Ravens:
Shall we queue the music? Ice Rice Baby. Rice has been banned from North American Football. That’s right, the CFL won’t even touch him now either, but expect it to be only a temporary knee jerk reaction. His suspension will be reevaluated after all the hype has died down, and analyst only need to look to the handling of the Vick chronicles. I still assert that there is more to this than just the video. Don’t get me wrong, I do not support his actions, but keep in mind that the court system, having fully viewed these videos, only gave him one diversionary course. The League, who denies seeing the tapes, gave him a 2 game suspension originally (hoping the tapes never got leaked?) after meeting with both Rice and his wife. My theory is that Ray is afraid to admit he is the victim of an abusive relationship.
That said, we are missing the real point. Football has started, except for the Ravens who appeared to be taking an extra bye week in week 1. It better be worth it because we now get the, er, “High Flying” steelers who nearly lost a 24 point lead to the Browns. Two losses to division rivals to start the season will dig the Ravens in a terrible hole, and need to find a way to right the ship. It starts with CATCHING the FLIPPIN FOOTBALL.
An estimated 8 dropped passes can not be hung on Flacco, who was mercilessly booed on Sunday. Well, he kind of deserved it a few times, but the overall offensive play was sloppy, and ill-deserving of a win, which they nearly pulled out anyway. The defense kept them in the game by allowing only 5 field goals before finally having their secondary exposed when insufficient quarterback pressure gave Dalton time. Long story short, We have a lot of work to do, or this will become a very long season.
Orioles:
The Orioles continue their Jeckyl and Hyde routine, posting a 20-3-2 series record for midweek series, but only a 8-10-5 series record on weekend series. Add to that their 22-27 road record, and the likelihood of playing a small market team in the first round of the playoffs (which seems inevitable at this point), the O’s post season hopes will depend on pure adrenaline to carry them through, as they have seen their first double-digit lead in the standings since 1979. Fall ball is back in Baltimore, so come on out to support the O’s and cheer them on while they hope to clinch their first division title since 1997, and could do it next week in their final home stand of the regular season.
Alouettes
The Als beat Hamilton 38-31 to claim a share of teh division lead with Toronto. Let’s just say that their win/loss record is irrelevant right now.
Mariners
Nothing to report as the 2015 season remains in question will the battle with the Baltimore Arena remains an issue.
Blast:
Blast will host Syracuse November 8 to open the season. Rest of schedule is not on their website… still. Blast to hold open tryout October 11-12.
Chesapeake Bayhawks: (Home games at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium)
2015 season tickets now on sale.
Charm:
Chicago wins back-to-back titles with 24-18 win over Atlanta.
Capitals (See website for more details):
Nothing to report.
Wizards (See website for more details):
Preaseason starts November 6.
Mystics (See website for more details):
Phoenix and Chicago face off for the title.
D.C.United (See website for more details):
United (14-8-5) tied Vancouver this week, and are now 5 points ahead of KC (12-10-6), 3rd best in tghe League.
What do you want to see in the Ravens report? What should be scrapped? Actually, never mind. No one is reading this anyway so you probably won’t know the difference. Send an email to iggy at tealdragon.net. Thanks!
Schedule
| 2014 Regular Season | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Opponent | Record | Time | Result |
| Su, Sep 7 | Cincinnati Bengals | 20-16 Overall 13-6 Home |
1:00 PM | L 23-16 |
| Th, Sep 11 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 16-23 Overall 9-10 Home |
8:25 PM | |
| Su, Sep 21 | @Cleveland Browns | 22-8 Overall 10-5 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Sep 28 | Carolina Panthers | 1-3 Overall 0-1 Home |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Oct 5 | @Indianapolis Colts | 4-9 Overall 0-5 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Oct 12 | @Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 2-2 Overall 1-1 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Oct 19 | Atlanta Falcons | 2-2 Overall 1-0 Home |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Oct 26 | @Cincinnati Bengals | 20-17 Overall 7-10 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Nov 2 | @Pittsburgh Steelers | 16-23 Overall 7-13 Away |
8:30 PM | |
| Su, Nov 9 | Tennessee Titans | 10-10 Overall 5-5 Home |
1:00 PM | |
| Mo, Nov 24 | @New Orleans Saints | 4-1 Overall 1-0 Away |
8:30 PM | |
| Su, Nov 30 | San Diego Chargers | 5-4 Overall 2-0 Home |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Dec 7 | @Miami Dolphins | 6-5 Overall 4-4 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Mo, Dec 14 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 7-10 Overall 5-4 Home |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Dec 21 | @Houston Texans | 7-1 Overall 3-1 Away |
1:00 PM | |
| Su, Dec 28 | Cleveland Browns | 22-8 Overall 12-3 Home |
1:00 PM | |
Relevant Football Links
- NFL: Tie Breaking Procedures
- Johnny Road Trip NFL Schedules 2010-2017
- PrintYourBrackets.com Good source of printable team schedules
- NFL Rule Book
- Spotrac.com Awesome source of player contracts and impact on salary cap
Iggy’s Predictions
“Past performance does not guarantee future success, but it sure is the way to bet!”
- Week 1:
- Seattle over Green Bay (+5.5). Seattle has paid off the refs in advance this year for those close end zone calls. Seattle is back
- BALTIMORE over Cincinnati (+2.5). Go RAVENS U-G-L-Y
- Saints over Falcons (+2.5). Saints still have Brees! Falcon come back late, in in OT.
- Rams over Minnesota (+4.5), but take the points. Without Bradford, Rams could be looking at another long season. Why did I pick the Rams with no QB?
- steelers over Cleveland (+6.5). I almost took Cleveland, but then I realized that I almost took Cleveland! Steeler might have a holey Defense? Let us hope!
- Eagles of Jags (+10.5), but take the points. That many points to start the season was hard to pass up. Jags tried to win, but then realized what they were doing.
- Jets over Raiders (+4.5). Raider were rated to be the WORST team to play for! Raiders… almost… covered… but not quite
- Bears over Bills (+6.5), but take the points.. Who invited the Bills?
- Washington (+2.5) over Houston . RG-Knee to fully return from injury. Washington demonstrated how bad they can really be.
- Chiefs over Titans (+4.5). Tennessee wins convincingly, surprisingly.
- Pats over Miami (+4.5), but take the points. Pats are going to go on a downward spin starting this year. I can feel it. I love it when someone makes Tom Brady cry.
- Tampa over Carolina (+0.5). Heads or Tails? Carolina wins on the road.
- San Fran over Dallas (+5.5), but take the points. San Fran has issues, just not as many as Dallas. Dallas staked a claim to all the issues in this game.
- Denver over Indy (+7.5), but take the points. Denver can score points, but can they stop them? Colts cover on a game I didn’t stay up to watch.
- Detroit over Giants (+4.5), but take the points. Detroit to challenge this year. Giants looked very small here.
- Cards over San Diego (+3.5). San Diego offense is too suspect. Cards score late twice to win, but not cover.
- This Week: 8-8 Straight Up and 6-10 Against the Spread
- Week 2:
- pittsburgh (+2.5) over Baltimore. Can you really pick the Ravens after THAT performance?
- Fins over Bills (+0.5). Fins are for real this year. Bills are just pretending
- Potatoes over Jags (+5.5), but take the points. This might be a rare opponent the Skins can actually beat
- Titans over Dallas (+3.5). Can Dallas look worse than last week? They are gonna try.
- Giants over Arizona (+.5). This one can really go either way.
- Pats over Vikings (+3.5), but take the points. I can’t tell if the Pats are falling, or the Vikings are rising… or Both!?!
- Saints over Cleveland (+6.5). If the Browns can overcome 24 points down against pittsburgh, why not do the same against the Saints?
- Falcons (+5.5) over Bengals. Cincinnati will be blind sided by the Falcons.
- Detroit (+2.5) over Carolina. Detroit might finally have the pieces this year to make the playoffs.
- Tampa over Rams (+5.5). Rams, with all their extra draft picks, still suck.
- Seattle over Chargers (+5.5). Blow out of the week.
- Oakland (+2.5) over Houston. Black hole factor involving 2 teams that would benefit from being sucked in.
- Packers over Jets (+8.5). 8 not enough to tempt me. It’s still the Jets.
- Denver over KC (+13.5), but take the points. Too many points to give up on an early season divisional game.
- Niners over Bears (+7.5), but take the points. Bears may have lost to the Bills, but they will rebound for this game.
- Indy over Philly (+3.5), but take the points. To many possibilities for 2 erratic teams.
Please send comments to Iggy at tealdragon.net