The Baltimore Ravens, currently with a record of 3-3 and 3rd in the AFC North, come off their bye week with a home showdown against the undefeated Denver Broncos. After starting off to a hot 3-0 start, which included numbers of a top five offense, the purple and black have fallen the last three weeks within the final seconds.

With seeing victories by the Steelers, Bengals, Texans, Jets, and Chargers, this weeks match up could be labeled as a must win in order to stay within the AFC playoff hunt. With a record of 2-1 at home, the stats have shown that the Ravens has been more successful on the offensive side of the ball, along with some magic on the defensive side as well.

However, the Denver Broncos will be no easy ride this week. With a record of 6-0, and coming off a bye week as well, the question will be whether Ray Lewis and the defense can cause turnovers, which hasn’t been the greatest theme in the losing streak.

Joe Flacco, who was bothered by an ankle injury in the loss to the Vikings, took it easy last week, and should atleast be around 90 percent healthy for the game on Sunday.

Lineman Jared Gaither also has been battling a neck injury for three weeks, and could give the Ravens a great boost if he returns, as rookie tackle Michael Oher can return to his original position.

Last week, head coach John Harbough said that rookie Lardarius Webb may see some action on the defensive side beginning this week against the Broncos. Webb, who is the starting kick returner, has the NFL speed that is needed as a defensive back, which can help this plagued passing defense. With a bye week to prepare this motive, it will be interesting if this plan is put into affect.

With a schedule ahead that includes back to back road games against division rivals ( Bengals, Browns), along with facing three potent offenses a month from now ( Colts, Packers, Steelers), this could be a do or die situation for the Ravens.

Though there is still time to turn the ship around, a defeat of the undefeated Broncos in Baltimore can give this team confidence heading into the tough part of their schedule, and make the playoffs two striaght years, which has been tough to accomplish.

Matt Miselis is a Baltimore Ravens writer for fanhuddle.com. If you have questions/comments, shoot him an email: mmiselis@fanhuddle.com. Also, you can follow Miselis on his new twitter account: twitter.com/MattMiselis .

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.