SpearSrai

Okay, Garcia is not 5'11... And his arm strength is better than Chad Pennington's. So whatever offenses Chad Pennington has run, those kinds.

Of all the games to "have a bad feeling about", this is a pretty good one, because if we pull the upset... we're in the Super Bowl. That's a hell of a reward. It just shows how far we've come this season that we're even in this position. We may have already lost the game on paper, but they're going to let us play the game anyways, so that's nice of them.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Peppers is going to be a big-time free agent... And command a ridiculous salary...

To be fair, how many offenses has Garcia played in that weren't west coast? Detroit? Cleveland? Hardly a good sample size to examine his limitations outside of the WC.

And there's always the defense that he played against last week, on the road... they're pretty good too...

Not only are people taking the Steelers, but on Around the Horn (yes, I watch this crap. Not for information, just for perspective) they were asked if the Ravens have a chance in this game, and all 4 sports writers said no, they had no chance. At all. Wow.

I don't think Garcia is the problem... they lost a game late in the season where he threw for 321 yds, 2 TD, 0 INT. (L 38-23 to CAR) Obviously they'll replace him at some point, but how about getting a good o-line in place first.

I guess they like what the team is doing on defense, but want to try a new style of offense. With Kiffin out, the only way to do that is by getting rid of Gruden (who presumably runs the offense). Then their two choices would be to hire a new offensive-minded head coach or promoting the highest-ranked defensive guy to HC and hiring a new OC (or allowing the guy in place to actually run the offense for once). Obviously they went with the second choice... now let's see who they end up using as OC. That's the real story.

A little too close to home for your taste?

I like Bill Simmons' columns... not because he's any good at making picks, or that he's unbiased... just because he's consistently funny. If I wanted to listen to someone who knows what they're talking about, I'd just unplug my television, break the radio, and throw my computer out the window. Then I'd probably go the movies or something.

Of course, Woodson played 9-10 seasons in Pittsburgh vs. 2-3 with us, so naturally he'd pick them overall. But it's at least worth mentioning that he won a Super Bowl with us...

I hope they have a guy lined up to come in... There aren't many guys on the market better than Gruden. Maybe they're thinking Shanahan?

Have we allowed up a 100 yard rusher this year? I don't think we have... And has Pittsburgh for that matter? How about "the 2000 Ravens only allowed 2.7 yards per carry." or "Allowed less than 1000 rushing yards in 2000." That seems like a better way to put it, because plenty of defenses hold rushers under 100 yards these days, partly because of RB-committees. And yes, I would figure winning a Super Bowl ring with the Ravens would have made that blurb, considering that's the team Pittsburgh is playing in the AFC Championship.....where was that posted, SteelerSpin.com?

It's at least as important as Willie Parker being "fresh". I bet Rice has a bigger impact on the game than Willie... assuming Rice gets a number of plays his way.

The Ravens' three-headed monster at running back could get some of its bite back Sunday with the return of rookie Ray Rice. Rice had missed four consecutive games due to a bruised left shin and played sparingly in the Ravens' 13-10 win against the Tennessee Titans last Saturday. He could get a greater workload in the AFC championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I'm ready to go full speed," Rice said. "I was ready to play against Jacksonville, I suited up for Miami. Tennessee, I was ready to go, and I played a couple plays in the third quarter. I feel brand new again." Rice's return could revitalize a running attack that seems to have lost a little steam. Pro Bowl fullback Le'Ron McClain sprained his right ankle against the Titans, and backup Willis McGahee has been battling injuries to his eye, ribs and ankle. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/footbal...0,3531093.story

Maybe they can make a trade with Atlanta for Michael Turner......

I haven't read enough about it, but are they going to trade him or release him?

This still puts you at 0 valid points in this thread.

This response is lengthy, but doesn't say much. You missed the mark completely and didn't make a single valid point. My original post still stands, uncontested. We were trying to trade up to grab Leftwich, and we traded up to grab Boller and down (then up) to grab Flacco. This goes completely away from the "BPA" philosophy. As for Ngata, Clayton, and Grubbs: just because they were the best players available and filled a need doesn't prove that we draft using BPA-only. It just shows that we've been fortunate to do both at the same time. You haven't listed a single example where we shied away from an obvious need to select the BPA. Until we actually do this in a draft, I will not buy into it. Given the choice of filling a need or picking the BPA that is not a need, I contend that we will fill the need (or trade out of the spot.)

Ravens 31, Steelers 24 That's how we win this one.

In addition to Boller, Flacco, and apparently Travis Taylor, you could also say that we targeted Byron Leftwich before Terrell Suggs fell into our lap. We also pretty much targeted Ngata, though he was probably the BPA anyways. Same with Grubbs, Clayton, and probably even Reed. I've never really bought into our "BPA" philosophy...not that it's not a good one, just that it's not what we do. The only example I can even think of where we took the BPA and it wasn't an immediate need was 2001, with Heap, but that was after we had just won the Super Bowl. Our philosophy that year was to also let our Super Bowl QB get away and sign a mistake-prone Elvis impersonator. So maybe 2001 wasn't the best year to use as an example of 'front office intelligence'. You know what team actually takes the BPA? The Detroit Lions. They don't care if they have 3 or 4 players at that position already... they draft away. Heck of a strategy there.

You wouldn't even have to take Tommy Z and Nagasaki out on running downs... And they could just blitz anyway. This is too easy to actually work.

Yes, we can definitely win. But we'll have to score touchdowns on offense. More than one.

I hope they don't hire Spags before we either win the Super Bowl or drop out of contention... Doesn't seem fair to punish a guy for winning playoff games.

Exactly... you don't want to think about the reality of the situation... you want to think about gumdrops and unicorns.