9/8/16

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR IS HERE, IT’S REALLY HERE!!! The regular football season is finally here!!!  No more wandering the backyard aimlessly with nothing more to do than cut the grass.  No more talking heads speculating who will win the Super Bowl without even knowing the final rosters.  We don’t need anyone telling us who’s going to win the Super Bowl -we already know the Ravens are going to win, of course.  Training camp is behind us and we look forward to 17 glorious weeks of football games that count week after week after week.  I love the sound of that!

Now the games mean something more than just practice starting with week 1 against the Bills.  The Ravens will show us that all the hard work in training camp and the late nights in the training rooms were all worth it by winning on Sunday.

The 2016 Ravens are a great mix of young and old or should I say veterans instead of old.  Just look at the possible starting offensive line, Stanley and Lewis are both rookies on the left side, 3^rd year players Urschel at center, Hurst at right tackle and the only real veteran Yanda is at right guard starting his 10th season.  The O line will be solid and keep Joe out of trouble.  The list of players coming back from injury is long: Dumervil, Flacco, Forsett, Gillmore, Perriman, Pitta, Smith Sr. and Suggs. Eight out of twenty two of the starting lineup are coming off of injuries. That’s a little scary. Only Flacco and Perriman had any playing time in the preseason.  But I think they will knock off the rust quickly and have a great game on Sunday.

Disclaimer: This is where I tell you “Don’t bet the farm on my picks” because the list below is how I want the games to go, not a prediction of what the actual outcome will be. I always choose the teams that I want to win because it will help the Ravens in the standings. If there is no direct impact then I choose whichever team I want. I usually pick NFC over AFC. I also will choose certain teams because our friends root for them. The Packers for the Hewins, the Seahawks for Bonnie, and, here’s the kicker—I might root for both the Redskins (Family and customers) and the Eagles (Fran and other Philly friends) Yes, I know they are rivals but that’s how I roll. Most importantly, I will ALWAYS root against the Steelers. This disclaimer will be shorter next week.

Thursday night

8:30pm

Panthers over Broncos

NFC over AFC

The last time we saw Cam Newton he was pouting after losing the Super Bowl.  But we are rooting for the NFC Panthers to beat the AFC Broncos.

Sunday

1:00pm

RAVENS over Bills

Buckle up people this game could be a wild ride.  The combination of Joe Flacco to Mike Wallace looked good in preseason and the Bills secondary is already banged up. Add Smith Sr., Perriman and a couple of tight ends it could be a long day for the Bills. On the other side of the ball is our defense against Tyrod Taylor’s scrambling ability.  We will see very early if Suggs can contain Taylor.  So the keys to a Ravens win are Joe to throw deep and contain Tyrod in the pocket and make them run up the middle into our strength.  We could see the beginning of a high scoring season for the Ravens.  GO Ravens!!!!

It’s great to have them back!!

Buccaneers over Falcons

We just want to see Matt Ryan lose.

Vikings over Titans

We don’t normally root for the Vikings but we always root for the NFC team over the AFC team.

Eagles over Browns

This is an easy one to pick.  I am rooting for our Eagle fan friends and against the Browns who according to Vegas have a 0% chance of winning the Super Bowl.  RG III will start for the Browns. Keep an eye on this game but only during the Ravens game commercials.

Jets over Bengals

The Bengals are a heavy pick to be in the Super Bowl but yet again so were the Ravens last year and we saw how that turned out.  Can you say 5-11 for the Bengals?

Saints over Raiders

Drew Breeze just signed a new contract that pays him 40 million for the next two years.  So, Drew please start earning that 40 mill by beating the Raiders for us.

Chargers at Chiefs

Both teams are in the AFC west so you pick’em- this could be the game of the week, besides the Ravens game of course.

Bears over Texans

NFC over AFC- this could be the dog game of the week.

Packers over Jaguars

NFC over AFC- Rooting for our Packer fan friends.

4:00pm

Seahawks over Dolphins

Rooting for a Dolphin loss and congratulations on the good news to our special intention in Seattle.

Cowboys over Giants

What? Not again! Tony Romo is hurt and out for 10 weeks.  This is the 4:00 game to watch. We could be witnessing the Bray replacing Bledsoe scenario with Prescott replacing Romo.  Is Romo done?  Prescott looked pretty good in preseason but it was preseason. Let’s see how he does went the game counts. The Cowboys are starting a rookie quarterback / running back combination. Does that sound familiar? How about Flacco / Rice and we saw what they ended up winning.

Lions over Colts

NFC over AFC and I just can’t root for the Colts yet.  Go Haloti!

8:30pm

Cardinals over Patriots

I can’t say I’m rooting against Tom Brady because he’s not playing.  HAHAHA.  Public Enemy Number 1 is doing his time, (4 week suspension) for his crimes against humanity or at least the football world.  So, what do you think Tom will be doing on Sunday?  Walking the dog and picking up poop? No, he has people for that. Cutting the grass? No, he has people for that, too. I got it, watching the games on the NFL Ticket! No he’s too cheap to pay for that.  Well, whatever he is doing, he’s not helping the Patriots win any football games and that’s a good thing.

Monday Night

7:00pm

Redskins over Steelers

Monday night- if you feel something bad is in the air that’s because the Steelers are only 30 miles away in Lanham, MD playing the Redskins.  Have I told you I hate the Steelers?  So, for me, to root against the Steelers is no surprise. Sing it with me’”Hail to the Redskins”.  Go Redskins, beat those damn Steelers.

10:20pm

49ers over LA Rams

That’s right the LA Rams they moved but we are rooting for the home team.

Enjoy this great game of football.

Way to go, Mary Ellen, I knew you would beat it. Congratulations!

And that’s just the View from Section 151.

GO RAVENS!!!