The Ravens are legit

You might be inclined to write off the Ravens win yesterday over a hapless Cincinnati Bengals team as something that should have happened, and came easy for Baltimore. And yeah, the 0–9 record for the Bengals isn’t misleading. They rank 29th in offensive DVOA and 31st in defensive DVOA (per Football Outsiders). 4th round rookie quarterback Ryan Finley was making his debut for the Bengals. So it would have been a massive upset if the Ravens were to lose this game.

The Ravens would have been forgiven for coming out a little slow, however. They were coming off of an emotional, statement win over the previously undefeated Patriots that undoubtedly required a ton of preparation. And divisional road games are divisional road games no matter the talent discrepancy between the two teams. When two teams share a division and play each other twice a year, they are often very familiar with matchups and schemes of the other team. The Saints reminded us of that today with a home loss to the previously 1–7 Falcons. The Falcons were 30th in defensive DVOA going into the game today, and the New Orleans offense struggled to put up 9 points. Not to say the Saints aren’t still in contention for the Super Bowl, but the truly elite teams in the NFL don’t play to the level of their competition — they squash the weak teams and bring that energy into matchups with elite teams.