No hurricanes this time: Just the Texans

Baltimore heads to Houston for re-scheduled game

The Ravens now travel to Houston where on September 14th and then the 15th, Hurricane Ike denied entry into Reliant Stadium. But here we go, game on! And the Ravens are ready and poised to take another step toward the playoffs.

Coming into the season with Kyle "who?" Boller slated to start fingers in Baltimore were crossed that the defense would make the season interesting. I guess you can never count the playoffs totally out of the picture since the Ravens have had success in seasons they were not expected too. Anyhow even with a new coaching staff and rookie QB at the helm this team is maturing and doing some good things.

At the mid-way point of the season they are 5 up and 3 down trailing only the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North by one game. John Harbaugh has done well as a rookie head coach and bringing Cam Cameron on as offensive coordinator was a great idea. Cameron had already proved what he can do with offenses and young B's in San Diego as an O - Coordinator and even had a shot at head coach albeit for the 1 and 15 Dolphins last season. He may actually be helpful in that regard to Harbaugh by helping John not make the same mistakes Cam did as a rookie head coach.

In contrast their opponent this week entered the season with many so called experts thinking they could flirt with the playoffs. I think that was a bit overly optimistic but I thought 8 and 8 was possible. So here are they are 3 and 5 and not a doormat team in terms of talent. 3 of their losses were games that could have been wins. They lost in Jacksonville by a field goal, to Indy by 4 points, and had Miami beat until Sage Rosenthals coughed up the ball on a foolish and unnecessary attempt at diving over a defender for a first down. They lost that game by 1 point.

So while I am not suggesting they are a good team they are capable of beating any team in this league and will usually be competitive. One big reason they are struggling is that a defense that had improved, especially with the emergence of former #1 overall draft pick Mario Williams, has struggled. The Houston defense this season is a mediocre #17 in the league. Williams in fact has 8 of the Texans 14 sacks this season. Against the rush the Texans are allowing 126 yards per game. Which is playing into the bread and butter of the Ravens who average 148 yards of rushing offense making them 4th best in the NFL.

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Last week Ray Rice and LeRon McClain carried the load in the ground game with McGahee nursing an ankle injury. This week all the running backs were limited in practice as of Thursday Nov 6. But I expect at least a couple of them to be fine.

Joe Flacco is coming off what I think was his best all around game. As far as stats are concerned I focus on yards per attempt. Last week Joe was around 8.5 which over 7 is productive in the NFL. It means you are getting your receivers the ball in a more favorable position. When the yards per attempt is low that means you are doing a lot of din-king and dunking as the saying goes. To many safety valve throws are rendering your passing game as non threatening to a defense. A defense will give you 4 or 5 yard that turn into 4 to 6 yard gains all day. It also means you aren't converting 3rd and 7's.

Flacco also raised his QB rating by 5 points just in one week. His season yards per attempt is at 6.6 which needs to climb but as it has climbed so has his rankings in efficiency. And so has the points per game for the Ravens. The Ravens are now scoring more than 20 points per game at 21.4 which is respectable. A word of caution though is that the defense scores some of their points. But the offense is improving.

Which I believe is a bigger factor in Baltimore in this respect other than the obvious reasons. The core of defensive players who have carried this team for 5 to 10 years is clearly rejuvenated to have the feeling that they can get off the field and watch their team move the ball and have a chance to score.

Speaking of the Ravens defense they will need to bring their "A" game this week. As the defense has fizzled in Houston the offense has picked up. With start wide out Andre Johnson their passing game is always a threat. They are 5th in the league in passing yards per game. And even with QB Matt Schaub out for this game Sage Rosenthals is one of the better back-ups in the league. They do not suffer a drop off with him taking the snaps. Also the Texans finally have a reliable running back in Steve Slaton who has 538 yards on the year thus far. Houston is a modest but steady rushing team ranked at #16 carrying the ball.

The rushing/throwing combination overall has the Texans offense ranked 4th in the league averaging 24.5 points a game. The Ravens "D" has held their opponents to 17.1 points per game.

My gut tells me the Ravens eek this one out although I have sneaky suspicion that Houston could steal one. But with out sounding like I am flip flopping I am predicting a Ravens win. I see Baltimore 31 to Houston 27.

By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Baltimore Ravens Correspondent