Baltimore at Cleveland

Lambs to the slaughter, lambs to the slaughter… that’s what we’re looking at here with the tough and gritty Ravens playing against the Browns that couldn’t move the ball anyhow even if they were playing against a defense not anywhere near as good as the one they’ll be playing this week.  The Ravens out-defensed the 49ers on Thanksgiving last week, and should have no problems laying the smack down all over the Browns in their own stadium. 

The Browns did give a game to the Bengals, and then promptly gave the game away in the waning minutes, which they seem to be very adept at doing.
For the Browns to be able to have any semblance of success in this game, they’re going to have to be able to run the ball effectively to keep the Ravens from teeing off on Colt McCoy.  This will be easier said than done, considering the Ravens rank 3^rd in the league in rush defense (91.5 yards per game) while the Browns rank a dismal 29^th in rush offense (96.8 yards per game).  Not exactly a recipe for resounding success in that department.  In fact, the Browns might not have much success in the passing game either, as they rank only 24^th in that category and the Ravens rank 5^th defending the pass.  All in all, this looks like it’ll shape up to be a pretty rough outing for McCoy and company.

Ray Rice had a fairly rough game against the 49ers, which was to be expected with two of the better defenses in the league duking it out.  This week Rice owners get a gimme, as the Browns are a terrible 29^th in the league in defending the run; they’re so bad in fact, teams don’t feel the need to throw on them, which explains the phantom #1 ranking the Browns have in pass defense.  I’m guessing if Joe Flacco really wanted to throw the ball on the Browns, he could; it’s just that Rice will have so much success slicing and dicing the soft underbelly of the Browns front seven that Flacco will probably only have to throw 25 passes or less to get the job done.

Just because the Browns are the top pass defense in terms of yardage against, doesn’t mean Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin won’t have some success.  In fact, Flacco will likely throw at least one touchdown pass, and that could just as easily go to Smith on a deep route or to Boldin or even Ed Dickson over the middle.  This game looks like it’ll probably be laugher… at least a laugher for the Ravens, probably not so much for Colt McCoy and the beating he’s about to sustain.

Good Start:  RB Ray Rice, WR Anquan Boldin

Middle of the Road:  WR Greg Little, QB Joe Flacco, WR Torrey Smith, TE Ed Dickson

Bad Start:  QB Colt McCoy, RB Peyton Hillis, WR Josh Cribbs, TE Ben Watson, RB Ricky Williams, TE Dennis Pitta

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