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.

Willie Anderson put to Reserve/Retired list

I think we knew this was coming, Willie Anderson was drafted by the Ravens last minute after the Bengals cut him this past year. He definitely gave our O-line strength making room for our RB's & giving protection for good ol' joey boy, but with our first round pick (Oher) was drafted in Willie's position I think the young blood was destined to take over. Willie has been battling injuries for a while & I think being a 13 year veteran his injuries aren't going to any better. Thanks for your help in Baltimore for the short time you were here.

Draft 2009 Results

Draft 2009 results:

Rd 1, Pick 23 (23)	Michael Oher OT
Rd 2, Pick 25 (57)	Paul Kruger DE
Rd 3, Pick 24 (88)	Lardarius Webb CB
Rd 5, Pick 1 (137)	Jason Phillips ILB
Rd 5, Pick 13 (149)	Davon Drew TE
Rd 6, Pick 12 (185)	Cedric Peerman RB

Michael Oher (OT) picked first round (23rd pick after we traded up from the Patriots) will bring more protection for Flacco. Great pick, we did need more protection on the line & Oher will give it. With the other picks we added more arsenal for the defense which I guess this is a good idea I'm not sure it should have been priooritzed over the much needed recievers but our scouts & Newsome seemed to think so. Finally, we added another TE & RB which I really don't think we needed, but I guess they'll be helpful in the long run sitting on the back burner. So DHB was drafted (I feel way to prematurely & who I wanted mainly because he was from MD & was sick at the combine) by Oakland our chances of snatching him were put to rest. The other WR's that had been on people minds: Kenny Britt (Rutgers) taken by Tennessee, Hakeem Nicks (UNC) taken by the Giants, & Brian Robiskie (Ohio State) by Cleveland I think we're all wondering what Newsome plans to do about our need for more WR's.
He reported to the Sun "I will again say this: We went to the AFC chapionship game with the guys that we had, and Demetrius was not healthy. We get a healthy Demetrius Williams back -- and he's working toward that -- then with the way we're going to be able to protect it, the way Joe Flacco can throw it, the way our running backs can run it, and the way we play defense and special teams, we'll be around at the end of December and January just with the team we have right now. I feel very good about that." - Newsome. So apparently we're just gonna stick with what we got with the WR's. I can't argue too much with this decision, Mason & Clayton did fine last season (even better than usual with Flacco throwing better than our usual QB's). Come next year they should perform just as well if not better now that they know Flacco can get it to them. I think we can hold out on picking up more WR's at least 1 more year before our current WR's ages catch up with their careers. So overall our picks were a OK, not spectacular & not exactly what everyone wanted but still smart (can't get everyone at 26th). Even with all the players drafted you can't look too much into their college & combine stats. When the season starts & the injuries come into play we'll see how these guys adapt to the League & their true potentials.