MNF - Bengals @ Ravens

by Scoop_McLeak Tue Feb 04, 2014 11:13 am

RICE ON THE BOIL AS RAVENS TAME BENGALS

The Baltimore Ravens moved into a commanding divisional lead as they cruised to a 31 point shut out at home to the Cincinnati Bengals. Halfback Ray Rice made a mockery of his alleged slowing abilities whilst juking James Harrison and co into next week, aided by a sublime Joe Flacco performance in front of the MNF cameras.

The Bengals are not the first team to freeze under the weight of TV expectation as a record viewing audience tuned in to Baltimore's best performance of the season. HC Warrior will be licking his wounds today, but the season still has potential for Cincy with an AFC wild card battle brewing nicely. Baltimore however continue to stride confidently toward a top seed thanks to Rice, Flacco and speedy wideout Torrey Smith.

In a supposed passing league, it is no surprise that all of the front runners have a strong ground attack and Baltimore is no different. Ray Rice took advantage of some bad defensive calls by consistently getting to the perimeter and when the Bengals adjusted, he was sneaking inside tackle and dancing past Burfict as if he was a statue. The game was over by HT as the Ravens took a 21 point lead to the locker room, but Cincy could have narrowed the gap but for several third down run calls which inevitably ended at the feet of Haloti Ngata, and a punt.

Gracious winning HC AfroDizzyMac was pleased with the evenings work saying "we had a good day today, just pleased the prime time cameras weren't here on a bad day". Vanquished Coach Warrior conceded the Ravens taught Cincy a valuable lesson "we got schooled tonight, back to the drawing board". With this attitude both teams are likely to make the post season, alabeit a slightly tougher route for the orange and black.

The night belonged to Ray, the victory belonged to Coach Afro, but the losing Coach gained a valuable long term lesson and now knows what it takes to win in the SML.