Ten years since he guided the Ravens to the Super Bowl, former coach Brian Billick thinks the team will do it again this year.
Billick predicted that the Ravens will face the Philadelphia Eagles in what would be the franchise's second Super Bowl.
"I think they're the one team that can go in and beat New England," said Billick, who is now an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network.
Billick also expects the Ravens to have a relatively easy time defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday's wild-card game.
"I'm never going to pick against Baltimore when they play a team that hasn't played them before," Billick said on the NFL Network. "It's like playing Peyton Manning for the first time. You can't duplicate it in practice. You have to be in the game to understand the tempo, mentality and physicality of the game. But I don't know that Kansas City can hold up against Baltimore in that they're unfamiliar with them. I don't think Kansas City is quite ready for Baltimore just yet."
Frozen tundra
The Ravens were preparing for more than chilly temperatures in Sunday's playoff game. For the first time in about a month, coach John Harbaugh had his team practicing outside twice.
Temperatures are only expected to reach 29 degrees at Arrowhead Stadium, where there's a 50 percent chance of snow flurries.
"It probably helps us because I guess it's a real hard surface there, and we had a real hard surface out here," Harbaugh said of shifting practice from the indoor field house this past week. "The fields are frozen. We had to be real careful with our footing out here for that reason — you didn't want anybody to slide around on a frozen field and get hurt. But, it probably helped us. I hope so. That was the plan."
Sound barrier
The Ravens offensive line has been flagged for 18 false starts this season, including twice in the third quarter last Sunday at home.
Unlike M&T Bank Stadium, which is quiet when the Ravens offense is on the field, the crowd noise will be a factor at Arrowhead Stadium, which is considered one of the loudest outdoor stadiums in the NFL. So avoiding those pre-snap penalties will be a challenge.
"We're going into an environment where a lot of teams have had issues with that," Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said. "So, it'll take a lot of discipline on our guys' part, and bottom line, at this point, you've got to get it done."
Most talented team
The Ravens fell short of a first-round bye, but cornerback Chris Carr said the team still has a great shot at achieving their championship goals even as a No. 5 seed in the AFC.
"I feel like we have the most talented team in the NFL," Carr said. "If you look at our roster from top to bottom, I think it's fair to say. I've talked to people who have played on other teams, who are on other teams, and I talked to Prince Miller — who was in New England for a week and came back here — and [he was] saying the talent level that we had compared to them. ... So, when you have the most talent, it should be a disappointment if you don't win the Super Bowl."
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