By Zach Wilt, on May 3rd, 2012  By now you know and have had hours to cope with the fact that Terrell Suggs will miss at least a good chunk of the 2012 season with an Achilles tear.
Suggs told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols that he will be back by mid-season. ”Definitely beginning of November,” Aaron Wilson tweeted. According to CBSSports.com, that’s a super optimistic timetable for recovery. Will Brinson reports that it’s at least a nine month recovery from a full Achilles tear.
Over at TheBigLead.com, Jason Lisk used some fancy statistics to research what this loss will mean for the Ravens this season.
Twenty-nine other players, via searches using the play finder at pro football reference, have been a first team all-pro on defense since the merger, and then missed ten or more of their team’s games the following season. A handful retired, and of course there was Jerome Brown’s tragic car accident, while the rest suffered injuries.
Lisk concluded that based on the information in this group, the average points allowed per game rose from 17.3 to 20.8 and the average wins per season dropped from 9.8 to 7.9.
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By Matt Lund, on May 3rd, 2012 
Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs may be lost for the 2012 season after tearing his Achilles while reportedly doing conditioning drills in his home state of Arizona.
According to Aaron Wilson of the Carroll County Times, Suggs has been in contact via text about the injury, telling Wilson, “I went to stop and turn and I thought I sprained it. Went to doc and said it’s a partial tear.”
There is a glimmer of hope for Ravens fans and Suggs as the reigning Defensive Player of the Year will see a specialist next week to determine the extent of the injury. A partial tear of the Achilles could allow Suggs enough time to return at some point this season.
A full tear would require surgery and Suggs would miss the entire 2012 season, a huge blow to a Ravens team looking to make another run to a Super Bowl title. READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on April 19th, 2012  Sergio Kindle’s road to the NFL hasn’t gone well. Everyone knows about the fractured skull and the DUI, but now health is no longer a concern and Kindle has reported to the Ravens facility in Owings Mills after “training his tail off” this winter.
Now the only thing holding Kindle back from earning a spot over Paul Kruger and Albert McClellan is the mental part of his game. ”I know exactly what to do on most of the stuff, as far as coverages,” Kindle said according to Rink Mink’s post on BaltimoreRavens.com.
“But offenses are audibling and motioning so much now, there’s a lot of things that change pre-snap. That’s what I have to get into and get a feel for.”
Mink reports that Kindle suffered a loss of hearing as a result of his fall down two flights of stairs. ”It is an issue,” Kindle said. ”But if you learn everything pre-snap, then you won’t have to worry about nobody giving you the call. You can see if for yourself. It always helps, but I don’t want hearing to hinder my playing, so I want to learn everything myself.”
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By Lindsey, on February 4th, 2012  Now that we’ve all had a little bit of time to recover from the AFC Championship game, it’s time to focus on the Ravens’ offseason needs. With all jokes about Cam Cameron aside, the offense still needs work. On the defensive side of things, the organization needs to start preparing for absence of Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, however soon that may be. These technical aspects, along with a few other tidbits should be high on the Ravens’ offseason to-do list… READ MORE >>>
By Matt Lund, on January 22nd, 2012  In a match-up of two teams with very contrasting styles of play, the AFC’s #2 seeded Baltimore Ravens traveled north to take on the #1 seed New England Patriots for the AFC Championship.
The Ravens played the role of spoiler before, handing the Patriots a 33-14 loss at Gillette Stadium in the 2009 wild card playoffs, but that particular match-up was different than this one.
The Patriots didn’t have a young duo of TE’s in Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. They also didn’t have Wes Welker, who was injured during the Patriots playoff run that year.
Still that did not faze the Ravens as they confused and frustrated Patriots QB Tom Brady in the game, much like they did in 2009. The Ravens defense picked off Brady twice and sacked him once.
The Ravens had an offensive and defensive game plan that on most afternoons contributes to a Ravens victory. Despite that however, it came down to the right foot of kicker Billy Cundiff to tie the game and send it to overtime when Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal wide left giving the Patriots the 23-20 victory and an AFC Championship in front of the home crowd. READ MORE >>>
By Matt Lund, on December 25th, 2011 The Baltimore Ravens entered their final home game of the 2011 season looking to make franchise history against their divisional opponent, the Cleveland Browns. The chance to wrap up the home schedule with an 8-0 record hung in the balance, giving them the distinction of becoming the first team in the 16-year history of the franchise to finish with a perfect home record. The Ravens wanted to deliver not only an early Christmas present to the fans on Christmas Eve, but also to send a message to not be counted out after the loss to the San Diego Chargers.
 The Ravens breezed through the first half leading 17-0 as the Cleveland Browns showcased some of the worst coaching and mis-managing of the game clock in NFL history. The Ravens were aided by the Browns having exactly zero timeouts when they received the ball back for the final time of the 1st half. Driving the distance of the field, Browns RB Peyton Hillis was stopped for no gain at the 3-yard line and without a timeout, the Browns and their head coach Pat Shurmur could only watch in disbelief as time expired in the half.
With the way the Browns had played in the 1st half, one would think the airplane taking the team back to Cleveland would be fired up and on stand-by at BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport, but they actually made a game out of it and the Ravens at times, seemed to almost want the Browns to get back into the game.
Very questionable play-calling and lack of execution by the Ravens in the 2nd half and a couple of long drives by Cleveland brought the Browns to within six points after TE Evan Moore caught a six-yard TD from QB Seneca Wallace to cut the Ravens lead to 20-14. The Ravens bent all game, but didn’t break as they looked at a 4th and 2 at the Cleveland 37-yard line. True to form, the Browns promptly shot themselves in the foot that held open the door of opportunity in this game.
After Joe Flacco barked out a few hard counts, somehow he lured Browns’ defensive tackle Phil Taylor off-sides on a play the Ravens were never actually going to get off. The penalty gave the Ravens a first down and after running out the clock on the next three plays, gave them a 20-14 victory, their eighth straight win against Cleveland in front of 71,083 fans at M&T Bank Stadium.
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By Edgar Walker, on December 6th, 2011 I posted earlier about Pernell McPhee and his stellar rookie campaign thus far, and I briefly touched on the Ravens’ “youth movement” on defense that seems to be coming to fruition this season. While it was just a passing thought at the time, the notion has really grown on me that the team has brought in several young pieces to lessen the inevitable eventual departures of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
McPhee has been but one of the young guns for the defense this season. READ MORE >>>
By Edgar Walker, on December 6th, 2011 Rookie defensive end Pernell McPhee has quietly been one of the Ravens’ top defensive players this season.
Seeing most of his playing time in third down situations and blitz packages, the Mississippi State product has been extremely effective, putting up 20 tackles from his position, along with six sacks. On Sunday in Cleveland, he had arguably his best game of the season-to-date, sacking Colt McCoy twice.
A fifth-round pick in April’s NFL Draft, McPhee has done well for himself this season, and is part of what could be considered a bit of a youth movement on the defense, along with the emergence of Paul Kruger, and the impressive play of Lardarius Webb and Jimmy Smith.
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By Zach Wilt, on November 7th, 2011 
In week one of the 2011 season the Baltimore Ravens put an embarrassing 35-7 beatdown on the Pittsburgh Steelers. In week nine they marched into Pittsburgh and put together a come from behind victory that secured their first regular season sweep of the Steelers since 2006.
Heading into their second matchup of the season the Steelers and Ravens appeared to be teams heading in opposite directions. After a slow start Pittsbugh had put together four straight wins while the Ravens fell flat against the Jaguars and nearly let the Cardinals beat them at home. But none of that ever seems to matter on Steelers Week.
The Ravens went into Heinz Field, contained Ben Roethlisberger, had a solid game plan on offense and marched 92 yards down the field to score a dramatic game winning touchdown down 20-16 with 2:24 remaining. Here are my thoughts on the Ravens best win of the 2011 season.
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By Ross Gore, on November 2nd, 2011 This week we’ll look back at the Ravens comeback against the Cardinals. We’ll start by examining the WPA graph for the game. With 3:52 left in the first half the Cards had a 95% chance of winning this game and they managed to pretty much squander being favored with 1:17 left in the third quarter. In other words the game changed to a certain loss for the Ravens to a toss up in about 16 minutes on game play. That is pretty ridiculous, for as poorly as the Ravens played in the first half, they were utterly dominant on both sides of the ball in the third quarter. The table below annotates the two plays that swung the game heavily in the Cards favor in the first half (1 and 2) and the four plays in the second half that highlighted the Ravens comeback. The graph is courtesy of NFL Advanced Stats and the annotations are our own. For more information on reading WPA graphs please see our Reader’s Guide to WPA.
 WPA graph for Ravens Week 8 Game vs Cardinals READ MORE >>>
By Tracy Smith, on May 3rd, 2011  Another year, another solid draft by the Baltimore Ravens-at least if you read most of the instant draft grades from the experts. The Ravens, after a snafu where the Chicago Bears didn’t call in a proposed trade in time which cost the Ravens a spot in the draft order, still came out of the first round with the player they wanted all along-cornerback Jimmy Smith from Colorado. Going into the draft, the Ravens seemingly had four positions of need, and they addressed three of them during the draft. Cornerback, offensive tackle and wide receiver were all addressed in the first three picks. However, the need of a pass rusher to pair with Terrell Suggs went unaddressed.
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By Zach Wilt, on October 6th, 2010 After his premiere against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Ravens defensive end Paul Kruger will be riding the bench for another two weeks with a strained knee ligament.
The Baltimore Sun reported Kruger’s injury this evening after John Harbaugh’s radio show on WBAL.
On his radio show on 1090 AM Tuesday night, coach John Harbaugh said Kruger would be out a minimum of two weeks with a strained knee ligament. Harbaugh said he didn’t expect any other new injury issues this week, including at running back where Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McClain are all nursing injuries.
Are you worried about the Ravens depth at defensive end without Trevor Pryce and Paul Kruger?
By Weston Bruner, on September 29th, 2010 Trevor Pryce was released today, in his 5th season with the Ravens. The move was on one hand unexpected but on the other hand understandable, given his lack of production in recent years and the glut of players on the defensive line. He had been replaced by Cory Redding as the primary option at defensive end, and even when he played so far this season he was ineffective, and leaves the Ravens without having recorded a single tackle in 2010. His spot on the roster will be filled by veteran safety Ken Hamlin, who was released last week. There has been speculation that Pryce could be resigned next week to further reduce his salary after Pryce already agreed to a pay cut this past offseason. Regardless, this is the clear sign of a player entering the last stages of his career, and the final stage with the Ravens. READ MORE >>>
By Jeff Pilson, on September 4th, 2010 The Baltimore Ravens pulled off another late pre-season trade sending LB Antwan Barnes to the Philadelphia Eagles for an undisclosed conditional draft pick. The move is surprising as Barnes has looked good in pre-season and the Ravens have need of pass rushers, Barnes specialty, coming off last season where they failed to generate consistent pressure. There are several scenarios that could explain the Ravens thinking: 1) Perhaps they feel confident that a rejuvenated Terrell Suggs, an improved Paul Kruger and the addition of Cory Redding will bolster therush enough, making Barnes expendable, 2) or the Ravens feel like Jameel McClain is better at OLB, making Barnes redundant, 3) or the Ravens believe that Sergio Kindle is closer to returning than we have been lead to believe. READ MORE >>>
By Jeff Pilson, on July 15th, 2010 Position: Linebacker/Defensive End
Height / Weight: 6’4″ 265 lbs.
Age: 24 / Experience: 2
College: Utah
Analysis: Heading into the 2009 season Paul Kruger was billed as a gifted pass rusher and a player with a tremendous motor who wouldfit well into the Ravens schemes and also blend in with the team’s tough guy mindset. Unfortunately, Kruger only saw action in 9 games (including 1 start @Green Bay), and Ravens fans did not get to see if the scouting reports were accurate. Kruger did make one of the biggest plays of the Ravens season when he intercepted Pittsburgh Steelers back-up QB Dennis Dixon, a play which set up the game winnig FG for the Ravens in overtime. Not much was made of Kruger’s ability to drop back in coverage, but that is where he made his biggest impact, albeit on one play.
So why did Kruger not see the field more after being drafted in the 2nd round? Sure, Kruger was behind Terrell Suggs on the depth chart, but the Ravens seemed reluctant to use Kruger to spell Suggs or to bolster a low octane pass rush. Kruger did seem to lack the strength and moves to be a factor defending the run or rushing the passer. In my opinion that was the biggest reason why Kruger was a scratch in 7 games last year. There was also a lot of talk during training camp that Kruger was not, either, willing or able to play on special teams. Whatever the reason, this made Kruger less valuable on game day.
2010 Outlook: When the Ravens drafted Kruger out of Utah Eric DeCosta said that they envisioned him filling the role of a hybrid end/tackle, like Trevor Pryce in the Ravens 3-4. To do that he needs to add weight and get stronger. Again, there were rumors that Kruger was reluctant to do so in 2009. I have heard that Kruger looked bigger during the Ravens OTA’s, which is a good sign that he has embraced the Ravens vision for him. If Kruger can continue to add weight and strength he will have the opportunity to see the field more in the Ravens defensive line rotation. With Trevor Pryce aging and Corey Redding being the only other proven defensive end Kruger should see the field more, but his ability to make plays in that position is an unknown for the Ravens heading into the 2010 season. I hate to say that next season is a make or break year for Kruger, but he will show the Ravens whether or not he can be counted on as a future defensive lineman for the Ravens, or if he was a 2nd round reach.
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By now you know and have had hours to cope with the fact that Terrell Suggs will miss at least a good chunk of the 2012 season with an Achilles tear.
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