“Had I said that to him, everyone would have been in uproar,” Mason tweeted. He went on to say that he has too much respect for the game to speak to a coach in that manner. ”He might As well called me boy,” he posted.
The last time that the Baltimore Ravens went to Tennessee to face the Titans was January 10, 2009 in the AFC Divisional round of the playoffs. Baltimore advanced to the AFC Championship game with a dramatic 13-10 win over the red hot Titans led by then quarterback Kerry Collins.
The Ravens reached the end zone just once in the first quarter on a 48 yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to Derrick Mason that tied the game at seven. Then neither team scored until the fourth quarter. Matt Stover booted a 43 yard field goal with 53 seconds left to play which sent Baltimore to Pittsburgh.
Last night during the NFL Network’s debut of their new show “A Football Life,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was featured during the Pats 27-21 win per the Ravens in 2009. In the clip below, Belichick yells a few profanities at Mason and finally tells him to “look at the scoreboard.”
Week 1 wasn’t really full of surprises if you read my article on who to start and who to bench. I’m here again this week to make sure you start the right guys, and to make sure you win. If your 1-0 then you might as well go to 2-0 and really have a nice jump on the season. If your 0-1, you can’t lose and start 0-2. That’s already a deep little hole to get out of.
This week I’m going to switch up the way I do this, and hopefully this is the way it will stick for the rest of the season. You can expect my article like this every single Thursday throughout the season. I plan on updating it and moving guys around as the injury reports change. So I’m going to take a look at each position and give you the guys that are good starts, decent starts, and bad starts. This way you can compare guys at a certain position to other guys on your team at that position. You don’t have to scroll down the page to find all of your guys at one position this way. The players are in order of the time that their game is being played and not by any sort of rank. READ MORE >>>
Before kickoff on Sunday, BaltimoreSportsReport.com’s Ravens reporter Edgar Walker gave his thoughts on the Ravens offseason losses and gains as well as his expectations for the 2011 season.
The NFL season starts tonight!!! More importantly, the fantasy football season starts tonight!!! Why else would any of us watch Cleveland vs. Cincinnati unless we have AJ Green and want to see what our rookie will do in his first game. For that reason, fantasy football is now bigger than the sport itself.
Do you have any questions about who to start over who in the first week? Let’s take a look at all the matchups and determine who are good starts, decent starts, and bad starts. Football is incredibly unpredictable, and it’s almost impossible to read splits the way you can with baseball. Because of that I can tell you all season long who will give you the best CHANCE to perform for you. Nobody can ever predict the day that Mike Tolbert rushes for 3 TD’s. It’s impossible. Keep that in mind. I base the starts on matchup obviously and I also look at how each player has done historically against the opponent. I also factor in who I think will win the game, and whether a team will be more pass or rush oriented in that game. Whether they are up or down on the scoreboard has a lot to do with their weekly values.
Decent starts: Jordy Nelson, Ryan Grant, Mark Ingram, Pierre Thomas, John Kasay, Green Bay Defense
Bad starts: Donald Driver, James Jones, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson, Lance Moore, James Starks, Darren Sproles, Garrett Hartley New Orleans Defense READ MORE >>>
When fans and analyst refer to the NFL’s “parity,” they are usually talking about a balance of competition among the league’s 32 teams. One of the things I appreciate about the NFL so much is actually its parity in the most basic sense. 32 divided by two, divided by four, divided by four – a perfect equation for a mathematically balanced grouping of teams. With this harmonious balance, you begin to see patterns develop. The divisions, while different in the details, fall into similar dynamics. Each one is kind of a bizarro version of the next, like on “Seinfeld” when Elaine found the other group of guys to hang out with. So, who are the Ravens’ “Feldman” in the other divisions? READ MORE >>>
Ravens rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire during the preseason. Smith was drafted in the second round and signed a 4 year, $3.38 million deal and by default became the Ravens number two wide receiver behind Anquan Boldin after the team cut Derrick Mason. The rookie out of Maryland didn’t respond real well to the pressure.
In Thursday’s preseason game against the Redskins, Smith caught just one ball for six yards and dropped two balls that hit his hands. It was a game that continued to show that Smith might not be ready for pro ball this season.
There are so many good WR’s. The problem with them in the fantasy world is usually the QB that is throwing to them. Even the most talented guys will take fantasy hits if they don’t have anyone throwing to them. This position typically hasn’t the longest NFL life and the good ones can stay good for close to a decade. So there are plenty of familiar names on the this list plus a handful of breakout stars.
1. Calvin Johnson
2. Andre Johnson
3. Larry Fitzgerald
4. Roddy White
5. Greg Jennings
6. Vincent Jackson
7. Mike Wallace
8. Dez Bryant
9. Hakeem Nicks
10. Reggie Wayne
11. Jeremy Maclin
12. Percy Harvin
13. Brandon Marshall
14. Miles Austin
15. Anquan Boldin
16. Dwayne Bowe
17. Mike Willams (TB)
18. DeSean Jackson
19. Brandon Lloyd
20. Marques Colston
21. Chad Ochocinco
22. Santonio Holmes
23. Julio Jones
24. Michael Crabtree
25. Mario Manningham
26. Stevie Johnson
27. Wes Welker
28. Hines Ward
29. Austin Collie
30. Danario Alexander
31. Lance Moore
32. Kenny Britt
33. Santana Moss
34. Sidney Rice
35. Pierre Garcon
36. Danny Amendola
37. Steve Smith (Car)
38. Johnny Knox
39. Plaxico Burress
40. Jordy Nelson
41. Davone Bess
42. Lee Evans
43. Steve Smith (PHI)
44. Arrelious Benn
45. Malcolm Floyd
46. Roy Williams
47. Mike Thomas
48. Mike Sims-Walker
49. AJ Green
50. Emmanuel Sanders
51. Anthony Armstrong
52. Antonio Brown
53. Torrey Smith
54. Jerome Simpson
55. Jordan Shipley
56. Braylon Edwards
57. Mike Williams (SEA)
58. Robert Meachem
59. Derrick Mason
60. Jacoby Ford READ MORE >>>
This season, the Ravens may have their deepest and best receiving corps in franchise history. While that’s not saying a lot (the Ravens have had some piss-poor groups over the years), the plethora of options at Joe Flacco’s disposal this season should set him up for a great 2011 campaign.
Derrick Mason and Todd Heap-the franchise’s two all-time receiving leaders-are gone, but replacing them are younger and faster pass-catchers. The likes of Torrey Smith, Ed Dickson, David Reed, and Lee Evans are the future of the Ravens’ passing attack, and with an always-improving Joe Flacco under center, the Ravens have quietly put together a nice staple of young and talented receivers for Flacco to throw to.
Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward was asked about the preseason after practice yesterday. He responded “Preseason’s good, but my mind is focusing on one team and that’s Baltimore, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Ward continued to discuss the Ravens, including their offseason shuffles. He thinks that the Ravens losses put more weight on the shoulders of quarterback Joe Flacco this season.
“When you lose a Mason or a Heap, that does a lot to a locker room,” Ward said. “Those guys were emotional leaders out there. All of the pressure comes on (quarterback Joe) Flacco probably.
“Some organizations feel like they have to go young. I think we do a great job of mixing veteran guys with a nucleus of young guys that are waiting in the wings.
Ward should be more concerned with whether he’ll be suspended for his offseason DUI than what the Ravens did this offseason. But if Roger Goodell’s inconsistent suspension sentences are any indication, Ward will be starting for Pittsburgh on September 11th.
Due to the lockout putting teams on a tight deadline to make signings, NFL free agency this year is pretty much impossible to follow. Here at BSR, we’ll try to help you out with our Free Agent Tracker. Here we track the comings and goings of Ravens free agents, meaning you can keep up with who leaves Baltimore, and who will be a new face in the purple and black.
Currently, you’ll see a few “2011 Team” spaces left blank. As players agree to contracts and sign those contracts, we’ll update that space.
***Additionally, you’ll see Casey Rabach’s name crossed out. This is because he failed his physical after agreeing to a contract, and therefore will not be playing with the Ravens this season.***
It appears that the Baltimore Ravens are on the path of a youth movement.
Yes there is still about one month until opening day, but early signs since the lockout was lifted show the Ravens giving a lot of young players their opportunity to step up and prove they can contribute. With the departures of Todd Heap, Willis McGahee, Derrick Mason, Kelly Gregg and others, a lot of new faces have stepped in. And while the Ravens have signed free agents Vonta Leach, Bernard Pollard and Ricky Williams, there are still plenty of young players filling out spots on the two-deep depth chart.
Many of them will be getting their first taste of football Thursday night in the first preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Look for a ragged contest, probably on both sides as teams continue to shake off the rust from the long lockout. For the Ravens, the one question that hopefully begin to get answered is this: can any of these rookies and new faces be part of the final roster? Can they step in and make plays? Names like Sergio Kindle, Terrence Cody, Ed Dickson, Jah Reid, Torrey Smith and Tandon Doss (to name a few) will get their chances. Football teams value experience, but young players have to gain their experience by playing. Thanks to the salary cap, teams have to find players that can step in when their number is called as soon as possible, because they never know when it might be their time.
There may be more moves to come in the next few weeks, before the Steelers come to town. Finding a backup quarterback, a center and more depth at other positions will be crucial. But as of right now, the young players have the opportunity to show that the belief placed in them by the organization was not given in vain.
We heard about Harbaugh laying into his team on Thursday after a few of his guys reported to practice late. Perhaps the veterans don’t want to deal with issues like that in Baltimore.
Yesterday we shared the video of Bill Belichick’s f-bomb tirade on then Ravens wide receiver Derrick Mason during a Ravens-Patriots game in 2009. Friday night, Mason took to twitter and responded to the video saying that he got “total disrespect” from Belichick.
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