1)  Has Flacco and the Ravens offense taken the strides this year that Baltimore fans expected them to take?

Had you asked me this question after the first 8 weeks of the season I would have said that Joe Flacco and the offense had exceeded expectations this year.  Recently, however a disturbing trend of slow starts and poor red zone play has emerged.  At this point it is hard to pinpoint the exact cause of these problems.  Flacco has had moments in the last 3 weeks where he has struggled and looked slow in his decision making.  The holes in the Ravens wide receiver corp have also shown up in recent weeks.  Teams are making it harder and harder to get the ball to Derrick Mason and the other guys have not stepped up.  The interior line play has also not been consistent and the Ravens have not run the ball well at times.  All that said, Flacco has improved greatly in a years time and has shown the ability to make all the throws and command an offense.  He is still a 2nd year player and has had some struggles.  The key will be for the offense to improve it’s consistency for the last 6 games of the year.

2)  How big of an impact are the losses of Bart Scott and Rex Ryan having on the Ravens defense?

Both are missed, but it is hard to quantify how much.  It is also hard to say that the defense would be much improved this year had the Ravens been able to retain Bart and Rex.  I think the Ravens miss the versatility and toughness of Bart Scott.  Bart was good in all phases of being a linebacker and the Ravens have not been able to find one player to do all the things that Bart did.  Tavares Gooden is athletic, but does not play the run as well as Bart did.  Jameel McClain is a good pass rusher, but struggles in pass coverage.   The third guy that has seen time at MLB, Dannell Ellerbe, is a tank and will be good in time; but he is a rookie who has a lot to learn.

Rex Ryan had the ability to really get his guys fired up to play his system and style of football.  I think they Ravens may miss that the most about him.  Not that the defense has not bought into what current D-coordinator Greg Mattison is trying to do, but it is going to take some time before this defense relates to him the way it did Rex.  Rex also was good at getting some defensive players who had holes in their games to look better than they were in his system.  I have not seen that from Mattison yet.

3)  Sitting at 5-5 are Ravens fans assuming that every game is a must win and will you guys make the playoffs?

I think that Ravens fans see 10 wins as the magic number to get to the play-offs and that all but the game in Pittsburgh are must wins/winnable.  Obviously, a lot of whether the Ravens will make the play-offs will come down to how Denver, Jacksonville, Houston and Pittsburgh play the rest of the way.  The Ravens will need to start performing at a more consistent level and not have the breakdowns they have had that cost them opportunities to win games like they had against the Patriots, Vikings, Bengals and Colts.  The good news is that the rest of the schedule only has 2 likely play-off teams in Pittsburgh and Green Bay.  At this point I am still optimistic that the Ravens can make the play-offs.

4)  Do you think the Bengals have finally “arrived” as AFC North Contenders with Pittsburgh/Baltimore or do you view them as the same old Bengals that will eventually screw things up?

I do think the Bengals are for real, at least this year.  They dominated the 2 match-ups with the Ravens and beating Pittsburgh has me believing they are the best team in the division.  They have a strong defense and Carson Palmer is making plays when they matter.  The Bengals have had a couple of head scratching losses and their offense does not put up points the way they should.  I do think the Bengals still have some management problems and they would be back to being the Bungles in no time, but this year I think they will be a dangerous team in the play-offs.  A team I hope the Ravens do not have to face again.

5)  Who wins Sunday’s game and why?

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