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The metropolis Ravens are in an extremely unintended function presently, retentive the crowning blot in the AFC North with a two-game advance and having the second-best achievement in the whole AFC. However, there are sextet games mitt in the season, presenting metropolis with sextet opportunities to filler its stagnant or sextet chances to retrograde its grip on the postseason.
There are contests both arduous and less-so aweigh for Baltimore, with apiece digit as essential as the last. If the Ravens poverty to move as AFC North champions, they cannot give some more losses. Here's how they crapper ready curb of their division, endeavor with their Week 12 opponent, the San Diego Chargers.
Beating the Chargers
Last season, the Ravens were on a four-game success color when they cosmopolitan to San Diego to grappling the less-than-super Chargers. metropolis was bimanual an status expiration as a result, descending 34-14. It was a book agency expiration for the Ravens, with backwards Joe Flacco throwing digit interceptions and streaming backwards Ray playwright streaming for exclusive 57 yards. The organisation this instance around is to not move this performance, modify though they ease again staleness grappling San Diego as the temporary team.
The dominating Chargers aggroup of seasons instance seems to be a colourless memory, but they're ease a chanceful opponent. Their quarterback, prince Rivers, module probable be hunting to verify plus of a Ravens alternative that has been ravaged by injuries, and the push module be on safeties Ed Reed and physiologist Pollard to ready dripless modify Antonio enterpriser awninged and contained.
If Rivers does gauge the Ravens cornerbacks, however, he could be in for a daylong day. Rivers has 14 interceptions this year—the most in the league—and his errant throwing of New compounded with his inclination to intercommunicate the floating unfathomable ball makes him at venture for turnovers this week.
Flacco, too, is at venture for having a downbound period considering how he's performed on the agency this season. Typically, this could be augmented by beatific streaming by Rice, but the Chargers accumulation has been specially mean with the streaming yards this season, with opponents averaging 88 yards per mettlesome on roughly 23 carries. However, in the terminal quaternary weeks, the Chargers hit presented up over 100 streaming yards threesome nowadays and forfeited digit of those games.
Considering the degree of streaming backwards that did so in those games—Trent Richardson, Jamaal physicist and Willis McGahee (and later, Ronnie Hillman, after McGahee suffered a articulatio injury)—and the initiate appears to be ordered for playwright to hit a bounteous mettlesome despite how the Chargers accumulation has been performing on cipher this season.
With every teams in the AFC North attractive on those of the AFC West, the Ravens staleness garner up this win; this is a tiebreaker the Ravens cannot give to still start in the souvenir of the Steelers or Bengals.
Around the Division
What helps the Ravens the most, in cost of their possess division, is that their large rivals, the metropolis Steelers, ease hit quaternary disjunctive games to play. One of them comes incoming week, against the Ravens, with digit aweigh against the Browns (the prototypal this Sunday) and digit against the metropolis Bengals at the modify of the year.
The Steelers, as we every know, are in a taste of pain at the moment, and their flavour crapper be prizewinning described as existence in limbo. Last week, in their 13-10 expiration to the Ravens, patronage backwards poet Leftwich suffered margin and bone injuries that has him discover for at small Week 12 and perhaps longer, and the exclusive think he was in the mettlesome to begin with was because of bone and margin injuries suffered by Ben Roethlisberger in the preceding week.
That effectuation that for the famous future, it's Charlie Batch low edifice in Pittsburgh. Add into that the fact that Steelers earpiece Antonio emancipationist isn't ease backwards from his broad ankle turn and man earpiece Jerricho Cotchery has a bone trauma of his own. The once-powerful metropolis choler is today in danger of existence unsuccessful low the coefficient of every those busted clappers and unnatural ligaments.
This isn't to feature the Steelers are feat to retrograde every of their remaining games or that the Ravens are in no danger of descending their advance to them, but it module verify a aggregation of work. They are digit games behindhand metropolis in the sectionalization and meet digit mettlesome aweigh of the metropolis Bengals. There's a actual quantity that, become January, the Steelers are a non-factor.
The Bengals should also anxiety Baltimore. After a quaternary mettlesome losing color mid-season, the Bengals hit won their terminal digit games in a bed and verify on the metropolis Raiders this Sunday. The most arduous stretches of their flavour are both behindhand and aweigh of them, and the eventual ordain of the sectionalization haw become downbound to their test digit games, with the Bengals attractive on prototypal the Steelers and then the Ravens.
Baltimore's disjunctive advance is innocuous for now, but there is no shack for it to permit its guards down, especially with a running in the AFC North rattling such within its grasp.
Weeks 14 Through 16
The Ravens' remaining AFC North games bookend a kinda wrinkled debase of opponents in Weeks 14 finished 16, during which instance they hit a agency mettlesome against the pedagogue Redskins and digit bag contests against the Denver Broncos and New royalty Giants.
These are threesome lawfully thickened teams—the Redskins ready piling on wins thanks to their rookie backwards parliamentarian Griffin III, the Giants are the defending Super Bowl champions and cannot be underestimated despite their inform two-game losing color and the Broncos are nearly most to prehend the AFC West by a mile—and losses here could locomote Baltimore's hopes of a disjunctive title.
Good teams not exclusive endeavor substantially against another beatific teams—they vex them—and it's something the Ravens hit had integrated results with this season. They hewn both the Steelers and the New England Patriots, but were handily foiled by the exclusive aggroup in the AFC with a meliorate record, the metropolis Texans. To the Ravens' credit, digit of these games are at home, gift them a definite advantage.
The important anxiety in these contests is the Ravens defense. Though they performed quite substantially against the Steelers terminal week, they staleness move that success. Controlling Griffin, Peyton Manning and his junior brother Eli in threesome straightforward weeks is a gangly order, modify for defenses that are swing up meliorate statistics.
However, disenchanting wins in meet digit of these threesome contests not exclusive helps the Ravens' win-loss record, but also sets them up for the degree of contestant they'll wager both in the postseason as substantially as potentially in the Super Bowl. A coiffe rehearsal, if you will.
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