Game last night

[Sports Steve]

Even if it was Pre-Season always great to kick the Redskins ass.
Nice to see a lot of you again last night. Football Is Back

Yeah Baby

[3RDRowRaven]

It was nice to see the Skins getting shut out. The Skin fans in my section had really nothing to cheer for lastnight.

[Dragz]

Good defensive play last night, nice to see a lil depth. Need more consistent play in the WRs but I'm happy we got the win. Pre-season is pre-season but I love to see Ravens winning...

[Rxdoxx]

Yep, was nice but I'm not putting a lot of stock in the win.
Skins should be better with Haynesworth on D and Portis, Moss, Heyer, Thomas on O.

But it did show that we are going to have a lot deeper talent base on our roster than they will. A massively lot deeper bench.

[Fanman]

I agree....love seeing the Skins get trashed.
Some quick obs from the game:

The good:
1. Flacco looked solid...passes were on time and accurate
2. Rice looked quick and hungry. I like seeing him get used has an outlet for Flacco coming out of the backfield.
3. Willis looked faster compared to this same time last year.
4. Troy Smith looked good and has a knack for avoiding sacks
5. Harper made up for the slow start w/ a solid game. I def think this guy has the potential to be a #3 WR.
6. Def, as always, looked super
7. ST kickoffs were awesome...all were inside the 5 yd line.

The bad
1. WAY too many penalties...looked like a Billick team
2. 1st team off did not score a TD
3. left side of O-line was shaky w/ Cousins
4. Very little production from the TEs. The overall health from this group is becoming a worry for me.

GO RAVENS!!!

FM

FM

[Drkraven]

I am assuming since beer sales went to the end of the 3rd quarter it was quiet, but we had 6 really obnoxious 'Skins in 114. They almost got kicked out of a freakin pre-season game! They sorta slunk out in the 4th jerseys off.

[StingerNLG]

Beating the Redskins in Pre-season doesn't do much for me. I'd rather we had that 23-0 against the Steelers in the regular season. But last night was a solid performance by the Ravens.

My only real issue is that I wasn't as happy with the first team offense as I think some other people are. Flacco was fine, and I am not worried about him. However once again there were absolutely NO balls thrown downfield. Most everything completed were slants, comebacks, or checkdowns. Now, maybe I didn't see it because of the TV angles, but I don't remember too many of our 1st team WR's running routes downfield either. I don't know why we didn't have Williams go deep at least a couple times to see if we could complete anything longer than a few yards and YAC.

As to the WR's on the whole, I am still waiting for more. Mason dropped a pass in the endzone, and guys like Wheelright and Ealy were invisible. I did like what I saw from Kelley Washington on the slant patterns. I think he will be a better threat on them at 3rd and 3 than Clayton. But the best catches really came from LJ Smith and Justin Harper. Speaking of Harper, I know he's gotten beat up a little here, but I thought he played well after dropping those three passes. After that he did have some nice grabs and a touchdown. The question is can he start holding onto the ball more consistently. If he can, I'd like to see him stay as the 5th WR. I want to see Harper play wiith the 1st team a little. Give Yamon Figurs a little credit too. He still isn't going to make the team due to not being able to return kicks anymore, but he probably bought himself another pre-season game to make an impact.

Michael Oher might actually be closer to NFL ready than we think. He really impressed me on the right side. Call me crazy, but we could be looking at one of the better bookend combinations in the league with him and Gaither. In fact, the prospect of a Gaither, Grubbs, Birk, Yanda, Oher line may finally bring me some peace of mind I haven't had in a while.

Oniel Cousins looked pretty lost yesterday. And 3 holding penalties??? Come on man, you need to do better than that!

Speaking of penalties, there were way to many last night.

Troy Smith. Look let's be honest, he didn't suck last night. Still doesnt have a pocket presence, but he was slinging the ball around pretty good. He showed improvement, and that could be enough to put minds at ease on our backup QB situation. Beck was serviceable, but not he's injured.

Ray Rice and Willis McGahee are going to destroy this year. McClain may be sticking to lead blocking this year if they keep running like they did. Not granted it's not the Steelers, but still. That catch and run by Rice in the first half was awesome, and the kid can JET!

Special teams did pretty good last night, but I am completely uncommitted on a return man. Carr and Webb didn't get very far in their tries, and I stopped paying attention after that. BTW, do we not have THE BEST punter in the NFL bar none? Sam Koch is just incredible. And while I'm also not committed to a kicker yet (although Gano should have made that 28 yarder), both of them had nice deep kickoffs, which was refreshing to see.

Next stop, the Jets!

[RockyMRaven]

Is Jayson Foster a return man? He looked really quick and elusive out there.

[Merlin]

We need to give this guy some real chances

He looks like he's got real potential and just needs some real game experience.

Remember some people blossom after multiple practice squad tries (e.g., last year's defensive MVP, Harrison who was on our practice squad)

[ravenjoe]

Beating the Redskins in Pre-season doesn't do much for me. I'd rather we had that 23-0 against the Steelers in the regular season. But last night was a solid performance by the Ravens.

My only real issue is that I wasn't as happy with the first team offense as I think some other people are. Flacco was fine, and I am not worried about him. However once again there were absolutely NO balls thrown downfield. Most everything completed were slants, comebacks, or checkdowns. Now, maybe I didn't see it because of the TV angles, but I don't remember too many of our 1st team WR's running routes downfield either. I don't know why we didn't have Williams go deep at least a couple times to see if we could complete anything longer than a few yards and YAC.

As to the WR's on the whole, I am still waiting for more. Mason dropped a pass in the endzone, and guys like Wheelright and Ealy were invisible. I did like what I saw from Kelley Washington on the slant patterns. I think he will be a better threat on them at 3rd and 3 than Clayton. But the best catches really came from LJ Smith and Justin Harper. Speaking of Harper, I know he's gotten beat up a little here, but I thought he played well after dropping those three passes. After that he did have some nice grabs and a touchdown. The question is can he start holding onto the ball more consistently. If he can, I'd like to see him stay as the 5th WR. I want to see Harper play wiith the 1st team a little. Give Yamon Figurs a little credit too. He still isn't going to make the team due to not being able to return kicks anymore, but he probably bought himself another pre-season game to make an impact.

Michael Oher might actually be closer to NFL ready than we think. He really impressed me on the right side. Call me crazy, but we could be looking at one of the better bookend combinations in the league with him and Gaither. In fact, the prospect of a Gaither, Grubbs, Birk, Yanda, Oher line may finally bring me some peace of mind I haven't had in a while.

Oniel Cousins looked pretty lost yesterday. And 3 holding penalties??? Come on man, you need to do better than that!

Speaking of penalties, there were way to many last night.

Troy Smith. Look let's be honest, he didn't suck last night. Still doesnt have a pocket presence, but he was slinging the ball around pretty good. He showed improvement, and that could be enough to put minds at ease on our backup QB situation. Beck was serviceable, but not he's injured.

Ray Rice and Willis McGahee are going to destroy this year. McClain may be sticking to lead blocking this year if they keep running like they did. Not granted it's not the Steelers, but still. That catch and run by Rice in the first half was awesome, and the kid can JET!

Special teams did pretty good last night, but I am completely uncommitted on a return man. Carr and Webb didn't get very far in their tries, and I stopped paying attention after that. BTW, do we not have THE BEST punter in the NFL bar none? Sam Koch is just incredible. And while I'm also not committed to a kicker yet (although Gano should have made that 28 yarder), both of them had nice deep kickoffs, which was refreshing to see.

Next stop, the Jets!

Real nice synopsis, Stinger. I actually believe that our O-line, along with our O-line coach, is potentially the best in the entire league. Granted, they are young and developing, but I would not be surprised to see 3 All-Pros emanate from this group in the not too distant future - Gaither, Oher, and Grubbs.