Scouting the Baltimore Ravens
And so we are here again, the tough-guy Baltimore Ravens standing in the way of Mike McCoy and the Chargers, who’ll be in Baltimore on Sunday for a Week 13 game stuffed with playoff implications.
The Ravens are still the Ravens. They wear black and purple, and leave bruises.
Discussing them Monday, McCoy called them a “very physical” team from a “physical division.”
“Extremely physical” play will be needed Sunday at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, the coach also said, for the Chargers (7-4) to defeat this Ravens (7-4) team that oddsmakers favor by five points.
Pleasant weather -- mid-50s temperatures, light breezes - is in the forecast.
Franchise-changing fallout like from the last encounter with the Ravens isn’t predicted.
Two Januarys ago when the Ravens arrived in Denver a nine-point underdog and departed the AFC Divisional a 38-35 overtime winner, McCoy was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator.
“When you lose a game like that,” he said this week, “you always have a knot in your stomach for a long time.”
Some knots can be loosened sooner, though.
Because the quick exit made McCoy available for hire, gnawing defeat gave way to career opportunity.
“The unique thing there was that, I didn’t have time to get out of the parking lot by the time the Chargers and another team talked about moving on,” he said. “It forced me to have a short memory. I didn’t have time to dwell on it.”
The Chargers sought a head coach because the day after the 2012 season, owner Dean Spanos fired Norv Turner.
Greasing the skids under Turner in Week 12, the Ravens won in San Diego by the same margin they would in Denver -- three points, in overtime -- despite facing fourth-and-29 and almost certain defeat.
The Ravens went on to win the Super Bowl.
A year after leading the Chargers to their first playoff win in five years, McCoy is immersed in another bid to be the last team standing.
“Every time you turn on the (video) clip, or you see the teams advance in the playoffs, that knot in your stomach comes back and you’re saying, ‘We should still be playing,’ ” he said of the loss to Baltimore. “But I’m very thankful because I’m here now. I got an opportunity that I might not have got if we were still playing.”
Playmakers
Durable, strong-armed quarterback Joe Flacco, the everyday starter since arriving in 2008 as a first-round draftee, is 69-38 and seeks a sixth playoff trip in seven years. This year, he has 18 touchdown passes, eight interceptions and a 92.6 passer rating.
At age 35, WR Steve Smith (5-foot-9, 185) leads the team with 53 receptions and 817 yards receiving. WR Torrey Smith’s 17-yards per catch and six touchdown catches are team highs.
RB Justin Forsett (5-8, 190) and one of the NFL’s elite guard tandems – Marshal Yanda and Kelechi Osemele – drive a ground game that’s 10th in yards. Forsett’s average per carry of 5.8 is second in the NFL.
Elvis Dumervil (12.5 sacks) and Terrell Suggs (6.0) form one of the NFL’s better edge-rush tandems; tackle-end Haloti Ngata (6-4, 340) is a run-stuffer with range (2 sacks, 2 INTs). Rookie ILB C.J. Mosley, a first-rounder from Alabama, is the team leader in tackles.
CB Jimmy Smith, the team’s best pass defender, was lost for the season in Game 8.
Home edge
Having outscored opponents by 87 points on the season, the Ravens trail only the AFC-leading Patriots (130) and NFC-leading Packers (108) in point differential. On offense they’re sixth in points and eighth in yards; their defense is fifth in points and 15th in yards.
At home, the Ravens are 4-1 this year and Flacco is 43-10 with a 90.7 passer rating, 11.5 points above his career road mark.
The Chargers and Ravens have played no common opponents.
