I’m guessing the executives at “the world-wide leader” are worrying about the ratings of this game almost as much as the executives at Rupert Murdoch’s empire are worrying about the World Series ratings, but before we get into all that…let’s take a quick spin around the league to recap yesterday’s news.

The two biggest stories of the day were Arian Foster returning to relevancy with the biggest fantasy game of the day (hopefully now he’s getting nicer things tweeted at him), and DeMarco Murray EXPLODING for 253 yards…causing Felix Jones to go look-up the name “Wally Pipp”.

Elsewhere…Tim Tebow took a nap for three quarters before pulling-out a win to add to his legend, the Saints put a 62-7 thumping on the Colts, Green Bay juuuust squeaked by the Minnesota Ponders, and Cleveland and Seattle set NFL offenses back about 20 years.

Mike Shanahan once-again took fantasy owners on a Hightower/Torain rollercoaster ride (before Hightower got hurt), the Jets rode Plaxico Burress’ three TDs to a comeback victory, and Chicago and Tampa Bay continued their quest to show the English that American Football is just as boring as English Football.

And since “handshake news” seems to be the topic du jour these days…Jim Schwartz took his 23-16 beating by the Falcons like a man this week, but we couldn’t go one measly week without another “controversy” that involved Todd Haley and Hue Jackson’s post-game handshake following the 28-0 beat-down that the Chiefs put on the Raiders (maybe Hue was just a tad ornery after watching Carson Palmer and Kyle Boller combine for SIX interceptions).

Maybe this type of scenario only happens in my head, but here’s what I’m envisioning happened in the board room when the Monday Night Football match-ups were chosen all those months ago:

Moral of the story:It never pays to have “yes men”. A release of David Garrard, a promotion of Blaine Gabbert, and 5 losses later…here we are, with TV executive’s “dream” scenario of the 4-1 Ravens visiting the 1-5 Jaguars.

The Jaguars pretty-much put up the white flag before the season even started when they released David Garrard less than a week before the start of the season. Blaine Gabbert hasn’t looked horrible, but he also hasn’t looked much better than Jimmy Claussen last season (ok fine…he’s looked pretty horrible on his way to leading the Jaguars to the bottom of the league in terms of passing offense). It also doesn’t help that his top four receiving targets (Mike Thomas, Jason Hill, Mike Sims-Walker, and Marcedes Lewis aren’t exactly being confused for the likes of Dez Bryant, Miles Austin, and Jason Witten). The NFL’s biggest fantasy football fan has been serviceable this year with 572 yards and 2 TDs, but Marion Jones probably has as much hope of helping this team as Maurice Jones-Drew does as this point. He’s the only Jaguar I see having any type of fantasy-worthy game tonight, and with the Ravens likely focused on stopping him…even he probably won’t do much for his owners.

If there’s any silver-lining for Jaguars’ fans at this point, it’s that your team has the 6th-ranked defense in terms of yards allowed (that, and the fact that you’re one of the front-runners in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes). Before we move onto the Ravens…one last thought on the Jaguars: how does Jack Del Rio still have a job at this point???

The Ravens come into this game looking like a lock to hit 5-1 by the end of the night. Their defense is looking 2002-like, Ray Rice is looking like a top-5 running back, and Joe Flacco is looking like he hasn’t regressed (even if he hasn’t really PROgressed all that much).

But let’s give the Jaguar faithful some hope and re-visit the fact that this very same Raven team went into a very similar “lock” game in Tennessee five weeks ago and laid an egg en route to a 26-13 loss.

Getting back to reality though (sorry Jags’ fans…it ain’t happenin’), the Ravens top-ranked defense should have a field-day with Gabbert tonight and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them put up 20+ points in standard fantasy leagues.

As much of a hard time as I’ve been giving Joe Flacco (the Ravens are ranked 26th in total offense), he should have a pretty decent game tonight as the Jags are vulnerable to the deep ball. I’m looking for Anquan Boldin to put up some nice numbers tonight (probably somewhere around 8 catches for 80+ yards and a TD), and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Torrey Smith take advantaged of the aforementioned long-ball weakness of the Jags’ secondary.

My call for the star-of-the-night is Ray Rice (thanks, Captain Obvious). The Jags have a middle-of-the-road run defense (14th in the NFL), and I think Rice will take advantage of that while also capitalizing on the screen-pass early-and-often on his way to a big game.

Before I let you go, let’s take a look at a few quick-hit fantasy-worthy nuggets from today:

–       Nothing is confirmed yet, but it’s looking like Tim Hightower has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season if that’s the case. Ryan Torain and Roy Helu look to be the beneficiaries here, but trying to guess what Mike Shanahan will do at running back is about as easy as figuring out why Kim Kardashian is famous.

–       Earnest Graham looks like he’ll miss the rest of the season as well (with a painful-sounding torn Achilles). LaGarrette Blount’s injury timetable is still up-in-the-air, and Kregg Lumpkin is the only guy left to carry the rock in Tampa Bay. Is that Tiki Barber’s cell phone ringing I hear? They’d probably be better off letting Ronde carry the ball and pretend he’s Tiki…

–       Don’t kick Knowshon Moreno to the curb just yet…Willis McGahee has a fractured hand and while there’s no timetable yet, I’d have to assume he’ll miss at least a few weeks.

–       Beanie Wells has some sort of knee issue that forced him to leave the Cardinals-Steelers game. If he misses any time, LaRod Stephens-Howling and Alfonso Smith look to be the ones to fill the void.

–       Darren McFadden left the Raiders game with a sprained ankle, but the Raiders have a bye this week (Carson Palmer must be thanking his lucky stars) and he should be good-to-go for Week 9. If you’re worried, Michael Bush isn’t the worst insurance policy.

–       Greg Jennings also had a bit of an injury worry (hand) on Sunday, but he re-entered the game and also has a bye week to nurse himself back to health.

–       I hesitate to even give him any ink, but Terrell Owens is looking like he might be a Titan soon and is worth a speculative add if you need WR help.

–       Santana Moss suffered a broken hand and will definitely miss some time…making Jabar Gafney and Anthony Armstrong candidates to see more targets (this could be a potential T.O. destination as well)

Good luck to everyone who has match-ups hanging in the balance tonight…I hope you’re not relying on any Jaguars!