MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ravens and Eagles, birds of a feather

EPILOGUE:  The Indianapolis Colts are unfair to prognosticators.  It should be illegal to unveil defensive capabilities not shown in the regular season.  Where have they been hiding it?  That Baltimore would shut down Manning and company is no surprise, but when the Colts can stop Jamal Lewis and Steve McNair from producing a single touchdown. That’s news.  It’s also been the missing ingredient in the Colts previous playoff runs.

The Iggles put up a good fight at New Orleans.  Andy Reid, the man who should be coach of the year, lost to Sean Peyton, the man named COTY.  That one turned out pretty much as expected.

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With the Redskin fans - and bloggers - having little to do but wonder how the chief honchos could blow the season, we turn to two nearby teams for football action. The Baltimore Ravens show if there’s any such thing as football karma, while the Eagles carry the flag for the NFC East.

Indianapolis Colts (12-4) at Baltimore Ravens (13-3), CBS, 4:30 PM, EST
Time to pay honor to our neighboring team to the north. Finally, coach Billick did the right thing and got a real quarterback to lead the offense. Billick took a direct hand in calling his offense instead of having his friend (ex-friend, perhaps) Jim Fassel call Billick’s offense. The result was a surprising 13-3 record and number two seed in the AFC. As luck, chance, or Karma would have it, that brings the disreputable Indianapolis Colts to town.

The cliche is that a good defense will beat a good offense. If that applies to great defenses and great offenses, the Baltimore’s great defense will best Indianapolis’ third ranked offense. There. That’s my prediction. The Ravens will win on defense. We can tun our attention to the real issue here, retribution against the Irsays visited by the fans of Baltimore’ old and new football team.

The Colts are Baltimore’s team just as the Ravens are really Cleveland’s team. Art Modell had the decency, at least, to say that he would move the Browns if Cleveland and Ohio failed to build him a stadium. Cleveland and Ohio refused to waste tax dollars for Modell, but gladly spent it to get a new football franchise to replace the old Browns that became the Ravens. Robert Irsay, the volatile, boorish new owner simply packed up in the cloak of darkness and set up shop in Indianapolis. The time was Midnight, March 28, 1984. Sure, he owned the franchise, but he stole Baltimore’s team. (Of course, the always liberal Maryland Legislature passed a law the day before allowing Baltimore to seize the team by eminent domain.)

And that’s the point of this screed. Owners own the franchise - the marketing rights, the TV revenue, the colors and logo. Fans own the team. Why else does the ownership class attempt to extort stadium deals from the public sector? When GE does a public deal, they can point to new job creation, new tax revenue, tangible economic benefits. Sports franchises can’t make so strong a case. No, their claim is their hold on the fans and the fans hold on the team. You think the “Love Boat” case was just about bad behavior? It was about public offense just as the Vikings were lobbying for a new stadium deal.

Owners have certain duties: manage the team well; try to build a sustaining, winning franchise; community partnership. That requires openness and a certain transparency, as required by a public commission. In considering a franchise move, Art Modell came closer to the standard than Bob Irsay, with apologies to Cleveland fans who do not agree. Irsay didn’t have the nuts to be up front and say “I’m leaving.” He held a press conference - in Indianapolis - to say “I’m here.” That violated the unwritten code and there’s a price to pay.

Indianapolis is not going to win an NFL championship, certainly not in Baltimore. Talk about Tony Dungy folding in the post-season. Call Peyton Manning a choke artist. The real reason is the curse of Bob Irsay. The Colts left Baltimore in ‘84. They won’t win a Lombardi Trophy for eighty-four years. Unless the Irsays sell out first.

Karma.

Philadelphia (10-6) at New Orleans (10-6), FOX, 8:00 PM EST
I like that old school, east coast, snot-knocking football we play in the NFC East. So, what happens? The team with the west coast offense wins the division and moves on. Wonder what TO is doing today?

Tell me the forecaster who predicted New Orleans and Philadelphia would have the league’s number one and number two offense. Both teams put up 49 touchdowns for the season. The defense for both teams are close in points allowed per game, 20.1 for the Saints, 20.5 for the Eagles. This is going to be one close game.

Drew Brees continues his feel good story by proving the soundness of his shoulder and the soundness of his skills. His season was so good that he drove Nick Saban back to college football. (Saban took a shot with Daunte Culpepper out of concern for Brees’ shoulder.) The Saints boast two solid rookies, Reggie Bush, whom everybody knew about, and Marques Colston, unknown this year, but a top ten fantasy pick next year. Deuce McAllister put up a thousand yards and ten scores on the year. Joe Horn is questionable.

The Eagles aren’t supposed to be here. Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb are irreplaceable, anywhere but Philadelphia where they always maintained they had enough talent to win without Owens. Winning without McNabb is a tribute to the front office.

Jeff Garcia’s west coast heritage makes him the ideal sub for Andy Reid’s offense. The grossly under-publicized Brian Westbrook can be a scoring machine if he’s not contained. The Eagles balance makes them as hard to defend as New Orlean’s offense.

The Eagles loss of Lito Shepard is a concern. Drew Brees will pick at CB Rod Hood early to see if he breaks. Count that as one more break for the Saints. With home field, good health and an explosive offense, the Saints go marching on.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Game Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.