by anyone, Mike Wallace.  When Wallace catches a dime for a touchdown, the Steelers are 10-1.  Averaging 22.0 yards per reception, Wallace is a threat to beat, burn or run over cornerbacks Josh Wilson and Lardarius Webb.   With a questionable Dawan Landry, the secondary will be thin to stop the beast that is Wallace if Landry is unable to go on Sunday.

Steelers DC Dick LeBeau is the the master of disguises when it comes to defenses and blitzing.  Joe Flacco and his Tubbies on the Line will have to be able to pick up disguises.  With his blind side protector Michael Oher coming off a knee injury in the Bucs game last week, Flacco cannot keep with his bad habit of holding on to the ball for hours at a time.  The Patriots have given every team a blue print for executing a win over the Steelers, which is the intermediate passing game and the occassional long ball.  Despite the presence of Troy Polamalu and his hair, the Steelers rank 22nd in the League against the pass.  The Ravens have the passing attack and personnel to have a successful night.  And with Ray Rice, the Ravens will pound the ball to set up some long dime opportunities for Flacco and his cohorts.

There is no doubt that both of these teams will bring the pain and lay some folks out. (Get those check books ready fellas because you someone is bound to cut a check for a hit that is deemed illegal).  The Ravens and Steelers are almost equal when it comes to stats and rankings, so conventional wisdom gets thrown out the door when predicting a winner.  Big Ben has had the Ravens number since coming into the league with a winning record of 7-2 .  We know he will play regardless of his new shoe accessory if he could, so there should be no doubt that he will be leading the Steelers come Sunday.

With games decided by 3 points in 3 of their last 5 games, this may come down to a kicking contest.  If it does, kicker Billy Cundiff has has the foot to take the Ravens to the top of the AFC North and in contention for a top seed in the playoffs.

Sports in Los Angeles last week experienced plenty of troubles.  The Lakers losing to Utah and Indiana, the Kings continuing to NOT score, and USC football losing to Notre Dame at home, were some of the low lights.

The Lakers struggled a bit last week as they went 1-2 with a win over the Chicago Bulls and two loses to the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers.  If there is one glaring trouble for the Lakers, it is the absence of Andrew Bynum.  Pau Gasol is averaging 35.9 minutes per game, well over last season’s total.  It also doesn’t help that he is putting time in at center and there is no relief for him on the bench with Theo Ratliff out with a knee.  Despite Jackson’s frustration, Bynum has been able to practice in four-on-four drills, but he still has a considerable amount of practice time to put in before his is game ready.  The Lakers will play back to back games on the road this week at Memphis and Houston, then make their way home for the Sacramento Kings.

The Los Angeles Kings have hit a scoring drought and have lost seven of their last eight games.  The scoring drought has the trade talks swirling out obtaining a high powered forward to get them out o the desert and back to their winning ways.  To add to their scoring woes, the Kings captain Dustin Brown hasn’t hit the net in the last 5 games.  After being blanked by the Anaheim Ducks last night 2-0, the trade talks are growing louder.  With only two more games scheduled for the week, the Kings will have trouble against two of the top ten defensive teams in Florida and Detroit.

With the Fighting Irish coming to town, the USC Trojans were primed to get hype and put the Oregon State loss behind them.  If only their offense hadn’t stalled for the second week in a row.  With Mitch Mustain making his first start in place of an injured Matt Barkley, Mustain threw a dime in the fourth quarter that should have been the highlight of the season for a team that was playing for pride.  Instead, the dime to a wide open Ronald Johnson fell perfectly right between the numbers on his chest, but the ball fell through his hands and landed on the ground.  On Senior Night and his last game at home, this is not what Johnson wanted to be remembered for.  Although Mustain, who went passed for a safe 167 yards, navigated most of the game without any huge mistakes, it was the interception to Irish safety to Harrison Smith that would seal the victory for the Irish.  Usually when a team wins the turnover battle as the Trojans did 4 to 1, a victory is certain.  But as the rain fell in Los Angeles, so would the Trojans.  The Trojans will make a short drive over to the Rose Bowl this week as they try to end their season with a win against their crosstown rival UCLA Bruins.

The Ravens had a lesson for the young Buc Buccaneers on Sunday.  The message was “You’re not ready.”  With this young team coming into The Nest, the Ravens proved that this young team on the rise, still has a lot to learn, but will no doubt be a force to reckon with in seasons to come.  With a second quarter scoring burst, the Ravens let their defense do the rest besting the Bucs, 17-10.

With the biggest game of their 2010 campaign looming next Sunday, the Ravens made sure to take care of business against a Bucs teams that hung with them until late in the second quarter.  With two touchdown passes to Todd Heap and Derrick Mason, Joe Flacco broke a 3-3 tie to go up 17-3.  Easily his longest catch and run of his career, Heap was able to get open behind the Bucs secondary and huff his way to the endzone.  This would prove to enough for Ravens offense as it would play safe and stall in the second half.

Defensively, the Ravens pressured Bucs QB Josh Freeman in to a 17-32, 167 yards passing day.  Although the Ravens were unable to sack Freeman, they forced him into terrible throws and only one pass for more than 20 yards.  The Ravens rushing D kept LeGarrette Blount under control only allowing him only 55 yards and 92 total yards for the Bucs running game.

With a game that could have easily been overlooked, the Ravens took care of business at home where they have a 9 game winning streak.  Unfortunately, the injury bug came to town and hit Le’Ron McClain (ankle), Dawan Landry (concussion) and Michael Oher (knee).  The Ravens will put their win streak and season on the line when the Steelers come to town this Sunday.

It’s not that the Ravens played spectacularly in Carolina for their game against the lowly Panthers.  It’s that they had players who made some spectacular plays to lead them to a rebound win, 37-13.

“You’ll never find another love like mine…” Lou Rawls. This could be the theme song for Ed Reed and Ray Lewis’ his career.  We may not have or probably will never have someone like these two defensive studs in our lifetime.  Cloning is possible but let’s just leave at that.  The contribution that these two make to the Ravens defense, despite Father Time knocking hard on both of their doors, is incalculable.  In the fourth quarter, Reed and Lewis had back-to-back interceptions that resulted in tocuhdowns.  With his 50th interception, Reed decided to allow Dawan Landry in on the fun as he pitched the rock to him for a TD on the the return.  On the next defensive play for the Ravens, Lewis intercepted Brian St. Pierre’s next pass and returned for a TD, thereby closing the game out.

Not to be outdone by their defensive counterparts, the offensive stars kicked in some milestones of their own.  Joe Flacco, 24-31 for 301 yards and 1 TD, got his 51st TD pass tying Vinny Testaverde for the franchise record.  TJ Houshmanzadeh got it in the endzone with his 600th career reception.  Even better was that this TD was the second play from scrimmage giving the Ravens a fast start.   Flacco’s favorite target of a year ago, Derrick Mason, got his milestone when he became the 13th player in NFL history with 900th receptions.

The final score suggests that the Ravens put a spanking to the Panthers’ hide, but that wasn’t the case.  The Ravens stalled in the 2nd half allowing the Panthers to get within a touchdown when St. Pierre went deep on the Ravens secondary with an 86- yard TD pass to David Gettist.  At some point during the season you would think that plays like this wouldn’t result in the following:

Opponent’s QB throws long dime; results in blanks stare; ball is caught by opposing receiver; suck the teeth, roll eyes, shake head with flick/wave of the hand and wrist at HD TV. Also affectionately known as “The 2 Train”

Unfortunately due to the ability of the Ravens secondary to give up the long ball and memorize the last name of every receiver that flashes past or in front of them, The 2 Train is inevitable every game.  But this was not the only weakness of the Ravens defense this week as the run D went to sleep and let Panthers RB Mike Goodson (who?) run off 120 yards.  Yeah, that would not be the third string RB, but the 4th! Yes, insert your own blank stare and start suckin’ yo teef!

Despite the Ravens inability to put this game away early in the second half, the milestones and records made up for some suspect play at times on both sides of the ball.  A win is a win, no matter how ugly.  But when does ugly get a facelift? Just saying…

After a few days of rest to lick their wounds from the deflating loss in Atlanta, the Ravens head south again to face the lowly Carolina Panthers.  Maybe this games comes at a good time for the Ravens to correct their woes in the secondary and the ineffective pass rush, but this game may have a “trap” feeling of sorts as did their contest against the Buffalo Bills.  Playing against a quarterback that was laying up on the couch being a stay at home dad, this game should have endless opportunities to fine tune their engines.

No game is easy in this League, but there could be an argument that this should be an easy contest for the Ravens.  The Panthers are unfairly limping into this “practice” short on fire power at quarterback and no running game, with  players suffering from injuries.  The Panthers went and knocked on the door of stay at home dad, Brian St. Pierre, and asked him to put down the diapers and cancel his daddy day care duties for a nice little game of football.  St. Pierre was a sixth round draft pick who has only thrown 5 passes in 8 seasons.  We can only hope that the Ravens and defensive coordinator Greg Mattison will just go all out and put on display what they have been working on for 10 days.  The season’s sack totals should increase as Panthers G Travelle Wharton is out with a toe and the Ravens run defense should hold the Panthers to below the century mark as DeAngelo Williams infected the team with the injury bug as backups Jonathan Stewart and Tyrell Sutton are out as well.  Can it get any worse for the Panthers?

Why yes it can!  Not only are the defensive woes in need of fixing in this game, the Ravens’ offense must get off to a hot start.  It’s high time Cam Cameron get back to Ray Rice and his running game.  Rice has only hit the century mark  once this season and has not carried over 22 times in a game.  Maybe his early injury affected his game, but if the Ravens are to get on point offensively Rice must be a factor.  This should open up the game for Joe Flacco to make some long passes to his wide receivers.   There might be some shuffling of players in Flacco’s protection as Tubby on the Line to the right, G Chris Chester, is questionable with a skin infection.  Regardless, the Ravens are far superior on offense to not score and score often.

If the Ravens take their frustrations from the Atlanta game out on the Panthers, they should leave Carolina with a victory.  But what is most important is to see a fast start and a pass rush making St. Pierre miss his daddy carpool duties.

This week in Los Angeles sports ranged from no defense in basketball to a great start in hockey to revved up chatter about an NFL football stadium in downtown LA.  The city of LA keeps its fans occupied in more ways than one during the football season so let’s check out what was on deck last week.

The Lakers cruised into last week undefeated not having played their best ball or a complete game.  However, they exited last week dropping two consective games having forgotten how to play defense.  In their first two loses of the season they gave up 239 points to the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns.  On the road in Denver presented a difficult task for the Lake Show as Carmelo Anthony and a rather small lineup caused problems for the Lakers.  The Nuggets bench sparked an 16-0 run in the 4th, led by shawty speedster Ty Lawson.  The goal was to negate the height of Pau Gasol and get out running.  Trading scoring runs in the fourth quarter, the speed would beat out the Lakers size as they lost, 118 -112.  Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to score 26,000 points beating out Wilt Chamberlain by 34 days.  This record didn’t do much for the win column.

In their second loss, the Suns just shot lights out at the Staple Center.  Speed and going small would again negate the height and size of the Lakers, as Jason Richardson and his crew made 22 three pointers (one shy of the team record).  Defensive rotations be damned, because even if the Lakers could successfully rotate to the shooters, the Suns were making threes with their eyes closed and one arm behind their back.  Run, run and run was the name of the Suns game.  The Sun shot better from beyond the arc than from the floor shooting 55% vs. 51%.  The Lakers might be leading the League in scoring but their defense is allowing 103.6 pts/game.  Not a good look by the Lake Show as they now go on a a 3 game road trip, visiting Milwaukee, Detroit and Minnesota.  Maybe the defense will return on the road.

The other tenants of the Staple Center have been skating it up and are off to their best start in franchise history.  After a beat down of the NY Islanders 5-1, the Kings are 12-3-0 and have yet to lose at home this season winning all 8 games.  The Kings are scoring first and winning 6 games when they do so.  Adding to their fast streaking start is RW Justin Williams, who has at least a point in 9 consecutive games and leading the team in points (16) and goals (8).  The Kings will now play 5 of their next 6 on the road, with a test tonight against division rival San Jose Sharks.  This is what happens when you share your crib with 2 other teams.

The talk of a new downtown NFL stadium is starting to heat up and it seems as though this could be the answer to the vacancy left by the Raiders and Rams 16 years ago.  The major players are Tim Leiweke and Casey Wasserman.  Leiweke is the man behind the Anschutz, the people who brought Staples Center downtown but also the Grammy’s, LA Live and the Democratic convention to the area. This downtown idea is easily more appealing than the Coliseum, Rose Bowl or any of the other suggestions on the outskirts of LA proper.  Does Carson or Irwindale come to mind?  If Leiweke and his company are willing to foot the bill for an extravagant retractable roof stadium(it does rain in Southern California despite the song), then we may see the Chargers, Raiders or Jaguars call LA home.