millz58

Fair 'nuff preach; so how's about that orphaned ** after 'jersey girl'? wait, maybe I don't wanna know. Keep that to yinzelf. anyway yeah I'd love to see round three, gives me and my bros more to talk about than Rex Ryan's toe fetish or Brady's' hairdo. I do appreciate how hard the Steel Curtain has been this year, and they have been worthy of that moniker IMO. I lived in the Burgh from '77 to '79 so I remember those teams well, and it took me a good number of years (and moves to various states) to lose my kid-size Bradshaw jersey, even while moving through Bills, cardinals, colts, back to steelers, and finally Ravens territory. Only the Cannonball Run would spoil my view of #12, and the memories of Stallwarth and Swann and Harris and Lambert blah blah you get the point; my schooling in football was totally black-n-gold. Now as a Ravens fan I have an urgent desire to put the Stillers down like a sick dog, but I know they'll be back every year for the forseeable future. Hopefully so will we.

...and NOW, I'm gonna remember Sharpe's Ravens v. Romo's Broncos, 1st round ... (anyone remember Sam Gash's play? )

I think the problem is Flacco is not grown-up enough to look for Boldin whether-or-not the play is called for, but is maybe conditioned now to look for an ever-eager Mason or some other means. The offense as it is now is not letting Flacco grow up as a real QB. That has equal parts blame on Cameron and Flacco. Boldin is the withering fruit on the vine.

EXACTLY, I saw that and figured 'g-d*mn how long does it take that info to get to steer country?' CMac hasn't been in the NFL for what 3 years? anyhoo, that was humorous. they really are clueless out there, if they had a real clue they wouldn't be so scared (that one troll out there keeps trying to clue them in to our 'weaknesses') they'd know more about what they can do against us. but whatever, it's a laugh reading that stuff.

I'm not too confident either, especially from the recruiting front. Maybe Leach would've been better there, especially in breaking the Mississippi-river line of recruiting; but I'd think his would've been at best a lateral, more like temporary downward mobility. At least Edsall presents himself (ahem) as an upbeat, confident guy who's not afraid to at least talk about aspiring to winning the conference or even better. I figured Smith would be gone...; hopefully Meggett can produce adequately in Scott's place.

Yikes, both my older bros are Steelers fans, and they do respect the Ravens, not just because of me either, but because they do smack the crap out of people, including big ben. Genuine steelers fans are about as morose and critical of their own team as we ever are about the Ravens, so they understand our frustrations. But yeah Preach was coming on a bit sticky. Careful with the psych and SS comments, both of my bros are within an anonymous accusation of getting themselves or their spawn taken away (those are the WV variety of stillers fans ) Hey Preach, what's up with the orphaned asterisk? Not willing to put in the note that hey, you're also suggesting you'd rather play the colts than ravens first? Why's that? Hm... And anyway shouldn't it be "youn's guys" and not "you all"? And I agree, another AFCN AFCCG would be intriguing, but honestly I don't give a crap whether or when we play you guys; but if we do, the winner BETTER go to the SB and win it.

I agree, it seems we've done better in screens or other areas where the oline or other personnel are more out-in-space blocking instead of protecting Flacco 'in pocket'. Maybe it's more a matter of the offense (coaches included) finding out they couldn't adjust as necessary to the ever-shifting offensive line changes, and so had to scheme away from them enough times to not make them a target. But now it's coming back to bite us because we can't take advantage of any deep passing that we might draw up for boldin or Stallworth, heck we haven't even passed enough to Dickson and we know he's got speed for that. the oline has been a mish-mash-unit and not been what we needed for what we thought our offense was. Certainly they can't run block (if I'm correct, Rice and McGahee have very close YPC numbers) and we've had to work around them rather than through them. Given all of that, a remarkable job has been done to get out of our skill players what we have to this point (save Boldin), and they are each threats to be respected (even Boldin) by opposing Ds. So we still have the edge, but distribution is the key IMO.

Don't know? Sounds like They don't think (don't want the ignorant masses to bet on) the Ravens winning on the road, that's it, right? Evening out the betting, isn't that what Vegas does? Needn't worry, I think that will change and open up to maybe 3.5 or 4.5. Although I have no basis in reality right now; do people putting money down now get locked in, or is there time to change up?

Semi-sarcastic tone noted; but maybe they still need to throw to boldin even if he's covered, often enough for him to exert himself as the powerful guy he is and let the defense know that can't just crowd up and cover the "outlets". The ravens have consistently avoided going downfield in the passing game, preferring to stay to the sidelines and passes generated behind or just past LOS; only the physical abilities of Mason, Rice and sometimes Heap have allowed us to maintain a decent pass game to help our run game stay on track. If we go up against Jets or Pats or any team with decent DBs/CBs we're going to be in trouble if we can't go down the middle more often.

Agreed. also the O-line and specific pass-protection issues I think have caused Flacco to rely more on check-downs to Rice and outs that he know Mason will know to come back to, and has not been able to get enough time to get to boldin. But yeah it seems that Boldin was never a huge priority in the passing game this year for some (other?) reasons.

Some KC fans are NOT optimistic at all... http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=239510&page=6 http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=239510&page=7 http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=239510&page=3 Nice stuff to read!

http://blogs.nfl.com/2011/01/02/wild-card-and-divisional-playoff-schedule/?module=breaking_news Happy to have a 1pm Sunday game for Ravens/Chiefs; keep it regular!

And on the foot of Vinatieri, the Colts win 23-20 and bring the Jets to Lucas Oil Stadium next weekend. And send the Ravens to KC.

Wow, Colts finally lost a fumble, how many balls popped out of their hands and they didn't lose one until now... Now the Titans can drive for a late go-ahead FG. Amazing. Nance is still trying to bait Simms into commenting on who Colts might play... WOW, now a fumbled snap that Indy recovers; this game is retarded.

lol Nance just asked Simms who he thinks the Colts' fans would rather see them play next week, Ravens or Jets. Simms did great to barely acknowledge it ("Are you asking ME?") and then not answer it. Honestly, c'mon Jim...

Yep, let the Jets and toe-licking Ryan go to Indy.

Baltimore teams have had more shady characters than Lewis and Simon over the last decade, I'm surprised we haven't had many more felony charges actually. But yeah, this is stupid.

I'm definitely not happy, the O-line was a purple carpet leading to Flacco; good thing we don't face the Bengals again this year, and at least won't face Indy next week, we can't block those front D-lines. What's up with Oher? He was bad again, but is he still injured?

Apparently Alfredo is being named as the primary suspect in a shooting death in the DR, and is sought after he fled the scene. Crazy. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5981183

I'm not sure how I feel about Randy Edsall over Mike Leach, but Edsall's done well in his 12 years at UConn. He's had enough time to develop his recruiting on the east coast, their roster is abundant with guys from Maine down to Florida, and a few from TX and CA. It's obvious he hasn't had the superb talent that would have made UConn anymore than what the Big East has had in the last few years, BCS reps that were not legitimate national championship material. But let's see what he can do at MD, especially next year with O'Brien and (hopefully) Smith. I'll be rooting for Edsall, I have been to this point even as a WVU fan. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5981463

I think he left his sizzle at home...

Yeah, I read that report. I don't buy the comparisons; the media has been much more favorable of the Ravens lately and they have played well (at list in terms of winning games) over the last month, unlike last year's saints. and for real, who DIDN'T want the saints to win it last year once we saw it was really possible? I think everyone outside of the Southern Indiana region was rooting for Brees & co. I don't see the Ravens as any kind of 'sleeper' team either, they're too well known and I don't think there will be any remarkable adjustment in the way they play in the postseason that would surprise anyone who has been paying attention to them to this point. The only thing that would make them into an elite-caliber playoff team between now and next weekend is better execution, that's it.

If Jax and Titans both win, Ravens would end up going to Jax I think, or at least according the the scenario machine on yahoo (and Jets would go to KC) But yeah, if Oakland can hang on we would go to KC. But really I'd much rather see Ravens get the Peyton-led-Colts monkey off their backs for at least one playoff season.

JJ Hardy fits the same bill that way right, he's FA after next season? More upside to him though so I'd imagine O's have more of a longer-term plan for him, but I haven't seen anything of that yet.

I remember feeling pretty confident about those Broncos and Raiders games in 200(1), definitely not so much the Titans game; but overall much more confidence in the defense. I had much more confidence in that defense than I do in this one, and even more than I have in this year's offense to provide enough scoring margin. In 2000 it was like, just score a couple touchdowns or one and a few FGs and we were gold. I ordered the DVDs of those playoff broadcasts from NFLshop.com last week, can't wait to watch those games again, so many goofy moments! And to remember the best run defense since the SB era began...