Are you ready for some football??

In the immortal words of the indignant Jim Mora press conference, "Playoffs?!"

Yes, it's football playoffs time! And despite a losing season in 2007, they won a wild card spot in 2008. They are the last seed in the AFC division which means that they are on the road for every game, and playing a really tough schedule.

First up: the Miami Dolphins. They played the Dolphins in Week 5 of the season at Dolphins Stadium so this would be an exact rematch. I wasn't worried about that game, though. Although anything can happen in the playoffs, Miami didn't strike me as a team on a mission. To me, it looked like they were just thrilled to be in the playoffs after woeful 1-15 season in 2007. And true to my gut feeling, the Ravens smoked them. Again. Cam Cameron, the Ravens have exorcised your Miami demons. Something that caught my attention is that you could hear a "Let's go Ravens!" chant from over the tv broadcast. Way to go Ravens fans to go down there and support the team in force!

Next up: the Tennessee Titans. These guys are the number 1 seed and therefore are rested because they got a Bye week last week. The Ravens played them in Week 3 of the season and lost a tough game containing a controversial call during the last Tennessee drive and a rookie Raven quarterback. Yes, it's 15 weeks later, and Flacco has now been in a playoff game and has completed a full season.

But the Titans coach, Jeff Fisher, is going to have his team really prepared for the Ravens and with the extra week of rest they got, the Titans worry me. They play good football and there is a reason they are the number 1 seed! I think the Titans are beatable, but they certainly are not pushovers like the Dolphins ended up being.

I'm hoping that because the Ravens didn't have a week off that they are in a rhythm and in turn, that the Titans will be a little slow because they're a bit out of the week in, week out rhythm of the regular season. I'm hoping that the Ravens don't get into freak mode like they did with the Giants and the Colts and not play well. What do I mean by freak mode? I mean that the Ravens get so hyped because they want to do so well that they make mistakes that they wouldn't ordinarily make.

Steve's excited about the upcoming game. He's been playing Madden '09 on the PSP and the PS3 incessantly to compensate for the fact that it's not game day yet. ;-) I, on the other hand, am not as optomistic about the results of the game and am stressing!! I keep thinking that if the Ravens get past the Titans, whomever they meet in the AFC Championship game will be tough to play, but not like this game. The San Diego Chargers don't scare me. The Steelers will have to beat us for a 3rd time, and I think that's a harder proposition than people give it credit for.

Stay tuned... game time is Saturday at 4:30pm.

What's our name!!

RAVENS!!!