My Week 3 Report

By:  Marcus Wyche

Hey sports fans I thought I would take some time to really talk about by team, the Ravens and the AFC North. After 2 weeks, I have seen the two best teams look good in one game and horrible in another. The Ravens beat the brakes off of the Steelers and then laid an egg against the Titans.

The Steelers were bum rushed by the Ravens and then shut out the Seahawks. Ok, the Seahawks are not in the top tier of teams, but they are still a professional team. This is my take on an in depth look at these teams and the rest of the division.

Ravens

First up is the Ravens. I have been watching them closely for the past two weeks and I do not understand why they have not had Joe Flacco running the no huddle offense. He is more comfortable in the shotgun and seems to be able to see the field better. I do understand that he needs to work on his pre-snap reads a little better, so that he can pick up his hot read and not take as many sacks as he does.

All of his issues are not his fault, some of blame goes to the offensive line and some of the blame goes to the coaches, Cam Cameron, seems to be overly arrogant in his play calling and does not seem able to want to change or adapt on the fly when needed.

Now, the Ravens are going to St. Louis to play a Rams team that is on the cusp of being a good team. Sam Bradford is proving to be a pretty good quarterback, with a make shift group of receivers. Can the Ravens secondary handle the speed of the Rams receivers? Will the Rams offense have the Ravens defense sucking wind with their no huddle offense [Editor's Note: Or will the Ravens be faking injuries like the Giants]? Only time will tell, but the Ravens defense need to do a few things on defense to slow down the Rams offense.

One, they will have to beat up Sam Bradford, and that's hard for me to say, because I have Bradford in two of my fantasy leagues, but it is what it is. We need to have a pass rush to help protect the lack of coverage in the secondary.

On offense, we really have to get Ray Rice going as the Rams are not known for stopping the run, but they are really good against the pass. If Ray Rice is killing them, then they will have to bring that 8th man in the box and then you can drop passes over the top of the defense. Ray Rice is the one person that we can feature and he can give us the jolt that we need to get our offense back on track. One can only hope that Flacco and his young receivers Tandon Doss, Torrey Smith and LaQuan Williams can step up and Flacco can trust his young receivers to make the plays they are supposed to make. I think they can. The ravens should win this game, but it may not be as easy as people may think. Even if it means the Ravens have to run them out of the building, like the Oregon Ducks do to teams.


Steelers

The Steelers have issues of their own, they still cannot protect Big Ben and now that Willie Colon is done, what are they going to do? Ben is gimpy himself and we are still not sure how he will respond to treatment. I saw the replay of the hit to his right knee and I have to agree with Raheem Brock about the fine he got. He was tripped by the offensive lineman and he fell into Ben's leg.

The Steelers running game is not exactly lighting the boards up either, and their secondary is shady at best. It's been proven that Troy Polamalu is great in stuffing the run, but if he has to cover someone, he's a liability.

The one thing you can hang your hat on is that the Steelers will throw the ball and they have an excellent receiving core. They are fast, they can run the route tree and they can catch. Those little dudes could be on a track team.

Their pass rush is dangerous, but if you stop Harrison and Woodley, they have no pass rush(check the Ravens game). No matter how bad the Steelers offensive line is, I still see the Steelers winning their game against the Colts.

Bengals

The Bengals are back to their usual stuff, someone in trouble with the law. Please explain to me how in the world can you have 2.5lbs of weed sent to your house?! You cannot be that stupid, c'mon man!!! This team was doing well at the start of this season with rookie quarterback Andy Dalton playing well, A.J. Green seems to be coming into his own, but then you have Cedric Benson, who has a three game suspension looming over his head.

Then you have to make sure on what the Bengals will do with Carson Palmer. As it stands right now, he is retired. How long that stands really depends on the Bengals.

In the AFC North, the Bengals defense is ranked 3rd with a +5 point differential. This week, they have the 49ers and I am not sure they can beat them, but it should be a very interesting game. I think the 49ers will pull out the victory, but it will be a tight game.

Their defense has always been ok, not great but ok; and I just don't get why they let Jonathan Josepth their best cornerback who really fit that system leave their best corner leave.

Browns

The Browns are the one team I cannot figure out, they finished last season on a good note, but they opened this season laying an egg against the Bengals. At least they beat the Manningless Colts, but does that really mean anything at this time? Colt McCoy is a good quarterback, but does he really have the arm strength to handle those frigid game temps that Cleveland has on a regular basis in December?

The Browns have Miami this Sunday, and with their defense, the Browns could be in trouble. If Chad Henne could light up the Patriots defense, I know he can kill the Browns.

The Browns do have Peyton Hillis, but who will McCoy throw the ball to. The receivers are suspect at best. That receiving core needs some help and unless one of the current receivers step up they will never get anywhere.

I am picking Miami to win this game.


The entire AFC North is at 1-1 and after this Sunday, it will not be a basic 4 way tie. The Ravens will be 2-1, the Steelers will be 2-1, the Bengals and Browns will be 1-2. I do not care what anyone says, this will be an entertaining season and the AFC North will prove to be one of the toughest divisions.

Hit me up if you have a disagreement. Talk to ya!

Follow Marcus on Twitter:  @Mwyche2