Week 2: Ravens pull out a close win over Chargers 31-26

This was a great game between 2 similar teams evenly matched. McGahee/Rice vs Darren Sproles, both had huge runs, Sproles more than other doing double time of returning punts. Rice & Sproles have similar builds both are a small bulky 5'7" that seem to find holes for several gains. Both of us have decent QB's able to throw long bombs, but also misfire with interceptions. Both our teams secondaries are less than good, as we saw with Vincent Jackson's TD with 3 Ravens covering him (including Reed who recently reported sat out practice this week). Our defense did a better job shutting their offense down in the redzone than theirs did us. Specifically the game winning shut down by Ray Ray (video shown above), this was huge & Lewis said, "That was probably one of the greatest plays of my career because of my team, because of what we did as a team." That hit ended the game & confirmed the win. Suggs & Ngatat did get sacks on Rivers, but they weren't the usual bone crushing shattering confidence sacks that we needed to shake Rivers up. Our offense played well as usual which is turning our team more into an offensive threat rather than our traditionally renowned defensive. Overall it was a close nail biting game, but in the end Ravens get the win. Coming up next week Cleveland Browns come to Baltimore. We'll see if Anderson can keep his composure in a sea of black & purple. GO RAVENS!

Week 1 Ravens beat Chiefs

Week 1 we beat the KC Chiefs but.. as usual I have some praises & criticisms.

A few notes about the game. First off, Flacco played like a champ & proved he is a leader. He came back this year & played like he did last. He definitely stepped up & rose to the challenge he was given back when he was surprised as starting QB. Flacco was definitely Joe Cool this past Sunday moving & rocketing passes into the end zone. There were several close calls where Joe was deep in a closing pocket but he kept his head up & hit his receivers. The terrible defense from KC also gave Joe massive amounts of time, but even with or without the time he kept his composure.

Second, McGahee & Heap finally step up. McGahee has been battling injuries, seems like for the past 2 years & he didn't seem to come back like his original self til last Sunday. After Rice was announce as starter I think McGahee realized he's got something to prove again & definitely proved it last game. Also, Heap, in the past has been a force as one of the top TE's in the league, but with his battling injuries the last couple seasons we haven't seen alot from him. I think Newsome's draft with Oher gave Flacco the extra protection he needed to open Heap up again & he definitely came through.

Looking towards Game 2 @ San Diego
After our game against KC & SD's game over OAK I'm a little worried.
our secondary played terribly (I'm hatin' mostly on Washington he can never stick with the WRs!) vs SDs secondary played semi-well, granted it was against OAK & they did mess up on the long pass last quarter but, overall they played pretty well shutting down the run game & short passing.

Offense:
We're going to have to pass alot & make most passes long. Doubt we're gonna be able to run much, looked like SD did pretty well stopping that game (then again McFadden & Bush is no McGahee & Rice). Also the short pass game got shut down so if Heap gets the same attention he's gonna have to keeps his hands like glue to get the yards. Overall I think our offense should be fine as long as Flacco plays like he did vs KC. Also if McGahee moves like he did.

Defense:
We gotta shut down Rivers before he gets the bombs off, like 10000x's faster than we did with Croyle. Hopefully Gooden will be able to play, its obvious we really need him. Washington has gotta step up, Foxworth looked fine, but i really feel like Washington needs to be benched, is Rolle gonna heal? Also are we gonna play Kruger? He played amazingly in the preseason they need to get him in there! Overall the D will step up for this game because the lack of D last, but they really gotta step it up we need points from offense & D like the old days!

Then there's special teams... what the heck blocked punt to TD (has that ever happened to us before?!?). I know this wont happen again but seriously.

Ravens Win over Falcon 20-3 ending perfect pre-season

"At the end of Thursday night’s battle of the birds, it seems that Baltimore checked everything off the list and even added a 20-3 victory in the process. At the conclusion of their first undefeated preseason since the 2000 Super Bowl year, the Ravens now shift their focus to the Kansas City Chiefs and the regular-season opener on Sept. 13.

Jason Cook celebrates his TD with Justin Harper “We had certain things we wanted to accomplish for each one of those games, and we really felt like we accomplished, in each one of those games, the things we wanted to accomplish,” said head coach John Harbaugh earlier this week. “Those are very specific things to each position and each side of the ball. But also, with that, we want to win the game if we can.”

The Ravens had success early, and the fact that they did it with what could be considered their junior varsity, the outlook for both sides of the football is promising.

With Baltimore’s second-string offense facing the Falcons’ starting defense, quarterback John Beck led the Ravens on a 14-play, 91-yard scoring drive on his first series.

Baltimore’s backup defense, which featured cameos from starters Suggs and linebacker Tavares Gooden, held quarterback Matt Ryan and the top Falcons offense to 32 total yards.

Two plays later, Williams, who finished with four catches for 77 yards, drew a pass-interference penalty on cornerback Brent Grimes that cost the Falcons 26 yards and moved the football to Atlanta’s 25-yard line.

Williams could have used a big night, considering that he rode on the team plane to Atlanta with a surgical mask because he was battling flu-like symptoms and was overlooked in the starting lineup last week in favor of Kelley Washington.

It was Williams again who hauled in a 19-yarder over his shoulder to get within the red zone, and Beck found rookie fullback Jason Cook on a short pass in the flat. The 245-pound undrafted free agent then rumbled 5 yards to the end zone.

After Suggs left the game with two series of work, accumulating three tackles and a sack, the Falcons got on the board in the second quarter with a 45-yard field goal from veteran kicker Jason Elam. But, the three-pointer capped a nine-play drive that only went 32 yards.

Steve Hauschka split the uprights from 33 and 46 yards. His performance may have cemented his status as Baltimore's permanent kicker for the 2009 campaign." -BR.com