to pick against them, including most of the local guys in tomorrow’s game. However, the ones who said we’d drop off before the season are now strangely silent. I’m sure they’ll come up w/ some excuses.

But we did indeed add some key components this off season, in Domonique Foxworth, Matt Birk and LJ Smith, all of whom will make huge contributions before the season is over.

The past few years the ravens have not had “back to back” winning seasons. If someone is lazy and did not do any research it would be easy to just say that the ravens will be down this year.

Forgot about those guys. Foxworth was a big addition and the O-line is no doubt a reason for success this year…. but I don’t think the O-line was ever a factor in anyone predicting that the Ravens wouldn’t do well this year. Merlin- I’ve never looked at them midseason, I’ll try it out, my first impression of them was the prediction about the Ravens not doing well and the logic just didn’t make any sense to me. It had something to do with ‘trick plays’ and ‘unmaintainable football’… based on running the ball much more than the average team and picking up chunks of yardage on the ground, I think, (how is that unmaintanable with McClain, McGahee, and Ray Rice all to run the ball, even if McClain is officially a FB?), and on some wildcat/end-around plays that netted alot of yards and made significant differences in games that you ended up winning. It didn’t take Flacco’s talent into consideration, Cam Cameron’s ability as an OC to work with him and the offense as well as he did his first year with you guys, and it seemed predicated more on the theory of sophomore slump than on what Flacco himself is actually capable of as a second-year QB. It’d be interesting to hear their predictions for Matt Ryan and the Falcons, and on the Giants without Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer.