Letter to the Raven fans

Dear Ravens fan,

As a member of the bandwagon these past few years, I've thoroughly enjoyed the playoff rides, even if you didn't get to the big dance. Club 29 was rockin and rollin. Like Bill Clinton would have said, I felt your pain this year as you played the Pats basically even this past year. You made Tom Brady look normal and I really would have liked to see what would have happened if the the game went to overtime. Having said that, a couple of things:

•  Member of the bandwagon aside, in my humble opinion, Lee Evans did not make that catch. Having said that, however, that play still should have been reviewed more thoroughly by the replay booth. The league indicated that they did look at it and upheld the call made on the field. Then I remembered that the game was in Foxboro. That bit of (almost) hate came from my picker side for losing my pick of this game.

• Based on his performance this past week, I am convinced that you can win a Super Bowl with Joe Flacco as your QB. He actually outplayed Brady on the way to a 300yd., 2TD performance. He was not responsible for the loss. Him and Rice should be the top signing priorities for this off-season.

• Draft the best kicker avaiable in this year's draft. I almost want to say to get him in the first round. I get that Cundiff (who actually was the 9th best kicker this past regular season) was rushed out there to kick it, but it was only a 32 yard kick. Today's kickers are generally automatic from 40 yds. and in. The Raiders may be a .500 team, but they do have a top five kicker who made seven out of ten field goals from 50 yards or further this year.

• Pour some water in your glass. You were the #2 seed in this year's playoff on the way to a 13-5 season, which included a undefeated home season. You also spanked the Steelers twice this year and had quality wins over the Texans (twice), Jets and the 49ers.

• I hope future Hall-of-Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed come back. I did read that Ray-Ray is coming back. Just one more year.

I know that in some ways none of this stuff means squat to you. But like I told my boyz, it could be worse: you could be a Redskins fan.

Here we go...

It's Championship Sunday in the NFL. Here are my picks.

In the first game, it's the Baltimore Ravens traveling to Foxboro to play the Pats. Most of the talk this week has been about future Hall of Famer Ed Reed calling out his quarterback, Joe Flacco. This has been a ongoing thing since he came into the league four years ago. While he has won 40+ regular season games and will be playing in his third conference title game, he feels that he hasn't gotten the props that he feels he deserves. As a member of the Raven bandwagon, here is my take: Joe has shown a thin skin in griping about his perceived lack of respect. In either case, there is a simple solution to get respect: play better in the big games. For the record, he has completed 53% of his passes (112-211) with 6TD's and seven picks in the playoffs. Eh. To be honest, just a performance like his win last week over the Texans (14-27, 2TD's and no picks) would be OK. It doesn't help that he has been seen skateboarding in his neighborhood.

Joe has to understand that the Ravens are known (and have been successful) because of their defense. It will be even more important this week as the birds will be facing a QBWAA (quarterback with an attitude) in Tom Brady. To make this plain, Brady will need to be pressured, hurried and popped in the mouth (not literally). Otherwise, it is going to be a long day dealing with both of those tight ends. But, with a lot of Rice/Williams (25-30 carries) and the usual defensive effort, it should be enough.

The nightcap will be the 49ers hosting the Giants, who come to the West Coast with a lot of swag, as this generation says. They manhandled the Falcons and made the Packers look like a middle of the road team in Lambeau. Eli Manning has received his elite QB card and they have been a Tom Coughlin offence that just matriculates the football down the field like Hank Stram. The D-line has really made the secondary look like world beaters.

On the other hand, this is a different 49ers team. This is a team that is well coached, make few mistakes offensively and who will not be run on. They believe in themselves like Ray Charles. The Giants main problem is how they are going to slow down tight end (and DC native) Vernon Davis. And if they get their running game going, as George Clinton would say, double oh-oh. By the way, they got a pretty good D-line themselves.

While I usually go with the team that is riding the Mo Train, not this year. Picking the 49ers.

That's right...it's the Harbaugh bowl.

My Playoff record this year: 5-3.

All Aboard...

If there is any train you want to be on at this time of the year in the NFL, it's the "Mo" train, as in momentum. Last year's passengers, the Green Bay Packers, rode this train all the way to last year's title. The obvious question for this year is who is this year's candidate?

 

You actually have a couple of candidates for this playoff season. One team is the New York Giants, who have gotten healthy at the right time. You can't count them out in part because of their ferocious D-Line. Their receiver corps have also shown up and, well, Eli has shown up. If the G-Men win the Super Bowl, the Manning legacy might have to be reviewed. Since their loss to the Skins a month ago, they have scored an average of 28 points a game.

 

Another team that you have to look at is the Broncos. I know they backed into the playoffs, but while they may not be on the Mo train, they are on the Tebow train. Rockin an 8-4 record as the starter, Tim Terrific has continued to ball. The Steelers dared him to throw on them and well, he did. Paraphrasing the rap line, "...love him, hate him, but you can't ignore him." Do so at your own peril.

 

My personal candidate for who has been on the Mo train is the team that has been on board since Halloween: The New Orleans Saints. They have won nine in a row since their stinker in Nelly's town and has scored 40+ points in five of those games. This offence has been puttin in big work like Wee Bay from the Wire. Watchin them is like what the Geico pig Max says: Pure adrenaline. I got just one phrase for this team -- Whootie Who!

 

As I make my picks for this weekend, be reminded that BreezyG went a perfect 4-0 last week. I hope to keep the beat going by picking:

 

New Orleans - The show continues as da Saints will win their first road playoff game.

Denver - I know it's Belichek, the odds are against the Broncos and they are in Foxboro....but I'm on board

Ravens - I know that I'm on the bandwagon, but I got to say it: it's Rice or bust.

Packers: Everybodys back healthy, rested and at home. The beat will go on like the Whispers.

Leadership...or the lack of

As a famous CEO once (or more than once) said, "What we have here is a crisis in leadership.". This statement easily applies to the current state of affairs in the sports world.

One example of this comes from the New York Jets, who's season imploded from the inside out due to, in part, leadership issues. Their selected captain, Santonio Holmes, basically took his ball and went home. It started with him halfheartedly attending the qb/wr skull sessions during the week that QB Mark Sanchez tried to set up and ended in the season finale where his own linemen told him to get off the field if he wasn't going to give a sincere effort. Come to find out (from their 3rd string quarterback Greg McElroy of all people), that he had that selfish attitude all year long when he didn't see the ball.

This crisis didn't come just from him. Head Coach Rex Ryan and Bart "Can't Wait" Scott were both fined for giving the flying finger of salute to the public when frustrated. Just looking at this team reminds me of the classic Al Heig question, "Who's in charge?"

In the NBA, my own Washington Wizards have this problem. For the last two years, guard John Wall has been the captain. Only problem is that he doesn't know how to lead. With the Wiz terrible 0-6 start, you now see Wall, who only lost three games in his one season at Kentucky, sulking on the court and talking about "not having fun" playing basketball. What made this worse was teammate Andray Blatche, a 6-11 46% career shooter who never met a jump shot that he didn't like, taking the mic opening night proclaiming that he in fact was the captain. He then promptly went out and had a 5-13 night in a loss to the Nets. No surprise that the Wiz held their first first players only meeting this year. It was organized by Mo Evans, a player who has yet to play a game this year.
 

Situations like this show just how important it is to get the leadership thing right. Whether it's by example (see Michael Jordon), by motivation/inspiration (see Ray Lewis) or from the top (see Gibbs I), most successful teams get it.

 

My picks this weekend: Houston (the Bengals were tempting), Saints, Giants and to keep my Raven bandwagon ticket validated, Denver.