Archive for January, 2010

Almost every year the Ravens are projected to take either wide receiver or a cornerback in round one of the draft. This year will be no different. Sure Ozzie Newsome struck gold last year snagging Lardarius Webb in late round three, but with Derrick Mason flirting with retirement and some major injuries in the secondary, Ravens fans will be singing the same old tune. Here’s a list of the Ravens’ draft needs for 2010 at the moment. Obviously things are subject to change depending on how free agency shakes out. Wide Receiver It’s no secret that the Ravens have never [...]

Opening Thoughts They got here.  It wasn’t easy, and they needed so much help over the course of the last four weeks, but it happened, and they have the chance to play for a Super Bowl.  After all that, they get possibly the worst matchup they could imagine.  Against Tom Brady’s Patriots in Foxborough.  Then, a few things started going right for them.  All of their stars (Suggs, Reed, Mason) have gotten healthy and are probable today, and the Pats lost their top receiver to a freak injury (Wes Welker).  It’ll be important that the Ravens limit penalties and take [...]

First off, with some NFL news.  Peyton Manning will be getting MVP, and the Cardinals will most likely trade Anquan Boldin this offseason. If it’s not too steep of a price, expect Boldin to be on the Ravens’ target list.  Brandon Marshall’s price seems only around a 3rd or 4th round pick, but his attitude was so bad, the Ravens may not be interested. Now for the purpose of this post. Two things will be happening in the next week or so on the blog.  The first is that we’ll be adding a third writer, Tripp Colonell, as a draft [...]

Boy is it getting crazy in Seattle.  There are two things I’m going to talk about with the Seahawks situation.  The GM situation and Pete Carroll.  Let’s start with good ole So Cal Pete.  At first it seemed incredibly odd to me that Pete Carroll has not even commented on NFL head coaching offers during his time at USC, and now he’s taking a job in of all places…Seattle. Thinking about it however, things started to add up.  USC had a sub-par season, Carroll is involved in a recruiting firestorm with allegations hovering about Reggie Bush’s house and Joe McKnight’s [...]

Michael Oher has been nominated as one of five candidates for the NFL’s Rookie of the Year award this season.  Oher started all 16 games for the Ravens, 11 at right tackle, and five on the left.  The huge lineman from Ole Miss strengthened an offensive line that helped the Ravens offense gain over 5,600 yards and set a team record for touchdowns in a season.  His inspirational story coming from the Memphis projects and turning into an NFL starter was the basis for the box office hit, The Blind Side.  Oher’s opponents in the voting are: Jairus Byrd, S, [...]

According to Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s brother, Jim, is a candidate for both the Bills and Raiders head coaching jobs.  Right now Jim, the former Ravens QB, is the head coach at Stanford.  He had been linked to Notre Dame near the end of the college football season, but these are very new and slightly surprising rumors. Here’s the post in its entirety: There has been some speculation that the Buffalo Bills (who don’t currently have a head coach) and the Oakland Raiders (who currently do) could be interested in hiring Stanford coach [...]

In what’s become the talking point among Ravens fans since Sunday, Matt Katula has gone from relative no-name long snapper to special teams scapegoat.  Although in the end, it didn’t affect the game’s outcome, Katula cost Billy Cundiff two field goals on Sunday at Oakland with bad snaps. This is nothing new.  In my opinion, two of Katula’s snaps cost Steve Hauschka field goals, including missing the game winner against Minnesota.  He snapped one over Sam Koch’s head on a punt, and has become a well-known commodity on the Ravens roster.  Other than Katula, how many long snappers in the NFL [...]

The weekend’s been over, the dust has settled, and the Ravens are going to Foxboro on Sunday to face the Patriots at 1 pm on CBS.  Oddly enough, they’re the only game this weekend that is not a rematch of Week 17.  Green Bay at Arizona, Philly at Dallas are exact rematches, with the same venue, and the Jets and Bengals meet again, with a change of scenery to Cincinnati.  Just some quick factoids for Sunday’s matchup:  The Patriots are 8-0 in home playoff games with Tom Brady The Ravens are 7-2 in road playoff games Tom Brady is 13-3 [...]

Heading into Sunday Night Football, here’s how the AFC looks. Indianapolis Colts San Diego Chargers Cincinatti Bengals New England Patriots BALTIMORE RAVENS Who Knows? Here’s a quick run through the playoff scenarios.  The Jets win and they’re in.  They lose and the Texans are in.  The way the seeding is, the Ravens will play the Patriots and the 6th seed will play the Bengals, no matter what happens.  I’d love a matchup against the Jets in the AFC Championship, but let’s not think that far ahead.  That’s all for tonight.  A great day to be a Ravens fan.  Having a [...]

What a way to end the season.   The game fit the season perfectly, with the team creating big plays, missing field goals, getting the fans nervous, and with Frank Walker committing a lot of penalties.  So many it makes your brain hurt.  Here’s some conclusions I drew from watching. Ray Rice can do everything.  Run, catch, block and pump up his teammates. Willis McGahee was the star of the game with 3 TDs, a fiendish stiff arm and looking explosive and dangerous pretty much every time he got the ball.  His totals were: 16 carries, 167 yards and 3 [...]