freakylick

This is a great piece on Ray and really gives some great insight onto who he has become. So often I hear fans of other teams who think of Ray as the "murderer" and it really saddens me that those people haven't taken the time to learn about who Ray has become, in part, because of that incident. Then they always say something along the lines of "almost all athletes do charity work"... What Ray's doing here is not just charity work. He's doing the charity work that most athletes shy away from...helping the police, helping the homeless. Ray is filling a need that is a gaping hole and he's doing in a way that only Ray can...getting in their faces and motivating them, making them feel important/special/cared for...giving their lives meaning again...giving them the hope that they haven't had since they were children. Thank you Ray!

I agree that many stupid things were done during the game, but this one I actually don't agree with. He let the play clock run so that the Steelers, if they made the first down, would not have much time to work down the field. Ben has frequently burned us when he had 3rd and long throughout the years, so let the clock run and hurt their chances to go all the way down the field...obviously this plan backfired as the secondary blew coverage after coverage (and Holmes got away with a facemask on the TD). But if we were able to stop them deep in their territory, we would have got the ball back with great field position, well over a minute on the clock and one or two timeouts. Either way, it didn't matter...calling the timeout would have just given them more time to work down the field. As for blitzing Roethlisberger...yeah, they probably should have.

Actually I am hearing that it was mechanical issues on their flight that delayed them. But that being said, they should easily be able to fly in Sunday morning and worst case scenario play on Sunday night IMO.

I agree with you. Case in point...Belichick is highly regarded for his ability to duck questions and I don't think any sane Patriots fan is in a hurry to get rid of him.

I've been calling him Lil' Ray-Ray, but I also like The Purple Knight playing off of his alma mater. Colin's suggestion would be cool, but I have to keep it clean in my house.

WHAT'S OUR NAME?!!!! RAVENS

As much as I hate to say it, I pretty much agree with everything you said...but I will differ slightly on the prediction... Ravens - 20 Steelers - 23

And Flacco didn't look like he had any idea the play clock was running down

3 and out....SWEET

No kidding...That bastard doesn't deserve any airtime.

Is that oggie in the background picking his nose?!

Let me help you out...I can assure you that it didn't mean throw 4 int's in one game. :lol:

Now it's time to avenge some losses from earlier this year...Bring on the Titans!!!

Keep grinding it out boys... Hope McClain is okay

Damnit...nice moves by Bess

Comeback player of the year...bwahahahahaha!!!

He's waiting for that Bengal job to open up... :lol:

O-Line played great the first half. If the D plays as well in the second half as they did in the first, this game is over.

Yeah, Mason got mugged again

If your gonna put troy in...don't do it with an empty backfield...it's so obvious where it's going.

Hopefully that good kick return made him forget that fumble.

Well, it was nice... for a couple of plays Nice goal line stand though

Welcome back... Nice start so far!

Hey...Where's Raji and Herzlich?! :lol:

You neglected to note that last years Falcons passed 28% more than this years team. So he accumulated those yards out of sheer volume of passes. If you pass that much, someones bound to catch a lot of balls. That doesn't mean that they have become a veteran. Being a veteran is much more than stats...but playing fantasy football makes you forget things like that. But for arguments sake...let's call him a "veteran". Would you really put him in the same level of veteran leadership as Derrick Mason?! BTW...I would hardly say that White made Redman look good. He caught a whopping 24 passes from Redman last year. I think playing against the defenses of the Cardinals, Saints and Seahawks had more to do with it than White. The only tough defense that Redman played against last year was the Bucs. If your going to pick and choose certain plays to eliminate from a conversation...there's no point in arguing it. I could start eliminating some of those miraculous catches where Mason and Clayton both saved bad passes, but that would be silly...I'll just let you "have" this point. Flacco was never given that pressure. He was given the pressure of managing this offense this year. He did that well and I give him a lot of credit for that. Many fans were hoping to see improvement over prior QB's that we have had here and he certainly is an improvement...but he didn't need much to accomplish that. I suppose we've lowered our standards around here so much, that any decent Ravens QB is considered a god. Matt was asked to become the face of that franchise on and off the field. Joe didn't even come close to facing that kind of pressure. You're right...Ryan came in from a pro-style offense (and in case you missed it, I will reiterate)...That is a major credit to Joe for coming from D1AA and a non-pro style offense and picking it up as quickly as he did. But you seem to imply that Ryan was given the QB1 job from the start. He had to earn that. He outplayed Redman and Harrington (not that it was a tough thing to accomplish) in the preseason and earned that job. Yes he was guaranteed it at some point...but so was Flacco, who was handed the job by default. We can argue all day about which is a tougher pressure, being "forced" a job cold or having to earn a job...but I think in the end, we will just have to agree to disagree. This could be because two of those offenses (Saints and Cards) are built solely around the pass game. Cutler had to throw a lot because they couldn't keep RB's healthy. Rivers attempts per game were tied for 24th in the league and their defense was average in points/game. But if you want to put Matt Ryan in with the likes of Brees, Cutler, Rivers and Warner...I'm sure he'd take that. :P That's sort of what I was getting at...although I view what Ryan went through more as being asked more to put the game on his shoulders in crunch time. Although both offenses were built around the running game...Flacco had a little less pressure because he knew that any mistakes he made, his defense could cover him. Flacco's rushing is a big part of his game?! He admitted that he was never much of a rusher in college...76 yards in two seasons on 147 attempts. But I will give you his 11.3 yds/game versus Matt's 6.5 yards/game (which BTW is not "twice as many"). By that logic, I guess fumbles are a big part of his game too...his 11 versus Matt's 6. BTW...Weren't you one of the many in those pre-draft discussions that believed that Matt would be a bust?