ESPN's Ravens Coverage (Merged Threads)

**JimZipCode** · 12-04-2011, 11:39 PM

I stayed up to watch the 11p to 12:30 SportsCenter, to hear the guys talk about Ray Rice's career day.

Nothing. No coverage, no highlights, they didn't even put the score up on the screen and show the stats. Nothing at all. You would have had to watch the crawl at the bottom of the screen to even know the game had been played.

They spent half an hour on Aaron Rodgers, and not a second on the AFC North division leader and top-2 team in conference. That's bullshit.

**JMUpurkfool** · 12-04-2011, 11:46 PM

I believe that.

The question is... did they show Steelers-Bengals highlights?

I'm sure the only NFL fans that know Ray Rice had 200 yards were his fantasy owners and their opponents.

**RockyMRaven** · 12-05-2011, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by JimZipCode

I stayed up to watch the 11p to 12:30 SportsCenter, to hear the guys talk about Ray Rice's career day.

Nothing. No coverage, no highlights, they didn't even put the score up on the screen and show the stats. Nothing at all. You would have had to watch the crawl at the bottom of the screen to even know the game had been played.

They spent half an hour on Aaron Rodgers, and not a second on the AFC North division leader and top-2 team in conference. That's bullshit.

I saw that too. I DVRd the same show and went all the way through it. As you said, it was if the game had not been played at all. You could be sure that if the Ravens had laid an egg, it would have bee all over the show, several times. But they repeated the Packers and Broncos games, covered the Steelers-Bengals game, the 49ers-Rams game, but never even mentioned ours. I can't tell you how much that pisses me off. Glad you wrote about it, because I have been seething about it, and wondered if I was the only one. ESPN seems to take every opportunity to diss the Ravens, either when they do talk about us, or by pointedly ignoring us.

**akashicrecorder** · 12-05-2011, 12:38 AM

The NFL Network is much better about it. Eisen & co. actually seem to really like the Ravens, esp. Ray Rice. ("Rrray Rrrice, rrrunning for the... Rrravens!!!")

ESPN is bullshit. I noticed the lack of coverage today and wasn't even upset. I was expecting it. ESPN appeals to the money markets and bandwagon fan bases and that is it.

All Ray Rice did was monstrously outplay the Madden Cover Boy and set career (and team?) records; all we did was stay on track for first seed in the conference. No biggie.

**dreamjo** · 12-05-2011, 12:49 AM

Originally Posted by akashicrecorder

The NFL Network is much better about it. Eisen & co. actually seem to really like the Ravens, esp. Ray Rice. ("Rrray Rrrice, rrrunning for the... Rrravens!!!")

R'UH R'OH!!!!!

**BSHU** · 12-05-2011, 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by akashicrecorder

The NFL Network is much better about it. Eisen & co. actually seem to really like the Ravens, esp. Ray Rice. ("Rrray Rrrice, rrrunning for the... Rrravens!!!")

ESPN is bullshit. I noticed the lack of coverage today and wasn't even upset. I was expecting it. ESPN appeals to the money markets and bandwagon fan bases and that is it.

All Ray Rice did was monstrously outplay the Madden Cover Boy and set career (and team?) records; all we did was stay on track for first seed in the conference. No biggie.

No that would belong to Jamal Lewis the 2000 yard season....against the Browns twice he had more yards than Ray had today.

NFL Network coverage is so much better than ESPN. It's a shame they had to put those two idiots on the same show, Irvin and Deion. I like Deion when he actually talks football and doesn't just speak complete and utter nonsense.

**ctulb** · 12-05-2011, 03:35 AM

What do you expect, ESPN have evidently anointed the Steelers.

http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/pos...er-declaration

The one AFC team that has proven it can beat another with offense, defense or special teams is Pittsburgh. The Ravens and Texans can't match the depth of the Steelers' playmakers in Brown, Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders.

Expected better from Hensley, didn't take him long to come round to the party line.

**edgecrusher** · 12-05-2011, 05:20 AM

Originally Posted by ctulb

What do you expect, ESPN have evidently anointed the Steelers.

http://espn.go.com/blog/afcnorth/pos...er-declaration

Expected better from Hensley, didn't take him long to come round to the party line.

That article is terrible. The Steelers barely escaped Tyler Palko's Chiefs the previous week.

**downside52** · 12-05-2011, 05:53 AM

Jamison's article last night was a bit odd. It kind of makes you want to ask him if he singlehandedly decided that the NFL will now begin awarding style points, or if it was some kind of broader decision. Wins are wins Jamison, and losses are losses.

The Steelers have yet to prove they can beat a top team and beating up the Bengals, who also have yet to prove they can beat a top team, showed us nothing.

It is worth pointing out that the Steelers are 1-3 against teams they are likely to see in the playoffs - lets see you spin that one bro!

**Phantoom** · 12-05-2011, 06:27 AM

Sportscenter skips boring/meaningless games all the time. If you want every games highlights, then watch Primetime or the NFL network.

Or I guess you could try to come up with some homer conspiracy theory...

**SPRavensFan** · 12-05-2011, 06:32 AM

ESPN goes out of their way to fornicate over Aaron Rodgers every 15 minutes. Until they lose this won't change.

**SteelFaninBMore** · 12-05-2011, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by Phantoom

Sportscenter skips boring/meaningless games all the time. If you want every games highlights, then watch Primetime or the NFL network.

Or I guess you could try to come up with some homer conspiracy theory...

Giving air time to 14 games (excluding Thursday and Monday nights), isn't going to happen on ESPN. They've got other things to fit into the hour, like Tiger Woods finally winning something, the BCS matchups, college basketball highlights, etc etc. And yes, stories like the unbeaten Packers, Tebowmania, and 49ers winning their division are going to rank higher on their list of stuff to discuss than the Ravens running over the Browns.

If you want to see every NFL game given a fair amount of coverage, you gotta watch the network that's dedicated to just covering the NFL.

**Beerracuda** · 12-05-2011, 06:37 AM

Originally Posted by Phantoom

Sportscenter skips boring/meaningless games all the time. If you want every games highlights, then watch Primetime or the NFL network.

Or I guess you could try to come up with some homer conspiracy theory...

The Ravens/Browns game was no more meaningless than the 49ers/Rams game. That game, as well as ours, featured a first place team fighting for playoff seeding. I would think that a player running for over 200 yards (highest single game in the NFL this season) would be reason enough to show highlights. The fact that ESPN completely ignored it is totally unacceptable.

**TheJoker** · 12-05-2011, 07:07 AM

Watch the NFL network. ESPN is full of crap anyways.

**Paintballguy** · 12-05-2011, 07:07 AM

Rice going for 200 and being the leading rusher should deserve some highlights.

**HoustonRaven** · 12-05-2011, 07:17 AM

Just watched Sportscenter.

Ravens and Rice were discussed, albeit it was very brief.

Is the OP sure he wasn't watching ESPN News? They sometimes air Sportscenter and truncate the show to fit into time slots.

**acisking** · 12-05-2011, 07:22 AM

The only reason they showed the Niners game is becuz they clinched the
NFC West last night, which is remarkable considering how they were last season.

**HoustonRaven** · 12-05-2011, 07:43 AM

Just noticed they have not aired their morning Sportscenter yet so it's the late night version; the one they replay all night and into the morning.

Ravens and Rice are featured.

**JimZipCode** · 12-05-2011, 08:11 AM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

Just watched Sportscenter. Ravens and Rice were discussed, albeit it was very brief.
Is the OP sure he wasn't watching ESPN News? They sometimes air Sportscenter and truncate the show to fit into time slots.

I just watched it a couple mins ago, caught the tail end of the 7:30-9am re-airing of last night's SportsCenter. They did mention the Ravens game. It was a 15-17 second spot, right as they returned from commercial at about 5 mins before the end of the show. It began with Steve Levy's voiceover saying "Don't go to sleep on the Ravens –" over the highlight of Ray Rice's 67-yd run. It was right before their coverage of Cam Newton setting the record for rushing TDs by a QB.

I re-wound it on Tivo and timed it on my wristwatch. It was really a 15 sec spot, but I'll give it 17 on fractional ticks at the beginning and end of the segment. Anyway, it's in there.

I swear it was not in there last night. I was paying special attention toward the end of the show, and re-wound a few times.

Y'know what happens sometimes? Sometimes local cable providers cram an extra commercial into the break. Or they play a slightly-longer local commercial over the network slot. I have Verizon; Comcast was especially bad about this, but maybe Verizon does it too. When the cable provider does that, you can miss a few seconds of the show you're watching, coming out of the break. In this case, a few seconds was all that was needed.

I guess I have to retract my comment. No Ravens coverage was shown, but looks like it may not have been ESPN's fault. It's still woeful, terrible, inadequate coverage, compared to the Packers & Steelers, but it's not as bad as I wrote.

**ravenjoe** · 12-05-2011, 08:22 AM

Had Mendenhall gained that yardage, ESPN would've been touting the Steelers as the next SB champs, believe me!! It pisses the NFL off that the Ravens are the best team in the AFC.