Pete Prisco’s commentary and predictions have been fun to keep track of this football season. First he said the Ravens will regret Ray Rice’s contract extension, then he predicted that the Patriots would go 16-0 this season and the Bengals would win the AFC North and most recently he said that the Ravens are better off without Ray Lewis on the field.
Baltimore’s favorite national pundit weighed in on John Harbaugh’s fake field goal against the Raiders while the Ravens were up 41-17 and, not surprisingly, he strongly disagreed with the call.
“The more I see that fake field goal up 41-17, the more classless I think it is by the Ravens,” he tweeted.
If running up the score is classless, then why hasn’t Bill Belichick been scrutinized for repeatedly letting Tom Brady sling the ball down the field late in the fourth quarter while his Patriots were up 30+ points?
Ravens fans are so angry I called the fake field goal classless. That’s what it was — and I would say that to anybody
— Pete Prisco (@PriscoCBS) November 13, 2012
This is the NFL. The Raiders could have stopped it, but they didn’t. Their head coach Dennis Allen didn’t care, so why should Prisco or anyone else?
Should the Ravens have kicked the field goal and only beaten the Raiders by 31 instead of 35? Or would that have been too classless too.
You know what? They should have just played it safe, been respectful and just taken a knee to turn the ball over on downs.
Seriously though, a 55-20 win is a statement to a weak conference before the toughest stretch of schedule that the Ravens will face. Adding 7 more points has nothing to do with class.
I disagree with Prisco. This is the NFL. The Raiders are NFL players. But even more importantly, a fake FG is an important play to run correctly. They may NEED to actually use that play at a critical time later in the year or at the very least, it gives the opponent something extra to think about when they line up for a block. I know Prisco or someone else will argue that you can run the play to perfection in practice, but everyone knows you cannot simulate game conditions. And here was an opportunity when you are already up big to run the play in game conditions. Now, there should be a small comfort level by the Ravens (Harbaugh and his players) to run the play again if needed.
When you run that play 3 bad things can happen and 1 good thing. By being up big, you minimize the risk. Had this been a close game and the Ravens tried it and failed the media would be all over them for not kicking the FG or for not practicing it enough before running it or giving the opponent the ball in favorable field position (or just a turnover). Prisco, you[‘ve never played the NFL game, you don’t understand what is at stake every week and yet you hide behind a pen to share your feelings about a play that you only see on the surface. Prisco, maybe instead of writing it, you should speak directly to John Harbaugh and see how that works out.
So let me get this straight…Our baseball team gets beat up all year for their “run differntial” despite winning 93 regular season games.
Our football team gets beat up for scoring too many points?!?
prisco is a raven hater pure and simple.