AFC Wild-Card Playoff: Ravens 27, Dolphins 9

PREGAME
The best story of the playoffs now that Atlanta is out, the Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 and first draft pick last year to first place in the AFC East this year, keeping the Patriots out of the playoffs in the process. They deserve an award for that alone. Will Tony Soprano's crew have the juice to whack fellow rookie coach John Harbaugh's Ravens, whose offense has become surprisingly explosive down the stretch with rookie Joe Flacco hitting previously-invisible WR Mark Clayton? Anybody out there who thought hiring the Eagles' special teams coach as head coach in Baltimore was a great idea when it happened, raise your hand. Eh, not so fast, EARTH. Bad news for Miami: I picked them in my football pool, which went 0-for-2 yesterday. Will the home teams continue their success today?

Yeah, I didn't think CBS was going to be able to keep Nantz and Simms away from south Florida in January.

FIRST QUARTER
Miami kicks off after deferring on the coin toss. Tom Zbikowski out to the 26.
Big LeRon McClain bounces a run left for 9.
Lorenzo Neal up the middle for 3. The Ravens are in no-huddle! Who ever thought we'd see that from a team that once went five weeks without scoring?
Play-action, Flacco gets forever and hits Derrick Mason on the sideline for 18.
From the Miami 43, McClain draws for 6.
And now the Miami mindset pays a giant dividend. Soliai meets McClain in the backfield and knocks the ball loose, with Joey Porter scooping it up and returning it to midfield.
The Dolphins have been thriving on turnovers all year and are at it again.

Ronnie Brown up the middle for a couple.
Pennington gets plenty of time and hits Patrick Cobbs downfield on the home sideline. He sidesteps a DB and gains 11. Miami already at the Raven 38.
Inside handoff to Brown in motion shut down for -1 by Ray Lewis.
Cobbs WIDE OPEN in the right flat again, with Miami faking the Ravens into thinking left, gains 30, and the Dolphins are inside the 10.
Ganja Boy blasts down to the 1.
PLAY ACTION FROM THE 1? Pennington rolls right and barely avoids a sack by Jarrett Johnson. Dumbass call.
3rd-and-goal, the Ravens give Brown no room, and he appears to lose ground.
Miami SHOWED FEAR on second and goal, and they may pay for it today. Great, my football pool's going 0-and-3.
Carpenter hits a 20-yard FG to put Miami ahead 3-0.

The story of the day hasn't even been mentioned yet, anywhere. Today's head referee? Ed Hochuli, who everybody thought was buried for life after he screwed up the end of the San Diego-Denver game in week 2.

For some reason, the kickoff is basically a squib to McClain the up man, and he returns it across the 35. Squib kicks? BLOODY STUPID. And the Raven HC used to coach special teams!
Ravens from their 36. Willis McGahee up the middle for a couple.
Long ball for Heap is well beyond him, 3rd-and-8.
Flacco gets FOREVER to throw, and finds Clayton with a step on his man, but it's way overthrown. Andre Goodman is called for DPI for not doing very much to Clayton at the beginning of the route, though. First down, Baltimore.
And Flacco hits Mason on the Raven sideline for 10 and another first. Ravens now at the Miami 46.
McClain up the middle for about 4.
Jared Gaither false starts, 2nd-and-11.
Flacco, though, rolls right and hits Clayton for most of the yardage, then sneaks it across on third-and-short for the first down.
From the 35, Flacco gets ALL DAY AGAIN and finds Heap WIDE OPEN at the 20. He runs all the way down to the 4 for 31 yards and first-and-goal.
Joey Porter stuffs McClain for no gain.
The Ravens ALSO play-action on 2nd-and-goal; Flacco's pass is well wide of Mason in the left corner of the end zone.
3rd-and-goal, Flacco hits Heap at the goal line but Yeremiah Bell knocks it out before Heap can secure it. Ravens settle for a 23-yard FG from Matt Stover to tie the game at 3.

What we're seeing so far is a lot of good pass protection / poor pass pressure and fear to run the ball near the goal line.

Plus points to Nantz for the Ace Ventura reference; minus points for bragging about Miami's weather earlier, as if he had done anything special to deserve it. Announcers who do that drive me nuts.

Cobbs out to the 32 with the kick return.
Sweep left for Brown, who gains all three yards after contact.
Brown off the right side for 5 more, and we go to Wildcat formation.
And the Ravens ain't having any of it. Brown tries to fake a handoff to Ganja Boy and take off, but Race Bannan and Ray Lewis shut it down.

Remembering how awful the Ram defense was against Wildcat this year, that's my vote for Rex Ryan for head coach right there.

The least likely punt returner ever, Jim Leonhard, brings it back to the 24.
McClain cuts back left through a BIG hole and gets 11. Good blocks by Gaither and Jason Brown.

3-3 after a quick-moving first quarter.

SECOND QUARTER
Ravens at their 36. Flacco rolls and throws it away deep.

According to Phil Simms, and I have no idea where he gets this information because I have never seen it reported anywhere for any season, Ed Hochuli and crew graded out as the #1 crew in the NFL this season.

Despite the fact Hochuli completely ruined the first San Diego-Denver game with his notoriously-terrible incomplete pass call on the clear fumble by Jay Cutler.

When a crew can COMPLETELY BLOW a game and still be considered the league's best, what does that say about the rest of the league's officiating? THAT's how BAD refereeing is in the NFL.

2nd-10, Flacco gets FOREVER again and rolls right, but lets Channing Crowder WHACK him before throwing it away. Way to get yourself killed for no reason, rook. 3rd-and-10.
Brown loses Rodrique Wright badly right up the middle but Flacco steps up and hits Mason for 10.
Grubbs jumps. 1st-15, followed by Baltimore's first timeout.
Good draw by McClain for 6 or 7.
Dumb pass by Flacco is nearly picked off by two different Dolphins, leaving 3rd-and-9.
Dolphin blitz gets to Flacco at the last second and Flacco chucks it out of bounds. About time somebody started bringing some extra pressure.
Sam Koch's punt just lands in the end zone for a touchback.

Terrell Suggs nearly blows up a naked bootleg, but Chad Pennington hits Davone Bess short and he tap-dances for 9.
Ganja Boy sweeps left for 6. Pancake block by TE David Martin. Helmet-to-helmet hit by Ray Lewis not called.
Lewis nearly blows up a screen pass that Suggs misses intercepting by concentrating on delivering a big hit. 2nd-10 at the 36.
Pennington to Cobbs in the flat for 9. Baltimore gets away with more dirty play as Corey Ivy face masks Cobbs.
Loussaka Polite out of what I guess is called "triangle" formation for 2 up the middle and a first down.
Flip to Ganja goes left for a couple. Miami at midfield.
Ravens have been getting a lot better pressure this drive and it pays off. Suggs beats a double-team to flush Pennington right, and with Bart Scott bearing down on him out there, Pennington throws a TERRIBLE pass that's picked off by Leonhard and returned to the Miami 45. That's a case of beating Miami at their own game.

McClain breaks a tackle on a stretch handoff left for 3.
McClain draws for about 3 more.
Troy Smith replaces Flacco on third down, and the Ravens clearly outsmart themselves. All he does is plunge up the middle for a couple! Whaaaaaa???
Ravens field the punt and pin the Dolphins at the 6.

Race Bannan jumps at Pennington's hard count. 1st-5.
Nothing for Brown up the middle. He hasn't done much today.
Flip right to Brown, who turns a loss into a 4-yard gain. 3rd-1.
Handoff to Polite for 3. First down.
Sweep right to Ganja Boy for a couple, but Anthony Fasano gets flagged for holding.
1st-and-19. Ton of time for Pennington, but he can only hit Brown on the circle route for 5.
Miami avoids a delay of game by calling their first time out, right AFTER the play clock ran out. Why are referees as poor as they are at noticing when the clock runs out? How can it possibly be hard?
Brown runs right off the direct snap for 4 or 5. 3rd-and-8 from the 19. 3:00 till halftime.
AND THE RAVENS BEAT MIAMI AT THEIR OWN GAME AGAIN. Ed Reed 58 INT return for TD, Baltimore leads 10-3. Baltimore blitzed big, and Pennington threw deep for Ted Ginn, who didn't appear to have any idea where the ball was. Reed has a much better line on the ball, fields it over his shoulder, loops back over to the Miami sideline and is never touched on the way to the end zone. Didn't even look like he needed any blocks, but he got a huge one from Haloti Ngata. How many times has Ed Reed done this for the Ravens? Shouldn't he get MVP discussion one of these days?

Also, if Phil Simms calls Reed the "best center fielder" in the NFL one more time, I am going down there and shooting him in the foot. I detest the use of baseball cliches by football announcers! Ed Reed is the best free safety in the NFL. He ISN'T A BLOODY CENTER FIELDER! Torii Hunter is a center fielder. Ed Reed is a safety. OK, Simms? You IDIOT?

Miami takes over at their 20 with 2:30 left in the half. Pennington gets lots of time but Suggs eventually beats Jake Long to drop Chad for a 12-yard sack. The Dolphin train has crashed into a bus, derailed and is sliding down the side of the mountain into a pit of molten lava.

Looks like I'm going 0-for-3 in the freaking football pool. Lotsa luck at 3:30, Philly.

Miami's at their own 8 after the 2:00 warning. Five to Cobbs over the middle. Ravens use their 2nd timeout on 3rd-and-17.
What a funky look here by Baltimore. They use TWO down linemen, then blitz Ray Lewis and two DBs from the back. The pressure gets to Pennington and he throws an awful screen pass into the ground. Crap offensive call anyway.

Leonhard returns the deep punt to the 40. 1:37 left, the Ravens may not be done scoring.
Flacco rolls left and hits McGahee for 9.
Fake handoff to McGahee and Flacco runs through Matt Roth for a first down when he should have lost a couple. Ball at the Miami 48, 0:50 left.
OUTSTANDING protection, OUTSTANDING sideline throw by Flacco, OUTSTANDING catch and footwork by Derrick Mason for 31 yards down to the 17, though Mason's footwork's going to be reviewed by the replay booth. And he got all his toes down. Bloody OUTSTANDING play.
Ravens at the Miami 17 with 35 seconds to go.
Inside handoff to McGahee? for 4. Way to expend your last timeout, dummies.
Now the Ravens get a play off after the play clock runs out. AND AGAIN, NO FLAG. Flacco grounds a quick screen pass with two Miami blitzers in his face. 3rd-and-6.
Another Dolphins blitz flushes Flacco and gets him to overthrow everybody.
Matt Stover hits from 31; 13-3, Baltimore.

Another touchback on the kickoff, and Miami's likely falling on it to run out the last 0:16.
They do, actually, Marques Douglas blows up a handoff to Brown for a 4-yard loss.

13-3 Ravens at halftime.

I'm way behind again and need to try to keep halftime analysis short again. Miami is in big trouble. Ronnie Brown is doing nothing. The Dolphin o-line protected well early but hasn't coped well since Baltimore turned up the blitzing. They desperately need Brown to get untracked so they can use him on some draws and screens. They're ridiculously thin at WR - THEY ONLY DRESSED THREE? - and haven't gotten the ball to their TEs at all. TE is a major part of their offense. They need to get the ball to them and keep hitting Patrick Cobbs, their only receiving weapon right now. I respect the job Baltimore's done against the Wildcat, but it should be working better than it has, too. Miami running that only twice is out of character for them, too. This whole half hasn't been in character for the Dolphins.

Can't say the Ravens should change anything they're doing on offense or defense. Miami has had to blitz more and more to try to get any pressure on Flacco. They should be highly susceptible to draw plays in the second half. Flacco has been pretty damn good, just make sure not to ask him to do too much with a 10-point lead. If the Ravens can find a way to get some straight-up pass rush, which they really couldn't do in the first half, the Dolphins are dead for sure.

THIRD QUARTER
WHY DOESN'T BLOGGER TOGGLE IN AND OUT OF BOLDFACE CORRECTLY????? HOW CRAPPY DOES A PROGRAM HAVE TO BE TO BOLD WHEN I DON'T HAVE BOLD ON??????? HOW MANY MILLIONS IS THIS COMPANY SUPPOSEDLY WORTH, AND I'M GETTING BOLD PRINT WHEN THE BOLD ICON INDICATES IT'S NOT ON?????????

Now would be a fun time to sarcastically say, good thing Miami deferred on the opening coin toss, but at least they do get the ball to start the third. The Ravens continue the tried and true strategy, one the Rams NEVER use, of kicking the ball deep and forcing a touchback.

Miami from the 20, where Brown gets helicoptered by Ngata for only a yard.
And one for Brown again, as he runs into a wall on the left side and gets dragged down by Leonhard.
3rd-and-8. TERRIBLE and STUPID throw by Pennington into double coverage for Bess near midfield and Fabian Washington picks it off, returning it to the 39. Pennington's supposed to be a big-mistake-free manager of the Dolphin offense but that was his THIRD interception.

GAME OVER. I am freaking 0-for-3 in the football pool.

3-yard run by McClain followed by Flacco getting plenty of time and making more with a rollout before finally throwing it away. Solid blitz pickup by McClain. 3rd-and-7.
Throw for Clayton on the Raven sideline is behind him and incomplete.
Incredible punt by Koch up the Raven sideline is downed by his coverage inside the 2.

Inside handoff to Polite for 11, one of the few successful plays for Miami today. Solid block by Ndukwe.
Ganja Boy runs for 1 off what appeared to be a halfback option.
Pennington finds Brandon London on the home sideline for 10.
No 4-man pressure from the Ravens the last play, but Trevor Pryce beats Vernon Carey EASILY to drop Pennington for -6 this play. Like I said, the Dolphins are toast.
Incomplete behind a diving London.
Shotgun sweep to Cobbs gains about six before Marques Douglas strips the ball out and Samari Rolle SPLATTERS HIM. Ravens recover at the Miami 19. FOURTH turnover by a team that has barely turned it over all year.

McClain bangs twice down to the 14; 3rd-and-5.
Flacco gets all day and hits Clayton at the 8. First and goal.
Huge hole up the middle for McClain, who barrels through for an 8-yard TD that puts the game away with 7:33 left in the 3rd. 20-3, Baltimore.

Cobbs makes a seemingly foolish decision to return the deep kickoff, but he gets it out across the 30.
Miami starts this drive with a false start on Ernest Wilford.
Brown works hard to take a dumpoff the next play upfield for 23, though.
Pennington gets a long time with the Ravens just rushing 4 and hits Brown for 4.
Ravens blitz this time, but Pennington just barely gets away from Pryce to hit Ginn for 6. Ball at the Raven 42.
Just a 4-man rush, and Baltimore's letting Pennington get a rhythm. Underneath to Ginn for 9.
Ravens blitz this time, but Pennington hits Ginn AGAIN, for 8 inside the Raven 30.
Four-man rush, Pennington gets all day and hits Brown in the flat, who makes a nice effort to get extra yards and gain 6.
Fasano picks up the blitz and Pennington hits Ginn on the Raven sideline at the 13.
Quick screen to Martin loses 2. One of the rare times today a TE has gotten the ball.
Dot-dot-dot-Dash-dash-dash... Pennington telegraphs a TERRIBLE pass into TRIPLE coverage and it's picked off by game-MVP to be Ed Reed.

FIVE TURNOVERS by the Dolphins now.

Ravens take over at their 20. Kendall Langford stuff McClain for no gain, but he drives for 5 the next play. 3rd-and-5, inside handoff to McGahee gains only 3. Baltimore curiously punts as the third quarter runs out instead of letting the clock run. Koch blasts it over 50.

15 minutes left in Miami's season.

FOURTH QUARTER
Dolphins at their 26. Do I hear five INTS for Pennington?
DPI on one of my favorite young players in the league, Haruki Nakamura, for 5.
Pennington misses Ginn on the Baltimore sideline, 2nd-5.
DROP by Davone Bess, 3rd-5. Ravens were doing the walk-up blitz on this play and came heavy from the LT side.
Plenty of time for Pennington, who can't hit Ginn because Washington hauled him down at midfield. First down.
And now the Dolphins get a big play from Bess, who takes a screen pass, whips by Corey Ivy, outruns all the Raven LBs, and runs down to the 4 after a terrible missed tackle by a guy who's not on the Yahoo roster. 46 yards, first and goal.
Weird swing pass to Brown is marked down at the 2 even though he stepped out of bounds at the 4 or 5.
2.5 hours after I brought it up, Nantz asks if a message wasn't sent, a tone for the game set when Miami couldn't score a TD from the 1 the first time they had the ball. Clueless as ever, Simms disagrees.

I hate Phil Simms.

Fake pitch freezes Suggs way outside of RDE and allows Brown to circle him and make a difficult catch for a 2-yard TD. Naturally, Baltimore blocks the extra point. 20-9, Ravens. That's a heck of a weird time for a zone blitz, Ravens.

Leonhard takes a knee with 13:09 left. The PAT earlier was blocked by Frank Walker.
Ravens at their 20.
Dolphins blitz big but Flacco gets off a bomb just beyond Clayton. 2nd-10.
McGahee draws for 4.
Miami blitz gets to Flacco very late, but his bomb for Clayton is just long again.
Pretty questionable play-calling by Cam "Camtastic" Cameron there. How about taking some time off the clock, genius? They took off all of 1:11 in giving Miami the ball back.

Miami from their 32. Pennington nearly picked off overthrowing Bess over the middle. Jake Long false started, no call.
4-man rush, Martin takes an underneath pass for 15.
Pennington escapes the rush and dumps to London, who appears to whirl for the first down.
1st down at the Raven 43. Short pass to Ginn for 8.
Draw to Ganja boy for 7; Dolphins are inside the 30. Ravens better start bringing some people.
Screen to Martin for 4.
TERRIBLE PLAY here for Miami. The Ravens blitz into an attempted end-around to Ginn. Ray Lewis' pressure causes a blown exchange and Ginn loses SIXTEEN yards finding and fumbling around with the ball. Ginn can't get both feet in on the 3rd-down sideline catch.

Leonhard fields the punt at the 14 and draws a STUPID and ticky-tack interference penalty from Derek Smith. Ravens will take over near their 30.

McClain over LG for 1.
McClain again, with a STRONG surge up the middle for 8.
Wow, toss to Lorenzo Neal in the flat for 7. First down!
McGahee for a couple. Clock down to 5:00.
McGahee breaks a tackle at the line by Bell, a tackle by Renaldo Hill ten yards down field and sprints all the way down to the 4. About a 50-yard run.
Roth drops McGahee for a loss and the Dolphins call timeout with 4:05 left.
Flacco gets a throw off against a blitz on 2nd-and-goal, but just short of McClain at the goal line and incomplete. He then takes it in himself on the QB draw for a TD to make it 27-9.

By the way, you can't spell "MIAMI DOLPHINS" without MIDOL.
Give me credit for calling this game over for Miami after they opened the scoring with a FG. Discredit me for being stupid enough to pick them to win this game earlier this week. Have I mentioned I have gotten all three god damn playoff games wrong so far?

3:53 left before mostly empty stands now in Dolphin Stadium.
Dolphins take over at their 35 after a personal foul on Walker. Bomb for Martin in triple coverage incomplete.
Nakamura and Leonard get Pennington on a big blitz for a 10-yard loss.
Pennington hits London for 10, leaving 4th-and-10.
4th down pass to London was ALWAYS short of the first down and the Ravens take over. I'm just going to ignore the rest of this game unless something truly notable happens.

Ravens 27, Dolphins 9.

The MVP of this game is obviously defensive, and it's going to Ed Reed for his two INTs, including the pick-six that essentially ended the game, even though it was only the 2nd quarter and the score was only 10-3 at the time. That play completely took the air out of a Dolphin team accustomed to making those kind of plays themselves, and they went on to commit a rancid FIVE turnovers.

If there's a reason the Ravens don't win at Tennessee next week, it'll be their offense. Flacco's numbers were truly underwhelming - he's like 8 for 20 today, and they won't get away with that against a top, opportunistic D like Tennessee's, though Albert Haynesworth's condition merits watching. The Titans are also a MUCH better run defense than I saw out of Miami today. There are going to be more times when Flacco has to make a play, and I have my doubts with the youngster there.

On the other hand, Baltimore's defense is perfectly capable of turning Kerry Collins into the quivering bowl of jelly they turned Pennington into today, especially if they can similarly shut the run down. The important thing today, even as much as the Miami o-line struggled, was that the Ravens couldn't really get much pressure on the QB with straight-up rush. If the Ravens are again forced to blitz in Tennessee, I'd look to Collins to do a FAR better job finding his TEs than the Dolphin offense did today. I respect the Titans too much to pick against them in what'll surely be a close, hard-hitting and memorable game.

San Diego also has a VERY good chance of winning in Pittsburgh next weekend. They're playing their best ball. They can shut down Pittsburgh's run game like they did Indy's and put the Steeler offense in big trouble. Big Ben's mistake-prone enough without also having to recover from a concussion to boot. On the other hand, I don't think San Diego got to Manning last night and their pass coverage wasn't very impressive. Then again, Big Ben is a lot easier to get to than Manning is. I'm probably outsmarting myself, but the Chargers look like a nice upset pick next weekend.

The Dolphins had a surprising number of problems crop up today considering the fine season they had. How long did they go without a WR even getting open? If they can get their hands on a quality big WR in the 1st round (Jeremy Maclin?), they'd better do it. Their o-line wasn't good, but it's young, and Baltimore makes a lot of lines look bad. Let them gel. Their defensive line was also quite unimpressive. With Porter practically invisible - how many times did his name get called, once? - nobody else stepped up. They could certainly stand to add a quality DE. And they'd better be happy with who they have as QB of the future - it ain't Chad Pennington.

Eggles at Vikings in a few minutes, with Philly representing my final chance to predict a game correctly this weekend. Amazing.