Analysts' Reasons For Picking Ravens

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/90802/sandos-best-guess-super-bowl-prediction

Am I the only one who thinks some of the analysts' reasons for picking the Ravens are just stupid? It makes it seem like they just don't want to pick the 49ers, so they go with dumb things like this:

Mike Golic, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning: 27-24. "San Francisco may be the better team but I picked the Ravens at the start of the year and I still think they have the team to do it."

In other words, Golic's reasoning is he picked the Ravens at the start of the year so SF being the better team doesn't matter.

Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning: 22-16. "Kaepernick will have his time. This one goes to Flacco -- his is a team of destiny."

Is that even a valid reason? What the hell does that even mean? Seriously. Come on.

Jon Gruden, "Monday Night Football" analyst and Super Bowl champion coach: 23-20. "If this really is Ray Lewis' last game, how can I pick it any other way?"

Great analysis, Jon. Since it's Ray Lewis' last game, the Ravens automatically win. Makes sense. Just like how the Falcons won in Tony Gonzalez' last game, right?

Mike Hill, co-host of ESPN Radio's Hill and Schlereth: 27-23. "The passion of Ray Lewis; his teammates want him to end his career on top."

So Ray Lewis' teammates wanting him to win is all that matters? I guess none of the 49ers want to win.

Suzy Kolber, NFL32 host: 27-24. "Lightning in a bottle season."

Great explanation, Suzy. I now see why you're employed.

Steve Levy, SportsCenter anchor: 27-24. "I think the Ray Lewis' 'distraction' this week helps keep Baltimore focused and it's time John Harbaugh outshines his brother Jim."

OK, so a distraction is going to help the Ravens. That's funny, because usually people think distractions like that will HURT the team. Go figure. Oh, and since it's time John outshines Jim, I guess you can't argue with that, huh?

Stuart Scott, anchor, "SportsCenter," and co-host, "Monday Night Countdown": 29-24. "Colin Kaepernick will have a great game but he hasn't seen a defense like this in the playoffs."

This one just straight up contradicts itself. If he's gonna have a great game, then why would it matter if he's seen a defense like that in the playoffs? You'd figure that not having seen a defense like theirs would hinder his performance, but no, he's gonna have a great game, yet somehow the defense matters even though the guy pretty much said it wouldn't matter by predicting the great game. Good job, buddy.

None of these reasons are valid, in my opinion. None of them are claiming the Ravens are the better team or have the better matchups, they're just pulling nonsense from their rear ends in order to justify picking Baltimore. Meanwhile, the people picking the 49ers are using reasons such as our guys in the trenches being better, the Niners being the more talented team, having the better scheme offensively due to the fact nobody really knows how to defend the pistol yet, etc.

Your thoughts? Do you guys feel like some of these people picking the Ravens to win are truly just hating on the 49ers? Or is it because some of them have to side with the other team to make people believe it can go either way and still want to watch it? I usually don't pay any mind to the predictions because a lot of these guys pick against the Niners no matter what, but I was reading this article and just thinking to myself "what the hell are these fools talking about?"

Totally agree. It's very annoying hearing very little technical analysis, just ray Lewis this and that.

I'd tolerate "the ny giants have the 49ers number" more than this crap.

Some analysts like Tim & Pat have broken it down well. Tim with SF, Pat with Baltimore but for very technical reasons.

We will see. As I told others before, the peak 49er team this year is easily best in the nfl.

Ravens should have murdered us with the 9 sacks in their house , and our inability to get to flacco. Let's see THAT get repeated.

I thought the same thing. I told someone last night that I've heard a lot of people pick the Ravens, but I have yet to hear a good reason.

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
I thought the same thing. I told someone last night that I've heard a lot of people pick the Ravens, but I have yet to hear a good reason.

Exactly. I haven't really heard any good, believable reasons, but the ones I quoted above are truly ridiculous and the people making them should be banned from football analysis. I mean, seriously. If you're gonna go with the Ravens, at least make something up to justify it.

How come none of these people talk about how Flaco, Rice, and Torrey Smith was shut down by the same 49ers defense last season? Why do they refuse to analyze that game?

Originally posted by 49erRider:

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:

I thought the same thing. I told someone last night that I've heard a lot of people pick the Ravens, but I have yet to hear a good reason.

Exactly. I haven't really heard any good, believable reasons, but the ones I quoted above are truly ridiculous and the people making them should be banned from football analysis. I mean, seriously. If you're gonna go with the Ravens, at least make something up to justify it.

Its funny how the picks favoring the Ravens share a common theme.

If I were a Ravens fan reading those I would say to myself..... "great, nobody can come up with even a decent reason to pick my team."

At the end of the day picks mean nothing, but at least show me you put some thought into them.

I've also noticed this and would just like to add my lulz to the group.

GREGG ROSENTHAL

Why the Ravens will win: Because NFL teams just want to drive us crazy by proving, year after year, that the regular season is almost irrelevant.

MVP: Joe Flacco

Bold prediction: Bernard Pierce will top 100 yards.

Why does this guy hate the niners so much?

Aditi Kinkhabwala

Why the Ravens will win: The natural order of life dictates that the older sibling (Baltimore coach John Harbaugh) is supposed to beat the younger brother (San Francisco coach Jim Harbaugh). (Note: This writer is a big sister.)

MVP: Anquan Boldin

Bold prediction: A defensive back will run away from Boldin.

I've never seen this woman make an intelligent statement. Ever.

http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/story/0ap1000000133037/article/super-bowl-xlvii-picks-analysts-split-between-49ers-ravens

It seems that everyone interviewed on 95.7 this week was picking the 49ers.

You've done a nice job of showing what the talking heads are doing on any given day but it's not something we as fans should care about. But I am guilty of being sick and tired of hearing about Ray Lewis. He is #2 on my list of most " annoying retiring NFL players of all time." Brett Favre of course being the undisputed #1 who will never be challenged.

Originally posted by NorthNiner:
You've done a nice job of showing what the talking heads are doing on any given day but it's not something we as fans should care about. But I am guilty of being sick and tired of hearing about Ray Lewis. He is #2 on my list of most " annoying retiring NFL players of all time." Brett Favre of course being the undisputed #1 who will never be challenged.

at least ray lewis isnt texting pictures of his flaccid dick to people

Amazing how every single guy who picks the Ravens uses some form of magical thinking. I guess that's because they all know that the Niners really are a better team. But really, I'm surprised that not one of them chose the only possible reason that isn't based on magical thinking - that the Ravens big physical front is the kind of defense that has given the Niners problems in the past. If I had to pick the Ravens, that would be my reasoning. I just happen to think that the Niners have had time to prepare and their all around superior speed and unpredictable offense will overcome that big D-line. And, I just don't think the Ravens linebacker corps is up to the task. You see they can't say anything like that for risk of insulting all those who believe God is on Ray Lewis' side.

I hate to be optimistic with NFL games. Anything can happen. But, I have to admit that it's hard for me to imagine the Ravens winning this game and it's easy for me to imagine a big win as opposed to a squeaker. For a great article comparing the birth of the Niners as champions in 1981 to their rebirth this year, Lowell Cohen has a very nice article: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130201/SPORTS/302011042/1010/SPORTS?p=1&tc=pg

Thank you... But no worries, it's all a good omen anyways.

Gregg Rosenthal and Aditi Kinkhabwala - is there anything more than magical thinking in those predictions. I may be wrong, but I think Gregg is the little punk son of Jim Rosenthall, who is a long-time sports writer for the Baltimore Sun, so he's a homer. Aditi Kinkhabwala is a former writer for the Wall Street Journal (!) so she obviously knows a lot about.... what really? Business? Who knows.

Originally posted by 49erRider:
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/90802/sandos-best-guess-super-bowl-prediction

Am I the only one who thinks some of the analysts' reasons for picking the Ravens are just stupid? It makes it seem like they just don't want to pick the 49ers, so they go with dumb things like this:

Mike Golic, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning: 27-24. "San Francisco may be the better team but I picked the Ravens at the start of the year and I still think they have the team to do it."

In other words, Golic's reasoning is he picked the Ravens at the start of the year so SF being the better team doesn't matter.

Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike in the Morning: 22-16. "Kaepernick will have his time. This one goes to Flacco -- his is a team of destiny."

Is that even a valid reason? What the hell does that even mean? Seriously. Come on.

Jon Gruden, "Monday Night Football" analyst and Super Bowl champion coach: 23-20. "If this really is Ray Lewis' last game, how can I pick it any other way?"

Great analysis, Jon. Since it's Ray Lewis' last game, the Ravens automatically win. Makes sense. Just like how the Falcons won in Tony Gonzalez' last game, right?

Mike Hill, co-host of ESPN Radio's Hill and Schlereth: 27-23. "The passion of Ray Lewis; his teammates want him to end his career on top."

So Ray Lewis' teammates wanting him to win is all that matters? I guess none of the 49ers want to win.

Suzy Kolber, NFL32 host: 27-24. "Lightning in a bottle season."

Great explanation, Suzy. I now see why you're employed.

Steve Levy, SportsCenter anchor: 27-24. "I think the Ray Lewis' 'distraction' this week helps keep Baltimore focused and it's time John Harbaugh outshines his brother Jim."

OK, so a distraction is going to help the Ravens. That's funny, because usually people think distractions like that will HURT the team. Go figure. Oh, and since it's time John outshines Jim, I guess you can't argue with that, huh?

Stuart Scott, anchor, "SportsCenter," and co-host, "Monday Night Countdown": 29-24. "Colin Kaepernick will have a great game but he hasn't seen a defense like this in the playoffs."

This one just straight up contradicts itself. If he's gonna have a great game, then why would it matter if he's seen a defense like that in the playoffs? You'd figure that not having seen a defense like theirs would hinder his performance, but no, he's gonna have a great game, yet somehow the defense matters even though the guy pretty much said it wouldn't matter by predicting the great game. Good job, buddy.

None of these reasons are valid, in my opinion. None of them are claiming the Ravens are the better team or have the better matchups, they're just pulling nonsense from their rear ends in order to justify picking Baltimore. Meanwhile, the people picking the 49ers are using reasons such as our guys in the trenches being better, the Niners being the more talented team, having the better scheme offensively due to the fact nobody really knows how to defend the pistol yet, etc.

Your thoughts? Do you guys feel like some of these people picking the Ravens to win are truly just hating on the 49ers? Or is it because some of them have to side with the other team to make people believe it can go either way and still want to watch it? I usually don't pay any mind to the predictions because a lot of these guys pick against the Niners no matter what, but I was reading this article and just thinking to myself "what the hell are these fools talking about?"

Totally agree. Those answers on why the Ravens will win from these so called "analysts" seem like responses a freakin 14 yr old would make. It's freakin absurd. Just seems like everyone esp on ESPN want the Ravens to win and are dreading the possibility of us winning mainly because they won't be able to talk non-stop about Ray Lewis's great career and how "amazing" it was for him to go out with another ring; not to mention them harping on the Ravens being "the team of destiny" this season. It's all f**kin ridiculous if you ask me.