Baltimore Sports Post

The Ravens take on their bitter Rival Steelers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh tonight at 8:30 on ESPN.  It’s typically an entertaining week of banter between the players and articles in the local papers that also fuel the rivalry.  This year the players on the both sides have been conspiculously quiet, probably on orders from their young coaches who are still new to the rivalry.  There was a small incident where rookie running back Rashard Mendenhall sent a text message to his buddy and Ravens rookie running back Ray Rice saying that he thought he’d would have a big game in his first start against the Ravens top ranked defense.  Rice passed on the message to some of his fellow defensive teammates which only adds to the fun expected tonight. 

The four most recent games of the rivalry have ended with three blowouts, but the games over the past eight or nine years have typically been close physical games decided towards the end of the game regardless of each teams individual records.  In Las Vegas the linesmakers opened the lines at -8 Pittsburgh, but that line has moved to -5 Pittsburgh probably due to the injuries on the Steelers side.  I expect the game will be closer than that with neither team winning by more than a field goal.  My official prediction is 23-20, Ravens win. 

The Ravens and Texans game originally scheduled for Sunday September 14th in Houston will be moved to Sunday November 9th in Houston.  The NFL could have planned ahead of time having the Texans practice in another city before Hurricane Ike made landfall, but having not taken action earlier the NFL chose to rearrange the schedules of the Ravens, Texans and Bengals which was probably all they could do on short notice. 

It feels like from a football standpoint that the Ravens are getting the short end of the stick on this bye swapping deal.  They now have a 5 out of 6 game stretch on the road during weeks 6-11, they lose out on being able to prepare for a team for two weeks, and the swap gave one of their division rivals a better bye week.  On the bright side the Ravens had a ton of injuries coming out of camp meaning that a week off now will make the Ravens full strength sooner and if the Ravens manage to stay at or around .500 by week 11 they could be in a pretty good situation to make a push with 4 out of 6 games at home to close the season.

I guess enough people called and/or complained about the Ravens and Texans game not being available on Monday night, because the NFL has changed their position on making the game available.  I called DirecTV twice the past few days and have been told each time that the game would not be available until the day following on channel 717 unless otherwise allowed by the NFL.  The reason I was given was because ESPN has exclusive rights to broadcast football games on Monday night, so I suppose ESPN gave NFL the OK to allow the game to be available to Sunday Ticket package subscribers.  Tonight DirecTV sent out a distribution email to Sunday Ticket subscribers letting us know that the game would be available which validates the reports by profootballtalk.com that the NFL has changed their mind.  Here is a snippet from the email I received from DirecTV:

NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ UPDATE: BALTIMORE VS. HOUSTON GAME RESCHEDULED

Due to Hurricane Ike, which is expected to impact the Gulf Coast of Texas this weekend, the NFL has rescheduled the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans for Monday, September 15. As an NFL SUNDAY TICKET™ subscriber, you will be able to watch the game live on Monday night.

Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans
Monday, September 15
8:30 PM ET
Channel 717
Channel 717-1 (HD) 

Due to ESPN’s exclusivity agreement with the NFL, the rescheduled Ravens and Texans game on Monday in Houston will not be available to those with DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket package.   The game will only be viewable on CBS in the primary and secondary markets of the Ravens and Texans.  The rest of the country will however be able to watch the Eagles and Cowboys on ESPN.  To voice your displeasure with this exclusivity agreement or plead with ESPN to waive it, you can fill out this online form here.

The NFL has officially announced that the Ravens and Texans game scheduled for Sunday at 4:15 in Houston has been moved to Monday night at 8:30 as rumors previously suggested.  The NFL has also left the door open for further changes to the scheduled game depending on the situation in Houston after Hurricane Ike has moved through.  The game will be broadcast in the Ravens and Texans primary and secondary markets on CBS, not nationally like regularly scheduled Monday night games. 

Current speculation is that one of the NFL’s backup plans if there are problems in Houston on Monday is to shuffle the Ravens, Texans and Bengals bye weeks to accommodate the Ravens and Texans game being rescheduled for the Ravens bye week. The Bengals and Texans have the same bye week (week 8) and they also have a head to head match-up scheduled for week 10 (the Ravens bye week) which conveniently lines up the possible three team swap. 

Here is how it would work:

1. The Texans and Ravens byes would be declared for week 2.
2. The Texans and Bengals game would be moved up to week 8 which is both teams bye week.
3. The Ravens and Texans game would be rescheduled for week 10.
4. The Bengals would inherit the Ravens week 10 bye.

Rumors are swirling that because of Hurricane Ike the NFL will move the Texans and Ravens game scheduled for 4:15pm in Houston on Sunday to Monday evening in Houston.  There were rumors of the game moving to Austin, TX, New Orleans, San Antonio, Atlanta and even Baltimore, but it appears that the NFL has settled on keeping the game in Houston and hoping that conditions are safe enough by Monday evening for them to play the game at Reliant Stadium.  The NFL is expected to make an announcement of their plans at 4pm today.

The Baltimore Ravens prospects looked bleak going into week one with rookies starting at QB and RB and many defensive starters still nursing injuries.  The Ravens managed to get all of their defensive starters except DT Kelly Gregg healthy enough to start the game, and then they took matters into their own hands by smothering the high powered Bengals offense en route to a 17-10 victory.  The Bengals offense only managed 154 total yards and put 3 points on the board (the other TD was scored on a fumble return by their defense).  Cam Cameron was forced to call a conservative game to protect his young backfield, but he was able to do enough in cranking up the running game for over 200 yards rushing and pulling out some of his tricks at the right time which produced a 42 TD yard on a reverse by Mark Clayton.  The Ravens other offensive touchdown was scored on a 38 yard run by Flacco on what appeared to be a broken play.  Flacco, the Ravens rookie QB didn’t have it easy in his debut, but he had no turnovers and was able to extend some drives with some clutch throws.