Iggy's Raven's Report - 22 October 2009

Commentary | Schedule | Relevant Football Links | Predictions

Commentary

Personal Thoughts:
Ravens: We hit the bye week with THAT! Fate is not being nice to us. It keeps dealing us CRAPPY refereeing (which continued this past game), Game "Losing" drives, and enough "almost" wins to drive a person mad. How much do you wanna bet that the hit on Kelly Washington WILL NOT draw a fine? If Washington had used the Ochocinco chin strap... he probably still wouldn't be fined, because he wasn't wearing "Ravens" purple. I fully expect Ray to get fined for sacking Brett Favre in the 4th quarter, however. Just because it was "Ray Lewis," and he sacked "Brett Favre." If that isn't justification for a fine, I don't know what is. Gotta protect the money quarterbacks, which Joe Flacco hasn't been promoted yet. Joe took a beating, and bounced back to the huddle, Unitas-style. Bottom Line is that we are going to get the raw end of the deal all season. The only thing we can do is play 4-quarters, which we didn't do on Sunday.

Orioles: No new news.

Crystal Palace Baltimore F.C. (Home games at UMBC): Despite Mayor Sheila Dixon's pitch to "steal" the unhappy D.C. United soccer team by building a new stadium, Crystal Palace is close to finalizing a deal to build a 7000-seat soccer stadium in time for the 2012 season in the Carrol Camden Industrial Area, near Raven's Stadium. D.C. United has been unhappy in Washington since Bud Selig forcibly relocated the Montreal Expos to United's home stadium, destroying their playing surface in order to ready the field for playing baseball, and evicted the teams main offices until a new baseball facility was prepared. The Palace location is targeted for a 15-acre site at Wicomico and Ostend streets, and is currently owned by Blue Devil Ventures, who is led by former Duke teammates Brian Davis and Christian Laettner.

Alouettes: The Als (13-2) struggled for a 41-38 victory over the visiting Hamilton Ti-Cats (6-9) on a Sunday afternoon game. But in all honesty, the Als weren't trying too hard, having clinched the division title and a first round playoff bye. Calvillo only played the first half, making way for reserve QB Adrian McPherson.

The Als travel to Winnipeg (6-8) on Saturday.

Blast: The Baltimore Blast will open their 2009-10 at home against the Rockford Rampage on Friday, November 13 at 1st Mariner Arena. The entire 2009-2010 schedule has been released, and is available on the website.

Mariners (See website for more details): The Baltimore Mariners will hold open tryouts on November 14th at the SoocerDome. See website for details.
Fearon Wright, who spent the 2001 season with the Minnesota Vikings and was the Baltimore Mariners leader in sacks and tackles for a loss in 2009 has re-signed with the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) team for the 2010 season.
Following both a private team workout and their open tryout on Saturday, October 10th, the Baltimore Mariners announced the signing of Quarterback Mike Potts, who was a free agent signee of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008 and also brings arena football experience to the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA) team.

What do you want to see in the Ravens report? What should be scrapped? Actually, nevermind. No one is reading this anyway, so I will just butcher things up however I please, and you won't know the difference. Send an email to iggy at tealdragon.net. Thanks!

Schedule

2009 Preseason
Date	Opponent		Time	Result
Thursday, August 13	Washington Redskins		1-0-0	W 23-0
Monday, August 24	New York Jets		2-0-0	W 24-23
Saturday, August 29	@Carolina Panthers		3-0-0	W 17-13
Thursday, September 3	@Atlanta Falcons		4-0-0	W 20-3
2009 Regular Season
Date	Opponent	Record	Time	Result
Sunday, September 13	Kansas City Chiefs	1-0-0	1:00 PM	W 38-24
Sunday, September 20	@San Diego Chargers	2-0-0	4:15 PM	W 31-26
Sunday, September 27	Cleveland Browns	3-0-0	1:00 PM	W 34-3
Sunday, October 4	@New England Patriots	3-1-0	1:00 PM	L 27-21
Sunday, October 11	Cincinnati Bengals	3-2-0	1:00 PM	L 17-14
Sunday, October 18	@Minnesota Vikings	3-3-0	1:00 PM	L 33-31
Sunday, November 1	Denver Broncos	4-3 Overall 3-0 Home	1:00 PM
Sunday, November 8	@Cincinnati Bengals	15-12 Overall 6-7 Road	1:00 PM
Monday, November 16	@Cleveland Browns	14-7 Overall 6-4 Road	8:30 PM
Sunday, November 22	Indianapolis Colts	2-7 Overall 2-3 Home	1:00 PM
Sunday, November 29	Pittsburgh Steelers	10-18 Overall 6-8 Home	8:20 PM
Monday, December 7	@Green Bay Packers	1-2 Overall 0-2 Road	8:30 PM
Sunday, December 13	Detroit Lions	1-1 Overall 1-0 Home	1:00 PM
Sunday, December 20	Chicago Bears	1-2 Overall 1-0 Home	1:00 PM
Sunday, December 27	@Pittsburgh Steelers	10-18 Overall 4-10 Road	1:00 PM
Sunday, January 3	@Oakland Raiders	5-1 Overall 1-1 Road	4:15 PM

Relevant Football Links

NFL: Tie Breaking Procedures

Iggy's Predictions

Week 6
- RAVENS (+3½) over Vikings. This week will be different. At least we covered the spread. I know. That doesn't matter, but it is all I could find positive to say.
- Tampa (+3½) over Carolina. Home field should have it's advantages It didn't for the struggling bucs
- Team that must not be named over Cleveland (+14½), but take the points. TTMNBN is struggling still, so I will bite on 2 TDs. Bullseye, but now they are ahead of us in the standings.
- Packers over Lions (+13½), but take the points. Lions are better than last year, but that wasn't hard. I thought they were better than last year...
- Cinciny over Houston (+4½). I guess Cinciny is the team to beat in our division this year. Houston could make this game really interesting. I guess they let up after playing TTMNBN and Baltimore... or may be they were too infirmed.
- Washington over KC (+6½) but take the points. Skins stink and should eek by this week, assuming KC doesn't actually pull the upset. Yeah! KC won. I know that is not what I called, but it will keep those darn deadskins fans quite a little longer.
- Saints over Giants (+3½). Should be a good game, but Saints have more Offense. ... and boy did they!
- Jax over Lambs (+9½). Lambs might cover this... oh wait, Boller at QB. Nevermind. That took OT?!? Jax is in worse shape than I thought.
- Cards (+2½) over 'hawks. Seattle does really really well at home, but the Cards just don't seem to give up. Seattle didn't even show up.
- Philly over the Raiders (+14½). A lot of points... Oakland will surrender. Philly? Where did they go? Oh, yeah! The Black Hole.
- Jets over Buff (+9½), but take the points. Can't give up that many points in that divisional matchup Buffalo actually pulled this off at the Meadowlands.
- Pats over Tennessee (+9½). Tennessee is looking sad this year. Hmmm... Was somebody running up the score?
- Chicago (+3½) over Atlanta. Who picked this as Sunday Night game? Can't we swap in the Saints/Giants? That didn't happen the way it was supposed to.
- Broncos (+4½) over Chargers. Broncos are highly underrated this season. I was wondering about the outcome until the 4th quarter.
- This Week: 7-7 Straight Up; 8-6 Against the Spread
- Season: 57-33 Straight Up; 47-43 Against the Spread
Week 7
- Packers over the Browns (+7½), but take the points. Browns have covered their last 3 games
- Colts over the Lambs (+13½). Bulger being back won't cover this spread.
- Team That Must Not Be Named over Minnesota (+4½), but take the points. We softened up and exposed the Vikings, but the TTMNBN can't seem to put away their opponents.
- Pats over Bucks (+14½). Pats will run up the score again.
- SD over KC (+4½). Chargers get back on track.
- Niners (+3½) over Houston. Houston surprised Cincincy last week, but the Niners have been surprising me all season.
- Buffalo (+7½) over Carolina. Carolina is really struggling, and Buffalo might be starting to emerge from their struggles.
- Jets over Oakland (+7½), but take the points. Black hole is twilight zone for Jets.
- Bengals over Bears (+1½). My homework says that the Bengals don't cover, and the Bears operate well as the dog. My gut says otherwise.
- Atlanta (+3½) over Dallas. NFC East is overrated.
- Saints over Fins (+6½). Blow out.
- Giants over Cards (+6½), but take the points. Giants are the only team in the NFC East that is worth anything.
- Eagles over Skins (+7½), but take the points. Skins play close games, regardless of their opponent. Eagle will rebound from Oakland.
- Ravens won't lose on a last minute drive this week.
MLB
- Divisional Series (Record: 3-1)
  - Skanks over Twins in 4. Twins are there because they were better than Detroit Did the Tigers knock out the twins and take their places?
  - Angels over Sox in 4. Sox can take out anyone in the AL playoffs... except LA Now can the Angels take out NY?
  - Dodgers over the Cards in 4. Dodgers are the team to beat in the NL. Only took 3 games
  - Colorado over the Phillies in 5. Philadelphia has issues. ...and so does Colorado's bullpen, apparently.
- League Champsionship Series
  - Angels over the Damn Yankees in 7. LA is the better team. Angels need the Devil to beat Yanks. Problem is, that the Devil is a Yankees fan
  - Dodgers over Phils in 6. Phils shouldn't even be here, but they won't seem to die. What a battle! Whomever wins, might not be able to stand to face AL

Please send comments to Iggy at tealdragon.net