The Baltim-IR Ravens
There’s always one team every year. This year, the Ravens won the worst lottery in sports: the Power Punch To The Balls Injury Jackpot! All 3 string runningbacks! Good thing their best runningback is still healthy until he catches Covid for the third time.
JK Dobbins tore his ACL. He’s out.
Justice Hill hurt his Achilles. That’s probably a season.
Gus Edwards hurt his knee. Now that’s a party!
On top of that, it got worse. Marcus Peters, the star defensive back, also tore his ACL. Two Ravens wide receivers, a position they are already laughably thin at, also went to IR. The first is Miles Boykin, who hurt his hammy. The second is first-round pick Rashad Bateman, who hurt his dick muscles. Also out is LJ Fort, Nick Boyle, and now Tyre Phillips. The Ravens lead the league in players on IR with 14, 6 of them starters. Just an absolutely brutal way to start the year. Any one of those weapons by themselves might have been just enough to turn the tide on the Raiders game this past Monday, too. It’s one thing to have your hopes deflated by seeing your team suck. It’s another to watch a talented squad you were excited to see struggle bus their way through a season after losing several key pieces. With the Browns looking strong, the Steelers looking strong, and even the Bengals surprising, the Ravens might have an even bigger problem brewing.
That Raiders game was a masterpiece though and I feel sorry for anyone who turned it off early. Absolute joy of a game. Raiders kept hanging in there despite the Ravens looking better the whole time. The Ravens did that classic clutch move of setting up Tucker for the gamewinner, only to have the moment spoiled by the Raiders setting up their own star kicker for an even more clutch shot. The Raiders looked to win the game on a spectacular pass and catch, only for the review to place the WR down on the one. Then chaos struck. Glorious, glorious chaos. The Raiders couldn’t punch it in, Carr screwed over his own team by hard counting on the half yard line (generating a penalty), then the ball got tipped and the Ravens looked to have snagged victory from the half yard line of defeat. Only to fumble the ball a few plays later. Then the Raiders lined up for a field goal and…took a delay of game (???????) and then got a miracle pass to seal it. Best game of the year so far and I’d be hard-pressed to think it won’t still be a top 5 game of the season by year’s end.
If you remembered to watch, the Manningcast on ESPN 2 was about as great as I hoped it would be. It started a bit rough and it had some strange energy to it that made it slightly harder to concentrate on the game itself, but that was when things were early and boring. By the end they had found a better groove and the positives far, far outweighed any issues. Peyton was insightful and chatty, Eli actually did an admirable job keeping Peyton on track, and they both zinged each other with delightful frequency. Charles Barkley showed up to get made fun of, Travis Kelce stopped by and said “Shit” on live TV, Ray Lewis stopped in and was more tolerable than he normally is, and Russell Wilson came in for the final quarter and eventually overtime and was great. Watching Peyton, Eli and Russ react to the overtime shenanigans was worth the price of admission alone, it was light years better than the actual MNF broadcast, and I recommend it to everyone next round. Not even as a Manning fanboy, but as a person who enjoys a change of pace and a different insight into the sport.
Nice of you to comment on the fact that Daniel Carlson (Raiders kicker) is pretty good. He actually had a better season than Tucker last year, but Tucker got the 2nd team All Pro and Pro Bowl nods, proving just what a farce those things are.
I’m so glad Andrew Luck can still make appearances.
I said it before, but how do you fuck up first and goal from the 1/2 yard line in overtime?
I want to like the Manning broadcast I just didn’t like the screen insert. I don’t need to see them the whole game, no reason for them to be taking up screen real estate. Hopefully they make changes as the year goes along.
Completely disagree on that one, I loved being able to see them react to plays as they happened, watching Peyton look like he wanted to strangle Carr after Carr took a bad sack was hilarious
I am of two minds. I agree with you that seeing Peyton’s reactions was good, but I also agree with Fleur de Lis that already enough of my screen is taken up by things which are not football; I don’t need to see the announcers.
It feels like there is some happy medium to achieve a more satisfying Manningcast experience where P&E maintain a prominent screen presence, but the game itself also is given more focus (and perhaps volume?) than this first spin at the wheel. It did feel like a great concept and was really enjoyable, but it also needs some balance tweaking.
It was a lot worse in the beginning, later on when they had the Mannings/guest over on the side of the frame with most of the screen being the game, it wasn’t too distracting. I had it on my laptop screen and didn’t find it too cluttered.
Lamar is the only true Quarterback in the game. Quarterbacks back in the day mostly ran the ball, or handed it off. They only threw in certain circumstances.
All except for Sammy Baugh of course, who would nearly double the average passing yards every year, while being an incredible punter, and an above average safety. Sammy Baugh is the greatest of all time, come at me.
Honestly I have no issues with Sammy Baugh being considered the GOAT, taking eras into account. That’s a gentleman’s opinion and I respect it
not “come at me” but rather, “commence fisticuffs if so desire”
Thank you Dave 🙂
I think the only three that really can be argued are Brady, Marino, and Baugh. I would love to hear other arguments though.
I feel like you have to take eras into account. Coming from baseball where we not only adjust for eras but even for things like environmental conditions, it’s wild to me how many fans don’t recognize that the significant rules changes the game has undergone have created new conditions.
I think Starr should be up there. He has 5 championships, second only to Brady, and still has the record for highest postseason passer rating and has the highest playoff win percentage.
A lot of fans just don’t understand the significance of era and just how much the game can change in a short period of time. Football is a super contextual game and a lot of people tend to forget this when arguing who the best QBs (or any positions for that matter) are. Shoot, I had an argument with someone recently who was very set on NOT adjusting for era when discussing QB play. It’s insane.
Greatest of all time convo needs to. include Jerry Rice. I’m always surprised that he gets overlooked. His dominance over such a long time is shocking.
My favourite Jerry Rice record – he caught a pass in every game between 1987 and 2003.
Dang are the ravens gonna be like the new 49ers