baltimoreravens

I was about to post this, very exciting, glad they went with him. Rick Dennison is being reported as QB coach.

I'm feeling unsinspired this week... Week 8 Schedule: Panthers @ Bucs Cowboys @ Lions 49ers @ Jags Browns @ Chiefs Dolphins @ Patriots Bills @ Saints Giants @ Eagles Jets @ Bengals Steelers @ Raiders Falcons @ Cardinals Redskins @ Broncos Packers @ Vikings Seahawks @ Rams

Bills @ Browns Patriots @ Bengals Lions @ Packers Seahawks @ Colts Ravens @ Dolphins Saints @ Bears Eagles @ Giants Chiefs @ Titans Jaguars @ Rams Panthers @ Cardinals Broncos @ Cowboys Texans @ 49ers Chargers @ Raiders Jets @ Falcons Tiebreaker: 41

49ers @ Rams Ravens @ Bills Bengals @ Browns Bears @ Lions Seahawks @ Texans Colts @ Jags Giants @ Chiefs Steelers @ Vikings Cardinals @ Bucs Jets @ Titans Eagles @ Broncos Redskins @ Raiders Cowboys @ Chargers Patriots @ Falcons Dolphins @ Saints 51

Most of the rankings here > "Expert" rankings who are way too impressionable I'll do mine later.

Chiefs @ Eagles Texans @ Ravens Giants @ Panthers Lions @ Redskins Chargers @ Titans Cardinals @ Saints Buccaneers @ Patriots Packers @ Bengals Rams @ Cowboys Browns @ Vikings Falcons @ Dolphins Bills @ Jets Colts @ 49ers Jaguars @ Seahawks Bears @ Steelers Raiders @ Broncos Tiebreaker: 52

Giants very well may be able to turn it around, I mean... they play in the NFC East.

Good: -Defense got it together and looked great for the last 40 minutes of the game allowing only six points and sacking Weeden five times (run D, line, pass rush, and secondary all looked good most of the game) -Torrey Smith is still a baller -Marlon "Touchdown" Brown has potential -Surprisingly, Doss was a decent replacement KR/PR for Jacoby -Bernard Pierce looked good and is a nice compliment (or temporary replacement if he's out with injury) for Ray Rice -We got the W Bad: -It was a close game in which we were trailing the Browns at home for quite some time, shut out in first -We didn't produce a turnover off of Weeden -Injuries: Ray Rice being the most important (who seems to be okay), Art Jones is unfortunate too -JT missing two field goals while Cundiff made two -Tight ends, I really wish Pitta wasn't injured because Clark and Dickson aren't doing much... Bajema was better Ugly: -Nothing, I can't be too mad when we won

13-3. Ugh I thought I had picked Miami.

Voted New Orleans even though it'll probably be Denver, and I wanted to vote Seattle.

I refuse to do as poorly as I did last week again... Jets @ Patriots Rams @ Falcons Browns @ Ravens Panthers @ Bills Vikings @ Bears Redskins @ Packers Titans @ Texans Dolphins @ Colts Cowboys @ Chiefs Chargers @ Eagles Lions @ Cardinals Saints @ Buccaneers Broncos @ Giants Jaguars @ Raiders 49ers @ Seahawks Steelers @ Bengals Tiebreak: 34

I never support the idea of just throwing a season on purpose, but I get what you're saying. If you don't have the pieces to win much, if at all, why make moves to end up middle-of-the-pack but still with a failing season.

First of all I HATE Skip Bayless. The Tebow thing is sort of a running joke to me and one of my good friends is a Tebow advocate for whatever reason so I guess I'm starting to succumb to his reasoning. I know y'all sell more tickets than some but I also know you did or maybe still cover up some seats with tarps. But yeah, I'll take the neg. I probably deserve it for mentioning Tebow twice. Let the Bucs have him. You guys get Bridgewater. Believe it or not, I want to see you guys turn things around.

Gotta do these before week two starts tomorrow night. Damn you, Thursday Night Football. 01. - They looked like the most complete team, as they did last year. It was incredibly painful seeing Boldin have such good chemistry with Kaepernick already. 02. - Peyton Manning and his receivers look good. Very good. Can they keep it up? Probably with their easy schedule. It'll most likely come down to whether or not he chokes in the playoffs again. 03. - An east coast win for a west coast team is always impressive. They did only beat Carolina, but Seattle won the battle of two tough defenses that will give high-powered offenses trouble all season. I only wish Russell Wilson would have lit it up more for my fantasy team's sake. 04. - Losing a close won in San Francisco in the season opener is still pretty impressive. I think the Packers are as solid as ever and will probably end up against the Niners or Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. But there's still a lot of football left. (Side note: Packers got jobbed by the refs again, though not nearly as bad as the "immaculate reception" vs Seattle last year.) 05. - Along with Seattle, they are an NFC favorite of mine, so it was nice to see them back in the drivers seat, and I have hope that they can be better than Atlanta this year. Time will tell, but I think Brees has a very good year. 06. - Their 1:30 AM MNF win wasn't an impressive win, but it was a road win over a team that is pretty average. Coming back from behind never impresses me much because you have to get behind to come back, but still, they did it and look like one of the strongest AFC teams right now. 07. :Patriots: - It came down to the wire against the Bills. To be fair it was a road game to start the season, and the Bills almost always give the Patriots a hard time. But, Brady and his somewhat depleted offense didn't impress me. The lack of size of the Patriot receivers will not produce the same results that the Patriot offense typically produces, even with their easy schedule. 08. - For some reason I've had the feeling they were going to slip this year, and the Saints would take back the NFC South. Carolina could even do pretty well, depending on if their offense can get something going. But the fact that the Saints defense that was the worst in the league last year held Ryan and co in check should worry their fans a little. 09. - I had thought that getting rid of Lovie was a bad move, but not much has changed for the Bears, and I think their new coach could be just as good. Defense looked as good as last year. Cutler looked good. They beat a pretty good Bengals team that didn't make too many mistakes. They will likely be the biggest roadblock for Green Bay winning the NFC North this year. 10. - Maybe I'm being a homer too much, but I think we'll be okay, especially after seeing the rest of the AFC North play. Our offense went comatose in the second half and the young, new defense fell apart without rest. Not unexpected, especially against Peyton Manning, in hostile territory, against a team that hates us for ruining their Super Bowl dreams last year. It will just take us a little bit of time to gel on defense. If anything concerns me it's the lack of decent receivers apart from Torrey Smith. Clark, Dickson, and Stokely had far too many drops. I think we'll recover just fine against the Browns this week, we tend to do that. 11. - Normally, I'd have been rooting for Oakland to pull of a really unexpected upset, but Indy over Oakland was my suicide pick this week. It was either that or Tampa Bay over the Jets, which I'm glad I didn't go with. Chuck is still Chuck. Luck is still Luck, and he'll likely be last season's rookie quarterback who has the greatest career when all is said and done. I think Oakland just caught them off guard a little bit. The two Houston vs Indianapolis games will be really interesting this season. 12. - I wasn't sure why they were such a trendy pick to be atop the AFC this season. They're a solid team with all of the right pieces, but they aren't all there yet. Remember this is still a pretty young team with growing to do. Time will tell how they handle the pressure to deliver this season with what I expect to be a two horse race between them and my Ravens. 13. - Why I'm not impressed: the Giants were still in this game despite giving away five turnovers. But I'll let Cowboys fans convince themselves that they are legit for a few weeks. They'll get their wake up call as they always do. 14. - Not sure if I'm falling for the hype of this offense yet. I didn't follow the Eagles much last year but I hardly recognized any names on defense. Vick looked good but I imagine he will be hurt at some point, as he always is. (Side note: Other than Eli, NFC East quarterbacks seem to be very injury prone.) It didn't surprise me at all that they slowed down significantly in the second half. They'll be fun to watch this season. 15. - They won. That's something. In all honesty, I was surprised to see them beat Minnesota, who I considered to be a pretty good team after last year. But I see Christian Ponder do what he does, and I'm less impressed with this win. If only Megatron could have gotten me some more fantasy points. Grrr. 16. - Eli Manning and David Wilson should tie for MVP for the Cowboys this past week. Six turnovers? Yikes. Still, them being in it at the end shows me how resilient this team can be, and I believe they'll probably end up winning the NFC East this season, but as we all know, the division is incredibly mediocre and predicting it is nearly impossible. 17. - What an under-the-radar success story this team has been since the latter half of last season. The defense looked solid and they got a win. They have a greater challenge in Atlanta this coming Sunday, however. Let's see how they handle it. I'm intrigued. 18. - Beating the Browns is hardly impressive, despite it being on the road. Do Browns fans even go to the games anymore? I kid. But the defense looked good and the pass rush kept Brandon Weeden making mistakes all day long. 19. - I'm so glad RGIII was taken down a peg. Living where I live, it's impossible not to hear or read about how great he is and how he's the second coming of Jesus. No, he's not. And I'm glad the Eagles of all teams were able to expose it. He's not ready if you ask me, and it's unfortunate that the coaching staff and front office continue to take advantage of someone who is eager to be playing but probably shouldn't be. Not only that but the defense looked pretty bad early on. They did rebound but it was much too little too late. And they've got Green Bay next week. Good luck keeping up with ARod. Is the fact that I'm enjoying this hot mess really obvious? 20. - EJ Manuel looked pretty good for his first game. Keeping up with Tom Brady is impressive, regardless of the state of their offense. And their defense kept Brady from really going off. Ridley helped too. 21. - So, when do we start calling them the Minnesota Adrian Petersons? Really, he's pretty much all they have, and even he didn't have a great game after that one play. The clock is ticking on Ponder. 22. - What a pleasant surprise. I was watching with my friend who is a Titans fan in a bar with quite a few Steelers fans, and boy was this one fun. Locker looked like a serviceable quarterback, and the surprise of all surprises, their horrid defense from last year held the Steelers offense scoreless for 58 minutes and 30 seconds. 23. - I've heard from a few experts not to sleep on their defense and that if Cam and the offense can make things happen they can contend in the NFC South this year. But that's a big if. 24. - Seeing Andy Reid in bright red was odd. They didn't just win, they destroyed the Jaguars. But it's the Jaguars and I believe many college teams could beat them. I don't think they have what it takes to challenge Peyton. The AFC West is still probably the weakest division outside of the Broncos. 25. - I picked Larry Fitzgerald for my fantasy team and he got better numbers than usual. Is Carson Palmer the answer? Probably not, but it'll be interesting to see them try. Even if they are improved this year, they are in the NFC West which is probably the strongest division in the NFL right now. 26. - So they continue last year's trend of giving up leads in the second half. Even under new management, I don't see things going too well for San Diego this year. They are rebuilding, sort of. Also, I hate Philip Rivers. 27. - That was possibly more embarrasing than what happened to the Ravens. Or Redskins. Their only points before that touchdown with 1:30 left were due to an idiot on the Titans not knowing how to field a kickoff in the endzone. The Titans defense kept their offense scoreless, and it's not as if they don't have a good quarterback and receivers. And now they've got more injuries. I think even Steelers fans have to agree that this isn't their year. They're lucky they still have the Browns to beat up on twice a year. 28. - They won, so what? It was not impressive and they got incredibly lucky with Lavonte David making the late hit. At least they aren't sticking with Sanchez. Finally, a step in the right direction. 29. - Them almost winning was pretty surprising. Pryor gave it his all and might be worth watching this season even if they lose most games. 30. - It might be time that the Bucs start looking at Tebow. Not kidding. But I sort of am. Josh Freeman has seriously regressed from a few years back, and he was never even that good. Even if they had won, it wouldn't make me confident that this team will be better than the Saints, Falcons, or even the Panthers. 31. - Jordan Cameron looked good but I actually let him go from my fantasy team in favor of Julius Thomas. Maybe I'll get him back if I can, just in case. I also have Vernon Davis, so I'm covered as far as tight ends goes. But wow, that O-line did Weeden no favors. Former Raven O'Neil Cousins was pretty dreadful, and I hope he continues to be when they come to town Sunday, with Dumervil and Suggs ready to pounce on Weeden. 32. - It's almost painful watching them try. Why do they stick with Gabbert? I hate to bring him up, and I don't like the guy but honestly, why not give Tebow a shot? At least fans would come to the games! I have a really hard time seeing anyone else as the first team to draft in April 2014. Sorry in advance, Clowney or Bridgewater. (Hint: they need to go with the latter.)