Espn Two-A-Days: Ravens

[Runnin Raven]

[url="http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=6905458"]http://espn.go.com/e...play?id=6905458[/url]

Not overly critical but not too informed. Greenie defended Flacco a bit. Golic seemed a tad down on us.

If you can believe it, [b]they actually got our 2010 season record wrong[/b]! Said we went 11-5. I don't know what to say to that. Continues the "we don't get no respect" theme we seem to love so much. Said we'd "take 1 step back" to 10-6.

Nice words for Ed and Ray though. I guess since our young guys (Dickson, Pitta, Reed, Doss, Kruger, Jones, McPhee, J. Smith et al) haven't done anything yet in real games they have no point of reference for them.

Actually started calling us old on defense when they talked with Herm, which is pretty ludicrous given the new blood.

[Alexir]

Steelers are averaging age 31 on their defense...ESPN needs to get their heads out of their you know whats....

[funky141]

Look on the bright side, your team was not picked to go 8-8 by the two experts.

[FerrariFan87]

They said we're going to be the "bridesmaids" to the Steelers again this year... and yeah, totally got our record incorrect. Amazing how that seems to happen with our team a lot. The most egregious being writers calling John "Jim" after he was first hired, and still sometimes do!!

[dirtybird10]

[quote name='Runnin Raven' timestamp='1314640487' post='770103']
[url="http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=6905458"]http://espn.go.com/e...play?id=6905458[/url]

Not overly critical but not too informed. Greenie defended Flacco a bit. Golic seemed a tad down on us.

If you can believe it, [b]they actually got our 2010 season record wrong[/b]! Said we went 11-5. I don't know what to say to that. Continues the "we don't get no respect" theme we seem to love so much. Said we'd "take 1 step back" to 10-6.

Nice words for Ed and Ray though. I guess since our young guys (Dickson, Pitta, Reed, Doss, Kruger, Jones, McPhee, J. Smith et al) haven't done anything yet in real games they have no point of reference for them.

Actually started calling us old on defense when they talked with Herm, which is pretty ludicrous given the new blood.
[/quote]
People have this belief that the Ravens have an old defence. I have heard it alot, even as of lately. A cowboys fan told me that I should be more worried about our "aging" defence than our offensive line or WR corps (before we got Evans). I honestly can't think of anyone but ED and Ray who are over 30 yrs old. That is certainly not aging. Don't really know where this persona comes from, but I guess it is just the reputation over the last couple years carrying over to this season.

[dirtybird10]

[quote name='Alexir' timestamp='1314640563' post='770105']
Steelers are averaging age 31 on their defense...ESPN needs to get their heads out of their you know whats....
[/quote]

any idea what our average age is? I honestly don't have a clue, but I imagine its gotta be abit younger than that. Although that damn machine Ray Lewis doesn't help our average...

[Tiz]

[quote name='dirtybird10' timestamp='1314641695' post='770124']

People have this belief that the Ravens have an old defence. I have heard it alot, even as of lately. A cowboys fan told me that I should be more worried about our "aging" defence than our offensive line or WR corps (before we got Evans). I honestly can't think of anyone but ED and Ray who are over 30 yrs old. That is certainly not aging. Don't really know where this persona comes from, but I guess it is just the reputation over the last couple years carrying over to this season.
[/quote]

Its a compliment, imo. Consistently good defense that has been doing it for years so people use age to "predict" a fall.

I

[Corvus]

When you can't even get your FACTS right on a team's record 8 months ago, your opinions automatically go out the window.

Journalistic integrity is dead. I don't care about opinions, Mike and Mike could have said we'd go 6-10 this year and I wouldn't even care in the slightest. But when I hear time and time again that the Ravens defense is getting "too old"? Nothing tears me up more because I know it is a statement not supported by FACT. A few weeks ago, I averaged out our defensive starters ages and at the time I even used Foxworth and Carr as our two starters and they're both 28. The projected average age of our starting defense (those two and Ngata, Cody, Redding, Suggs, JJ, Ray, McClain, Ed, and Pollard/Zbikowski [both are 26]) they averaged out 28.5 years old. If we substitute Jimmy and Cary in there that number automatically goes down quite a bit. The Steelers meanwhile have a projected starting lineup of over 31on average (Hampton, Keisel, Smith, Harrison, Woodley, Farrior, Timmons, Taylor, McFadden, Clark, and Polamalu) . When they were getting ripped up by Rodgers in February, there was never any mention of of them being old, yet because Ray, Ed, Redding, and JJ turns 30 during the season I think, we're always "too old," give me a break...

[Gordo52]

This just grinds my gears

[gabefergy]

[quote name='dirtybird10' timestamp='1314641796' post='770125']

any idea what our average age is? I honestly don't have a clue, but I imagine its gotta be abit younger than that. Although that damn machine Ray Lewis doesn't help our average...
[/quote]
There was a post on ESPN about average ages. I think our defense was about 28.5 or something like that. That number may be a little high considering our starting CBs may end up being a rookie and a 4th year player who has never started before. The idea that our defense is old stems entirely from Ray and Ed, who are both nearing the end of their careers but still play at a remarkably high level. Besides them only Cory Redding is over 30 years old on starting D.

[Militant X 1]

interesting!

~Mili

[TreTheRaven]

My question is, is who do they all have the Ravens losing to? 10 - 6?

Okay, I can understand Indianapolis and once to Pittsburgh -- but who else?

I see a lot of people saying they fear the matchup against the Chargers but I don't.

Like last season, I see them at 12 - 4.

[Runnin Raven]

That's what I was thinking TreTheRaven...did they check the schedule? Not that it matters I guess, I usually don't care about these things but when they got our record wrong I couldn't believe it. I also see us beating the Colts, BTW.

[TDubbs]

Lol I dont really care about this stuff. They put us down because we seem to be that team that everyone loves to hate. As Billick would have said `Fuel to the Fire`. 12-4 sounds about right to me... but its all about playoff success.

[The Raven]

[quote name='funky141' timestamp='1314641240' post='770117']
Look on the bright side, your team was not picked to go 8-8 by the two experts.
[/quote]

Well, without Manning what do you have? If he misses extensive time the Colts just might be 8-8.