Jerry, Dimndimn, Disco - Thanks guys been a fun season on the forums.
Disco - My initial gut reaction was Ravens no doubt. I thought the line was way off and it would be a close game. But I had a long time to think about this game and logic took over. I just think top to bottom SF is better. A close game late should favor the Ravens but I'm not sure it gets there. I'm thinking 27-17 SF.
One other angle I've been pondering just in the last day is the fact that Ray Lewis is a huge fraud. I can't believe how little play this "antler spray" story has got. It is absolutely OBVIOUS that Ray is juiced out of his mind. This antler spray contains the hormone normally found in the body once it converts HGH. Seeing old Ray up there denying everything about the story speaks volumes. This man is 37 years old and came back 10 weeks after completely tearing a muscle that usually takes 8 months to heal. Now he's flying around the field racking up tackles like he's 25? Are you kidding me? All this coming in games where his D is on the field 80+ plays a game.
Point is, the story is now out. Lewis is cheating. The whole god/heart/warrior/look how hard I worked to get back story is all complete BS. And Ray knows it. The story is out and more info/revelations will come out down the road. How can that not take a toll on him? He's knows he's been exposed and will be exposed much more down the road. There can't be a bigger distraction than that. It's not the same as the Teo story in terms of what happened but look at Teo: He had a huge cloud looming over him in the NCG and it showed up on the field. He was playing with a huge secret and behind a lie he knew he was about to get caught in.
One final point is I believe Ray has also passed his juice off to teammates in the past. All it takes is a couple of searches of Terrell Suggs' Achilles injury to start the year and your sh.it detector goes off. The man came back from a torn Achilles in 5 months when it takes most athletes of this caliber a full year. Check out the link below. It's comical how obvious it is these guys are juiced. They are going to be exposed and they know it too. I think that is a heavy burden which may diminish the whole psychological edge the Ravens may have had in this game.
https://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-10-23/sports/bs-sp-ravens-suggs-recovery-1024-20121023_1_terrell-suggs-achilles-quarterback-hits-and-one