Judgment day for the Ravens and the Redskins
By: Jim Williams
The Examiner
Are the Ravens and the Redskins playoff bound? Do either of them have a chance at winning their respective divisions?
Today the answer to those questions will become much clearer.
At 1pm on WJZ-13 and WUSA-9 the Ravens face the media darlings the New York football Giants in huge game in the Meadowlands. It is a statement game for Baltimore and a win would go a long toward gaining them the national respect that they have been unable to capture despite a 6-3 record and a first place tie with Pittsburgh at the top of the AFC North.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T is what the Ravens get if they can bounce the best team in the NFC and the defending Super Bowl Champions.
Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf will handle the call on CBS and on The NFL Today you will be able to catch a feature about the top young gun QB’s. Joe Flacco will be showcased. That will come up at noon.
TV pregame on MASN has all the Ravens shows from the week starting at 10am till kickoff in case you missed them. Radio wise it is WBAL/98 Rock with Steve Davis and Keith Mills doing the pre and postgame shows. TV postgame will be Ravens Xtra on MASN.
The Redskins and the Cowboys from Fed Ex will be the Sunday night game on NBC4 and WBAL-11.
If the Ravens could pull the upset over the Giants then Washington could pull within a game of New York with a win over Dallas.
This is a must win game for both teams and the pregame starts 7pm on NBC with Football Night in America followed by the kickoff of Sunday Night Football at 8pm.
Redskins Radio starts their pregame show at 5pm on ESPN-980AM with Kevin Sheehan and a talented cast of thousands. You can bet that they will have plenty to say about Dallas. The game broadcast will of course feature Larry, Sonny, Sam and Doc. Postgame will be Andy Pollin and John Riggins with Monday Morning QB coming up at 6am. Short night for Andy and Riggo.
Early this week I spoke to John Madden who will be doing this game and he had this to say: “”It’s going to be interesting to see how Tony Romo comes back. Is it going to be the Tony Romo of the first three games? Coming off the bye week, how’s the Dallas defense going to play? They played earlier in the season and Clinton Portis had a big game and the Redskins beat the Cowboys. But is Clinton Portis going to be able to play? The biggest thing would be losing Clinton Portis. I think he’s one of the best players in the NFL.
“You work to get in position the first 10 games and now you make your run to the playoffs. Both these teams, the Redskins and the Cowboys, have positioned themselves that they can make a run. You can say that this is a must game and all this stuff and I think it’s a must game to get started to make a run to get to the playoffs.”
Also via conference call I had a chance to talk with Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber. The duo commented on the ability of Shaun Alexander stepping in to help out the Redskins running game. First up is Bettis: “I think he definitely has gas in the tank. When you don’t go through training camp and you’re not subject to that type of wear and tear, even if you are an older player, you’re going to benefit. How effective will he be? That’s the question. I don’t think it’s an issue of him coming in and not being able to play a full game. I think he has gas in the tank but the question is will the Dallas Cowboys defense stop the offense from running the football because that has to be priority number one in order to win the football game.”
Here is Tiki’s take: “He missed all of training camp and he struggled for the first three or four weeks and then he started getting on track and the team started doing well. I think for Shaun to come in and be effective right away is unrealistic. If he has to play for a few weeks I think he’d be fine.”
Should be a great battle and the Redskins will be Ravens fans and then thy have to beat Dallas for a complete winning day.
Some last items – VMI will take on Virginia in men’s hoops today at 4pm on CSN and the final Sprint Cup race will be run from Miami on 2,7 at 3:45pm.
