I agree. The Jets are done and in our rearview mirror now, and they are already past the horizon where we can't even make out the fumes from their Jet crashing and burning..Done deal.
The mighty fish have other fish to fry in the playoffs..
Some things to mention regarding Baltimore at Miami this weekend -
- Flacco has a sparkling 92 QB rating in road games this year.
- If you take the first half of the KC game out, when they surprised us with a spread offense and running unconventional plays in the 1st half (Miami adjusted at halftime and only gave up a field goal in the 2nd half), Miami's defense has only given up 2 touchdowns in the last 18 quarters of the season. That's incredible.
- Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are healthy, and just as importantly "Fresh" for this time of year. Ronnie only has a little over 200 carries this season. I'm surprised that we didn't try to run more on the Jets even though both of them combined for over 100 yards rushing against the Jets. The Jets were giving up a lot of yards on the ground before last Sunday's game, I thought we would attempt run more and not rely on Penny so much.
- The Ravens are amazing up the middle of their defense. They have a stud defensive tackle with Haloti Ngata, then Ray Lewis behind him at MLB, and what can you say about Ed Reed behind him at safety.. Miami will have to attack soft spots on the outside going off tackle.. Run toss sweeps to Ricky and Ronnie as that's their weakness. With our tackles Jake Long and Vernon Carey leading the charge, Ronnie and Ricky have each averaged over 5 yards a carry on toss sweeps and pitch sweeps this season.. In other words, try not to run in the middle of that Ravens defense too much. Get that Ravens defense going sideways by running outside the offensive tackles. Jake Long is already considered the best run blocking tackle in the league, and Carey is fantastic at the right tackle spot in run blocking as well, that's where we have to go, OFF TACKLE and outside the tackles on pitches and sweeps !
Miami also has athletic guards and an athletic center. Get those interior lineman pulling to the outside creating a man advantage ! In the earlier game Baltimore run blitzed us like crazy UP THE MIDDLE.. So run outside ~!
- Defense has to get to the QB this week. I was surprised we didn't blitz that much against the Jets (maybe because Favre is good against the blitz). You saw Yeremiah Bell come from the safety position on a blitz and bat a ball down behind the line of scrimmage, but not much else in the game. They better pull some stunts and get to the rookie Rat QB to get him rattled with the crowd behind them. Miami has to find creative ways to get to the QB if they can stop the run early.
- Miami finished the season playing 4 of 5 games on the road, and won every one of them.. Miami hasn't played that well at home over the last 2 home games. But I actually like that, because it means Miami is due for a breakout game at home.. Especially with the game sold out already, it means the fans will go crazy, as south florida is transfixed and going nuts about the turnaround of the team. Miami has to feed off of the crowd that will be pulling for them bigtime.
- Miami lost handily to Arizona and Baltimore this year after crushing last second defeats against Houston and the Jets the week before both of those games. I think it had to do with a young team still finding themselves and not knowing how to react after a heartbreaking last second defeat..... . Those last second heartbreaking defeats the week prior (to the Arizona and Baltimore games) probably had something to do with Miami's performance against Arizona and Baltimore earlier in the season (coming out flat).. Miami is a different team now, a different defense than Baltimore played earlier.
- Miami is a home underdog for this game. PERFECT, we have been underdogs all year !! Sparano needs to remind the team that the Steelers were underdogs in all 3 AFC playoff games when they won the super bowl recently. And needs to inform the team that the Giants were underdogs in all 4 of their playoff games last year when they won the super bowl.
- Baltimore opened that game earlier this year against Miami when they had a pick six against us ( I believe it was Terrell Suggs who returned an INT for a TD).. That blew the game open and you saw Baltimore's body language change after that, it inspired them.... .. If Miami can avoid turnovers this Sunday, and Miami has been the best in the league this year at not turning the ball over, Miami has a good chance. Baltimore leads the entire league in interceptions this season with 26.. So you will have a match up of a team that is the best at taking the ball away, against a team that set the NFL record for least amount of turnovers in a season ( Miami with only 13 turnovers on the year)...
The Ravens feast off of turnovers. If Miami continues what they have done this season in protecting the ball very well, it would be HUGE imo.
