JEEPercreepermd

I laugh when people get up in arms over some NFL network off-season propaganda. These guys are paid big bucks to make incendiary statements about players which turn into ratings and revenue for the NFL. Joe Flacco is an excellent quarterback. But the truth is that the NFL and most fans have fetishized statistics so much that he'll never be recognized as one of the league's top 5 ( which he is) because he doesn't throw for 4500 yards every season. What he DOES do is show up in the biggest of moments, and surprise surprise usually equals or outperforms the "elites" Brady,Ben,Manning ect when we play head to head. Ladies and Gents,don't buy into this nonsense. Flacco is our guy, he's both tough as nails and cool as they come when the pressure is on... In the playoffs in Gilette or Mile High or Pittsburgh ..nobody wants to see January Joe and the Ravens roll into town because they know deep down that we can beat them. Because we have. Besides. If David Carr calling anybody overrated isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is .

Suprised to not see a thread already so I'll start it. I know at least a few here are watching the Capits-Flyers series. This is going to be a great series. Caps are up 1-0 after a great very close game 1. I thought the referees called way too many penalties against both teams in game 1. Traditionally, they let all but blatant stuff go in the playoffs, so hopefully we can see more 5 on 5 tonight! a

Are YOU John Wayne? Is this me?

Here it is.. Wins- Buffalo Cleveland Cleveland Jacksonville Pittsburgh Jets Giants Bengals Eagles Washington Miami 11-5 We lose to Oakland Bengals Steelers Pats Cowboys

Yeah Holtby was impressive in game 2. THough I think the Flyers played a better overall game than the Caps, the caps were blocking shots all night, and of course the goaltending. I'm a Flyers fan, die hard since age 6. I can honestly say that the Capitals are just a better team right now, though I'm definitely proud of the way my flyers are fighting. Its just great to see two tough teams, two excellent coaching staffs and two excellent goaltenders in a series.

It took an insane amount of bad calls, fluke plays, and injuries to put us at 5-11 last year..and even then, this team wasn't a pushover by any stretch. This year, there are a lot of if's...players that have to come back healthy like Flacco, Suggs, Monroe, Gilmore, Smith sr etc.. If we draft well, are relatively healthy, and Flacco is able to come back stronger,then I don't see any reason why they shouldn't make the playoffs. As long as the NFL doesn't try to screw us via terrible scheduling I don't see 10-6 or 11-5 as a stretch

Yup, time flies when you're having fun. Or as one frog said to another, time's fun when you're having flys. But yeah there have been some great moments on here for sure I remember we had Denver after our bye week one year, and that was easily the most we've been trolled ever. Two solid weeks hearing about how Kyle Orton and Knowshawn Moreno were going to pummel us...pretty sure we beat them 60-10 or something rediculous lol.

I've been a Ravens fan since 1996. Receiver is a need EVERY year, just how it goes here. However, I do like the deal for Wallace. Low risk, high reward. He gives the Offense that much more speed on the outside to go with Perriman Smith and Aiken...I'll say this, we've had WR groups who could all burn..but nobody could actually catch the ball (if it ever made it there) we've also had groups of 3-4 possession receivers who just couldn't stretch the defense vertically. This is (if all stay healthy) we will have as diverse a receiver group as we've ever had. I'm honestly excited to see what they can do. If we can establish the run game, this could be a pretty potent attack. As always though, time will tell.

I became a fan back in 96, watching Vinny Testaverde and Michael Jackson absolutely light people up!

How could this NOT turn into a Flacco thread? The idiocy amuses me.

Let's not forget that through the first 6-7 games the starters played only a handful of innings. Most of the guys out there playing won't even sniff big league ball. If they started 0-9 in the regular season,then I would worry.

I can't wait until they draft another 1st round bust of a quarterback this year.

Here's another one, we've beaten them 5 of the last 6 Times that we've played them. Not too shabby!

Sucks to see D Smith go, he's still imo the most underrated mlb in the league..although last season he looked just a little slower and wasn't nearly as good in coverage as he had been. Unfortunately, in today's NFL linebackers have to cover. There were a lot of blown coverages by Smith and Mosely particularly early in the season..a lot of Times because it's a passing play, the secondary gets blamed..but a huge problem that I saw when we were playing zone was that the LB's weren't getting deep enough drops and teams were able to attack over the middle. Who knows, they may still bring Smith back on a cap friendly deal..we've seen the Ravens do that several Times with veteran players. I haven't seen Brown play enough to really know much about him..is it because we've had better starting options ahead of him or is he just not that good? I guess well find out. ..

Good thread Here are my boys; -Femmie and Brendan Ayanbadejo..Both extremely high effort guys. - Buddy Lee(aka Kelly Gregg) He wasn't the biggest Dlineman out there but he did a lot of the dirty work that made those defenses great. - Chris Chester..an unsung hero of that 08 team.

Throughout sports, not just the NFL you see players turn their careers around with new teams..so who knows? I don't think that should be the expectation, but just look at Justin Forsett. None of us here thought he would have taken the starting spot and be a top 5 rusher in his first year.

Thank you for mentioning Harold Baines. And most definitely Dempsey over Hoiles..I'd go Weiters over Hoiles anyway.

So the Denver post just put out an article comparing this year's Broncos defense to some of the greatest of all time, and even went on to say that they were better than the 2000 Ravens because of who they beat. They were a good defense, we saw that first hand. But, lets not get carried away here.. Comparable to the 2013 Seahwaks? Definitely .Better than last year's Patriots? Yes. By their reasoning, the 2000 Ravens beat Rich Gannon, Steve Mcnair, Kerry Collins and Gus Ferotte. While the Broncos beat Ben, Tom, and Cam. By comparison, the 2012 Ravens beat Luck then made Manning (still in his prime) look miserable IN Denver, dominated the Patriots offense IN Foxboro, then had only allowed 6 points to the 9ers before the lights debacle. I'd say that they fit somewhere between the 12 Ravens and 13 Seahwaks. I think people have forgotten just how stacked that 00 defense was with talent.

Hmm wondering if they worked on Parades' defense in the off-season? He has a good arm..

Yes they won the Super Bowl..but are they REALLY among the all time greats? Just for fun, let's. Count how many other ravens defenses were actually better than the Broncos 18 points per game. -99 Ravens (17.3 ppg) 01 Ravens- 16.6 ppg 03 Ravens-17.6ppg 04 Ravens- 16.8 ppg 06 Ravens- 12.6 ppg 08 Ravens- 15.3 ppg 09 Ravens- 16.3 ppg 10 Ravens- 16.9 ppg 11 Ravens-16.6 ppg 14 Ravens actually allowed just .4 ppg more Yeah to people not as used to seeing dominant defense on a weekly basis, they are the second coming..but we all know better Also that's just the Ravens..not counting other teams such as the Steelers and Titans for example that have had some nasty defenses too. -

Another thing that gets overlooked is the fact that the Ravens offense in 2000 was ungodly bad..the fact that they went 1 MONTH without scoring an offensive TD yet still finished 12-4..remarkable. Back to who they beat in the playoffs which was the authors main point, the ravens beat: Denver- They were slouch,remember they were only a season removed from back to back Super Bowl wins. Greise and Ferotte actually combined to throw for 4500 td's and 28 td's while Mike Anderson (later a Raven) had a monster year, rushing for 1500 td's and 15 td's. They had the #2 offense in the NFL that season, scoring 485 points..by comparison that would have been the #3 scoring offense last season..only 4 points behind the #2 Cardinals. Then they beat the Tennessee Titans who were 13-3 and only had Steve Mcnair and Eddy George to go with what was also a VERY tough defense. They only allowed 191 points which is still amazing, and actually allowed less total yards than the Ravens. Then they beat Oakland in the AFCC- Oakland was a VERY good team back then. They had the #3 offense in the league which would have still been top 5 last season, and a top 10 defense. People forget that Rich Gannon was a VERY good quarterback he actually had over 500 yds rushing that season and 4000 total yds..The Raiders scored 3 points that game. 3. THREE. That's it. Then we obviously know what they did to the Giants in the Super Bowl..which would have been a shutout had it not been for a return TD for the Giants. No defense has ever dominated in a SB game like that one did..honestly..I can't really name a Super Bowl team since 2000 that would hands down beat that Ravens team. The didn't just win ugly games, they battered opponents, they made opposing offenses tap out. Yeah the Broncos were good last year, and I was rooting for them. But the aren't nearly the greatest.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that Toronto is close to two NFL cities in Buffalo and Detroit, plus Toronto is generally an English speaking City, where others like Quebec or Montreal are mostly French Canadians who probably have less interest in Football. Now, I'm sure if they played a Seahawks game in Vancouver it could go over well. They should play the PRO Bowl in Calgary in January on a frozen pond. Then I'd watch it.

Agree 100 percent. I've been saying it for ages

I lost it when they referred to the Broncos stadium as Medicinal Marijuana field at mile high. Rofl

hates the word "elite" such a fad word.