Nobody expected anything from the Ravens this year. Getting old, no Q-B, new coaching staff, unhappy running back, J. O. retiring etc. It's time to smile as we see what a difference a head coach can make. This is a real football team. Maybe we wont get to the play-offs. Maybe we will. But I tell you, The teams we play the rest of the year will know that they played an up and comming FOOTBALL TEAM. The Baltimore Ravens.

unusual for me, but totally agreed.

The players most vulnerable will be those who normally get hurt during or before the start of the season. Most of them frequent the injury list and this training camp was a good way to weed out those who can not stand up to the normal pressures of football life both on and off the field. Time to evaluate those who continue to get hurt and collect a decent amount of money. The draft will be an excellent avenue to address those concerns. And Coach seems to be a likely candidate to explore the possibilties without the reckless abandon as portrayed during the "The Dog Days Of Billick". Whats refreshing about the situation is you can see the method to madness he uses to get the best results from all concerned. We may be scratching our heads but it may be from asking ourselves, "Why did it take so long for this to happen"? The TEAM looks much improved and motivated with only a few glaring holes. Heap needs to be more productive and D Williams needs to get more opportunities and catch it ! Enough said !

I'm most surprised with the offense. It's actually fun to watch them play this year. Flacco plays it safe, but he seems very calm. He steps up in the pocket. The throwing motions are elegant. I hope he can celebrate soon his first TD throwing. Offensive line plays is dominating so far and creates holes. The running game is great. I love what I see so far.

im probably the only person who knew flacco would be ok as our starter. our defense has always been great but the injuries last year seemed to have made people forget. our running game has always been good but now its starting to look great. im more shocked that nobody saw this coming. we won the superbowl with a sufficating defense and an awesome running game. everybody knew we had atleast that so why is everybody surprised we are 2-0 about the be 3-0. baltimore has always been in the steelers head and they dont want to play us with their bruised qb and backup running back. i need to start writing these columns.

... and let's hope a hurricane gives the Ravens a bye week in Week Two every year, too.

Regarding Mike's comments about the benefits of a tough training camp, how does he feel about the missing Raven's bye week?

do not hold your breath for Heap, he is too soft and I would bet anyhting he won't last an entire season as his mo would predict, we need a new tight end and get rid of the soft Billick holdovers, yuou can already see the true football players who have bought in to a true football systemn , both veterans and young guys, and Heap is not one of them , even if he is a favorite with the teen girls of balto.

one more comment, if I am wrong about Heap I will be the first to admit it, I have put out the challenge out to him to prove he is not soft , but I bet you I will post here in December that I am right, if not I will post that also, we will see which is which!!!

Bart Scott on WBAL said the camp was easy on the vets but hard on the young guys because they had to take twice as many reps. Billick showed that you can win doing it both ways. Where Billick was wrong was not adjusting his camp when he had younger teams. He treated them like seasoned pros and he paid dearly for it.

The Ravens are succeeding because a) the offensive line is pass blocking well, something it never did for Boller, who managed a 61% completion rate and a higher season QB rating than Flacco has put up in either game, despite the worst pass protection he ever had, and b) the defense is putting pressure on QBs and covering receivers, something it could not do last season due to injuries.

Lay off Billick. Yes, he wasn't perfect, but he didn't select the offensive linemen or injure any players. Until last season, he had a great record in November and December, which was his camp, so his training camp method seems to have worked.

billick really doesn't deserve to get bashed for all the things that happened in the raven's off years. but being the head coach means maximum accountability. boller can see his own potential like any solid quarterback when he has protection and time in the pocket— period. if he goes to another team and gets time and the ability to do something finally and not operate from an offense-starved team, then we will see some things and regret him not being here.
for the training camp, it was the defensive vets who needed the time off and the break anyway. who can say they didn't deserve it. the raven's have ranked near the top of almost every defensive category for the last 8 years. give them some credit. they knew that they would be on the field 70% of the time anyway.