Archive for September, 2010

(Note: This intro oozes so much professionalism that you may find yourself cringing at the pure objectivity of it. If so, continue on reading, it gets a little bit better.) Well folks, it’s Steelers Week. Since this matchup is in the City of Stench, there’s not as much hype as the second game, where the odor-bearing Pittsmellians invade the lovely city of Baltimore. Regardless, it’s a game that is circled every year on the schedule no matter how good either team is in that particular season. With the teams splitting the last 14 matchups 7-7, you can rest assured knowing [...]

We learned several things from this game. One is that Peyton Hillis is a freak of nature who’s a better player than the average Brown, and another is that Anquan Boldin is the second coming of Jesus. All Yogi Bear related puns and Bible lessons aside, it was nice to see the Ravens get back in the win column, and even nicer knowing that they got there behind Joe Flacco and their passing game. Last week’s performance against Cincinnati was embarrassing not only for Flacco, but for his receivers, tight ends, and offensive linemen. Playing well this week was huge [...]

After a week of mixed results last week, we return with our third batch of game picks, with this week boasting quite a few interesting matchups. Picks and our current standings after the jump.

Welcome to another Purple Sunday, folks. Today’s is arguably the biggest of the season to this point, not only because the Ravens are going up against the hated Cleveland Browns, but because the Purple Birds are seeing their first regular season action in the friendly confines of M&T Bank Stadium. After a heartbreaking 15-10 loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals last week, the team looks to rebound and come out on top today in a game that  head coach John Harbaugh has called a “must-win”.

After what has seemed like years, and has actually been months, Sergio Kindle FINALLY signed his rookie contract. This news comes almost exactly three weeks after Kindle announced on his Twitter account that he was released from the hospital and returning to the Ravens. Now, with all the loose ends of the contract taken care of, questions start to be raised about Kindle returning to the field. Obviously he’ll have to get back into the swing of things, with the term “game shape” probably being thrown around hundreds of times in the coming weeks, but when Kindle does return, what [...]

This is something that I wanted to do after the Jets game, but never really got to it. Each week, we’ll examine the performance of the rookies on the roster, give their game stats, season stats, a little note about the game, and whatever else we need to do to make this thing rockin’. It will generally be pretty brief, but we’re combining Week 1 and Week 2 with this one, so it’s longer than usual.

Starting this week, EbonyBird.com will be part of the prestigious Blog Blitz section of NFL.com. Being featured weekly, the column will be about anything related to the Ravens, with possible topics ranging from a game recap to something as important and cutting-edge as a full analysis of Ray Lewis’ lunch decisions. In all seriousness, the staff here at EbonyBird.com are extremely appreciative of this opportunity, and we would like to thank all the fine folks at NFL.com and SportsFanLive.com for their generosity with not only our blog, but the whole football side of the FanSided network. We’re excited, and it [...]

Well, there’s one main thing that we can say was positive about this game: The defense is insanely good. Other than that, yesterday’s performance was just terrible. On offense, nothing ever flowed. When the running game was working, the passing game was falling behind. When the passing game worked, well, the passing game worked only a few times in the whole game, to be perfectly honest.

After a silent week, we’re back just in time for the Ravens’ first divisional matchup. Along with the Jets-Patriots matchup, the Ravens-Bengals game tomorrow could be the NFL’s biggest event of the week. There are some very sublime games on the schedule, and we’ll do our best to predict them. Keep reading for the staff’s picks, plus a recap of last week’s.

A new feature on EbonyBird.com, we’ll be giving the players ratings after each game. As the season goes on, we’ll see who is rated highest, and how players have progressed from week to week. The rating scale is out of 10, and there are five key rating categories that go into finding the overall rating for a player. The four categories for our ratings system are Overall Effectiveness (OE), Big Play Factor (BPF), Lack of Mistakes (LM), and Noticeability (NOT). For a full explanation of the ratings system, read this introductory post. Keep in mind that in the Noticeability category, [...]