The Baltimore Ravens have yet to win a division game. The Browns and Bengals took it to the ‘Birds, and now it’s the Steelers turn to look for revenge for the shellacking they took last year.

The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time: the Ravens needed to get healthy and work on overcoming their fear of the Red Zone. Hopefully both problems will be ironed out and we can see a well played, injury free game.

“When you consider training camp, four preseason games and seven in the regular season, our bye came at a good time. We’ve been beat up, but there’s a chance that most, if not all of our injured players who have missed games, could be back by the time we get to Pittsburgh. And, what a great opportunity for the midpoint of the season. We’re playing for first place in our division, and it’s on a national stage… We’ll get two extra practices this week (Monday and Tuesday) before we gear up for the Steelers on Thursday.”

- Ravens head coach Brian Billick

The Quotable Bart Scott

On the atmosphere in a game between the Ravens and Steelers:
“It’s like going to a heavyweight fight. You’re going to get your money’s worth because both teams are going to stand in the middle of the ring and go toe to toe. We’re not carbon copies of each other, but we’re built the same and we have the same philosophy. We try to impose our physical will on each other. Whoever is left standing at the end, after all the power blows, is usually the team that wins.”

How did you get the nickname “Mad Backer?”
“The origin is Terrell Suggs. When I first started out, he would see me on special teams. I would always be coming off the field exchanging some words with somebody. He was like, ‘Why are you so mean? Why are you always mad? Man, you’re the Mac Backer.’ it kind of game off of the ‘Mad Rapper’ skits on the Bad Boy albums.”

Who is the toughest quarterback to bring down?
“Daunte [Culpepper] is pretty elusive and he’s pretty strong. I’ve watched guys hang on the top of him and he was still standing up. But, Ben [Roethlisberger] is hard, too. He’s big, he has long arms, and he’s a little nifty in the pocket. He’ll fight to stand up. I remember my first game on Monday Night Football, Halloween [in 2005]. I cam through and he kind of stiff-armed me and got the ball off anyway.”

Reasons for Optimism

• The Ravens have won 5 consecutive games following their bye week, and have a 6-2 record under coach Billick after the bye. The 5-straight games? @ New Orleans (2006, 52-22), New York Jets (2005, 13-3), Buffalo Bills (2004, 20-6), @ Arizona (2003, 26-18) and Denver (2002, 34-23).
• Baltimore has won 3 straight vs. the Steelers and 5 of the last 7 games played.
• Last season, the Ravens dismantled the Steelers in the two games played with a combined score of 58-7.
• 

Reasons for concern

• The Ravens are 4-4 on Monday Night Football, with a 0-1 record this season. Traditionally, Super Bowl XIV season aside, the Ravens have not fared too well on nationally televised games. If the forecast calls for rain, you can kiss this one good bye.
• The Steelers hold the 5th best home record in the NFL since 2000 (41-17-1, .695 winning percentage). The Ravens own a better mark - 45-14, .763 winning percentage - good for 1st in the NFL during the same time span.

Steelers Killers

• As pointed out numerous times by Neal over at Die Hard Steel, QB Steve McNair is Steelers kryptonite. In 15 games against the Black and Gold, McNair owns an 11-4 record. He is 237-of-382 passing for 2,849 yards with 21 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The 21 touchdowns are tied for the most (Cincinnati) against a team in his career. Good to have him in the division, eh?
• TE Todd Heap has faced Pittsburgh 12 times, posting 47 receptions for 500 yards (10.6 average) and 2 touchdowns. Let’s hope he’s healthy enough to play — we don’t need TE Quinn Sypniewski dropping balls, do we?
• WR Derrick Mason has faced the Steelers 16 times, and has 55 receptions for 706 yards, good for the 3rd most against any team in the NFL.
• K Matt Stover bails out the Ravens more than any other player in the history of the organization. In 32 career games against Pittsburgh, he is 83.3% accurate (45 of 54) in FG attempts. The icing on the cake is that he’s perfect 55-of-55 in kicking PATs.
• LB Ray Lewis has played the Beams 18 times and has notched 226 tackles (12.5 average). He has 13 or more tackles in 10 games played. In addition to the tackles, he has 10 PD, 5.5 sacks (good for -30.5 yards) and an Interception.

Really odd stats

• The Ravens have posted at least 1 touchdown return in 4 of the last 5 contests after the bye week. In 2006, Ronnie Prude and Dawan Landry each returned an interception 12 yards for a touchdown against the Saints. In 2004, Deion Sanders (remember him?) returned a 48 yard interception for a touchdown against the Bills. In 2003, Chris McAlister returned an 83-yard interception for a touchdown against the Cardinals. Finally, in 2002, C-Mac busted out a 107-yard FG return for a touchdown on Monday Night Football against the Broncos.
• RB Willis McGahee has out-rushed every opposing running back the Ravens have faced. He is currently 3rd in the NFL with 639 yards heading into week 9. Willie Parker, on the other hand, is a helluva back and will provide quite the challenge for the Ravens. It’s a good thing the Ravens run defense is so suffocating!

The Ravens Touchdown Take

This will be the best game that nobody will know about outside of Baltimore and Pittsburgh. When the Patriots and Colts square off… everything else takes a back seat.

I’ll be watching the Monday Night Football game at the Caesar’s Palace Sports Book with my black Ed Reed alternate jersey and Ravens cap. I’ll have a drink in one hand and a fist full of tickets in the other.

Life is good.

Neal at Die Hard Steel and I have made a friendly wager: the winning team’s blogger can guest post on the losing team’s blog. It may sound confusing, but be sure to check out Die Hard Steel on Tuesday. You’ll love it.

That said, I’m really excited to see Trevor Pryce back in the lineup. He’s the key to unlock our send the house blitz packages, so I’m expecting a big day out of T-Sizzle and Bart Scott.  I’d especially like to see more of this:

I just got a text message from my fiancee - she saw another Baltimore Ravens license plate frame driving around the streets of St. Louis this morning.

That makes 2 of us.

Can we please start our own “West of the Mississippi” roost? I know a few good bars we could patronize…

It’s Sunday. It’s the bye week. I’m bored. So why not scattershoot a post about the games I’ve been watching?

As I write this, Tom Brady connected with Randy Moss for his third passing touchdown of the day. This of course makes me wonder why I used a second-round pick in my work Fantasy Football league on Laurence Maroney — the Patriots just don’t run the ball at all. And why should they? The passing game is just insane with Brady and his “Everyone contributes” offense. Hell, even Mike Vrabel had a touchdown. (and why is it that when teams see him check in, they don’t just automatically drop into man-on-man coverage? 10 catches, 10 touchdowns. Duh.)

That said, I’m tired of Boston. The self-proclaimed “City of Champions” can kiss my ass. Those fans have it so good — the Patriots are rolling, the Red Sox are on the verge of winning another World Series (they’ve still got quite a bit to go before catching the Yankees, but I’ll be damned if they won’t try to win out the rest of the decade), the Celtics underwent a major makeover and nobody gives a flying f*ck crap about the Bruins, off to a slow start in the Northeast.

I’m getting really depressed. Not because of the whole Boston hype machine, but because I decided to switch to the Bills/Jets game. Remind me again how the Jets almost came from behind to beat the Ravens at home? Or how the Bills scratched out a win last week? The score is 3-all with 5:02 left in the 3rd quarter. These two teams fire more blanks than a 90 year-old gigolo at an old folks home… and they both took it to the Ravens. How in the world will we beat the Chargers, Patriots, Colts and Steelers when we come out of the ‘easy’ part of the schedule?

J.P. Loss-man is checking in for the Bills. I guess the Trent Edwards experiment is over.

My hometown team, the St. Louis Rams, did another phenomenal choke job en route to an 0-8 record. Wow, they suck. And the funny thing is that they shouldn’t suck. The Rams offensive line is just as battered as the Ravens, but the main difference is that the Ravens aren’t using injuries as an excuse and have a 4-3 record to show for it. Did you know the Browns won on the road with **14** penalties? That’s insane… The Rams season is OVER. I wonder who they’ll take with the top-3 pick in the draft?

Finally, posting is going to be sparse in the next week or so. I’m getting married (see how I planned that around the Ravens bye week?), so my Steelers-Ravens stuff will either be brief or non-existent. Time is a precious commodity as the wedding is rapidly approaching, so I highly urge everyone who wants the poop and the scoop about the Steelers to check out Neal Coolong over at Die Hard Steel. You’ll be glad you did — even if you have to scrub yourself down afterwards for reading a Steelers blog.

Edit: Tom Brady just had a rushing touchdown… and he spiked the ball.  Hard.  Remember what AD said about how nobody beats their chest?  Uhhhhh….

You expect teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers to have down years — that’s the natural life cycle of professional sports teams who go on extended runs of greatness. Just like the Atlanta Braves not winning the NL East, or the St. Louis Blues missing the playoffs, another team will always be around to take advantage of the opportunity to kick you while you’re down. In the case of the Braves, it was the New York Mets who were hungry - and waiting - to steal the crown.

In the AFC North, it was the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns who were jockeying for the dubious honor of being the worst team in the division.

Going in to the season, the much ballyhooed Bengals were a lock for a playoff spot. A lot of national media “experts” thought that the Carson Palmer-led offensive attack would certainly win them more games the Browns and Ravens. However, when push came to shove, the Bengals fell down, barely beating the Ravens in a nationally televised gift-wrapped suck-fest before going on a 4 game losing streak (at Cleveland, at Seattle, New England, at Kansas City). The Bengals finally managed to break the losing streak against another doormat - the New York Jets.

As an outsider, it’s easy to speculate as to why the Bengals are collapsing - it could be the clash of egos in the locker room, the lack of control coach Marvin Lewis has on his players or the fact that every time a bell rings, an Bengal player gets arrested. (Apologies to fans of It’s a Wonderful Life.)

One thing is for certain, though - the Bengals and Browns have swapped identities completely. Browns QB Derek Anderson has taken control of a Browns offense that was on the verge of being good last year and are on the verge of being explosively great this year. The fans must be loving the renaissance of the Cleveland Browns, and it only gets better from here.

The Bengals, on the other hand, have been in steady decline and are on the verge of self destruction — and I love every second of it.

Cleveland Rocks

With another chapter added to the list of Cleveland sports failures, Browns fans may have something to get really excited about: a trip out of the cellars of their respective sports divisions. The Indians made it to the ALCS before breaking hearts and blowing a 3 games to 1 lead to the Boston Red Sox. The Cavaliers made it to the NBA finals before eventually being swept out by the San Antonio Spurs. And look — the Browns aren’t dead last in the AFC North!

Still, I find it hard to polish the proverbial turd — Cleveland is what it is. However, it’s worth noting that Cleveland doesn’t have a ridiculous nickname like Cincinnati does: Porkopolis. Aside from the Ramones being in the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, the Big Red Machine and Skyline Chili, what good has come out of Cincinnati? Nothing that I can come up with off the top of my head…

Skeletons in my closet: another Ravens Touchdown non sequitur

I have a confession to make: I was a Cleveland Browns fan before I was a Baltimore Ravens fan. True story. I was born and raised in St. Louis, where I followed the St. Louis Cardinals (football and baseball). When the Gridbirds bolted for the desert, I latched on to the next closest non-Chicago team: the Cleveland Browns. It helped that I lived near an Air Force base and had kids my age to play with who rooted for the Browns, so naturally, I grafted my fan identity to the mistake by the lake.

When the Browns up and moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens, I naturally followed suit. I wasn’t going to graft my fandom to ANOTHER team, so I followed the players to the Charm City.

That’s the story of how a guy in St. Louis becomes a die-hard Ravens fan. Do you think they’ll let me start a “West of the Mississippi” Roost?

Hoo-boy. Ray Lewis and Adalius Thomas are going toe-to-toe in a war of words.

Harken back, if you will, to a few weeks ago. AD had just ripped Ravens coach Brian Billick in a Sports Illustrated interview and threw a veiled shot at Ray Lewis, claiming that the Patriots don’t have players that “beat their chests” and how the Patriots don’t employ a “star-studded system” like in Baltimore. His rip was good enough to make him the Ravens Touchdown “Crybaby of the Week“.

Lewis then branded AD a coward for bolting to New England (for $35M, I’d be a coward), to which AD responded by calling Lewis a coward for second-guessing Billick’s play calling (I guess that makes me a coward, too) and publicly campaigning to draft a big DT - Haloti Ngata - to free up Lewis to work in an open field.

Well, it’s all coming to a head. Aaron Wilson wrote a great piece about the Lewis/Thomas feud. Here’s a taste to whet your appetite for some good ‘ole petty fighin’ words:

“You don’t become a Super Bowl champion in this business without having character and dignity for what you do for your teammates,” Lewis said Monday on his weekly radio show. “We won a Super Bowl without Adalius Thomas. The New England Patriots won three Super Bowls without Adalius Thomas. You’re talking about a guy we put in, great talent, but, systematically, we had to fit into our schemes.

“When you take a shot at men that you claim to love to go to war with, I call those cowards. If you got something to say privately, you don’t have to go to a newspaper. If you got something to say to a man, speak it.”

Plus, Lewis took a shot at Thomas’ lack of Pro Bowl recognition. Thomas was selected last year as a defensive player and was selected once previously for special-teams.

“When you find a guy like this and he’s the first to not celebrate with his teammates, you got to ask yourself, ‘Who’s looking for the limelight?’” Lewis said. “You’re talking about a guy who’s been to one or two Pro Bowls. I done been to eight. I can quadruple that.”

I love Ray Lewis. It’s too bad we’re going to lose on December 3rd when the Ravens take on the Patriots in a nationally televised Monday Night Football game. For starters, we suck in nationally televised games. I’m confident that the Rams would have dismantled us two weeks ago if the game was on a Monday — we just fold like a tent in the limelight. Oh, and we’re playing the best team the NFL has ever seen (at least that’s what ESPN keeps telling me).

This should get interesting as the story develops. Ray Lewis loves to run his mouth.

Call me old fashioned, but I’m just not a fan of calling for a trick play when trailing by at least a touchdown. Especially when said touchdown could have provided game-winning points or swung momentum on its ear. In fact, I hope Brian Billick decides to tear this “cutesy” play out of the book and burn it. As far as I’m concerned, even if the trick play worked, it was still a bone-headed call.

Since I don’t want this to get lost in the shuffle of bad calls Billick made on Sunday, I’m giving this particular head-scratcher the proper attention it deserves.

Why did the Ravens fail so horribly on their poor man’s version of the LT pass? Five reasons.

1. Kyle Boller has fumbled snaps that are handed directly to him. What makes you think he can catch a thrown ball… or worse - go up for a jump ball in the end zone?
2. Mark Clayton catches balls, not throws them. Sure, we’ve all thrown balls around in the park or at a BBQ with friends… but we’re just goofin’. I’m no Elway… and neither is Clayton. Wouldn’t it have made sense to throw the ball to CLAYTON, not BOLLER?
3. We score in the Red Zone about as much as Elton John scores with women*. Again, why would a quarterback have a better shot at catching a ball than a receiver?
4. Ed Reed didn’t throw the ball. I’m quite positive that he can do anything on a football field… and excel at it.
5. Brian Billick made the call.

There is only one sure-fire trick play combination that works, and it involves LT and the San Diego offense. They’ve got it scattered, smothered, covered, chunked and diced like Waffle House hashbrowns.

* Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Maybe it’s because we’re so close to Halloween, I don’t know. But yesterday’s game was being played in the Twilight Zone.

The only explanation I could possibly muster about the loss to the Buffalo Bills is that the Baltimore Ravens were playing themselves in an alternate universe.

This theory may have some legs.

Baltimore, a team that plays a tight ball control, time-of-possession game, couldn’t sustain a drive in the first half long enough to chew that clock and keep the Bills offense off the field. In fact, in the first half, the Ravens had the ball for 11:42 — a far cry from previous efforts this season. Baltimore eventually managed to grab more of the clock in the second half, holding on to the ball nearly 2:00 longer than the Bills in the third and fourth quarters.

The Bills had the Ravens act down cold — especially the part about relying on the steady leg of Rian Lindell, who put 4 through the uprights to provide the game-winning points. I think it’s safe to say I know who they’ll be trick-or-treating as this year…

As I usually do after games, here’s a special edition of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:

The Good

• I thought Kyle Boller did another admirable job standing in for McNair, taking all sorts of licks from the Bills defense, who were hungry for the win. Two plays really stood out: 1) His block on the Willis McGahee rushing touchdown; 2) His frozen rope to Derrick Mason in the end zone. He’s showing maturity in both his decision-making process and trust in his receivers to run routes. He put the ball through 3 Bills and found Mason right when he needed to. He’s got to be getting a lot more respect from his teammates, who are seeing him stand up, take those licks, block for his running back and thread nice passes to receivers. This was his best game of the season.
• Willis McGahee showed some great burst and acceleration on his loooong TD run. That’s how you beat the Red Zone bugaboo — just avoid it completely!
• We had another Mike Anderson sighting!
• Jonathan Ogden played a bit. Presumably to test the toe for life after the bye week.

The Bad

• We’ll skip this and go right to The Ugly. Let’s face it — there wasn’t much to be excited about yesterday and there is an awful lot of ugly to go around.

The Ugly

• I expected it out of the young offensive line, but the defense jumping offsides so much is inexcusable. We gave Buffalo 3 first downs on penalties yesterday. Horrible.
• 11 penalties for 91 yards. As Don Markus of the Baltimore Sun points out, it’s the kind of sloppiness you’d expect in the third week of the preseason, NOT the seventh week of the regular season.
• Rex Ryan needs to stop sending the house against the no huddle offense. What’s wrong with dropping back into a prevent or cover-2 defense on throwing downs? It’s obvious that sending all that pressure is going to free up a receiver running a short route. Once the receiver has the ball, they can grab 5 - 10 yards after the catch and fox trot their way to a fresh set of downs. This game was uncharacteristically bad for the Ravens defense. Let’s hope that we can get things fixed before we play teams that can really hurt us by airing it out.
• Brian Billick’s playcalling was a notch below excruciating. 2nd-and-1: Let’s pass. 3rd-and-1: Let’s pass again. 4th-and-1: Hell, may as well pass again. Turnover on downs: “We have a lack of focus. The players didn’t execute.” As Neal, the Sports Cartel’s Steelers blogger pointed out yesterday, Billick doesn’t seem to have much confidence in the Ravens offense at all.  Judging from the plays he was calling, I think he has too much confidence. I feel that he needs to turn over the playcalling duties to Rick Neuheisel and concentrate on personnel and game management decisions. As stated numerous times across blogs, message boards and in bars everywhere, the offensive genius label will be Billick’s undoing.
• The schedule really cranks up after the bye: @ Pittsburgh (11/5), Bengals (11/11), Browns (11/18), @ Chargers (11/25), Patriots (12/3), Colts (12/9), @ Dolphins (12/16), @ Seahawks (12/23), Pittsburgh (12/31). Of those games, I think the only real ‘easy’ win is on December 16th. But then again, we all saw what happened when we played a team in the AFC East we should have rolled over.

So, where do we go from here? Well, into the bye with a really bad taste in our mouths. I can’t imagine that the team is excited about having to sit on this loss - a game that should have easily been won - for two weeks.

I’m glad I wasn’t on that plane back to Baltimore.

Congratulations are in order: with his 114 yards in today’s game, Baltimore Ravens RB Willis McGahee has broken the 4,000 rushing yards milestone.

Here’s to many more in the Purple and Black!