Bill Simmons says the 2011 Ravens have a "tough schedule"

**RavensNTerps** · 09-09-2011, 07:58 AM

You know i've seen a lot of people jump on the Browns and trash the bengals as the worst team in the NFL. I think when all is said and done, the Bengals will be like 6-10 or so and the browns will be worse. What do people see in that team?

**bacchys** · 09-09-2011, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

He has stats better than Flacco.

His praise, just like Flacco, is well deserved.

If his stats were better than Flacco's, why was Flacco's QB rating last year higher than his?

**wickedsolo** · 09-10-2011, 12:31 AM

11 out of 16 games are against teams who had a sub .500 record last season (This is counting the Bengals & Browns twice).

Obviously, any team can turn it around in a year and I'd expect teams like the Browns, Rams, and Cardinals to not be push overs out there on the field, but the reality is that they were a bad team last year and we've done a good job at beating the teams we're supposed to beat.

If we win against all of those, at the very least, that's a 11-5 season. Toss in the fact that those other five games are against the Jets (at M&T), Steelers (1 & 1), Colts (at M&T, prob without Peyton), and the Chargers (at San Diego).

I'm sorry, but I think we'll split with the Steelers, beat the Jets, and beat the Peyton-less Colts. That puts us at 14-2. I'm unsure about the Chargers game at this point, so I'll going into it for now thinking that it could be a loss considering it's in San Diego and it seems like those guys are due every season. However, we could just as easily win.

I'm not trying to drink a ton of purple kool aid fellas, but I really think that there could be a decent chance for a 14-2 or maybe even a 15-1 season with our 1 and only loss being to the Steelers.

**sailorsam** · 09-10-2011, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

Fair enough.

I had remembered Ryan having the better rating but that was wrong as well.

I still stand by the notion that Ryan deserves the praise he receives, which was my overall point.

I remember their rookie seasons; all year it was ryan ryan ryan, oh and Flacco too; then they lost their first playoff game and we won, and for a few weeks it was Flacco Flacco Flacco.

Joe has won 3 (road) playoff games; has Ryan won any?

note to Solo; history indicates somebody (Chargers, Jets, Seahawks) will trip us up.

**Jeremiah W** · 09-10-2011, 05:00 PM

Originally Posted by sailorsam

I remember their rookie seasons; all year it was ryan ryan ryan, oh and Flacco too; then they lost their first playoff game and we won, and for a few weeks it was Flacco Flacco Flacco.

Joe has won 3 (road) playoff games; has Ryan won any?

note to Solo; history indicates somebody (Chargers, Jets, Seahawks) will trip us up.

Joe has 4 road playoff wins under his belt.
at Mia
at #1 seed Tenn

at NE (who had never lost there)

at KC

3 Ls at Pittsy twice and at Indy.

Ryan is 0-2 in the playoffs.

Matty Ice is clearly a very good young QB, but I just do not see what people see in him that makes him any better than Flacco. When the stats are about equall the tie breaker usually goes to playoff wins, but for some reason most people go to intangables when ranking Ryan over Joe.

**bacchys** · 09-10-2011, 05:22 PM

I don't go to play-off wins as a tiebreaker. QB's don't win games, they don't lose games. Teams do those things. Teams win Super Bowls. Tom Brady isn't a better QB over his career than Peyton Manning because he has two more rings. He's a better QB because he's shown a greater adaptability to differing circumstances.

Deciding whether Flacco or Ryan is better is a fool's question, imo. Statistically, they're pretty much a dead heat. Ryan's played behind a better pass blocking o-line than Flacco, and he's had more weapons. He seems to have a better command of the offense than Joe. But "seems" isn't exactly a hard word. Ryan perhaps "seems" that way because he generally has more time to throw and has had more weapons to work with than Joe over the same period. The team philosophy is different. The Falcons don't think "run/defense/pass." They think "pass/run/defense?"

**Dade** · 09-10-2011, 08:17 PM

Simmons is a clown and Boston homer. I will give him credit he knows his basketball. But in other sports if its outside of Boston he doesn't know anything.