Week 8: Arizona Cardinals at Baltimore Ravens

ARIZONA CARDINALS @ BALTIMORE RAVENS
Vegas Line: Cardinals + 12.5

Rob’s Line: Cardinals + 10.5

All I can say after the disaster that was Baltimore’s offense on Monday night in Jacksonville is Heaven help Arizona this week. They travel to a city probably still in football shock to face a team who are going to be fired up to the hilt. The all-conquering defense avoided the flak in the fallout from that 12-7 defeat, but they remain the heart and soul of this team and also the voice and Cardinals quarterback Kevin Kolb should be calling on his faith right up until kickoff…and beyond if truth be told.

When looking at betting handicaps/spreads and how teams react to defeat, you look at playoff calibre teams a whole lot differently than those in the cellar, purely because angry talent is far more dangerous than a team who are just angry with little talent. And Baltimore fall into the former category.
I’m tempted to say that those teams remaining on Baltimore’s schedule can all learn a thing or two from Monday, but there’s surely no way that the Ravens’ offense can stink as much as it did last week They didn’t gain a single first down until 5:26 to go in the THIRD quarter and quarterback Joe Flacco (and this is serious stuff, so please, no laughing at the back of the class) had just 1 yard passing in the first half. A team with aspirations of representing the AFC in the Super Bowl had 1 whole passing yard in the first half against a team with a 1-5 record.
I’ve written previously that this team reminds me of the Ravens of 2000, whose defense, marshalled by the indomitable Ray Lewis, had teams literally running scared that season and this was no better evidenced than when they dominated Super Bowl XXXV, seeing off the New York Giants 34-7. However, for all of the flak Trent Dilfer, the quarterback of that team, received for always doing just enough to get the team through games, he was at least a leader…in my opinion.
Flacco has had question marks following him around ever since being drafted 18th overall in the first round in 2008 and his cause hasn’t been helped by the fact that he plays in the same conference as Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, who’ve all won Super Bowls, too. Flacco will never break into that elite quarterback class, highlighted by his performance on Monday, something you’d never have witnessed from any of the aforementioned elite QBs.
I really don’t like calling anybody out for playing poorly in what is an amazingly tough sport, but Flacco would be the first to acknowledge that what we’ve just seen was terrible. And he won’t get any worse than that this season (will he???), which does mean that, as can often happen in sport, the loss to the Jags may turn out to be better for Baltimore in the long run.
The Ravens know they simply have to bounce back this week and I’m absolutely certain they will, but after this week they have bigger fish to fry…well, their biggest fish before it comes to playing in January. Once they dispense with Arizona, they travel to Pittsburgh for a matchup that has more at stake than just reputation, although when it comes to clashes between those two, reputation is arguably the most important factor. Throw in AFC North supremacy, the fight for a home playoff game and, as part of that, possible playoff tiebreak implications and you have one of the can’t-miss-mustn’t-miss Sunday night primetime showdowns of the season.
This has been all about Baltimore and I think rightly so after Jacksonville. However, there are two teams to consider this Sunday and I do actually rate the Cardinals slightly better than Vegas do and, despite the fact that I can’t see past the Ravens bouncing back, I’m wary of asking them to win by 13. Yes, if you look at it, would it be a major surprise if Baltimore were to win 28-10? Of course not, but I don’t like placing money on teams to win by almost two touchdowns, unless you’re Green Bay, New England or perhaps New Orleans and that’s only when the Saints are at home.
Chris ‘Beanie’ Wells expects to start at running back for Arizona after he left the defeat to Pittsburgh early last week and if he doesn’t suit up, it places further emphasis on the shaky Kolb to gain yards through the air. I know that I’m taking a huge leap of faith on this, but will stick to my betting principles in not asking a team lacking an elite offense to cover by almost two touchdowns so, with deep reservations, I take the Cardinals with the points.