News and Notes From a Ravens Fan

[MTK]

Ravens fans can spin things any way they want, fact is deep down they have some cause for concern. Every team has to deal with injuries, and if your backups step in and get exposed, that's not a good thing. And let's not pretend all of our success was due to their couple of backups in there.

Ravens: Ravens' pass defense looks shaky against Redskins - baltimoresun.com

Hightower's touchdown run was the first of the preseason against the Ravens, and they were less than pleased about it.

"We never give up yards running the ball, but the bottom line is when you look at that play, there were so many mistakes just on that one play," said inside linebacker Ray Lewis, who was blocked to the turf. "I think this is just an opportunity for us to always get better. But I really like the way we came out and faced adversity."

Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata said there was no miscommunication on the play.

"It was just more of the D-line getting cut down," he said. "Really, we've got to stay on our feet. If you see that play, I've got two guys on me, and some of us got cut down, so they had that little cut-back area. But I think we did better as the game went on. Hopefully, we can get rid of those mistakes and keep up our progression."

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Ravens fans can spin things any way they want, fact is deep down they have some cause for concern. Every team has to deal with injuries, and if your backups step in and get exposed, that's not a good thing. And let's not pretend all of our success was due to their couple of backups in there.

Ravens: Ravens' pass defense looks shaky against Redskins - baltimoresun.com

Hightower's touchdown run was the first of the preseason against the Ravens, and they were less than pleased about it.

"We never give up yards running the ball, but the bottom line is when you look at that play, there were so many mistakes just on that one play," said inside linebacker Ray Lewis, who was blocked to the turf. "I think this is just an opportunity for us to always get better. But I really like the way we came out and faced adversity."

Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata said there was no miscommunication on the play.

"It was just more of the D-line getting cut down," he said. "Really, we've got to stay on our feet. If you see that play, I've got two guys on me, and some of us got cut down, so they had that little cut-back area. But I think we did better as the game went on. Hopefully, we can get rid of those mistakes and keep up our progression."

Yeah, I'm with you. The Ravens are in some trouble this year. Maybe a lot of trouble. They really did not look like they would make the postseason if they played a schedule of 16 Washington Redskin teams, no matter how long they had to make adjustments.

I think the Redskins are going to hit a wall at some point this season when teams actually scheme towards their weaknesses. But who knows? Maybe they'll come out more well rounded on the other side. I hope no one is expecting 16-0 based on three preseason games, but the season is long. 4-12 and 10-6 are both reasonable outcomes at this point.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

On one of my other forum boards, we have a couple of Ravens fans on there. This is what was being posted last night! If this doesn't get ya fired up, nothing will!

Any Ravens fan that talks any sh*t from this point on is just plain ignorant. The pseudo rivalry is cute during preseason, but after the game is over so is the "rivalry". That being said, their first-team offense got 14 points from two lucky penalties against our defensive unit that was without:

- The defense's QB (Fletcher)
- Our best player (Landry)
- One of the starting CBs (Wilson)
- A starting DE (Carriker)
- And we lost one of our promising rookies to an injury during the game (Jenkins)

Also, not to mention how their final first-team TD came against our back ups.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by Ruhskins

Any Ravens fan that talks any sh*t from this point on is just plain ignorant. The pseudo rivalry is cute during preseason, but after the game is over so is the "rivalry". That being said, their first-team offense got 14 points from two lucky penalties against our defensive unit that was without:

- The defense's QB (Fletcher)
- Our best player (Landry)
- One of the starting CBs (Wilson)
- A starting DE (Carriker)
- And we lost one of our promising rookies to an injury during the game (Jenkins)

Also, not to mention how their final first-team TD came against our back ups.

Great Post! Exactly what I was going to say, except I completely forgot about Wilson also being out.

Also, consider the fact that the ravens and especially many raven fans seem to think that they are once again a Super Bowl contender, whereas just a few weeks ago ESPN.com was asking if the Skins were going to be the worst team in the league. I'm not saying we should take this as a moral victory but I think our team came out and showed that they can play. Hopefully this all translates to the regular season.

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by ArtMonkDrillz

Great Post! Exactly what I was going to say, except I completely forgot about Wilson also being out.

Also, consider the fact that the ravens and especially many raven fans seem to think that they are once again a Super Bowl contender, whereas just a few weeks ago ESPN.com was asking if the Skins were going to be the worst team in the league. I'm not saying we should take this as a moral victory but I think our team came out and showed that they can play. Hopefully this all translates to the regular season.

There's no way this Ravens team is a Super Bowl contender. No way, no how. They can be a consistent playoff team, but not a Super Bowl team.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

There's no way this Ravens team is a Super Bowl contender. No way, no how. They can be a consistent playoff team, but not a Super Bowl team.

The Ravens need to get over the Steelers hump before they can be considered a SB team. As a football fan, I'll be curious to see what happens in Baltimore once the likes of Ed Reed and Ray Lewis retire. They still have a monster pass rusher in Suggs, a young up and coming NT in Cody, and probably the best D-lineman in the league in Ngata. But it will be curious to see how that team dynamic changes without Reed's and Lewis' locker room presence.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by skinsguy

There's no way this Ravens team is a Super Bowl contender. No way, no how. They can be a consistent playoff team, but not a Super Bowl team.

Agreed, but I work 5 minutes south of Baltimore and, trust me, the majority their fan base is convinced they are. Remember, the ravens never lose because they're out played or the other team is just better, the refs ALWAYS screw them out of wins.

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by ArtMonkDrillz

Agreed, but I work 5 minutes south of Baltimore and, trust me, the majority their fan base is convinced they are. Remember, the ravens never lose because they're out played or the other team is just better, the refs ALWAYS screw them out of wins.

A few years ago (2007), I had a Ravens fan tell me that the League had arranged for the Ravens to lose to NE (you know, the team that went 16-0) so that it would improve the chances of a New York v. Boston Superbowl.

I have said it before and I'll say it again - Baltimore Fans are just Philadelphia Fan wannabees. Just as obnoxious, just not as famous for it.

[NLC1054]

The thing is, we didn't do anything to the Ravens that the Steelers aren't going to do. Those corner blitz killed the Ravens in two out of three games. Ravens fans may not think it matters, but you think Dick LeBeau isn't licking his chops right now?

Excuses won't save Flacco's butt from being hassled all day come the start of the game.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by NLC1054

The thing is, we didn't do anything to the Ravens that the Steelers aren't going to do. Those corner blitz killed the Ravens in two out of three games. Ravens fans may not think it matters, but you think Dick LeBeau isn't licking his chops right now?

Excuses won't save Flacco's butt from being hassled all day come the start of the game.

Good point. For all their talk about how they got things fixed to deal with the Steelers, we pretty much abused them like the Steelers do.

[NLC1054]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Good point. For all their talk about how they got things fixed to deal with the Steelers, we pretty much abused them like the Steelers do.

How many blitz from the secondary did we send? For frak's sake, if we had Landry, Flacco would've been black and blue.

They better replay this tape and hope that Bryan McKinnie is in shape enough to get his butt in gear, cuz Reed Doughty was getting pressure on Flacco in the backfield.

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by NLC1054

How many blitz from the secondary did we send? For frak's sake, if we had Landry, Flacco would've been black and blue.

They better replay this tape and hope that Bryan McKinnie is in shape enough to get his butt in gear, cuz Reed Doughty was getting pressure on Flacco in the backfield.

... and that should be a scary, scary thought to all Ravens fans. If Doughty can get through, just think what an actual NFL safety could do!

(Don't get me wrong, I like RD, he gives it his all every play ... it's just that his all is, well, just not all that scary).

[mooby]

Before yesterday I didn't know how many friends I have that root for the Ravens. They came crawling out of the woodworks yesterday after we lost to them to declare themselves the winner of the beltway rivalry. Alls I can say is that our ones beat their ones yesterday, and that's what matters to me.

[Bucket]

I'm leaning more towards a 8-8,9-7, and at best a 10-6 year. Last year I had us at 4-12, 5-11, but we won 6 games.

We have a softer schedule then last year, and we are a stronger team. We have a much improved running game, and it should open up a lot more for the pass when teams start game planning to stop our run game. Jenkins going down is going to hurt us a lot, but I still see our defense getting better every week and towards the end of the year perhaps playing lights out football.

Running the ball, and defense wins game in Dec/Jan and if we stay healthy we could hit that run and pull out 10-6 like a few years ago in Gibbs 2.0

[rbanerjee23]

Originally Posted by Bucket

I'm leaning more towards a 8-8,9-7, and at best a 10-6 year. Last year I had us at 4-12, 5-11, but we won 6 games.

That's exactly what I think will happen as well - the skins lost a few games by just a few points last year and beat the eventual champs (GB - I know, I know they didn't have Rodgers b/c the defense knocked him out)

8-8 is very doable, we might even sneak into the playoffs with a 9-7 or 10-6 record. Definitely don't think we're going to win only 4 games.