JEEPercreepermd

Winning that series in Detroit kept the O's from getting deep in the hole.

We have to win this series against the Yankees, it's HUGE.

He looked like the ace he was expected to be. Let's hope he can back that up in his next start.

Tillman's Era against teams not from Toronto...3.14. Not great, but not terribly bad either.

A team in Milwaukee makes perfect sense, there are a lot of Hockey fans in Wisconsin. I'm totally against any South Western cities getting a team..plus Texas already has the Stars. Not big on Las Vegas either.

Seattle would be cool,

I really wish Baltimore would work, but it won't.

I would be all for Quebec getting another team, or for the return of the Hartford Whailers!

Ya know... After watching that last game. Joe was walking with a limp. He was almost always under pressure. I had never been so glad for a season to end. Not only that I was actually glad we didnt make the playoffs.

I just wanted to wash off the stench of a horrible horrible ( albeit not bad by virtually any other standard ) season.

Same here, missing the playoffs for the first time since 07 was a disappointment, but there was a sense of relief when it was over.

I think that season was a wake up call of sorts for the organization, that a complete fundamental change on offense needed to be made.

ok then..at least 4..

Rugby is brutal and there are no in game breaks and they play 34 games plus in a season and have a 2.5 month layoff.

I'm sorry but if NFL players can't take a measly 20 games then they are hardly the athletes they think they are...9 months is ridiculous.

Yeah I can't stand it when people refer to the NFL as a long grueling season.

The NHL is just as physical and they play 82 games with a playoff that lasts from April until June.

Cry me a river, these guys are the most pampered babies out there.

If(God allows) we make it to the super bowl this year I wanna face a team we never play like the Cowboys or Eagles.

Be careful what you wish for.

People thought 49ers fans were bad during SB week? Wow that would just be annoying. But we would obliterate the Eagles..sending them home still without a Lombardi would be great.

To answer some of the questions. .I was thinking in terms of best of the worst.

For me the most gut curdling seasons to watch were 07 and 13.

I remember in 06 when we had McNair, the offense climbed up to middle of the pack somewhwere, and that compared to what we had earlier with Boller seemed like we were setting the world on fire.

Then in 07 it was painfully obvious from the start that McNair was out of gas, John Ogden had that career ending toe injury..Ed Reed went down on that cheap shot by Hines Ward..then that 9 game losing streak..NASTY.

13 was also painful..although we were. 500 it was painful because the team just wasn't playing anywhere near the level that they needed to play at on offense or defense. It was also a shame that an overweight,out of shape, slow as molasses Ray Rice was out last memory of him in a Ravens uniform. Watching Joe get thrown to the Wolves over the last month..on one leg was also painful to watch. Before each game I actually crossed my fingers and prayed that he didn't get seriously hurt.

Others that stick out in my mind..2005. Our defense was nasty, but the offense was just THAT bad.

The 96-98 teams weren't much of a disappointment, because there was no expectation of winning yet. If they won a game it was great, when they lost it wasn't a big deal.

2002 was also a no expectation season, after the 2001 team failed,we lost a ton of talent in that salary dump..yet the team actually performed better than expected and was in the WC race until week 17.

I figured to make the criteria .500 or lower as to not re hash the most painful memory of all...I won't mention it.

Ok so plain and simple ..if I can get a hand here, I appreciate it.

I'm going to list some of the Ravens worst teams and they will go head to head through votes to see who would have won a Tournament of the worst Ravens squads ever.

Only teams 8-8 and under are eligable

Ok here are the contestants.

1996 Ravens- 4 wins 12 losses

1997 Ravens- 6 wins 9 losses 1 tie

1998 Ravens- 6 wins 10 losses

1999 Ravens - 8 wins 8 losses

02 Ravens- 7 wins 9 losses

05 Ravens- 6 wins 10 losses

07 Ravens- 5 wins 11 losses

13 Ravens - 8 wins 8 losses

To make it most fair, Im matching up teams of similar record, but trying to keep the years spaced out..so 96 vs 2007 for example so you have different enough personally on each squad.

1st Round will be

1999 Ravens vs 2013 Ravens

1996 Ravens vs 2007 Ravens

1997 Ravens vs 2002 Ravens

1998 Ravens vs 2005 Ravens

This game was the AFC Championship in everything but the title. It was clearly played by the 2 best teams in the AFC and some of the best coaches in the NFL as well. Pees called a heck of a game imo. Of course there were times that he got out smarted but that's to be expected. There were also times where he had it right, but players didn't execute. I literally just watched this game over again and I think it was clear that the Pats just made the plays they were supposed to and just wanted it more then the Ravens players, seemingly. There were a few fumble chances the Ravens couldn't come up with, there were a few 3rd down plays that should have been stopped and probably would have chanced that game with TDs, but they Ravens didn't execute. I think about rushing TD at 14-0. 10 guys did their jobs well but Daryl Smith just didn't do his job as well. He saw Brady pull the ball down to run and instead of aggressively attacking Brady, he hesitated like he wasn't sure whether to stay in cover or attack the ball. If he attack chances are he's able to make a tackle on Brady around the 2 yardline and it focuses the Pats to make a decision on 4th down in a 14 point hole. Things like that changes games.

Also I look at Kubes calling the same play for Daniels that scored him his first TD, but this time with the game tied at 28 and a chance to put even more pressure on the Pats by going up by 7, Daniels drops the pass in the back of the endzone and the Ravens have to settle for 3. Of course we all know about the Melvin missed tackle on 3rd down, that would have given the Pats a 4th and 2 on the 40 with a decision to make. Then of course there is Torrey Smith not fighting for the Flacco Int. Torrey actually made contact with the defender before the ball hit his hands, which means he had just as much opportunity to go up an make a play on the ball as the defender did. You have to at least knock that ball down. But again, the Pats made the plays where the Ravens didn't. As much as it pains me to say, I think the better team won that day.

Very honest, and unbiased opinion there.

I tend to agree. Two 14 point leads were blown that night. There was one td, I forget which one where the defense was in cover 2 Stewart was all kinds of almost on the opposite side of the field that he wasn't responsible for. That's not on Pees.

I'll tell ya, that time wasting return by Jacoby at the end was THE moment last year when I literally put my fist through the television. Wasting that time ended our last drive way before that interception.

The only thing this whole thing has done is just make me dislike the Patriots even more.

Sure, the biggest defense in favor of the Patriots is that they beat Indy 45-7 and that the balls had no outcome on the game.

My question (as a ravens fan in particular) is what about the week prior to that, where it absolutely COULD have made a difference. Let's not forget that not only did they have deflated balls in that game, there's also the issue of their illegal formations which DID wind up having an impact on the game.

It IS in a way gratifying that they were so scared that they couldn't line up and beat us fair that they had to stoop to that level.

That aside, I have some limited experience in law enforcement as a correctional officer, from years ago (wasn't my thing) but as a rule of thumb, when someone is prepared to go through some huge process to defend their self, rather than just prove their innocence usually means that they have something to hide.

If Brady was so innocent, then he would have proven it immediately.

So far, Brady's defense is plausible deniablility and I don't buy it for a second. He knew what was going on.

Bring him up!

@BowieBaysox: Jonathan Schoop has now homered in three straight games for the Baysox after leading off the bottom of the 1st with a solo homer to CF

Can't wait to get Schoop back. Thankfully, Flaherty has been great lately. I didn't realize how bad he murders Boston until they put up a graphic on TV last series. Schoop on the other hand. Is our Yankee killer.

Does the AL east know what pitching is? Every team besides some of tampas pitchers are dreadful. The AL in general have pretty mediocre pitching this season. And torontos bullpen mixed with oaklands might be the worst thing ever.

No joke there. It seems like every rotation in the AL east is underperforming. The 2nd half is going to be very interesting.

Also, people keep saying that this is the worst division, but it's really not. There isn't one dominant team, but aside from Boston..every team is right there with the rest of the AL pretty much.

I hate the word ELITE. Way overused, and overrated.

I don't understand the absolute obsesssion with categorizing Quarterbacks..really..really annoying. You guys should quit jt.

Not me. Philly fans are up there with the worst. Has to suck playing for them though.

Yeah Im in north Delaware, Philly country. I remember 08 and 09 when they went to back to back Series..they were rubbing it in my face, making all sorts of jokes when I'd wear my O's hat about the 0-21 ect..

Then I remember in 2011 taking my girlfriend to a game at the yard..vs Cleveland I think, she's laughing at the starting lineup because "who are these guys" I was juse like..you just wait, you'll know who Adam Jones, Chris Tillman,Chris Davis, and Matt Weiters are soon enough.

Fast forward to last night's game. I noticed that she now knows who more Orioles players are than Phillies players lmao!

Moving forward, let's get these next two up in Philly, putting us in Position to take the division lead this weekend against Toronto, then we have Boston who is falling apart big time. If we can go 6-2 over the next 8 we'll be sitting pretty

Don't ever sleep on the Steelers to the poster at the beginning of this thread. Their offense will possibly be a Top 10 offense and Big Ben is still one of the best at backyard football with Top 5 RB in Bell and Top 5 WR in Brown.

Yeah I don't see how everyone is saying that they are going to suck. Their offense is going to be very dangerous. Defense may be middle of the pack though, so we'll see. No matter how good or bad they are, it's going to be all out war when we play them.

Wow! What we could have got for Dylan Bundy! Sorry y'all, but I'll take Kevin every time!! Check the injury report, Again? Love the run we are on, could "Mash" put us over the top? Hate me if you want too, but we are so close! All this kid is tease us and??? Dan is the man but come on. . Andrew was (is awesome) how long do we believe Bundy is?????/ Wow , we could have got another Adam Jones trade, or not. Oh yeah, what about Kevin? About to blow it?

Bundy hasn't pitched since late may, has tendinitis in his shoulder, pretty common when coming back from Tommy John. They are still hoping to have Bundy be a part of the September push.

Gausman is making abother rehab start for Frederick, then might possibly be back on the roster until Gonzalez is back from DL.

Right now we aren't in a bad spot considering the situation to start the season.. Weiters out, Hardy out, Schoop out, Flaherty out, Norris out, and now Gonzalez.to be 1 over .500 and just 2.5 back in the division..not bad. .

We get those guys back plus continuing contribution from guys like Parades, Reimold,Peirce, Young. .and we have a very solid positional group with options off the bench and much improved defense.

I still believe that we are the best team in the AL east, we haven't seen out best baseball yet and we are still in good shape.

Totally stunned by this, even though I know it's just procedural.

@Orioles: The Orioles have optioned LHP Wei-Yin Chen to High-A Frederick & transferred INF Jonathan Schoop to the 60-day disabled list.

Just a roster move because Chen started last night...had to make one for Parmalee.

Not sure of the specifics, but Chen will probably make his next start or get an extra day's rest. No big worry there.

Right now, it's has to be at WR.

I have a feeling that Perriman is going to be great here, but he hasn't played yet and as with all rookies, there will be some bumps in the first season.

Steve Smith I believe will play well, but nobody can defy father time forever, let's just hope that forever isn't until after this season. .

The rest of the WR group is capable, we've seen Marlon Brown make some great catches, Aiken last year was a huge suprise, and if Campanaro can stay healthy, I feel like he can be a big contributer as well.

The TE group would have to be my second most worrisome position. Will Pitta return this season? My money is that he starts on the PUP, and rests until the playoff push.

That leaves us with two rookie TE's who have a ton of upside..but we won't know until they play.

The defense is set IMO.

An interesting thing I discovered tonight: Joe has post-season wins against 9 *different* teams. I thought that sounded like a lot, so I did some digging. That's tied for 5th most with Terry Bradshaw. The 4 guys in front of him are John Elway, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady. Only 3 other guys even had as many as 8. Here's the list:

Tom Brady: 14

Joe Montana: 12

John Elway: 10

Terry Bradshaw: 9

Joe Flacco: 9

Brett Favre: 8

Steve Young: 8

Ben Roethlisberger: 8

So, he will be in second place on that list at least witbin the next two years.

I think it's a little misleading to say that he was brought in to run the same offense that Kubiak ran.

It's more or less because his offense is a west coast offense, and I think last season was a VIOLA! Moment when Flacco took a step forward in a quick hitting type of system. Since it's still a west coast system, I'm sure a lot of the concepts will stay the same, but there will be a new look about it.

Hopefully, it's a smooth transition and Trestman tries to utilize Flacco's down field capability a little more than Kubiak did now that we've got Perrin who is going to be a stud.

I don't understand the hate for Dean Pees. The defense under him has been very good considering what he's had to.work with.

You can't throw in all these crazy blitzes when your starting CB's are all 3rd string safeties or guys off the street.

Remember back in 07 when we had Rex? Our top 3 corners as well as Reed were all out at once at one point...yet Rex was still attacking and leaving those below average guys with no help, one on one..we were terrible.

Pees has had to be a little more conservative in his blitz packages because of all the backups or under performing players that we've had in the secondary over the last two seasons.

Look at us vs the Patriots then look at Seattle vs the Patriots

In the Super Bowl, the nfl's "best defense" gave up 57 rushing yards, 328 passing yds and Brady threw 4td's.

In the divisional game, in Foxboro...our defense gave up a whopping 14 rushing yds while Brady threw for 367 and 3 TD's.

Very Comparable stats...even more so considering that the Seahawks have a STACKED secondary on paper and we had a few scrubs out there.

If Webb and Smith can stay healthy all year..and the rest of the D stays relatively healthy..this defense is going to be lights out. Pees is a good DC, let's get off his back a little.

That first stretch is tough, but then it evens out because we get Home,Bye,Home,Home,Cleveland (Just as good as home)

I don't like that week 1 at Denver, but hey bring em on. Who's to say that we can't beat Denver? Last time I checked, they didn't win the Superbowl last year either.

2 out of 3 on the road against a division opponent to start the season isn't bad!

Odorizzi pitched an almost flawless game. He had good movement, guys couldn't square him up.

Gonzalez pitched well enough, way high on the walks, but after the 1st inning he was effective.

Defense was solid. Machado with yet another jaw dropper, flash and Schoop turned a couple of real crisp double plays.

The talking heads can say all they want about us losing Nick, Cruz, and Miller.

This is a very good baseball team, the starting rotation is better than they get credit for, defense is superb every night, and most nights the bats are dangerous.

lets not hang our heads too much, at least we didn't get beat by the Phillies lol..cough (red sox) cough

With O'Day and Miller, we had a stellar set up crew. Now that we let Miller walk, who do we have that is reliable to get us to Britton? Brach? Hunter?

I was cool with us letting Cruz go. While Nick was my favorite O, I understood the reasoning behind letting him walk. I cannot for the life of me get past the loss of Miller. Not only did we lose a great set-up guy, we let the Yanks get their closer at the same time.

I am going to be on pins and needles all season waiting for the fact that "the Baltimore market isn't ideal for a highly paid reliever" is going to bite us in the butt.

Thankfully, we got the run support today.

Miller is excellent, but remember our bullpen was nasty BEFORE we had him.

O'Day is obviously the setup guy, for the time being you can throw Gausman in there as well With Hunter, Brach, and Matusz to match up with the power lefties.

BTW- Did anyone SEE Britton last night? Wowie that sinker is nasty!

Remember the Ravens haven't gotten permission to interview Gase yet. Elway COULD screw us again..wouldn't put it past him.