Early look at Baltimore Ravens: Kicking game, Ravens TE's, Pats O-Line lead the conversation

(Photo by Yahoo Sports)

by Dakota Antelman

Steve Smith set to draw big coverage from secondary

Baltimore tight end Steve Smith caught five passes for 101 yards against the Steelers. In a game dominated by a focus on diversifying the Ravens offense, Smith excelled, making the most of the few passes QB Joe Flacco tossed his way.

Smith as a player has a long engraved history of making teams pay with big plays. He is a big bodied tight end, similar in playing style to the likes of former Ravens great Dennis Pitta and similar in attitude to Patriot anchor Rob Grokowski.

He adds an interesting facet to the impending Patriots/Ravens meeting as his being a slightly slower player would make it hard for New England to assign him to any of their shut down corner backs. At the same time though, leaving Smith to the linebackers could spell disaster for the Patriots.

Stage set for battle of the kickers

Two kickers who have been near perennial Pro-Bowl contenders for multiple years now will be facing off in the Patriots/Ravens divisional game.

Stephan Gotskowski of New England kicks against Justin Tucker of Baltimore. The two had similar numbers even in a somewhat down year for Tucker.

Tucker made 29 of 34 field goal attempts this season leading the team in points scored and nailing long distance kicks in several clutch situations for the team. Gostkowski was slightly better hitting 35 of 37 field goals.

Tucker and Gostkowski figure to be big factors in Saturday's game with both teams relying heavily on the presence of a consistent kicker when their offence stalls.

Dan Connolly, Nate Solder and O-Line tested again by Baltimore pass rush

After allowing four or more sacks in back-to-back games, the Patriots offensive line appears to be one of the team's weakest units going into the postseason opener.

Despite a stock of fundamentally strong offensive tackles, the pocket has been consistently collapsing on Tom Brady. If they do not turn things around, the future hall of famer could be suffering the same claustrophobic fate by halftime on Saturday. This is because the Baltimore Ravens sacked opponents a league best, 49 times in the regular season, utilizing one of the best pass rushes in football with brutal effectiveness.

The one story line running in their favor as Saturday approaches does feature Nate Solder returning to the team after leaving the Week 17 finale against Buffalo. Solder could solidify the offensive line which, notably, played its worst after Solder was injured.

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Nate Solder played through concussion last Sunday: Why this was such a terrible move by Patriots

The actions of the New England Patriots these past few days have led many to believe that they could care less about the integrity of Nate Solder's brain. 

For 2 consecutive weeks now, the 25 year old offensive linemen has suffered a concussion and yet he has not been decommissioned for longer than a drive on either occasion thus bringing about some major questions about the moral standards of Bill Belichick and the Patriots organization. It is no secret that already challenged, Tom Brady has been under siege of late taking hit after hit as a result of a horrendous but relatively healthy offensive line. However, as bad as this offensive line is, Nate Solder remains one of the lone bright spots of the unit blocking on Brady's blind side meaning that the Patriots QB can at least see the locomotive before it mashes him into the ground. 

Solder has played like this for each of his 3 seasons in the NFL playing 1,030 snaps this season alone while ranking 8th in the NFL's statistical list of top left tackles in all of football. For that reason with the Patriots going up against professional human steam roller, Terrell Suggs, having the guy who would do the best job at standing between him and Tom Brady doing just that would be optimal. However, the line must be drawn at a one point. We have since passed that point. 

“These concussion things are a serious issue. It’s not something that’s just going to go away – concussions just don’t go away in a week. It takes a couple weeks to get over it,” former Patriot linemen Rosevelt Colvin said early Saturday morning when speaking on 98.5 The Sports Hub.  

Several hours later, the same network produced another key quote on this subject when afternoon host Andy Gresh eluded to the fact that continuing to play such a battered linemen could be highly detrimental to his future as a football player. Why? Because with each new concussion, the chance of getting another one is only amplified meaning that at the rate at Solder is jumping onto the field, if any one of those blocks involves a hand or elbow to the head there could be a sizable chance that Solder could snag the hat trick for consecutive concussions.  

There is a culture in the NFL that all but forces players to play through anything that could limit their playing time and yet, it seems cruel that no matter how willing to play Solder is he might subliminally be simply submitting to the culture of this league  therefore casting nowhere near enough thought to his own personal health.

To prevent situations like this, the NFL must institute a rule banning concussed players from playing until their concussions have substantially healed but in the meantime, Bill Belichick and company must realize that this is a man's life long well-being that we are talking about and that preserving it takes precedence over preventing a few hits to Tom Brady. 

Tom is a big boy, he can take it, Nate Solder's brain however must be treated like a china plate and to this point, that is not the case. 

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