By Zach Wilt, on November 25th, 2011 You couldn’t have asked for more out of the the Harbowl than what we saw tonight. I predicted a sloppy, high scoring game and got the complete opposite. Neither team’s offense showed up until the second half, but a defensive grudge match proved to be just as entertaining.
Here are my thoughts on the Ravens 16-6 win over the 49ers in the Harbowl.
Webb steps up – This just in, Lardarius Webb is the Ravens best corner. As the clock ran out at the end of the first half, Webb intercepted an Alex Smith pass in the end zone. The play not only helped keep the Ravens three point lead, but gave Webb his team leading fourth interception of the season.
Red Zone fail – The Ravens were forced to kick a field goal after going three and out on a first and goal on the one yard line. Baltimore settled for for a field goal after losing yards on a Ray Rice run up the middle and a quarterback draw. The fans laid into the Ravens and rightfully so.
Pressure on Alex Smith – Give credit to Chuck Pagano, he knew that the Ravens were struggling to cover San Francisco’s wide receivers and made up for up with pressure on Alex Smith. The Ravens threw Smith to the turf a season high nine times and pressured him relentlessly.
Flacco hit his stride – It took three quarters, but the Ravens offense finally hit its stride during a nice lengthy drive at the end of the third quarter. Joe Flacco went 4 for 4 on third down with a touchdown on third down during Baltimore’s 16 play drive.
Regardless of what the scoreboard said, the Ravens dominated the second half of this game. It was a big win against one of the NFC’s best teams.
By Steve Giles, on October 11th, 2011
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
No Florida schools in AP top 25
For the first time since Dec. 6, 1982, there are no Florida schools ranked in the AP top 25. The 472 straight appearances by Sunshine State universities was snapped this week after all of the so-called big three (Florida Gators, Florida State Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes) weren’t able to break the top 25. Florida State and Florida appeared in the poll last week, but after the Gators were waxed by LSU and the Seminoles were upset by Wake Forest, both were ousted from the rankings. Miami and first-year head coach Al Golden have been struggling all season and are currently 2-3, including a 38-35 loss at Virginia Tech this past Saturday. It was only the second time since Oct. 14, 1978 that Florida, Florida State and Miami lost on the same day. READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on September 11th, 2011  Haloti Ngata's fumble recovery in the third quarter...before this game was completely out of hand. I don’t know if the Ravens caught the Steelers with their pants down or were just so tired of Pittsburgh’s dominance over them in recent years that they decided that enough was enough, but this Ravens team completely destroyed the AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens had never scored 35 points against Pittsburgh and the Steelers hadn’t lost a season opener since 2002, until today. Baltimore controlled the game from the first play, a 36 yard run by Ray Rice. Two plays later, the Ravens went up 7-0 in a game that was the biggest embarrassment of the week. Here are my quick thoughts on Baltimore’s 35-7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- What offensive line problems? – I don’t want to undersell the difficultly of playing on the offensive line, but when I heard the experts say that the Ravens would lose this game due to a lack of chemistry up front on offense, I couldn’t help but laugh. How much chemistry does it take to push back defenders and ensure enough time for a quarterback? Michael Oher moved back to right tackle, where he belongs, Matt Birk looked was healthy enough to protect Joe Flacco and a slender Bryant McKinnie, now down to 372 pounds, ate up the space of several defensive lineman. Pardon the stupid joke. How much chemistry does it take to do that?
- I told you Joe Flacco improved – Excuse me for a second while I do the “I told you so” dance. Joe Flacco’s pocket presence, on field awareness and attitude is going to lead this Ravens team this year and I called it weeks ago. This is his offense, finally. The best throw Flacco made all day was called back on a questionable holding penalty by Bryant McKinnie. It was a 34 yard completion on a crossing pattern by tight end Ed Dickson that Flacco threaded through several defenders. Flacco hit six different receivers, three in the end zone. Unfortunately, new comer Lee Evans was catch-less on the day, but his presence allowed Anquan Boldin to get some separation and make four catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. Joe has taken steps forward this year, I saw it in the preseason and I look for it to continue in the weeks to come.
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By BSR Staff, on February 28th, 2011 Baltimore sports talker WNST tweeted an interesting comment from one NFL coach during the NFL Combine last week. Though the coach wasn’t specified, he told the station that former Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison “didn’t know what he was doing.”
Though the comment would have had a much greater effect if the coach had been named, it still is interesting to hear. Do you agree with the mystery coach?
By Zach Wilt, on January 19th, 2011 Less than a day after announcing that secondary coach Chuck Pagano would be taking over as defensive coordinator for Greg Mattison, the Ravens new DC has hit the ground running.
Pagano showed in his news conference on Wednesday that he wants to stick to old school smash mouth Ravens defense. “My philosophy is let’s go out and wreak havoc.” Pagano said.
The Ravens have been fully behind the organization’s move to giving Pagano the job. Chris Carr had great things to say about him when the two were together with the Raiders. “He is the main reason why I came to Baltimore, I had him in Oakland for a coach, so I have been with him my whole career.”
Jarrett Johnson, who was also a part of the news conference, threw in some more kind words for Pagano. ”Chuck is one of those coaches that you have the ultimate respect for,” he said. ”Chuck gets after it. He’s fiery and aggressive.”
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By Jeff Pilson, on January 18th, 2011 According to Jamison Hensley on the Sun’s website Ravens defensive coordinator Greg Mattison is leaving to take the same position at the University of Michigan. Secondary coach Chuck Pagano has been promoted to take Mattison’s place. Pagano has been the Ravens secondary coach since 2008.
Many Ravens fans have campaigned for Mattison’s removal, despite the fact that he guided the Ravens to top 10 finishes in overall defensive rankings during his 2 seasons as the Ravens defensive coordinator. The top 10 finishes can be seen as a lowering of standards for defense in Baltimore, but you could also argue that Mattison has as little defensive talent to work with since the 2003 season. Critics felt Mattison was not as aggressive or as unpredictable as his predecessor, Rex Ryan. Declining sack and turnover totals would lend credence to that argument. In 2010 Mattison’s defense also struggled to protect 4th quarter leads despite it’s high overall ranking. The question that will likely go unanswered was whether Mattison made the move because he saw the writing on the wall that he would be replaced this off-season, or if he truly felt like he could not pass up the chance to try and restore a declining Michigan program. READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on January 11th, 2010 I don’t think any other Ravens blogger experienced Baltimore’s 33-14 beat down on the New England Patriots. While the actual game was taking place, I was sitting in the Towson Center with a few thousand of my closet friends preparing to graduate.
Knowing that I couldn’t ignore the biggest game of the year, I was receiving text messages from everyone, watching the ESPN Scorecenter on my iPhone, and of course tapping that guy in front of me with the earbud in his ear about what was taking place. READ MORE >>>
By Phil, on August 14th, 2009 
Seven months after walking off the field in Pittsburgh, losers of the AFC Championship game, the Baltimore Ravens took to the field Thursday night ready to begin a new season which they hope leads to Miami.
If a preseason game can count as an indicator, the Ravens looked the part. Joe Flacco, Troy Smith and John Beck led a Ravens offense, which quietly gained 500 total yards. While Greg Mattison’s defense preserved the shut out as the Ravens beat the Redskins 23-0 at M&T Bank Stadium.
While many were hoping to see Joe Flacco take the next step, even if it were only in a preseason game, Troy Smith was outstanding. Smith completed 14/30 passes for 200 yards, including a 19 yard touchdown pass to Justin Harper.
The Ravens defense showed no ill effects from switching from the blitz crazy Rex Ryan, to the more base oriented defense of Greg Mattison. They forced two turnovers, including a Derek Martin interception and a Dwan Edwards fumble recovery.
Even though it was the first preseason game, all 80 Ravens players were able to do what led to success during last years playoff run, physically dominate their opponent. On Thursday night the Redskins were dominated, and the Ravens are off and running.
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By Zach Wilt, on January 26th, 2009 Chris Mortensen of ESPN is reporting that the Baltimore Ravens have promoted linebackers coach Greg Mattison to defensive coordinator to replace Rex Ryan.
Mattison was a long time college defensive coach before joining Head Coach John Harbaugh‘s staff before the 2008 season.
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