So it may not have been very pretty last night, but the Baltimore Ravens pulled out a victory, sweeping the season series against the Cleveland Browns. The Ravens offense struggled throughout the night, as the Ravens defense was able to pitch a shut-out, their first shut-out since week 12 of the 2006 season, when they dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 27-0 victory.
The defense only allowed 160 total yards to the Brady Quinn driven Browns offense, forcing two turnovers, one of which was returned for a touchdown by Dawan Landry. The often invisible Chris Carr happened to be in the right place as the right time as he added the other pick. I was very impressed with the defense, but then again, it was the Browns, who are arguably the worst team in the NFL. We'll see what happens this upcoming week as Peyton Manning and the Colts visit M&T Bank Stadium.
The offense was quite worrisome, as we were only able to score one offensive touchdown, by none other than Ray Rice, who seems to be the lone bright spot on this Ravens offense lately. Joe Flacco shows some good plays throughout the last few games, but overall, has struggled the last three games. Flacco has not broken the 200 yard passing mark since week six against the Vikings.
And as for the special teams unit... I don't know how else to say this, except that Steve Hauschka is gone. He just misses too many kicks, and isn't even booting the ball on kickoffs. I would be surprised if he is kicking for the Ravens come Sunday.
So as the Ravens have improved to 5-4, they still have a long road ahead of them, which starts this week with the undefeated Colts. Let's hope that the defense can make Peyton Manning even resemble Brady Quinn, but I'm not betting on that one.
Showing posts with label Cleveland Browns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleveland Browns. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Some Teams Just Want It More...
It's taken me a few days to even want to relive the embarrassing performance put on by the Ravens this past Sunday against the Bengals. Baltimore now faces an uphill battle the rest of the season that will test every aspect of the team.
Once again, the Ravens defense let Cedric Benson run for over 100 yards, seemingly destroying the reputation that it is hard to run on the Ravens. One cause for this may have been that Haloti Ngata did not suit up, despite any positive thoughts I was allowing myself to believe going into the game.
After a few early scores by the Bengals, the Ravens defense did tighten up, not allowing any second half points, but overall, it wasn't their most impressive performance. The receivers were somewhat contained, but because of sub-par efforts on both sides of the ball, the Bengals dominated the time of possession battle by twice as much, 40 minutes to 20 minutes.
And I have no idea what our new, high-powered offense was doing on Sunday. The Ravens offense was averaging 28 points a game coming in and they were only able to put up one touchdown on Sunday. Without Ray Rice and his 135 yards of total offense and one touchdown, our offense would have been non-existent. And for the first time in his short career, Joe Flacco looked, how can I put it nicely, god-awfully terrible.
But hey, the Ravens may be down, but they are most certainly not out. This upcoming week, the Ravens play the cure-all Cleveland Browns, and man, do they need it. The Ravens need to regroup and get back on the winning track, as they have a tough schedule down the stretch.
Once again, the Ravens defense let Cedric Benson run for over 100 yards, seemingly destroying the reputation that it is hard to run on the Ravens. One cause for this may have been that Haloti Ngata did not suit up, despite any positive thoughts I was allowing myself to believe going into the game.
After a few early scores by the Bengals, the Ravens defense did tighten up, not allowing any second half points, but overall, it wasn't their most impressive performance. The receivers were somewhat contained, but because of sub-par efforts on both sides of the ball, the Bengals dominated the time of possession battle by twice as much, 40 minutes to 20 minutes.
And I have no idea what our new, high-powered offense was doing on Sunday. The Ravens offense was averaging 28 points a game coming in and they were only able to put up one touchdown on Sunday. Without Ray Rice and his 135 yards of total offense and one touchdown, our offense would have been non-existent. And for the first time in his short career, Joe Flacco looked, how can I put it nicely, god-awfully terrible.
But hey, the Ravens may be down, but they are most certainly not out. This upcoming week, the Ravens play the cure-all Cleveland Browns, and man, do they need it. The Ravens need to regroup and get back on the winning track, as they have a tough schedule down the stretch.
Ray Rice and Cedric Benson both have good offensive days, both accumulating over 100 yards.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Be Thankful We Live In Baltimore
There are a lot of pathetic teams in the NFL this season, and a few front offices around the league are actually starting to admit it. Let's be thankful that we either live in Baltimore, or that you route for the Ravens. The two teams that have been in the news this week are the Washington Redskins and the Cleveland Browns.
As for the Redskins, none other than Daniel Snyder, the owner, spoke out to apologize for the team's performance this season. Snyder is an extremely wealthy individual who rarely speaks out about how the Redskins are playing and how he spends his money. However, at a charity event on Tuesday, Snyder spoke out about the embarrassing play of his team. Snyder's words were, "It hurts. It really hurts. We are really trying very, very hard, everyone at Redskins park, the coaches, the players. The organization's quite frankly held together well, and I think we've got an opportunity the rest of the season to hopefully get it going. But to date, we've let everyone down, including ourselves, and we know that and we're just apologetic. We've blown some games that we obviously should have won." He was also asked about other issues this season, such as banning signs and other forms or protest inside his stadium this season, which he declined to comment on. Personally, I do not think that this man knows much about football, and it is evident in his exorbitant spending on his players, which obviously isn't working out for the Redskins. They have lost to some pathetic teams this season, giving the Lions, the Panthers, and the Chiefs their first wins in quite some time, as well as barely edging out the Rams and the Buccaneers. And as for their upcoming schedule, I do not see them winning many, if any, of their remaining games. They do play at the Raiders, but that isn't a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination.
And now for the Cleveland Browns, who may even be worse than the Redskins. In this case, the Browns owner, Randy Lerner, met with two die-hard Browns fans who are attempting to have a protest at the Ravens @ Browns Monday Night Football game on November 16. Fans Mike Randall and Tony Schafer met with Lerner for two hours on Tuesday. The protest that they are trying to hold is to make sure that no Browns' fans enter the stadium until after kickoff on the Monday night game to show the nation that the fans aren't happy with the Browns' futility. After the meeting, Randall said that it went well and that Lerner was receptive to his ideas and that Lerner is "doing everything he can to improve the Browns" and "he wants it to happen- now". Well, then he is going to have to do a lot- now. The Browns are terrible. Awful. They just had George Kokinis removed as general manager, who head coach Eric Mangini handpicked to hold that position. How is it Kokinis' fault when he was been there for less than a year? And from what I have heard, Kokinis is a great NFL mind. He came from the Ravens, so I'm sure he has a good track record. But hey, who am I to say that it isn't his fault, with two futile quarterbacks in Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson. Since the new Cleveland Browns have been around since 1999, they have only made the playoffs one time and just continue to be basement dwellers year in and year out. What a terrible time to be living in Cleveland. Not only is their football team appalling, but the other night, in the World Series, their last two opening day starters took on one another in Game 5 as C.C. Sabathia took on Cliff Lee, and it seems as though LeBron James may or may not come back to play for the Cavaliers.
Like I said Baltimore, just be thankful that we live in Charm City. Yeah, the Orioles might be struggling a little bit, but they are turning things around (keep your fingers crossed), but hey, we have the RAVENS! Needless to say, just take a look down 95 at the Redskins and across the division at the Browns, and no matter what, you will always be having a better day here in Baltimore.
As for the Redskins, none other than Daniel Snyder, the owner, spoke out to apologize for the team's performance this season. Snyder is an extremely wealthy individual who rarely speaks out about how the Redskins are playing and how he spends his money. However, at a charity event on Tuesday, Snyder spoke out about the embarrassing play of his team. Snyder's words were, "It hurts. It really hurts. We are really trying very, very hard, everyone at Redskins park, the coaches, the players. The organization's quite frankly held together well, and I think we've got an opportunity the rest of the season to hopefully get it going. But to date, we've let everyone down, including ourselves, and we know that and we're just apologetic. We've blown some games that we obviously should have won." He was also asked about other issues this season, such as banning signs and other forms or protest inside his stadium this season, which he declined to comment on. Personally, I do not think that this man knows much about football, and it is evident in his exorbitant spending on his players, which obviously isn't working out for the Redskins. They have lost to some pathetic teams this season, giving the Lions, the Panthers, and the Chiefs their first wins in quite some time, as well as barely edging out the Rams and the Buccaneers. And as for their upcoming schedule, I do not see them winning many, if any, of their remaining games. They do play at the Raiders, but that isn't a guarantee by any stretch of the imagination.
And now for the Cleveland Browns, who may even be worse than the Redskins. In this case, the Browns owner, Randy Lerner, met with two die-hard Browns fans who are attempting to have a protest at the Ravens @ Browns Monday Night Football game on November 16. Fans Mike Randall and Tony Schafer met with Lerner for two hours on Tuesday. The protest that they are trying to hold is to make sure that no Browns' fans enter the stadium until after kickoff on the Monday night game to show the nation that the fans aren't happy with the Browns' futility. After the meeting, Randall said that it went well and that Lerner was receptive to his ideas and that Lerner is "doing everything he can to improve the Browns" and "he wants it to happen- now". Well, then he is going to have to do a lot- now. The Browns are terrible. Awful. They just had George Kokinis removed as general manager, who head coach Eric Mangini handpicked to hold that position. How is it Kokinis' fault when he was been there for less than a year? And from what I have heard, Kokinis is a great NFL mind. He came from the Ravens, so I'm sure he has a good track record. But hey, who am I to say that it isn't his fault, with two futile quarterbacks in Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson. Since the new Cleveland Browns have been around since 1999, they have only made the playoffs one time and just continue to be basement dwellers year in and year out. What a terrible time to be living in Cleveland. Not only is their football team appalling, but the other night, in the World Series, their last two opening day starters took on one another in Game 5 as C.C. Sabathia took on Cliff Lee, and it seems as though LeBron James may or may not come back to play for the Cavaliers.
Like I said Baltimore, just be thankful that we live in Charm City. Yeah, the Orioles might be struggling a little bit, but they are turning things around (keep your fingers crossed), but hey, we have the RAVENS! Needless to say, just take a look down 95 at the Redskins and across the division at the Browns, and no matter what, you will always be having a better day here in Baltimore.
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