by Dave Bryan on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 | No Comments
The offensive line breakdown report from the Sunday night game against the Baltimore Ravens is now complete and I had to even do this twice because of the tremendous grades that I gave the first time through. This was by far the best the offensive line has played as a unit all season and the best against the Ravens in some time.
The season is at the halfway point, but it’s virtually over in the NFC West. And that’s why Jim Harbaugh is the leading candidate for NFL Coach of the Year.
He has the San Francisco 49ers in first place with a 6-1 record and a four-game lead over second-place Seattle. If Harbaugh’s team can maintain its physical, dominating approach, the franchise may actually gain a playoff berth and a first-round bye.
Remember that thing called "defense" in the NFL?
Teams have shown us very little of that in the 2011 season, but it still exists—somewhere.
The Week 7 slate provides us with a few matchups that actually could yield some lower-scoring affairs much to the liking of the old-school football lovers out there.
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco certainly has his critics, but linebacker Terrell Suggs says he's not one of them.
In a debate on ESPN's "First Take," Suggs couldn't have made his support for Flacco any clearer. Skip Bayless challenged Suggs on that, saying he doesn't think in his "heart of hearts" that he's sold on the quarterback.
The Baltimore Ravens have had some of the greatest defenses in the history of the NFL. Within those great defenses were some of the best defensive players that this league has ever seen. It was very difficult to get this list down to just 10 players because the Ravens have had so many game changers throughout the course of their franchise. I picked this list based on the impact that the players had on the team, not just necessarily statistics. I will start the list off at number 10…
Jim Schwartz versus Jim Harbaugh—two young, up-and-coming NFL head coaches being pitted against each other after a childish postgame altercation.
What have we come to in today's sports world?
Two grown men, who put in countless hours of preparation each week to ready their teams for games on Sunday, who make millions of dollars to coach arguably the best athletes on the planet, can't place their egos aside for three seconds to perform the most universally known gesture of respect?
1. All about the quarterbacks at the start. Rex Grossman did an excellent job of never feeling the rush. He’ll make mistakes and he’ll look bad at times, but the guy stands in the pocket and keeps his eyes downfield. And when he has time, he’ll slice a defense. Of course, any QB in this league should be able to do that; the key is what happens when you’re under duress. I love how deadly Grossman is in the middle of the field, but I wish he would use other parts as well. Tough to win consistently by just targeting one area. I did not add up, yet, how many of his completions went to the middle but my initial guess is that 75 percent of his completions were in this zone.
season is right around the corner. The recent onslaught of football has been a fresh breath of air for fans everywhere. Before we know it, we'll be involved in our fantasy drafts, tailgating and putting in overtime on the couch.
Fans have been sent into hysteria with all the roster moves this week. Social media outlets are all things football of late. People are living, eating and breathing football right now. It's been a remarkable week.
OWINGS MILLS - A blockbuster contract for Pro Bowl defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and some breathing room under the salary cap could both be in the Baltimore Ravens' near future.
The Ravens intend to launch contract talks toward a long-term extension with their franchise player within the next three to four days of training camp.
After missing the first two practices of training camp while on the non-football injury list, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs has passed his conditioning test and physical, and will likely participate in practice tomorrow.
Head coach John Harbaugh said that he's "pretty sure" that Suggs, who has been bothered by a hamstring ailment, will be good to go Saturday for the Ravens' first full contact practice.
BALTIMORE What stood out from Jimmy Smith's first NFL practice is that it didn't look like it was the cornerback's first NFL practice.
The Ravens' 2011 first-round pick jammed wide receivers at the line of scrimmage. He ripped a pass away over the middle. And he picked up the Ravens' defense in a few meetings.
The Steelers' 12-4 record in 2010 was an an attribute once again to their superior play on the defensive side of the ball and their ability to navigate the heaviest-hitting division in theNFL(5-1 in 2010) makes for a competitive team year in, year out.
Though the Steelers aren't faced with an absurdly difficult schedule, they will still have to find a way to beat some of the toughest teams and some of the best quarterbacks in the league.
By Joe PlataniaCSNBaltimore.com/PressBoxOnline.comRAVENS PAGE | RAVENS VIDEO
The above headline may be a bit misleading.
Even during a lockout, we know that quarterback Joe Flacco will have more control over the offense and that he will have more direct contact with offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, rather than having quarterback coach Jim Zorn as an intermediary.
Team-by-team capsules for the NFL draft on April 28-30 in New York:
LAST SEASON: Decision to turn to young players while keeping veteran-friendly coach John Fox for lame duck season backfired. Panthers weren't remotely competitive on offense, managing 16 touchdowns. Matt Moore failed miserably as starting QB. Rookie Jimmy Clausen replaced him, had few reliable targets, and went 1-9 as starter without TD pass to a WR. Run game, so potent in 2009, disappeared until it was too late. Defense held up early, but eventually cracked from injuries, huge time of possession discrepancy and poor starting field position.
, like every other team, have areas of need that they will look to address through the draft.
The Ravens have made many successful selections in the drafts of previous years. The most notable of those selections was in the Ravens' firstNFLdraft in 1996, when the Ravens used their 26th overall pick to select a linebacker from the University ofMiamiby the name ofRay Lewis.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers long snapper Andrew Economos suffered a torn Achilles' tendon this offseason, general manager Mark Dominik told the St. Petersburg Times on Thursday.
Economos appeared in all 16 games for the Bucs last season and has played in 67 games since Tampa Bay signed him in 2006 out of Georgia Tech.
, will be shown during next month's Cannes Film Festival .
The film, parts of which were shot at Pazo in Harbor East last month, follows 24 hours in the life of the two main characters, Bishop (Quincy Smith) and T.J. (Kari Nicolle). After dating for five years, and in spite of considerable skepticism from their friends, the two are finally getting married. "When Beautiful People Do Ugly Things" chronicles the 12 hours both before and after their wedding ceremony.
When the Minnesota Vikings hesitated in making their selection in the 2003 NFL Draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens jumped in to make their picks, selecting QB Byron Leftwich and Terrell Suggs, respectively. Leftwich had been on the Ravens radar but they never expected Suggs to drop to them at the 10th pick. They grabbed him right away and then traded up later in the first round to draft QB Kyle Boller. The fact that both Suggs and Boller were drafted in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft is the only thing they have in similar as far as they playing careers.
Baltimore Ravens
Top needs:
1. Cornerback: Injuries have really hurt this position in recent years, and now three of the Ravens' four best cover guys -- Josh Wilson, Chris Carr and Fabian Washington -- are free agents. Baltimore likely will lose two of these three, and on a defense that loves to blitz and play man schemes behind it, the corner position is very important.
A lot is expected out of an outside linebacker. At any given time, a player at that position could be asked to rush the passer, play the run or drop back into coverage. Specific strengths are sought after depending on team-specific schemes, but a complete outside ’backer will fit in any system.
