On Sunday, the 9-0 Colts will travel to the city that basically forced them out... Baltimore, Maryland, to face the 5-4 Baltimore Ravens at M &T Bank Staduim. The last time these two teams faced off Indianapolis jumped out to a 24-0 lead and coasted to a 31-3 victory on Oct. 12, 2008. The Colts have won the last 6 meetings between these teams and have a 7-2 edge over the Ravens including the playoffs. After the jump I will talk about the things to keep your eye on and the things that could make or break this game.
The Colts are undefeated, but over the past 3 weeks have been faced with some tough situations. First the 49ers gave the Colts a scare, but thanks to a Joeseph Addai TD pass to Reggie Wayne, the Colts came out victorious. The Texans, who have emerged as one of the better teams in the AFC, had a chance to take the Colts to overtime, but thanks to a field goal shanked wide left, the Colts won that one. And last week the Colts were dominated by the Patriots much of the game, but they pulled it together in the 4th quarter and overcame a 17 point deficet to beat the Patriots 35-34. So needless to say, the Colts have had a litte luck over the past few weeks.
Keep your eye on the Peyton Manning, Ray Lewis battle. Lewis is one of the best LB's to ever play the game. Lewis is known to have one of the best defensive minds in the league, and Peyton has one of the best offensive minds the league has ever seen. Who ever can win the chess match, will more than likely win the game. Fortunatly for Manning the Ravens are going to be without their best pass rusher, Tarrel Suggs, due to leg injury he sustained in Monday nights game agaisnt the Cleveland Browns.
Watch the running game of both teams. The Colts are ranked near the bottom of the pack when it come to running the football. They are effective enough to open up their play-action pass, however, Joesph Addai has been running harder and hitting holes better in recent games than Colts fans are use to so look for the Colts to try to get the run game going early. In the Ravens backfield you have the dangerous Ray Rice. The Colts are ranked 14th in rush defense and have had problems containing the leagues elite backs such and Stephen Jackson, Ronnie Brown, and Maurice Jones-Drew. If the Ravens can establish the run it will open up the passing game for the young QB Joe Flacco.
Not only is this a home coming of such for the Colts, but also for Colts newly acquired kicker Matt Stover. The Ravens released Stover at the begining of the season because of his age and his leg strength. Stover has had trouble with fieldgoals outside of 40 yards and his kickoffs were dying at the 15 yard line. The Colts picked him up when kicker Adam Veneteri had a second surgury on his hip. Colts punter Pat McAffey has been handling kickoff duties.
I expect this to be a hard fought game by both teams, but I just don't see anyway the Ravens can win this game. Their defense has been struggling and the loss of Suggs doesn't help. I expect the Colts to get a comfortable win and move to 10-0
Prediction: Colts 35-Ravens 21
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