The Baltimore Ravens ran away with the AFC North last season, but were a major disappointment in the playoffs. Find out if Jimmy Boyd thinkis the Ravens can repeat as divsion champs and contend for a Super Bowl title in his 2007 NFL Preview for Point-Spreads.com. Sportsbook.com has the Baltimore Ravens 25 to 1 odds to win Super Bowl XLII.
No one saw coming what the Baltimore Ravens did to the AFC North last season. Going into the 2006 season, many experts projected a three-team race between Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati, but the Ravens ran away with the division with room to spare. The NFL’s top ranked defense and an offense that finally started to gel behind QB Steve McNair had the AFC North in the bag well before Santa Claus was slated to come down your chimney.
However, if the Ravens thought the postseason was going to be as much of a cake walk as the regular season, they got their just desserts. The Ravens came into the playoffs as a highly touted number two seed and quickly exited at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts. Steve “Air” McNair was more like Steve “error” McNair and the defense couldn’t get the ball back for much of the final period.
On paper, the Ravens appear once again to be a force to be reckoned with. They went 5-1 against AFC North Division opponents last season winning both matchups with the Browns and Steelers in impressive fashion and splitting with the Bengals. The reality might be that this is a team built for the regular season as it doesn’t appear to have quite enough offensive fire power to compete with the Colts, Patriots, or Chargers in the AFC.
Brian Billick started calling the offensive plays last season and as a result, the offense improved. So we can expect to see him with the head set on again in 2007. Billick better make good use of calling the shots as he has more offensive talent than he’s ever had with Steve McNair, a powerful receiving corps of Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams and Todd Heap, and a still speedy Willis McGahee.
Defensively coordinator Rex Ryan lives by one philosophy only, attack, attack, attack. He feels that this allows them to dictate the pace of the game. Ryan’s aggressive and innovated defensive tactics are used perfectly with his talented personnel. The Bears have a talented enough defense to do the sorts of things Ryan does, but the Brows, for example, definitely do not. Expect plenty more run stuffing, quarterback sacking, and turnover causing plays this season. Sometimes I think these bruisers win games before they even take the field because their opponents know how hard they are going to get hit repeatedly during the course of a game.
San Diego Chargers 5-1
Indianapolis Colts 7-1
Chicago Bears 16-1
Baltimore Ravens 25-1
Pittsburgh Steelers 30-1
Cincinnati Bengals 25-1
Denver Broncos 25-1
Philadelphia Eagles 18-1
Dallas Cowboys 25-1
Carolina Panthers 25-1
Seattle Seahawks 18-1
New Orleans Saints 18-1
New York Giants 35-1
Jacksonville Jaguars 30-1
Kansas City Chiefs 60-1
New York Jets 40-1
Miami Dolphins 55-1
Tennessee Titans 60-1
Atlanta Falcons 60-1
Buffalo Bills 100-1
Washington Redskins 40-1
Arizona Cardinals 40-1
Saint Louis Rams 50-1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 45-1
San Francisco 49ers 20-1
Minnesota Vikings 50-1
Green Bay Packers 40-1
Houston Texans 100-1
Oakland Raiders 75-1
Cleveland Browns 100-1
Detroit Lions 100-1
