10-6

[Jesse Conroy]

The fact that we beat the Chargers last year has nothing to do with what I was saying. We may have beat the chargers last year, but does that make them a bad team?

I was saying that after facing the Chargers and Patriots, we may be a little tired, because they are such tough teams. I would love to completely destroy the Colts next year, I was simply implying that that goal may be a little hard to achieve, due to playing the Chargers and the Patriots right before the Colts.

[RavenTD]

I think we should hit the same mark as last year. Stevie Mac will be better prepared as he enters the season.

The big question mark as with any QB is health.How long can your QB stay healthy.

I don't know where our O'line is at the moment.But I want to see improvement over last year.

Whatever happens,I don't think my gut could handle another loss to the Colts in the playoffs.

It took me ages to get over that and get back into football.

[Jesse Conroy]

I think we should hit the same mark as last year. Stevie Mac will be better prepared as he enters the season.

The big question mark as with any QB is health.How long can your QB stay healthy.

I don't know where our O'line is at the moment.But I want to see improvement over last year.

Whatever happens,I don't think my gut could handle another loss to the Colts in the playoffs.

It took me ages to get over that and get back into football.

That's what I was saying before, I am wondering how long it will go until he gets injured. Also, will Troy Smith be up to the challenge?

Hopefully McNair teaches him well during the off season.

[The_Raven]

^ I'm also worried about McNair and if he can stay upright. I'm glad Ogden has come back for at least 1 more run. Personally, I still believe Boller if he can pull everything together could def. fill in if McNair goes down. The guy has hands down (from what Ive heard) one of the strongest arms in the league. And came up big (in at least 1 game I re-call) thorwing a few TD's. I love Troy Smith but was dissapointed when he came in over weight and looked like he had gotten lazy for workouts. I like his arm, feet, and play-making ability. Looks good for future.

[rockonravens]

I know we probably won't go 16-0, I just couldn't figure why the thread starter thought we would lose 6 games after only losing 3 last year. If anything, we've improved over the off-season and added some much needed depth to cover any injuries.

Yeah, NE, SD, and Indy will be tough, but Indy has regressed this off-season and we haven't. It's time for us to beat them.

Hi all, new here!!!! Just had to add to this. I hate loosing any game, but I'd take the lost to NE, before ever taking another one to Indy!!!!!!!

[Ravensfan23]

My serious prediction would have to be 11-5, much harder schedule.

But for some reason I feel that Steve McNair is going to suffer an injury, and put Troy up to the plate. I am just wondering if he is going to be able to step it up and get the job done.

But being the Ravens fan that I am I always hope for 16-0.

There is no way troy sees the field if we are anywhere around the 11-5 mark. Boller will be given his final chance in the case of McNair going down but lets hope he doesn't. As far as our record i'll say 12-4. I honestly think that if they start the season strong in cincy that well go 7-0 heading into the bye. But i'll just take it one game at a time and see how things unfold

[RavRule52]

i'd say 8-0 to start it off (i mean, it's the steelers at the eighth game). then either 13-3 with division title or 12-4 with division title. they'd probably lose to Patriots and (hopefully not, but probably) the Colts. and then the loss which just is so randomly placed in the season each year (for example, last season with the panthers).

[Jesse Conroy]

^ I'm also worried about McNair and if he can stay upright. I'm glad Ogden has come back for at least 1 more run. Personally, I still believe Boller if he can pull everything together could def. fill in if McNair goes down. The guy has hands down (from what Ive heard) one of the strongest arms in the league. And came up big (in at least 1 game I re-call) thorwing a few TD's. I love Troy Smith but was dissapointed when he came in over weight and looked like he had gotten lazy for workouts. I like his arm, feet, and play-making ability. Looks good for future.

I think if anything would happen to McNair, Billick will put Smith in.

I know Boller has one of the strongest arms in the league, I heard he could throw 80 yards on his knees (not sure if correct, just what I heard) But that doesn't make him a good quarterback, he really hasn't done anything for the Ravens, and we have to give the Rookie a chance to step up.

[Tiz]

I think if anything would happen to McNair, Billick will put Smith in.

I know Boller has one of the strongest arms in the league, I heard he could throw 80 yards on his knees (not sure if correct, just what I heard) But that doesn't make him a good quarterback, he really hasn't done anything for the Ravens, and we have to give the Rookie a chance to step up.

I don't agree. If Smith has shown he is better now for the team than Boller then yes put him in. If Smith has failed to beat out Boller in TC and Preseason for the #2 spot then no, don't just hand it over to him. Afterall, that is part of the reason why Boller never really progressed, he was just handed the reigns.

[I Bleed Purple]

here is my take... if you are any kind of fan it doesnt matter you should go into the season thinking you can win 16. that said we have one of the hardest schedules in the leuge and it should be a challenge for us. but if you go into the season hoping for anything less then perfect you shouldnt call yourself a fan.

[Tiz]

here is my take... if you are any kind of fan it doesnt matter you should go into the season thinking you can win 16. that said we have one of the hardest schedules in the leuge and it should be a challenge for us. but if you go into the season hoping for anything less then perfect you shouldnt call yourself a fan.

Simply BS.. I go into each season calling us contenders not calling us the '72 dolphins. Being a fan doesn't mean that i should discount the improbabilility of going 16-0 in the regular season then going another 3-0 in the play offs.

Simply put I don't care if it's 9-7, 14-2. or 16-0 if it doesn't culminating in an SB win the regular season didn't matter that much..i.e the Steelers making a SB run from the bottom seed a few years ago or even our 13-3 season, or SD's 14-2 season ending in a 1 and done play off run.

Calling me anything less than a fan because I don't realistically expect 16 wins, or again quite frankly don't care what the regular season record will be, is idiotic.

[Guest Birdfan]

Easy, people. Let's remember that we're arguing viewpoints, not slamming each other.

[MKdave]

13-3 with the league's #1 Defense. After losing Adalius Thomas, our Defense has regressed.

Yeah, adalius was a big loss, but guys like landry and haloti will improve and gain maturity.And even guys like suggs will step it up ,he is still young.I dont think he has come anywhere near his prime yet.

Injury providing:

I think we're going 11-5 minimum. thats assuming we lose all of our 'maybe' games, plus a couple of inevitable slip ups.

I actually think going more like 13-3 ( got a good feeling about SD, and I think our 'O' will do a better job staying with the colts this time around)

[Ravensfan23]

I think some fans are getting a little ahead of themselves on this Troy Smith thing. I mean we are not playing Madden football here. At this point Troy Smith is nothing but a name, and a pretty good minicamp QB. Would u like to see what the kid has? yes but in reality u don't want to see him anywhere near a field this season. I know people are tired of seeing Boller. I get it, but like it or not he is the backup of this team. He is the only backup QB we have that has any NFL experience. I don't care how much u hate him if u know football then u know he is good enough to win a couple of games in McNair's place. He came in the game and should have lead us to 2 victories last season. We are talking about a playoff calbier team here. If McNair goes down for any reason u don't just hand things over to a rookie so u can see what he's got. Many will point out the fact that NE did it putting a young Brady in once Drew got hurt, but NE had no choice but to put Brady in. They didn't have the opition of going to a vet. I hate to break it to some of u guys but once th preseason is over so it Troy Smith. He will just sit and learn all he can during the season and maybe prove that he is the guy we need next season. However this season he is nothing more then a 3rd QB. In this day and age many people wanna see a draft pick come in and make a impact right away. Well that is not the case here. Give Troy some time to learn and adjust to the speed of the NFL. Allow him to know the playbook well enough to be able to hit his second opition on a play before he is gets out of his breaks. I beleive that Troy Smith will be a great QB for us, we just won't see it until 2 or 3 seasons from now.

[Jesse Conroy]

I think some fans are getting a little ahead of themselves on this Troy Smith thing. I mean we are not playing Madden football here. At this point Troy Smith is nothing but a name, and a pretty good minicamp QB. Would u like to see what the kid has? yes but in reality u don't want to see him anywhere near a field this season. I know people are tired of seeing Boller. I get it, but like it or not he is the backup of this team. He is the only backup QB we have that has any NFL experience. I don't care how much u hate him if u know football then u know he is good enough to win a couple of games in McNair's place. He came in the game and should have lead us to 2 victories last season. We are talking about a playoff calbier team here. If McNair goes down for any reason u don't just hand things over to a rookie so u can see what he's got. Many will point out the fact that NE did it putting a young Brady in once Drew got hurt, but NE had no choice but to put Brady in. They didn't have the opition of going to a vet. I hate to break it to some of u guys but once th preseason is over so it Troy Smith. He will just sit and learn all he can during the season and maybe prove that he is the guy we need next season. However this season he is nothing more then a 3rd QB. In this day and age many people wanna see a draft pick come in and make a impact right away. Well that is not the case here. Give Troy some time to learn and adjust to the speed of the NFL. Allow him to know the playbook well enough to be able to hit his second opition on a play before he is gets out of his breaks. I beleive that Troy Smith will be a great QB for us, we just won't see it until 2 or 3 seasons from now.

I agree with you in the case you have brought to the table (as of right now). But I still want to see Smith in the pre-season, and if he does better then Boller, well I think he should have a chance at the number 2 spot.

I mean we all know that McNair is getting old, we know Boller has no future as a starting QB, and so we have to hope for Smith in that he will be are quarterback in a few years.

We need to look out for the future, and you learn more when you play more.

[MKdave]

I think every one is putting way to much pressure and expectation on troy smith, lets remember what he is, a late 5th round pick.

And thats all he is untill he plays a down for us.

[Raven07]

From what we have all seen of Troy Smith from the Mini Camps....and his performance and the way he was impressing EVERYONE, i personally see no reason why Raven Fans shouldnt have hopes and everything we've been saying about him, a reality........We will see, come the Preseason and the Defenses he'll face.....should give him a challenge cuz its something a lil different BUT nothing he cant handle and i envision Troy to do Just Fine if not better, sure The Opening Drive MAY (i say may cuz troy has everything the Organization was looking for...leadership, Humility, and Poise exc....) be a little shaky but thats to be expected since its going to be his first Actaul NFL experience against another NFL team, but after that im absolutely sure He Will Do just fine

Have Faith

[Ravensfan23]

From what we have all seen of Troy Smith from the Mini Camps....and his performance and the way he was impressing EVERYONE, i personally see no reason why Raven Fans shouldnt have hopes and everything we've been saying about him, a reality........We will see, come the Preseason and the Defenses he'll face.....should give him a challenge cuz its something a lil different BUT nothing he cant handle and i envision Troy to do Just Fine if not better, sure The Opening Drive MAY (i say may cuz troy has everything the Organization was looking for...leadership, Humility, and Poise exc....) be a little shaky but thats to be expected since its going to be his first Actaul NFL experience against another NFL team, but after that im absolutely sure He Will Do just fine

Have Faith

I don't doubt that Troy Smith will do just fine. I'm a big fan of Troy's, as i said in the draft part of the forum. Troy is off to a great start in baltimore, he is already earning the respect of the vet teammate, he has already teamed up with Melo to get involved in the community and in 3-4 years he jersey might just be the highest seller in baltimore. But the point i was making is we have time to see what Troy Smith has. Smith will have plenty of opportunities to show the FO, his team, and his fans what he can do behind center. I just think people are expecting too much if they thing Troy will be first in line if McNair goes down. As far as Troy impressing everyone, it's not that hard to impress in shorts and helmets. Thats not a knock on Troy, because i get just as excited when i read those reports as the next man/woman. It just that it wasn't that long ago when everyone wanted Boller to be the Future of the Franchise. The coaches just pushed him into that role and he failed. Was it because he's just not good enough? Maybe, but if i was a gambling man that had to bet on the main reason boller failed; my money would be on the fact that he was pushed into that position by fans and media and coaches. We all want Troy Smith to be the man, and so far he has done nothing to disappoint. I guess if i had my choice i would wait at least until next season to have Troy hit the field. However like many of u have been saying if he proves ready then give him the ball. BUT just like Boller the coaching staff will only have one chance at the right decision with Troy Smith.

[willis mcgahee run u over]

Yo, I don't think we will repeat our stunning record from last year, due to a harder schedule and injuries, etc, etc. But, I do see us hittin' the 10 and 6 mark and winnin' the division.

Which is all right with me... playoffs, and another banner in stadium!

Randy and the Pats ain't got nothin' on us.

BRING IT ON!

doubt it...we'll get 15 wins..

15-1

[Ravensfan23]

doubt it...we'll get 15 wins..

15-1

Who's the 1 lost coming from?

[willis mcgahee run u over]

Who's the 1 lost coming from?

id say cincinatti

but not in week 1

they'll win here on some crazy play

[Jesse Conroy]

id say cincinatti

but not in week 1

they'll win here on some crazy play

HA! I have to disagree, I believe the Bengals are going to wake up the day after we play them in agony and pain.

[willis mcgahee run u over]

HA! I have to disagree, I believe the Bengals are going to wake up the day after we play them in agony and pain.

well a 16-0 season is crazy i just had to pick a team we lose to

i though of our schedule

buffalo...bwahahahahahahaha!ultimate torching...willis breaks a hundred tackles while we shut them down completely i mean we shut down willis

jets...bwahahahahahahaha! the jet torchings will stay even tho he is here

seattle...bwahahahahahaha!those LBs the way they tackle...how did 2 make the pro-bowl when their tackling sucks so bad.we shut them down as well

cleveland...bwahahahahahahahahaha!

pittsburgh....bwahahahahahahahhahaha! big ben vs ed reed...kinda scary

dolphins..i wont laugh out loud but i cant really see us losing cause trent green will never get a chance to throw with that line

cardinals....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!nice offensive line...i can see edge gettin stuffed 20 times

rams...ok great offense but what about the defense....we get 600 total yards

bengals,49ers,new england,the colts and the chargers are the only teams that will put up a fight

san fransisco wins because of 3 guys frank gore,walt harris and patrick willis(now that hes there)

we have LBs that wont look like fools against frank gore...they are 3 Top 10 LBs.. patrick willis i dont know if he can stop willis..walt harris its simple just dont throw at him and if you do throw it deep cause hes great defending 10 yd passes

colts...the playoff defense is not gonna happen again..we can shut down their offense and likely will torch their defense

chargers....we beat them last year they worsened we got better

new england...i love the idea of them coming down here and getting hammered so i picked cincinatti as a loss...i believe we can beat new england as well.

we were the only team to stop peyton,marvin and reggie last year so we could be the only team to stop brady,moss and stallworth

[Jesse Conroy]

Thats what I like, arguments with reasons behind them.

We will see how the season works out.

[willis mcgahee run u over]

Thats what I like, arguments with reasons behind them.

We will see how the season works out.

yea we might not even have a loss

[Jesse Conroy]

yea we might not even have a loss

I would hope so, I want that every year.

That would be amazing if it were to happen.

[Raven07]

^True True.....that'd be pretty sweet! haha

[Ravensfan23]

It is very likely that if the Ravens start strong they could get out to a 7-0 start heading into Pitt after the bye week. After that the schedule gets a little tougher, but lucky for us we are a tough team. I think the offense will be much improved this season. The addition of McGahee should help us in the redzone and we should be more able to handle tough defensive teams like NE and SD. I say we get 12 wins, divison title, and homefield thur-out the playoffs. Many of us will be taking a 5 hour flight to AZ.

[willis mcgahee run u over]

we lost adailus thomas so our pass-rushing worsened a little bit

but improvement of dewan landry,terell suggs,bart scott helps that landry for coverage

bart scott/terell suggs/haloti ngatu on the rise might help us get the number 1 run defense and surprass minnesota

willis mcgahee will be better than jamal lewis and ben grubbs will be an improvement

willis can run over a good LB....ofcourse it never showed up in stats because of buffalo's line....ben grubbs will make sure that doesnt happen here

[Ravensfan23]

we lost adailus thomas so our pass-rushing worsened a little bit

but improvement of dewan landry,terell suggs,bart scott helps that landry for coverage

bart scott/terell suggs/haloti ngatu on the rise might help us get the number 1 run defense and surprass minnesota

willis mcgahee will be better than jamal lewis and ben grubbs will be an improvement

willis can run over a good LB....ofcourse it never showed up in stats because of buffalo's line....ben grubbs will make sure that doesnt happen here

I really don't see our pass rushing taking that big of a hit. I mentioned this about a month or 2 ago. AD is a great player make no mistake, however if u follow the Ravens D and pay attention(which the national media never seems to do). You will notice that with guys like Scott, AD, Landry, Ivy and even Ray, as good as they were at rushing the passer it was moreso the 10 guys around them being in the right place to allow them a free shot at the QB. AD wasn't like Pryce and Suggs who had to fight off olinemen just to get in the backfield. For the most part AD, Scott, and others in the back 7 had clear paths to the QB or at the most had to fight through a RB or TE. Now i give AD all the credit for making it count once he got their, but i promise u if a guy like Suggs has the chances to rush free as much as AD did he would be a 15-20 sack guy. Again this is not a knock on AD i just don't see guys like Johnson, Barnes, Cody(if healthy) and Sapp, failing to get to the pass rusher once given a clear lane. Now to be fair to AD there were plenty of times when he lined up as a DE and still was able to get to the QB. If u ask me AD benifited from this defense just as much as many wanna beleive this defense benifited from him.