For the second straight week, the Baltimore Ravens will face a team that is keeping one of its best offensive weapons out of the game. 

In Week 1, Baltimore faced a Kansas City Chiefs team without its more decorated off-season addition – quarterback Matt Cassel.  Cassel suffered an MCL sprain a few weeks before Week 1, and was a game-time decision.  And the decision was to keep him on the bench.

LT will be on the sidelines for Sunday's game against Baltimore.

Now, reports have surfaced that Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson will be out of the lineup for Sunday’s game versus Baltimore.  The reports have his injury listed as an ankle sprain.  LT was reportedly hurt during Monday night’s game at the Oakland Raiders.

Tomlinson would be pivotal against a team like Baltimore – if he was the old LT.  On Monday night, Tomlinson was not even the best running back on the field (my vote goes to the Raiders’ Darren McFadden).  He seems to have lost that explosiveness which made him the premier runner in the NFL just a few years ago. 

So it seems that there is a trend developing.  For the first two weeks of the season, teams have kept their best offensive weapons on the sidelines when playing the Ravens.  And who could blame them?  The Ravens have a fast, intelligent, aggressive, and just plain scary defensive unit.  They are blessed with talent at virtually every defensive position and play the game with the passion that could only come from a leader like Ray Lewis.

Given that blessing, they most daunting task that the Ravens will always have is to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers (who are in the same division).  Pittsburgh has more overall balance than does Baltimore, but a defense like the Ravens’ will always keep them in the game.

And make no mistake about it – they still have the best defensive unit in the entire NFL.