Football Outsiders AFC Divisional Round Preview

Many of the readers here on Baltimore Beatdown might remember that the publication, Football Outsiders, predicted the Baltimroe Ravens would have a letdown from their amazing run in 2008. Now they're back with a preview of the AFC Divisional Playoffs, including the Ravens-Colts' tilt. Here is their email to me and the link to their preview:

Just wanted to let you know about the AFC Divisional Round preview we put up at Football Outsiders today, at http://www.footballoutsiders.com/game-previews/2010/afc-divisional-round-preview.
It's got all kind of stats and scouting information that makes for exciting blog posts. Included are:
- How the Ravens shut down Dallas Clark in the first meeting between these two teams, how Terrell Suggs' return after not appearing in the first encounter will impact their scheme, and how the Colts tricked Joe Flacco into throwing the worst pass of his professional career
- How the Chargers can try to bypass Darrelle Revis with tough matchups for the Jets corners across the field, whether Revis will follow Vincent Jackson into the slot and/or take on Antonio Gates, and the drastic effects of how both teams fare when the Chargers offense throws a screen pass or goes into max protect, or the Jets defense faces the same
- How Mark Sanchez struggles against the five-man rush, why the Chargers should do a better job of stopping the Jets' wideouts than the Bengals did, where the Jets excel at running the ball better than anyone in the league, and what the Chargers are worse at in the running game than anyone else in football.
I asked Football Outsiders a question about their pre season prediction about our Ravens and why they thought we had returned to where we were last year after having so many bumps earlier this season. Check it out below:
Baltimore Beatdown:  If memory serves me well, you guys picked the Ravens to have a "drop off year" from last year's 11-5 season, which they did. however, they are now at the same spot they were last year and after they win this game, they will still be. What do you think the key has been for them to overcome their "drop off" from last year to rebound at the end of the season and at least thru the first round of the playoffs? Thanks,

Football Outsiders:  You're absolutely right. The offense has definitely been significantly better than we expected. Defense has been great, like anyone could've guessed, but we expected the offense to be at the bottom of the league, and they've been eighth in the league by our numbers. I think, naturally, a lot of that has to do with the emergence of Ray Rice. We thought Rice would be a useful player in their offense, but not anything like the fantastic player he's become. I think they've been a healthier team this year, and that's helped them this season. They haven't been perfectly healthy, of course, with all the injuries at cornerback and the missing time for Suggs, but this was a team that was down multiple offensive linemen, defensive linemen, and virtually an entire secondary at times last year, not to mention losing Rice for stretches at a time.

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