Biggest surprise of the season

[bmorefan444]

ellerbe has pleasantly surprised me this year. he stepped up his game.

[Free Agent]

Paul Kruger. Even with Suggs injury, I never would've thought he'd be our top pass rusher, let alone as dominant as he was through the second half of the season. We need to bring him back somehow.

Honorable mention to Bernard Pierce, he's quickly becoming a very, very good running back.

[ravensfan2424]

Every non-starting player on the Defense. So many injuries plagued the team this year on the D, but I must say our depth showed and we were able to get by without Suggs, Lewis, and Webb for prolonged period of time.

Tucker is also amazing, He is a B0$$ kicker with such a colorful personality. He is just so awesome

[The Raven]

Osemele wowed me. Pierce impressed me a lot. Corey Graham was a huge surprise.

Ray Lewis came back from his injury. That REALLY surprised me. Who would have thought?

4th and 29 was a surprise for sure!

[poedacrow]

[b]Bernard Pierce[/b]- He doesn't look that big or that fast until you see he's past the line of scrimmage and into the secondary.

[b]Paul Kruger[/b]- Didn't look like he was going to lead the team in sacks at the beginning of the season but he has really come on as of late; especially in the playoffs. Reminds me of Howie Long.

[b]Corey Graham[/b]-Saved our bacon more than a few times.

[HomeoftheBRAVENS]

Cameron finally being fired is by far the biggest surprise.

[BloodRaven]

I knew Pierce was gonna be a beast, didn't surprise me one bit. He had a lot of haters earlier in the offseason.

For me, Art Jones, Jacoby Jones and Corey Graham were the biggest surprises of the year. The fact that Cody, Kindle and Jimmy Smith are busts is also a surprise.

[SideStep77]

I think the majority of the season has been a surprise for me. If you would have told me we'd lose our top CB, Ray Lewis would get hurt and Suggs hurt again, a 3rd round pick being a monster for us, Cam Cameron fired mid-season and a former coach our OC, and a ST standout being arguably one of our best corners. Oh and on top of all that BE IN THE SUPER BOWL? I would have said you are crazy.

[jdynamite]

Surprises for me:

- I never expected a Rookie Kicker to kick this good this early props to J.Tucker...
- J.Jones' consistent effort and play, plenty of games where Jones really left it on field to me (reminded me of how hard Ricky Williams played every game last season)
- Bernard Pierce exceeded my expectations over the last few weeks, early in the season he wasn't getting many carries as he became comfortable with the NFL game speed and Cam's inadequate playcalling, but he got stronger as the season progressed.
-Corey Graham's cover skills, in Chicago he was more a special teams ace, I'd seen him play a lot but he stepped up in a big way this year when this team was thin at corner due to injuries.
-** Torrey Smith's maturation, in Smith it appears that the Ravens will finally develop their own stud WR, his route running improved vastly in a year, his confidence to make plays on the ball in air attack the ball rather than wait for it to reach him, his improved hands.
- A.Jones improve play over the season when McPhee was injured

- never expected a Ravens defense to give up back-to-back 200 yd rushing games Chiefs & Cowboys
- nothing can top the surprise I felt when R.Lewis & L.Webb went down with what appeared season-ending injuries for both along with record rushing yards given up on My Birthday ( didn't even feel like we won that game afterwards)

** I've always said all year to people at work that the Ravens can beat any team in the NFL, they have the talent offensively to score more ( just terrible play-calling and not using personnel to create mismatches hence my Fire Cam conversation would begin ) then I would talk about the injuries on defense as well as the youth movement regardless of the ESPN talk of the oldest defense constantly pointed out R.Lewis, E.Reed, Kemo, B.Ayanbadejo for a majority of the season before birthdays etc were the only defenders over 30 on the team. In the games that we lost I could always find the coulda/shoulda/woulda plays meaning if the ball bounced this way the game and momentum would have been totally different, this goes both ways, we get bum call on J.Jones cost us a game vs Eagles, Houston may have been blow out but the pick 6 completely shattered the game plus it was a week after losing 2 studs, Ngata was injured in the game etc., then we had some go our way 4th and 29, or the Tucker FG vs NE.. I told people during week 17, that the Ravens would beat the Colts and get revenge on the Broncos whom lucked up with that pick 6 at end of first half barely could score with our top 5 tacklers out.

[Larryterri]

For me, it was Kruger.

The Cundiff release was a close second after Harbaugh said he's our guy after the loss last season.

4th and 29 was when I realized we were going to the super bowl. Something that special dont go to waste...

Biggest surprise of all though, losing to Batch, never saw that coming.

[Dudeman]

[quote name='Larryterri' timestamp='1359039572' post='1328813']
For me, it was Kruger.

The Cundiff release was a close second after Harbaugh said he's our guy after the loss last season.

4th and 29 was when I realized we were going to the super bowl. Something that special dont go to waste...

Biggest surprise of all though, losing to Batch, never saw that coming.
[/quote]

Losing to Batch, whewww yeah that was tough to swallow and I am sure that surprised even Steelers fans.

Looks like Pierce takes the cake so far, and I like that some have mentioned Art Jones as well. I don't think it should be a huge surprise when a 3-4 year guy really developes and comes into their own. But the league as a trend has become a throw to the wolves and develope overnight kind of league. I guess the Ravens are a little more throwback in that they will develope a guy into their system a little more than the rest of the NFL.