The sad reality is that my beloved Ravens are again staring at a 6-10 record. This season on the upside is an opportunity to see what you really have. Ravens need to clean house at the end of this season and realize that they are not as lucky at the draft as they have been....Look at it this way:
Mark Clayton- possible draft bust
Adam Terry- a little too soft
Todd Heap- hurt too much
Troy Smith- project?
Kyle Boller- draft bust that cost a head coach his job
Dan Cody- draft bust
Ray, McAllister, Rolle, - got old quick
B. Scott- head case
T. Suggs- name his last big play

and i could go on and on......
fact is they have little to any offense....outside of Mason, you wouldn't even think they had recievers

oh....and WHY!!! is Corey Ivy on this team

I disliked your articles at first, but I've warmed up to your work.

I am gonna have to agree with Preston. Flacco is NOT ready for that NFL SPEED just yet. He did well, yeah whatever, but once the regular season starts, the speed will increase significantly. He's our 3rd QB and will remain there unless otherwise. We gotta let this guy learn and not do what we did with Boller. Poor Boller might have been better if he was not thrown in the fire from the GET GO.

It's sad to say, but this is a 4 or 5 win team now. With the injuries to the defensive starters and the offense looking like it did the past 5 or 6 years, we'll be lucky to win that many.

Mike, did it seem a bit fishy to you that there was no mention of Boller's shoulder injury until the day of last week's preseason game? When I first heard, my first thought was Boller is completely out of the picture and the shoulder injury was an excuse to keep him off of the field. It may also have been a good opportunity to get an extended look at Flacco with Smith ill. Or it could be the Belichick-itis mentioned above.

I also like the jumbo package that you speak of. I think it could prove useful in several situations.

Good summary, like it. Is the missing cap space the only reason why the Ravens don't push harder on trade for a left tackle? Peters is still holding out....

Wow, how bad do we look?? Does Smith/Boller/Flacco have anyone other than Mason to throw the ball to? Dont tell me that our fullback is the bright spot on offense...I have a feeling that this is going to get U-G-L-Y

I watched the opening drive of the 3rd quarter (recorded of course) and came away with a feeling that the future looks good with Nbr 5 at the helm.

Other quarters showed a rookie (gasp!) just a half step behind the game, but not so far as he can't catch up sometime this season.

Overall, it was not a bad performance for a last second starter.

Mike,

Come on, let's think about this...with all of the media attention this and every NFL team gets, you're telling me Bollwr was hurt two days before this game and no one in the media knew about it? Then, Troy Smith is sick two days before the game and again, no one knew? Harbaugh wanted to start Flacco, but knew it would cause a media zoo, so they put out some bogus info on Boller and Smith 30 minutes before the game so as to lessen the pressure on the kid. Do they think we're all stupid?

in comment to the previous post... i had to laugh at " kyle boller cost billick his job" that thought is darn near assanine... it had nothing to do with boller , it had everything to do with terrible play calling and innability to establish an offense in his entire tenure. If you watched any ravens games... you could call every play lol. billick did well enough to get himself fired.

Folks - 4 or 5 wins??!! Dream on. I have been a season ticket holder since '96. This season is going to be long and painful, perhaps one of our worst seasons. I truly believe it will be a struggle to win 3 games this year. We have the 2nd toughest schedule behind the Colts (figure that one out??!!).

You hit the nail on the head. No way is Flacco ready for prime time and the only way he starts is if neither of the other 2 can go. Boller would be my pick if the shouler is healthy. We will be back to the 3 yards and a cloud of dust offense with no deep passing game but you play the cards your dealt.

Sheesh,

3 wins .. 5 wins .. 6 wins even.

You guys amaze me. Season has not even started and you are all ready to jump off a bridge some place.

What a depressing city sometimes.

I think actually we are looking at 7 - 9 to 9 -7 .. And the finish will have us being a bit less depressed next year.

Well maybe for some of you as I can gather its a "Balmore" thang.

Everyone lighten up.

All the recent talk about Joe Flacco re-emerging as a consideration for the Ravens week one starter says more about the weakness of Boller and Smith than it does about the readiness of Joe Flacco. Flacco is demonstrating that he has the tools needed to develop into an elite QB in the NFL. He is also demonstrating that he has a lot of developing yet to do. The fact that he seems to be on par with Boller and Smith is not a positive because it says that they are also not ready to start in the NFL. While I agree that this will probably be a painful season I am not sure that it has to be this painful; not when a QB like Culpepper is unemployed. At least he has been an above average QB in the league. If Boller, Smith, and Flacco are our only options this year expect a top three draft pick in April.

Flacco may or may not be ready, and he will be the starter one day soon probably this yr maybe heading into the Miami , Raiders games or after the bye wk at the latest. The real reason for not starting him is the coaches don't trust the OL to protect him. Boller was already injured on that big hit he took in pre game 2. Smith's scrambling ability maybe his best skill to survive behind this OL. So much time is being spent on who should start at QB, I would like to see you cover the WRs, TEs, hey does it matter who starts when it doesn't seem like we have any wrs other than Mason. Are any of the rookie WRs going to make the team??? Also you said you liked the Jumbo package, maybe ok but why hasn't rookie, RB, Allen Patrick, a 1000+ rusher gotten a better look in pre? He certainly is a better tailback than FB McClain! Is he going to make the team? Its hard to believe but yes other players play offense other than the QB and the Qbs health and success depend on them. But you wouldn't know that if you were a Ravens fan, all we are supposed to care about is who starts at Qb , when it won't matter with the current lack of surrounding offensive talent! Tell us about some of the other offensive position players, please!.

That's not right about the second toughest schedule. Im not sure what our strength of schedule is or where it ranks, but just compare it to the other teams in our division. They all play th same schedule except 2 game. Since we finished last, we get 2 last place teams from last year...Miami and Oakland, while the Steelers get New England and SD. Theirs is clearly tougher.

I would like to know how many people that write in are NFL coaches? And how did they become experts on what a good NFL QB is? So much negativity, I've always been proud to be a Raven fan. I will support my team through thick and thin. I only hope my FAN-MATES will join me and stop hating on them like the enemy does.

Aaron,

You don't need to be an NFL coach to see that our QB's are not good. You only need eyes that work. When a sixth year player can't separate himself from a rookie from Delaware or a 2nd year player with only 2 starts there is a clear problem. This is not negativity, it is realism. If we weren't fans we wouldn't care enough to write about this. I will always be a Ravens fan and I will always be an Orioles fan but I will also always call a spade and spade. The Ravens QB situation is bad, very bad; and as a result the team is also likely going to be bad.

Since Frank Walker gets beat every time he goes head to head with a receiver, why don''t the coaches make him back off a couple of steps? Also why don't we have any receivers (beside Mason) on the team?

what happened to the 4th quarterback we had ? I read about him in the sun a few months ago. He's probably another Derrick Anderson ! Who picks our quarterbacks ? Newsome ?
Whoever it is needs to let someone else do it. We should have drafted Braum

Numbers don't lie. We DO have the 2nd toughest schedule based on the average strength rating of our opponents: http://www.fanbay.net/nfl/projected/strength.htm

Boller can't do it , Smiths nerves get to him , Flacco is the man , he has the best work ethic and has more savvy than the other two put together..........plus he can see over the O-line and doesn't turn the ball over like the other two.....

I've never understood why some folks thing you're not a "fan" if you honestly feel that the team won't be that good this year. Are fans supposed to just blindly delude themselves into pretending they have a great team to cheer for?

I will cheer for the Ravens, but this will be a looooong season. No QB, probably a minimal running game, receivers who cannot get separation consistently, completely suspect offensive line, aging (albeit HOF-caliber) kicker. And that's just the offense.

On defense you have an injury-riddled front line that can't pressure the passer, a secondary with aging starters and ungodly bad backups, and serviceable linebackers.

I think if Smith is healthy, he has to be the starting QB. Not because he's better than Boller now, but he could potentially be better than Boller. (People forget that Smith has only started 2 NFL games!) And Smith can avoid pressure better than Boller or Flacco. But someday this will be Flacco's team -- but I'd vote that the Ravens wait until the O-Line is better and Flacco has a better feel for the speed of the game. But you can see he's clearly progressing.

Everyone is going to have an opinion on your team, but remember this is how teams with the Ravens situation end up having a great season. If you notice teams are going to take this team as a joke because the attention of the Ravens is instability. The only advice I give all of the FANS is to let the season play out and at the end see what happens. I would hate for this team to start making some noise by suprising some teams and many comments made will have no validity. They get paid the big bucks to do what they do. The year we went 13-3, many nay sayer's said we would still finish in the bottom. Last year we were a Super Bowl contender at the beginning of the year. You can't predict anything; so be the good Raven FANS you are and stop speculating even if it looks bad and it does look bad! The Ravens are going to surprise some the NFL this year and win the AFC North. When this happens they will go on the win the Super Bowl; this is my prediction for them instead of what looks like reality.

Mike,
I agree with Aaron, no one here is an NFL coach. The season has not even started yet. Dont jump off the ship just yet.

Fan and RIck,

As Mr. Preston used to say...

Keep Drinking the Purple Kool Aide...

Ravens start off 6-2 and the town goes crazy. Second half shows us where they really stand against the better teams like Indy, Jacksonville, Cleveland at Cleveland, Pittsburgh again, Dallas, Ravens finish 6-10.

The Ravens should sign CB Ricky Manning Jr., he just got released by the Bears. he'd be better than Walker, Prude, Martin.

6 wins? Please enlighten us. What 6 games do you see this team winning?

Bengals-W (close one)
Texans-L
Brownsx2, L,L
Steelersx2 L,L
Titans L
Colts L
Dolphins W
Raiders W
Giants L
Eagles L
Skins L
Cowboys L
Jags L

I love reading through all of these old posts. I'm sure many of the old posters have somehow avoided coming back and eating there own words.

Folks please dont speak so loud about something we simply dont have a clue about. "That includes you Mike!"

None of us could speak intelligently on how a bar of soap is made, Just enjoy, its entertainment.