Time to find out if this is what you really wanted
MIKE BURKE
Allegany Radio Corporation Sports
Baltimore Ravens fans wanted the New England Patriots to lose last week during the final week of the #NFLTheTVShow regular season (Okay, everybody wants New England to lose every week). So New England lost last week.
Ravens fans wanted New England to lose Saturday night in the wild-card round of the playoffs. New England lost Saturday night in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Thus, this coming Saturday, the Ravens, the top seed in the AFC, are playing the lowest seed in AFC, the Tennessee Titans, the last AFC team to make the playoffs, the team that eliminated New England, and currently the hottest team in professional football other than, perhaps, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Ravens themselves.
Are Ravens fans about to experience Be Careful What You Wish For? In the immortal words of my dear, sainted mother (you know how we Irish are about our mothers), “We shall see.”
But … this is what all of the Ravens fans’ wishes coming true has brought about:
— The Patriots are done. Out. Gone. Pfffft. Out of our hair and, yes, that, bottom line, is what every decent, physically clean person who is good to his mother and is in favor of world peace wanted. I get it. Eventually, I wanted it, too.
Yet prior to the Pats’ walk to the gallows, they had to play in the opening round of the playoffs, while the Kansas City Chiefs did not, since the New England loss to end the regular season enabled Kansas City to receive the second bye of the AFC tournament.
The Ravens may be the Super Bowl favorite (+210, which means a $210 profit on a $100 bet), but until they show they can beat the Chiefs (the No. 3 favorite behind San Francisco at +350), which they have not been able to do the past two tries, that looms as the potential match-up Baltimore would desire the least.
Ideally, New England would not have somehow lost to lowly Miami in the final week to hold on to the No. 2 seed, which would have forced Kansas City to play in the opening round rather than have a needed week off as well as the No. 2 seed, because the Ravens have shown the past decade, they match up far better with New England.
— Next, with New England’s opening-round loss to Tennessee, Kansas City now gets the Houston Texans this week, a team the Ravens destroyed in the regular season and the team that beat the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card game. And, truthfully, if you watched Buffalo-Houston on Saturday, you have to admit it was a shame somebody had to win that game.
Either one of those teams would have been a better match-up for the Ravens.
— That leaves the Ravens with Tennessee this Saturday night, and the good things here are clear: Tennessee is the lowest seed and Baltimore is the top seed. Plus, Tennessee is the only team in the field that has yet to play the Ravens, so the Titans have yet to be on the field with Baltimore’s overall team speed and innovative schemes.
The pause for concern is the Titans’ running game is the best running game going right now, other than, of course, the Ravens’, which is the best in football by far.
The good news there is the Titans do not defend the run well. The bad news is, neither do the Ravens, and with Derrick Henry running like Jim Brown these days, the Baltimore front seven, which is not a physical front seven, will have its hands full.
Nor do the Ravens defend the deep pass very well, but the Titans have yet to show they possess a deep game, so that appears to be a win for Baltimore as well.
The Titans could be dicey in the beginning for the Ravens, but form should still prevail. It just depends on how Baltimore — the city, which will be wired, and the team — approaches this game as the heavy favorite.
Down the road, however (and not to kick them while they’re down), the Patriots would have been the most comfortable match-up for the Ravens to get to the Super Bowl through.
About those Pats …
As we’ve seen, it was clearly understandable the Patriots took the flyer that they did on Antonio Brown this season, because other than Julian Edelman, Tom Brady had very little to work with this season.
In a nutshell, though, even without Brown, we all saw by his absence how truly great of a football player Rob Gronkowski was. When all else failed, he was Brady’s ultimate safety valve. He made a lot of messes disappear, and the Patriots were never able to fill even a little of the void that was left by his retirement.
Cry not, however, for the Patriots. You haven’t made very much money the past decade betting against them. Thus, leave it to Bill Belichick the general manager to come up with something for Bill Belichick the coach to work with next year, with or without Tom Brady
Although, don’t believe Brady will not be playing in New England next year until you don’t see it. He let the cat out of the bag Saturday night with the it is “very unlikely” he will retire, making it seem like a sure thing he’ll be playing next year. But for whom? Bet it will be for New England.
And …
The Seattle Seahawks bringing in running back Marshawn Lynch at the end of the season for its playoff run is the equivalent of a baseball team bringing in Delmon Young for October. In other words, it’s a really smart thing to do, because both have always delivered when it matters the most.
Seattle just has to remember to let Lynch touch the ball when it matters the most.
Overtime … What good is it?
In light of Minnesota’s 26-20 win over New Orleans on Sunday night, it’s time for a do-over on the NFL overtime period. Granted, they did do away with the complete concept of sudden death, which was always foolish to begin with, but it’s time to give a team the chance to tie the score after the team with the first possession scores a touchdown.
Yes, the second-possession team gets a chance to win if the first-possession team kicks a field goal, but it just doesn’t seem logical that a team doesn’t get a chance to even touch the ball if it‘s behind by a touchdown, particularly in a playoff game.
Just give each team the same number of possessions in overtime, particularly given how the game itself is so geared to be offense-friendly.
For once, the NFL should at least pretend this is really more than a TV show.
And did the Saints get jobbed again with another non-call on pass interference on the game’s final play Sunday night? We’ve seen worse, but we’ve also seen far less that’s been called. But why have replay of pass interference if it’s defiantly never (or rarely) overturned? To cover their arse, that’s why?
Or how about the helmet to helmet contact Seattle’s Jadeveon Clowney made on Carson Wentz on Sunday, knocking the Philadelphia quarterback out of the game? The NFL ruled it wasn’t intentional and it didn’t appear to be. But how many other times have we seen it called when it didn’t seem intentional?
It just seems the NFL, with all of its liability concerns (making them no different than any other multi-billion dollar corporation) has put its officials to clearly on the spot. Officials need more of a black and white to work with if all of this jawboning (thank you, Tony C.) is to be avoided each week.
Or, they just need to let players play, which is what appears to be happening through the first week of the playoffs.
Mike Burke writes about sports for Allegany Radio and Pikewood Digital. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s County Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984. He was the sports editor of the Times-News for nearly 30 years. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeBurkeMDT