MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

Ravens @ Steelers


Looking at this game I think to much emphasis is being put on what BALT has done compared to what BALT is doing this season. The same can be said for PITT. This is NOT the 13-3 Ravens of last year and this is not the banged up OL , banged up Big Ben , .500 Steeler team of last season. The Ravens schedule is a joke to date..Rams , Jets and Cards at home ?? While Pitt has blasted its inferior opponents at home in Buff , SF and Seattle. Which are teams that balt struggled with and to be honest I think Seattle is better then any team BALT played . They only won 21-0 w/o Ward or Polamalu.

What we have here is a Raven team who is lucky to be 1-3 on the road this season. They lost @ Cincy , @ Cle and @ Buffalo while winning by two @ SF. Now is any of those teams remotely as solid as PITT especially on the defensive side of the ball?? NO. So even with the return of McNair who IMO is not much of an upgrade over Boller , possible OL help for Terry and Ogden who are probably still less then 100% ( factor in the young players on the OL in a tough venue ) , Heaps availability but hamstring woes and no Wilcox, oh and they are w/o there 2 strating corners ! So they are using there 3,4 and 5 corners tonite!! Thats real dangerous with PITT relying more and more on the passing game and executing very nicely in it. The big return for BALT is Heap by far. If he is himself he is a huge weapon. If not the offense really doesnt improve much IMO.

The Raven pass rush may get a boost from Trevor Pryce being available. However talk about last year and think NO Adelius Thomas , Chris McAllister , Samari Rolle and a limited Trevor Pryce. Big difference in Ravens stout defense IMO.

At home Pitt has allowed just 1 4th quarter TD vs SF in 3 games!!! On the road Balt has scored two 2nd Half TDS @ Buffalo, 3 FG's @ SF , a 4th quarter TD @ Cle with 2 FG's and 13 points on offense vs Cincy (plus a defensive score). You know that Pitt can STOP the run so McGahee will be in for a tough one. So willl Wille Parker for that matter but as I said Pitt is a pass first offense and that will show tonite. You look at last week and the Steelers were unstoppable @ Cincy outside of 1 mistake INT near the end zone for Ben. Sure Pitt has had minor hiccups @ Zona and @ Den. However expectations were way to high in those games. people expected PITT to just show up and blow them out.

Basically what makes us believe that BALT's offense will do any better then it has in 4 previous road games? Here it would be versus a TOUGHER defense as well. So how does Balt break 14 points ( really 10 points)?? I dont see how. For Pitt they are facing a troubled secondary which you CANNOT hide. Bengals had 27 but a defensive score , Browns 24 by halftime , SF is awful on offense and had 7 , while Buff settled for alot of FGS but moved the ball and had 19 pts. I would expect worst case Pitt scores 23 points..worst case.....

It's true BALT is 5-0 L5 and 6-2 L8 off a BYE WEEK. However that doesnt really mean much to me as thats an indivual event every season.

Going to see where this line ends up but I like PITT as long as it stays below -10. I thought this would be -7.5 or -8 so really no difference in the higher number at -9. I feel they are just trying to make BALT look more attractive ...BOL