By Travers Cummings
Rams over Ravens (Sunday noon): Being 1-4 definitely wasn’t how the Ravens thought the first month of the season was going to go, but when your defense can’t stop anyone, coupled with Lamar Jackson being out, getting wins won’t be an easy thing. Last week they were annihilated by the Texans at home and struggled to move the ball with Cooper Rush at QB. Derek Henry has been M.I.A only rushing for 75 yard in the last two games combined, which is very unusual for him. It’s one thing if your offense is garbage, but the defense has also given up 79 points in the last two contests. Now the Rams are coming to town fresh off their upset loss to the 49ers and will be hungry to get back in the won column. I can’t think of any way the Ravens win this game, so expect another blow out.
Colts over Cardinals (Sunday afternoon): The irony of these two teams playing each other after what transpired the last two weeks is not lost on me. The Cardinals shot themselves in the foot against the Titans and the Colts errored two weeks ago against the rams. If I could use expletives here I would, but it absolutely drives me insane when players STILL drop the football before crossing the goal line. It’s happened twice just in the last weeks by these two very teams and it cost them wins each time. In the Cardinals case, all Emari Demercado had to do was cross the goal line and it would have put them up 28-6, game over. Instead, he was too concerned about celebrating and threw the ball aside on the 1-yard line. Cardinals coach Johnathan Gannon tore him a new one on the sideline, to the point he was fined $100,000 for it, but in my opinion it was justified.
Two weeks ago, Colts receiver Adonai Mitchell tried celebrating early and the ball slipped out of his hand at the one-yard line, which led to a touchback instead of a touchdown. Hopefully those two goofs will learn from their mistakes, but given recent history, someone else is bound to do it again soon.
Bills over Falcons (Monday evening): The Bills were the last undefeated team heading into Sunday night, but the ’72 Dolphins can once again pop the champagne now that the only undefeated season in history is still intact. Buffalo played a very sloppy game against the feisty Patriots team. Josh Allen turned the ball over a couple of times, and runningback James Cook never really got going. To his credit, Pats second year QB Drake Maye made some incredible throws on their final drive to put them in position to kick the winning field goal.
The Bills will have to shake that off and head to Atlanta who is coming off their bye week. You don’t know which Falcons team is going to show up each game, the one that put up 34 points against the Commanders, or the one put up a donut against the Panthers. Either way, as good as Buffalo is, they can’t take teams like this for granted because their defense isn’t good enough to stop opposing offenses from moving the ball on them. They need a big statement game win here to let the NFL know they are still the team to beat.
Last week 0-3
Season overall 9-6