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Game plan: Ravens at Raiders
By Ron Jaworski


The Oakland Raiders may have shut out the Miami Dolphins, and the Baltimore Ravens were able to knock off the Tennessee Titans, but those two divisional playoff games will no longer apply when the Raiders and the Ravens get together in Sunday's AFC championship game.

Trent Dilfer
Trent Dilfer completed only five of 16 passes last weekend against the Titans.
The individual matchups between the Raiders and the Ravens are vastly different from what was seen last week. And no matchup Sunday will be more critical than the one pitting the Ravens' league-leading run defense against the Raiders' league-leading run offense. Who is going to win that battle?

Looking at the Ravens' front four, tackles Tony Siragusa and Sam Adams are a couple of sumos inside. But the Ravens use a nice rotation, bringing in Lional Dalton and Larry Webster to spell Siragusa and Adams and keep everyone fresh. There is no falloff in performance when Dalton and Webster enter the game. That forces the opposing center and two guards to block the two tackles.

And the tackles make linebacker Ray Lewis really effective. Siragusa, Adams and company don't let the uncovered lineman get to Lewis, who can be blocked if teams can get a body on him. The tackles allow Lewis to use his biggest strength -- speed -- to make plays. On the outside defensive ends Michael McCrary and Rob Burnett are fast players who can chase down plays and can leap over cut blocks. Combined, the front four makes plays and does an outstanding job.

However, the Raiders can run the football. Trust me -- they are not fancy. Although they will run outside on occasion, the Raiders are a power-running, between-the-tackles team. Like the Ravens with their defensive tackles, the Raiders rotate backs and keep them fresh. In fact, they use a number of running backs, tight ends and receivers and have been very effective with that style of offense.

Napoleon Kaufman's injury and possible unavailability will hurt the Raiders' ability to attack the edges of the Ravens' defense. But the Raiders like to use Randy Jordan, and I think the Ravens will see more of Jordan because of his speed.

The game's forgotten matchup is between the Ravens offense and the Raiders defense. People look at Trent Dilfer's stats from last week and see that he completed only five of 16 passes. But the Ravens receivers dropped five balls, and Dilfer only made one bad decision in 16 attempts. He also underthrew a few deep balls that were potential touchdowns, and he has to hit those. But his decision-making was still excellent. He didn't turn the ball over and isn't making mistakes to hurt his team. He's playing to the strength of his team.

Traveling to Oakland -- and playing in front of the Raider fans and the Black Hole -- is unlikely to intimidate the Ravens. For the last two years, the best home team in football has been the Tennessee Titans, but the Ravens have beaten them twice in Nashville, including last week. The game is played on the field, and Baltimore has overcome a lot. Not only have the Ravens won twice in Tennessee, but they went five weeks without scoring a touchdown, yet found a way to win because Matt Stover was tremendous in the kicking game.

Meanwhile, the Raiders looked fresh last week and had some giddyup in their step. Jon Gruden has done one of the NFL's best coaching jobs this year. He deserves accolades as Coach of the Year. He has kept the team focused and has done a terrific job with the overall team -- offense, defense and special teams. Everybody knows about Gruden's work ethic and intensity, but he has molded a complete football team with few weaknesses. And in a title game, the team with fewer weaknesses is more likely to win.

Here are the keys to the AFC championship game:

Three keys for the Ravens:
1. Sustain offense: The Ravens only had control of the ball for 19 minutes last week. If their defense is on the field 40 minutes, they will get killed. They have to sustain offense and must be on the field. They need a more consistent running game, and they should be able to run and move the chains against the Raiders. If they don't and Rich Gannon is given 40 minutes on the field, the Raiders will score a lot of points.

2. Passing efficiency: Dilfer must be sharp in the passing game, and the receivers must catch the ball. The Ravens need big games from Qadry Ismail, Shannon Sharpe and Jamal Lewis out of the backfield as a receiver. And Dilfer can't miss on too many opportunities to make big plays down the field.

3. Big games from linebackers and safeties: The Raiders will try to spread them out. They will look back at the Jets-Ravens game in Week 17 and see the game that Vinny Testaverde had when the Jets spread out the Ravens defense. The Raiders can use Jordan like the Jets used Richie Anderson and create matchups in the passing game. With a guy like Jordan, that gives the Raiders the ability like Richie Anderson to spread the field and create some matchups in the short passing game. The matchup favors the Raiders, so the Ravens' linebackers and safeties must have big games against the short passing game of the Raiders.

Three keys for the Raiders:
1. Great game from Gannon: The Raiders' strength is the possession passing game and Gannon's movement. They don't throw the ball much down the field; they throw less than three balls per game that travel more than 20 yards. And very few plays are made in timing and rhythm with the Raiders offense. They make plays when Gannon moves. When he moves, the receivers do a great job of uncovering. Gannon, the ad-lib quarterback, has a good feel with his receivers.

2. Tough interior: It will be critical for center Barret Robbins and guards Steve Wisniewski and Mo Collins to get some push up the middle against the Ravens' defensive tackles. If they don't, Ray Lewis will be able to run free and have another big game. Robbins, Wisniewski and Collins have to play their best game of the year.

3. Thomas must turn it up: Linebacker William Thomas is the key for the Raiders defense. The Ravens will go into the I-formation, run weak side and send fullback Sam Gash at Thomas. Thomas is a tremendous athlete who makes big plays in pass defense, but he likes to run around blocks and isn't the league's biggest and most physical linebacker. The Ravens will try to knock Thomas out of the box with Gash, who is a great blocker. Thomas will need to play a physical game. He'll make plays in the passing game with his athleticism. But the Ravens will force him to take on blocks.



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