BAL @ KC

[jonzr]

Yeah, I was suffering from a serious case of wishful-thinking.  Prior to Sat I didn't really care who won this matchup, but after the Colts blew it I was pulling for the Chefs.

Still don't know how I feel about yet another matchup with the Ravens.  You play a team enough times and anything can happen.  Plus, what will be left of the winner after teh lead pipes and other bludgeons are put away?  At least there's one extra day to sit in the ice bath and sleep in the hyperbaric chamber.

[Finnegans Wake]

I remain less than impressed by how the BRO has looked.  KCD somehow "lost track" of Heap and Rice, often, doubt the PSD duplicates that myopia.

Margin of victory in the Fucko v. Ben era has been low.

2010: BAL 17-14 (no Ben), PIT 13-10.
2009: BAL 20-17, PIT 20-17.
2008: PIT 23-20, PIT 13-9, PIT 23-14.

That's a lot of 3-point margins, obviously. 

Just seems to me that we're trending up, Ravens down.  Based more on offense.  I'm going to dig at the game stats a bit more, but I like my previous prediction for this game.

[aj_law]

Totally missed this one because of the wife's overwhelming urge to go to Costco (wtf?) for a new kitchen table.

By all accounts, seemed like KC was a kinda overmatched, but keeping it close until the turnovers started and it completely snowballed.  Dunno how Bowe was completely shutdown as Balty's pass defense is OK, but not great.  There's nobody on that squad that has Revis~like talent to shut somebody down.  And, besides Charles' long TD scamper, what did TJ accomplish?  Don't think I've heard his name mentioned once in recap shows.

Eh, whatever.

Bring on the Rat Turds.

[Finnegans Wake]

In my playoff writeup, I said the Ravens would be able to shut down the KCO running game, and since Bowe's the only viable WR they'd shut him down, too.  What was interesting to me was the success KC had running in the 1H, it really took them a while to clamp down on Charles (and Jones).  I mean, FFS, the Chiefs sign Kevin Curtis about a week ago and he's a starter?  They're desperate for WR talent.  Cassel completes 9 passes for 70 yards... the entire game.  Leading receiver is Dexter McCluster, recipient of 4 snags, 17 yards, all dumpers.  An offense that one dimensional is meat against a defense the caliber of the BRD.  Or PSD.  The only team they might have beaten was the Saints, if they could find a receiver to get past Roman Harper.

Seems that, without actually bothering to look up the game breakdowns, the Ravens did a lot of this dumb shit, letting lesser teams hang around until late.  Sounds familiar, because it's basically our blueprint, but wasn't Boldin brought in to help that offense score early?  Fucko got the ball to Boldin 5 times, yay for Uni, but it seems to me like he misses a lot of opportunities that a better QB wouldn't.  Also, he has absolutely zero fucking sense of pressure.  The great QBs have that sixth sense, but Hali had a real nice game against him. 

Anyhow, PF-PA for Ravens and Steelers last 3 seasons:

2010:  BR: 357-270; PS: 347-223
2009:  BR: 391-261; PS: 368-324
2008:  BR: 385-244; PS: 375-232

Off those numbers, we see how much the Troy/Smith injuries killed our D last year, but also that when we have some productivity from Troy that we're at a mean PA of ~228 -- BRD meanwhile is seeing their PA slip away year by year in what looks like a consistent trend.  Meanwhile, PSO obviously missed Ben early on this year.  And the addition of Boldin sees the BRO dropping 31 points from its previous 2 seasons' average.  Yeah, that last stat is a real WTF kinda thing. 

Anyway, you didn't miss much of a game, once the Ravens woke up.  Chiefs were just terrible.