Ravens V Redskins - Beltway Brawl or Maryland Massacre?

4 weeks ago, I think we all would have looked at this game and been worrying about Ravens feasting on our bones. We were coming off two losses to the Steelers and Carolina. The team looked disjointed, the coach talked about evaluation for future years. Now, who isn't secretly hoping for a scalping of the northern neighbors? Who doesn't want to see Garcon turn up a gear as he slices through their secondary?

And it's possible. AccuScore, which hasn't picked us in along time, has us at 51 to 49%. We are favored by 2pts (not much considering we are home). Terrell Suggs is a game time decision, and Ray Lewis is out. There defense has allowed 372 yds/game, and ours is at 399. Our offense averages 384, theirs is 350.

Of course we lost Cedric Griffin, London Fletcher has said repeatedly how sore he is. We saw a few early drops and Morris has fumbled 3 times in the last 6 games.

Playoff wise, we certainly need every win. If Giants or Seahawks falter at all, we need to be able to step in and not have lost our positioning, because of a bad game. The Ravens are definitely trying to straighten out there ship and make a push for the post season.

Leaderboard:
Baltimore
Passing: Flacco - 252-426, 3038 yds, 15 tds
Rushing: Rice - 198 car, 872 yds, 8 tds
Receiving: Smith - 42 rec, 732 yds, 7 tds

Washington Leaders
Passing: Griffin III - 218-325, 2660 yds, 17 tds
Rushing: Morris - 230 car, 1106 yds, 6 tds
Receiving: Moss - 29 rec, 416 yds, 7 tds

My one question: do we focus on stopping Rice and force Flacco to win, or play not to give up the big plays and let our defense hold serve against the run?

^To your question: I say we take Rice out of the game. Never let the other team's best player beat you. Force Flacco to win it.

Give them the same business we gave Eli...who is a better QB, with better options.

ravens are ranked in the bottom third in the league in EVERY stat but scoring.

hang onto the ball, it's a win. that simple.

We HAVE to generate QB pressure. This needs to be the defensive mantra from here on out. QB or bust.

ive been pleased to see how creative haslett has gotten scheme-wise lately. maybe its just in my head, but he seems to understand the flow of the game and started to implement more creative blitzes.

Stop Rice, take away the deep ball and make Flacco beat us with a dink and dunk.

With that said, don't think we stop Rice and Flacco is such a hot/cold QB that, if he is on, he can beat you dinking and dunking. If he is not, he will make unforced errors.

I think stop Rice, but our defense is getting an assist from our offense. Our offense is indirectly causing pressure the other team's offenses to abandon gameplan and have to throw the ball to keep up. Our best defense at this point is an aggressive offense. So concentrate on Rice and be aggressive on offense when we have the ball.

I think we have to force the Ravens to play from behind. As soon as this happens, Cam Cameron forgets that he has a Pro Bowl RB and passes like crazy. So I say we need to keep Torrey Smith and Boldin in check. I think we have a good enough of a run defense that we may not need to put 8 men in the box to stop the run. But we can't let Smith (or Jacoby Jones) beat us deep. Speaking of Jones, we can't let him take one to the house on a KR or PR. In the end, our best defense will be a steady scoring by the offense.

The ravens are a pass first team with an avg qb. Honestly they really don't scare anyone anymore, they defense is old and not great( actually it's bad) and I believe Robert will continue his streak of 0 Ints.

Skins 28
ravens 20 .