Fantastic job on the Incognito piece, Ty. Really well done. I share your sentiment. Thanks for sharing the last bit at the end, too.

-DD

Using pictures of Raiders fans for your article on ugly NFL fans is probably the most irresponsible use of fan pics I've ever witnessed. Way to perpetuate a completely ridiculous and false stereotype.

Well, for once, you didn't give an extremely garbage prediction for why the Ravens would lose, and I commend you for that. I don't think the teams are matched well defensively at all, as the Ravens have a clear cut advantage. It'll be almost like can the Ravens defense contain the Packers offense and can the Ravens do enough to move the ball against the Packers defense? Both Marlon Brown and Jacoby Jones should hopefully be back this week, and that would be a huge boost to Joe Flacco.
We'll see.

Wait, scratch my record of 1-4. I was right about the Broncos and Browns game. I'm 2-3, like you.

Well, I'm 1-4 for predicting the Ravens games, but after you predicting them to go 0-5, they're 3-2. Joe Flacco had a decent game, even without Jacoby Jones, Marlon Brown, or Brandon Stokely. He was basically just throwing to Rice and Smith in terms of proven targets. I wasn't all around happy with the play of the Ravens, but they won and you have yet to predict them to win.
When you do predict them to win, if you do, can you do me a huge favor? Can you put in at the end something along the lines of, "There you go Phil Grimes."
Remember, this is not meant to be taken as rude or like I'm trying to bash you. I'm trying to poke a little fun here with you since you have yet to predict the Ravens to win, and sadly, you're doing better with your game predictions for the Ravens than I am...

Believe it or not, I'm doing pretty poorly for my Ravens predictions. I'm 1-3, which is a step down from me going 12-4 last year.
I think being right or wrong is a complete crapshoot every single week. Any given Sunday, right?
I'm not doing anything to be malicious or rude, and I hope you don't take it that way, but I'm almost seeing this developing into somewhat of a joke.
It's not often that I actually get to talk to people who go against the Ravens as most of my time is spent in the Ravens section and on BaltimoreRavens.com, so I'm enjoying this.
Again, not meant to be rude or malicious, but more as a friendly back and forth.
We'll see how this week goes. I'm hopeful the Ravens can win with the return of Jacoby Jones and the upgrade of Eugene Monroe, but we'll see, eh?
I'm sure I'll be back on here and do look forward to seeing your replies.
Phil

Phil--

Flacco played horribly and the Ravens lost. I pick games one at a time. After four games, I'm doing as well as anyone in the national media (http://www.sportsmediamonitor.com/article/2013-nfl-week-4-expert-pick-results). I get one or two short sentences to explain my picks.

Again: if I'm wrong, that reflects on me. If I'm right, well...

Thanks,
Ty

That's 0-5. You saying you're not a hater is starting to fade again.
However, I wanna know how Joe Flacco is who you thought he is. Were Drew Brees and Matt Ryan marginal quarterbacks when they threw five interceptions? Even Hall of Fame quarterbacks have done it. Plus, this is only the second time in 97 games that he has thrown four or more interceptions. We can hardly say he is who we thought he is, especially when you consider before this, he had never thrown more than 12 interceptions in a season. Also, two of those interceptions were off the hands of his tight ends, so hardly his fault on those.
Then, you have to consider after games in which he threw 3 or more interceptions, he's 3-0 with a 123 passer rating. That's hardly something to scoff at. I think last year marked the first time that Joe Flacco had ever lost back to back games, which, again, is hardly something to scoff at.
Then, you have to consider that Flacco is playing with a rookie undrafted free agent as a starting wide receiver, his starting tight end has dropped six passes, and that number is highly debatable. According to PFF, which I know you like, Ed Dickson has dropped 53% of catchable passes. He also has the 11th worst pass blocking offensive line in the NFL, a line that has surrendered the sixth most quarterback hurries. The same offensive line is also third worst in run blocking, and the run game has been one of the worst in the business. So, let's recap- He has one of the worst overall offensive lines in the NFL, two running backs who can't even manage more than 60 yards a game, an unproven rookie receiver, and a starting tight end who drops more than 50% of his catchable passes. I hardly think we can put that on Joe Flacco when you consider how little he has to work with. The only thing that I find truly sad is that the Dolphins linebackers are awful in coverage and Flacco won't be able to exploit that because Dickson can't catch.
Now, I don't think the Ravens will win, in all honesty, but again, your reasoning isn't good.
Expect me to educate you a little bit each time you make a bad reason for the Ravens loss because you really do seem like a Flacco/Ravens hater.

Okay, probably could have gone about saying that a different way. Been a frustrating week, and I took stress out on you. I apologize. I took down the comment because it was rude.
However, I will say this: Even if you do pick them to lose every week, I'm fine with that, but it seems your reasons for picking them to lose are just lazy attempts at logic, or lack thereof. That's why I think you hate them.
For example, you said you think they'd lose if they didn't have Rice. Rice has averaged less yards per rush than Pierce and was non-existant for the most part in two games. On top of that, the Bills have the 30th ranked defense against the run. If Balil Powell, or what ever his name is, can do it against the Bills, I see no reason why Pierce cannot.
Oh trust me, I know you wrote all about that. I don't see why you wouldn't believe in Flacco. Now, if you didn't want to believe in that offense with it's limited receiving threats and weapons, I'd understand a little more. I'm also a little bit confused about the defense. I think that they will go through growing pains, but holding teams to 15 combined points, all of field goals, in eight quarters is pretty hard. Add on the fact that they returned a touchdown on defense, and I don't see what's wrong with it.
I also have to wonder how offseason predictions wouldn't match-up with your weekly predictions. I understand that some teams come out of nowhere(Chiefs), but to an extent, shouldn't you have an idea of what the breakout teams will be.
I'm not going to stop reading any of the works you all write, but a lot of the times, they seem awfully biased or like they have little work put into them. Maybe that's just part of trying to cover the entire NFL. I don't know, I don't do that when I blog.
And it's not frustrating to watch you pick against the Ravens. I have a website and I do weekly previews for the Ravens games where I go full in depth and create a score prediction. If I were right, they'd be 1-2 right now about to go 2-2. I understand picking a team to lose.

Phil, I don't hate the Ravens. I don't "hate" any team. I don't even not-like any team. I'm a lifelong Lions fan with absolutely no motivation to care about the Ravens more or less than any other team.

I've written all offseason about how I'm more bearish on the Ravens than most, because I'm not crazy about Flacco or the offense, and the re-vamped defense will go through growing pains. You're welcome to re-read any of that.

I'm not synching my week-to-week picks with my pre-season projections, for a million reasons, and nobody else does either.

I understand it's frustrating to disagree with an analyst about your favorite team, but that's all that's happening here. If I pick the Ravens to lose every single game (I won't) and they win every single game (they won't), that hurts me a lot more than it hurts the Ravens.

Thanks for reading.