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.

Neal Leaves Baltimore

Lorenzo Neal agreed to a deal with the Oakland Raiders last Friday. This will be Neal's 17th season playing ball. With the Ravens the Fullback played all 16 games making holes for our RBs to get yards & sometimes getting the ball to get 1st downs himself. He was only with the Ravens for a year but the veteran proved he still got value. Neal was previously with SD so hes going back to Cali & we'll see if he helps out Northern Cali as much as he did with us. With Neal leaving, Ravens are saying McClain will be reverting back to his original FB position (which he was drafted to the Pro Bowl for) . McClain ran the ball last year for the most part, along side of Rice & McGahee, but he said “With the success I had last year at halfback, I'm leaning more towards tailback, but you know me, I’m going to play my role and do whatever I can to help the team. I know they've got a plan for us and it involves the whole 11.” We'll see how this move effects out offense, since performance wise I think McClain was better than McGahee & Rice, but if McGahee can ever get to the 100% he was at 2 years ago he should be able to step it up again. I think this will definitely be affecting our run game next year, hopefully our airborne attack gets better with Flacco.

Recap on the past weeks, Week 16

Yeah, yeah, yeah I haven't been up to date with the ravens progress the past couple weeks. I've been a little tied up with winning/ celebrating the awesomeness that is the Baltimore Ravens. So here's what has happened with the rest of the season, for those of you who already don't know. Cowboys game: close the whole game then, for some reasonm the last 2 plays the cowboys decide to stop playing all defense and let Mcgahee first run a huge 77 yrd touchdown (which was this seasons, & his career high) then immidiately following McLain beat that record with a 82 yrd touchdown. Good way to close out your stadium dallas. Let me know if TO needs a tissue this press conference. I think Romo doesn't care about the game anymore cause he knows he's gonna be laid by Jessica Simpson either way. I don't blame him. Romo just switch to being in a boyband maybe you'll be better at that.

Week 14 Deadskins still suck

An amazing win on primetime, last Sunday. Sorry to disappoint the lower part of the state, but your Deadskins are no match for the real MD team. Another defensive game 2 sacks, 2 INT, Fumble recovery, & a TD. I'm little pissed about our offense. Flaccos 1 INT, but more importantly can someone keep McGahee off the field! I feel like his injury has never fully been recovered & his performance compared to McClain & Rice is sub par. He dropped a perfect carry but then luckily, for him, he kicked it out of bounds before it was a turnover. He can never find a hole when he drives up the middle anymore. I think hes been done for this season before it started. He was a huge force last season but hasn't been living up to his worth this one. Also, on his player stats (when they say their name & college) he is the only cocky guy that says Willis McGahee "you already know". WTF no no no you are not that good to be saying that kind of stuck up shit. You aren't that good & you're not TO. Don't start carrying a sharpie in your sock you haven't scored a TD since week 10 against Houston. Besides this next Sunday is huge. We beat those bastards we'll be tied for first in our division, but more importantly we'll beat the steelers. We're ranked 6th overall, we're doing good, lets keep this up & get another W on the board.

Pick the Plays

Found a cool little sweepstakes link on the Ravens site, sponsored by Verizon. You get to pick daily a new play (you think will happen) for each quarter of the game. The prizes look pretty sweet & it's free, so why not if you're bored like me! Here's the link again: http://go.rtm.com/ravensplaybook/ if you didn't click the sweepstakes. Hopefully Willis will not be injured this week & get some yards.