Ravens and Colts, again

I hate it when two teams I dislike play eachother in the playoffs. Not only do you have to watch a player or two you dislike win, you have to see them play the following week. I'll be frank, I may dislike Ray Lewis more than any other football player in the league, okay LaDainian Tomlinson comes to mind, but Ray Lewis, gosh I hate that guy. I mean, I respect Ray Lewis as a person. I'm sure he's a great husband and father, gives to chairity and things like that. But if you've seen him before a game, during an interview, or even during a game you probably know what I mean. He just overdoes it, and I think it's all for show, for marketability. Then he and his defense (he's a captain) go out and play just to hurt you. They don't care about bringing you down, keeping you from the first down, they just want to crush you and take you out of the game. Some people love that and call it toughness, I think its hurts the game.

Now I have to talk about Peyton Manning, so I used to want to see him hit hard just once. I hated how perfect he was. Watching him play is like playing the computer in All Madden, it's almost not fair. Granted the Colts offense hasn't been as fluid this year, but they still went undefeated until the wins didn't matter. I also have to admit I became a Peyton fan after he beat Tom Brady and went on to win his first Super Bowl. I began to hope he would tie Tom Brady at some point with 3 Super Bowls, otherwise the argument of who is the best QB of all time would be lost by who won more Super Bowls. Who wouldn't want more rings, but I don't think thats always the end all be all to who a better QB is.

So tommorow is Saturday and it's liver vs. lima beans. I think a lot of the Ravens chances will fall on Joe Flacco's shoulders. The Colts D that isn't that strong will do what it can to stuff Ray Rice and Willis McGahee. You have to expect the Ravens D to stop Manning half the time, but that means they need points. I've seen a lot of teams go for it on 4th down against the Colts. They carry the mantra of, you can't settle for field goals. I agree with that, but it doesn't mean don't kick field goals. If you're in the game you will miss the 6 or 9 points you could have had, because Manning will kill you if you turn the ball over on downs.

My prediction pivots on the first two drives. If the Colts turn them into TDs, the game will be over early. I don't think that will happen, but even then the Ravens defense is getting old and slow, and as I said before, would need an impressive offensive showing to have a chance. Flacco has not had quite the magic he had last year, I expect him to make mistakes and turn the ball over. But if he can limit them and the defense can hold accordingly it should make for a good game. It should be a tight game throughout, but Manning has proven invincible in the 4th quarter this season. Colts by 10.