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Ravens 20, Patriots 23
14 years ago
General
That was a heartbreaking loss. I'm a Ravens fan first, Patriots fan second, but to lose like that... it 's sour. The Patriots didn't beat them so much as a winning touchdown was dropped, and an easy Field Goal was missed. I'm hoping I'll be over it in time to cheer on Brady in the Super Bowl, but this might be the year I cheer against them. Flacco played very well, and most of his misses were passes that were catchable. I think he played better than Tom Brady with a much less formidable personnel group. They should've kept him passing, when he was passing well Wiilliams and Rice ran well, but without the passing game they got stuffed all day long. They should've gone for it on 4th and six inches, and they shouldn't have gone for it on 4th and 6th. Lee Evans should have held onto the winning pass. But most of all, Billy Cundiff should have done his job and made the biggest kick of his career.
So there ends such a great season. 12-4. Unbeaten at home. Number 2 seed. Swept the division. And in the end, we went out fighting. There's always next season, and we will do well in the years to come. Webb and Williams are great corners, and Smith is coming up to that point. Our defensive line is a force, with reliable backups and a great rotational line up. Zbikowski, Pollard, and Nakamura are firm safeties, not to mention Ed Reed, even in this down season. Torrey Smith will only grow better, Lee Evans might stay healthy, and Anquan Boldin is still a rock. Dickson started the season as our premiere tight end, and by the end of the season he was starting to be outshone by Pitta. Our offensive line is the area that troubles me the most, I really, really hope we find a way to hold onto Ben Grubbs and Andre Gurode. Birk is retiring, Oher is solid, and Jah Reid is a project, but a hopeful one. McKinnie played well, but he's getting older. I believe that to be our greatest need in the draft, followed by our linebacker group. Leach is a rock, and Rice can run the rock. Williams is a very solid backup. And Joe Flacco is our quarterback, and he can play. He's the most under-rated player in the league, and that's fine. We'll surprise them time and time again. We'll draft well. We'll make progress. And we'll continue to be a force.
He didn't, and here we sit. I'll wear my purple tomorrow just as proudly as I did during the beginning of the season. The future is bright. We play well even if we lose Lewis and Reed. My main concern is the offensive line. But we'll keep it going. This is our team, in victory and in defeat. Go Ravens.
So there ends such a great season. 12-4. Unbeaten at home. Number 2 seed. Swept the division. And in the end, we went out fighting. There's always next season, and we will do well in the years to come. Webb and Williams are great corners, and Smith is coming up to that point. Our defensive line is a force, with reliable backups and a great rotational line up. Zbikowski, Pollard, and Nakamura are firm safeties, not to mention Ed Reed, even in this down season. Torrey Smith will only grow better, Lee Evans might stay healthy, and Anquan Boldin is still a rock. Dickson started the season as our premiere tight end, and by the end of the season he was starting to be outshone by Pitta. Our offensive line is the area that troubles me the most, I really, really hope we find a way to hold onto Ben Grubbs and Andre Gurode. Birk is retiring, Oher is solid, and Jah Reid is a project, but a hopeful one. McKinnie played well, but he's getting older. I believe that to be our greatest need in the draft, followed by our linebacker group. Leach is a rock, and Rice can run the rock. Williams is a very solid backup. And Joe Flacco is our quarterback, and he can play. He's the most under-rated player in the league, and that's fine. We'll surprise them time and time again. We'll draft well. We'll make progress. And we'll continue to be a force.
He didn't, and here we sit. I'll wear my purple tomorrow just as proudly as I did during the beginning of the season. The future is bright. We play well even if we lose Lewis and Reed. My main concern is the offensive line. But we'll keep it going. This is our team, in victory and in defeat. Go Ravens.
We still have most of the pieces of this great team returning, next year looks a little more promising :)
For OC, I'm a huge fan of recently (and pointlessly) fired Raider's HC Hue Jackson. He's a former Baltimore QB coach, was successful as a Raider's OC and HC in his time there and was really turning the team around until new management decided they wanted to bring in "their guys," but hey, their loss is our gain.
As for the draft, I've seen a lock of mocks projecting AZ State ILB Vontaze Burfict to Baltimore. He's a physical freak and a nasty player, but is a little too prone to personal fouls and playing a little too hard after the whistle. Since Ray Lewis has already said he's not retiring yet, a year to be mentored under Lewis to calm him down and teach him how to play in the NFL could make him quite the pickup.
OC will also be a glaring need given the almost certainty of Birk's retirement. There are plenty of good prospects to look at for day 2 of the draft (Konz, Jones, Molk, Adams), so I'm not worried about our ability to grab someone there.
I'm unsure of the OT situation, however. Did we only sign McKinnie for a year deal? I'm not sold that Oher can move back to LT and be effective, but there aren't any viable LT's in this draft save for Matt Kalil, but there's no way we trade up for him; he's a lock for a top-3 pick and trading up that high just costs too much. MAYBE we get absurdly lucky and Reiff or Martin falls to us (very unlikely, but both of those look more like RT prospects to develop into LTs down the line). I'm also unsure of who replaces Grubbs, who by all accounts sounds like he's going to test the free agency waters. I'd keep an eye on free agency for O-linemen.
EDIT: I know how to hit the "reply" button =P *derp*