Ravens, Steelers getting ready to play the feud

[Jopa-n]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
p.s....I heard a rumor that there may be no salary cap next year, so the Yankees may start an NFL team so evryone beware of their potential 1/2 Billion Dollar payroll. they'll probably even build a stadium for $2 Billion in central park.

LOL! Yankees would start sniffing around if there was no cap! Steinbrenner Brats: "What, did somebody say there is another league without a salary cap? What, where, who do we talk too? how much do you want to tell me? Tell me I say, TELL ME!
Baseball today is like playing a monopoly game where you must use monopoly money to play, but if you actually own multiple monopoly games, you can bring whatever money you have to the table to start. Thus, there are some playing with the standard $2,000 dollar amount while others bring a wad of 500 dollar bills to start the action. Mind you, anybody can win, it's just almost impossible when some can slap motels on propeties as soon as they obtain them.
I would hate to see football go through a lockout, but if it had to be done to protect the integrity of the competition (firm salary cap), I say anthing but a league that determines it's major playoff contenders by how much they spend in free agency.

[rob]

Jopa-n wrote:

<quoted text>LOL! Yankees would start sniffing around if there was no cap! Steinbrenner Brats: "What, did somebody say there is another league without a salary cap? What, where, who do we talk too? how much do you want to tell me? Tell me I say, TELL ME!
Baseball today is like playing a monopoly game where you must use monopoly money to play, but if you actually own multiple monopoly games, you can bring whatever money you have to the table to start. Thus, there are some playing with the standard $2,000 dollar amount while others bring a wad of 500 dollar bills to start the action. Mind you, anybody can win, it's just almost impossible when some can slap motels on propeties as soon as they obtain them.
I would hate to see football go through a lockout, but if it had to be done to protect the integrity of the competition (firm salary cap), I say anthing but a league that determines it's major playoff contenders by how much they spend in free agency.

Your Monopoly analogy is right on...ha..ha

[OceanLover6_M4P]

I second that emotion, Bob. How ya been?
Hope you enjoy your holiday & get fired up for the next game. I think Redman is really going to make Santonio jealous. I liked him last season, & I think he is going to be the one to watch. Also, I think Sweed is going to get alot of face time this year. He's got the talent, & speed. I just hope he doesn't get butter fingers again.

[OceanLover6_M4P]

Bob Roberts wrote:

the steelers looked really really good last night. the rest of the league is in for a world of sorrow this season.

That was meant for you. Odd. Topix needs to refresh. The quote button didn't work.

[Bob Roberts]

OceanLover6_M4P wrote:

I second that emotion, Bob. How ya been?
Hope you enjoy your holiday & get fired up for the next game. I think Redman is really going to make Santonio jealous. I liked him last season, & I think he is going to be the one to watch. Also, I think Sweed is going to get alot of face time this year. He's got the talent, & speed. I just hope he doesn't get butter fingers again.

Doing great! holding down the fort in the off season and ready for some football!! We got a 2 day countdown to a thursday night BEATDOWN!!!

[rob]

Bob Roberts wrote:

<quoted text>
Doing great! holding down the fort in the off season and ready for some football!! We got a 2 day countdown to a thursday night BEATDOWN!!!

You guys are pretty full of yourselfs,lol. Beatdown, too funny. This is what you guys were saying last year before you played the Titans and I warned you then that you should be cautiously optimistic and I would tell you the same thing now.
If Young is strating, yea it could be a beatdown, but you never know. Hey you might find this inetersting from Fox Sports, it's their take on what will be the 10 biggest stories of the season. I told you earlier taht I thought the Raven's D was slightly better than last year due to the upgrades at coner and saftey. But this is what they wrote as what Fox thinks will be the fourth biggest suprise in the 2009-2010 season.
They wrote:
4. Joe Flacco will have a Pro-Bowl sophomore season.
Sophomore slump?
Schrager says Joe Flacco will be armed and dangerous in 2009.(Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
Not with this guy. If the 2009 preseason has been any sort of indication, the Ravens' offense — and no, I'm not being facetious here — is going to be both balanced and high-powered this year. From the looks of it, Cam Cameron's taken the leash off of Joe Flacco, and the kid is ready to show that it is, in fact, possible to have a passing game in Baltimore Ravens purple.
You know all about the Ravens' running game. The trio of Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le'Ron McClain is arguably the best in the league, and between the three of them, you may see 2,750 rushing yards out of the Baltimore backfield this season. This is the year the passing game follows suit. Flacco has one of the NFL's best arms, and based on the early returns from the preseason, he'll be using it in '09.
In a conference with arms like Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Cassel, Pennington, Collins, Palmer and Schaub, using the words "Pro Bowl" and "Joe Flacco" in the same sentence seems pretty absurd.
Believe it.
END OF ARTICLE

[Bob Roberts]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
You guys are pretty full of yourselfs,lol. Beatdown, too funny. This is what you guys were saying last year before you played the Titans and I warned you then that you should be cautiously optimistic and I would tell you the same thing now.
If Young is strating, yea it could be a beatdown, but you never know. Hey you might find this inetersting from Fox Sports, it's their take on what will be the 10 biggest stories of the season. I told you earlier taht I thought the Raven's D was slightly better than last year due to the upgrades at coner and saftey. But this is what they wrote as what Fox thinks will be the fourth biggest suprise in the 2009-2010 season.
They wrote:
4. Joe Flacco will have a Pro-Bowl sophomore season.
Sophomore slump?
Schrager says Joe Flacco will be armed and dangerous in 2009.(Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
Not with this guy. If the 2009 preseason has been any sort of indication, the Ravens' offense — and no, I'm not being facetious here — is going to be both balanced and high-powered this year. From the looks of it, Cam Cameron's taken the leash off of Joe Flacco, and the kid is ready to show that it is, in fact, possible to have a passing game in Baltimore Ravens purple.
You know all about the Ravens' running game. The trio of Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le'Ron McClain is arguably the best in the league, and between the three of them, you may see 2,750 rushing yards out of the Baltimore backfield this season. This is the year the passing game follows suit. Flacco has one of the NFL's best arms, and based on the early returns from the preseason, he'll be using it in '09.
In a conference with arms like Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Cassel, Pennington, Collins, Palmer and Schaub, using the words "Pro Bowl" and "Joe Flacco" in the same sentence seems pretty absurd.
Believe it.
END OF ARTICLE

Well I guess if the ravens can beat the titans we can beat them down! lol. really the one reason the steelers came out so flat in that game was because they spent so much energy securing the afc north title by whoopin the ravens in their own house.

Flacco will really have to step up to make the pro bowl. Do you think you guys will go to the air more? last season was pretty good with the running game I wonder if they'll start passing 30+ per game.

usually it's manning and brady who put up the stats to get in the pro bowl. anyway the pro bowl is just candy for loser team's players at the end of the season. the real reward is the lombardi! and we got 6 of 'em!!

[rob]

Bob Roberts wrote:

<quoted text>
Well I guess if the ravens can beat the titans we can beat them down! lol. really the one reason the steelers came out so flat in that game was because they spent so much energy securing the afc north title by whoopin the ravens in their own house.
Flacco will really have to step up to make the pro bowl. Do you think you guys will go to the air more? last season was pretty good with the running game I wonder if they'll start passing 30+ per game.
usually it's manning and brady who put up the stats to get in the pro bowl. anyway the pro bowl is just candy for loser team's players at the end of the season. the real reward is the lombardi! and we got 6 of 'em!!

Flat, maybe, or maybe your guys just didn't prepare mentally and physically for the game.

I really don't care if he makes the pro bowl or not. The real point of the author's piece, and I would agree, is that you will see a well balanced offense from the Raven's this year that no one has ever seen before. We spent a lot of time in the preseason saying wow. The three backs hardly ran at all.

Everyone says the Raven's need a big time receiver, wow, that's true when you don't have a qb that can fire a missile anywhere on the field and hit you in the numbers. The Raven's only need guys that can get open and can catch. Flacco's arm strength will put the ball right there....example...see Mason's TD catch with his other arm in a sling in the Raven's playoff game with the Titans last year. An incredible throw that Flacco put right in the arm pit of Mason's good arm in the end zone. There are not a lot of qb's that can do that.

The one thing that I find fascinating is all of the predictions by some folks that have the Bengals first or second in the division. Now these people are seriously dreaming. Can you imagine the incredible imporvement of both sides of the ball for them to leap up from the bottom?

[Amadeo]

Bob Roberts wrote:

<quoted text>
Well I guess if the ravens can beat the titans we can beat them down! lol. really the one reason the steelers came out so flat in that game was because they spent so much energy securing the afc north title by whoopin the ravens in their own house.
Flacco will really have to step up to make the pro bowl. Do you think you guys will go to the air more? last season was pretty good with the running game I wonder if they'll start passing 30+ per game.
usually it's manning and brady who put up the stats to get in the pro bowl. anyway the pro bowl is just candy for loser team's players at the end of the season. the real reward is the lombardi! and we got 6 of 'em!!

I'm actually sure he will...the little bit of passing he did last year was a surprise. IMO he still should have beat Ryan for Rookie of the year. Minimal difference in numbers and frankly the Ravens had a much harder schedule. Looking at what our second and third stringers did to him I don't think he could have dealt with the Steelers, Titans, and Giants. The hardest teams Ryan faced were the Eagles and Chargers. Despite people being ready for Flacco to some degree we're set up to burn teams this year. Funny...we're working from opposite directions. Steelers need to get the run game going and we need to get the deep pass going.

[Bob Roberts]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Flat, maybe, or maybe your guys just didn't prepare mentally and physically for the game.
I really don't care if he makes the pro bowl or not. The real point of the author's piece, and I would agree, is that you will see a well balanced offense from the Raven's this year that no one has ever seen before. We spent a lot of time in the preseason saying wow. The three backs hardly ran at all.
Everyone says the Raven's need a big time receiver, wow, that's true when you don't have a qb that can fire a missile anywhere on the field and hit you in the numbers. The Raven's only need guys that can get open and can catch. Flacco's arm strength will put the ball right there....example...see Mason's TD catch with his other arm in a sling in the Raven's playoff game with the Titans last year. An incredible throw that Flacco put right in the arm pit of Mason's good arm in the end zone. There are not a lot of qb's that can do that.
The one thing that I find fascinating is all of the predictions by some folks that have the Bengals first or second in the division. Now these people are seriously dreaming. Can you imagine the incredible imporvement of both sides of the ball for them to leap up from the bottom?

i don't put much stock in the predictions...unless they support my own predictions. lol. I heard some guys say the steelers would finish 7-9...go figure. I wouldn't be surprised by any team going from rags to riches these days. the dolphins won the division after only winning one game in the previous season. I saw the ravens take huge strides too. I think this happens with a change of leadership in both cases. have the bungles changed leaders? no. I'm wondering if the ravens will truly change to a balanced air ground game or if they didn't run much in the preseason because they wanted to give reps to the air game(?) sometimes we see less of something in the preseason not as an indication they are going away from it, but because they feel comfortable with it. Flacco can make any throw they ask him to. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they ask of him. My prediction is no sophmore slump for flacco and another hard fought season in the afc north.

[Rex J Steelman]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Flat, maybe, or maybe your guys just didn't prepare mentally and physically for the game.
I really don't care if he makes the pro bowl or not. The real point of the author's piece, and I would agree, is that you will see a well balanced offense from the Raven's this year that no one has ever seen before. We spent a lot of time in the preseason saying wow. The three backs hardly ran at all.
Everyone says the Raven's need a big time receiver, wow, that's true when you don't have a qb that can fire a missile anywhere on the field and hit you in the numbers. The Raven's only need guys that can get open and can catch. Flacco's arm strength will put the ball right there....example...see Mason's TD catch with his other arm in a sling in the Raven's playoff game with the Titans last year. An incredible throw that Flacco put right in the arm pit of Mason's good arm in the end zone. There are not a lot of qb's that can do that.
The one thing that I find fascinating is all of the predictions by some folks that have the Bengals first or second in the division. Now these people are seriously dreaming. Can you imagine the incredible imporvement of both sides of the ball for them to leap up from the bottom?

I'll grant you the Ravens are going to be awesome this year. And your assertion about the receivers may be correct when they're playing subpar secondaries, but the Steelers secondary is the best they've had since the days of Woodson and Lake (in fact, it may be better), and so the Ravens need those rookie acquisitions to turn into polished route-runners really quickly. It's possible that a couple of them have rookie breakout seasons, but right now it looks like a bit of an achilles-heel to anyone on the outside (just as the Steelers O-line does).

[Jopa-n]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
You guys are pretty full of yourselfs,lol. Beatdown, too funny. This is what you guys were saying last year before you played the Titans and I warned you then that you should be cautiously optimistic and I would tell you the same thing now.
If Young is strating, yea it could be a beatdown, but you never know. Hey you might find this inetersting from Fox Sports, it's their take on what will be the 10 biggest stories of the season. I told you earlier taht I thought the Raven's D was slightly better than last year due to the upgrades at coner and saftey. But this is what they wrote as what Fox thinks will be the fourth biggest suprise in the 2009-2010 season.
They wrote:
4. Joe Flacco will have a Pro-Bowl sophomore season.
Sophomore slump?
Schrager says Joe Flacco will be armed and dangerous in 2009.(Greg Fiume / Getty Images)
Not with this guy. If the 2009 preseason has been any sort of indication, the Ravens' offense — and no, I'm not being facetious here — is going to be both balanced and high-powered this year. From the looks of it, Cam Cameron's taken the leash off of Joe Flacco, and the kid is ready to show that it is, in fact, possible to have a passing game in Baltimore Ravens purple.
You know all about the Ravens' running game. The trio of Ray Rice, Willis McGahee and Le'Ron McClain is arguably the best in the league, and between the three of them, you may see 2,750 rushing yards out of the Baltimore backfield this season. This is the year the passing game follows suit. Flacco has one of the NFL's best arms, and based on the early returns from the preseason, he'll be using it in '09.
In a conference with arms like Brady, Manning, Roethlisberger, Rivers, Cassel, Pennington, Collins, Palmer and Schaub, using the words "Pro Bowl" and "Joe Flacco" in the same sentence seems pretty absurd.
Believe it.
END OF ARTICLE

I expect the Ravens to do well this year. I believe Flacco will as well. I strongly disagree on the preseason being any kind of team barometer of success since 85% of the games and 2/3 of the players will not have a direct impact on the season at all. Individually we can see things that make us feel like a certain player is doing well but nothing more IMO.
Bob is a very upbeat fan who likes to go into a game psyched up for success (and considering the reults of last year, who can argue as of yet?). I'ts got nothing to do with being big headed IMO. I'm more tempered but if somebody rips on my team I take great issue with it and can tend to overstate a little as well. Trust me Rob, we both, and most others know this is gonna be a war. Don't let pregame banter get misunderstood for how much we understand the situations at hand.

[rob]

Bob Roberts wrote:

<quoted text>
i don't put much stock in the predictions...unless they support my own predictions. lol. I heard some guys say the steelers would finish 7-9...go figure. I wouldn't be surprised by any team going from rags to riches these days. the dolphins won the division after only winning one game in the previous season. I saw the ravens take huge strides too. I think this happens with a change of leadership in both cases. have the bungles changed leaders? no. I'm wondering if the ravens will truly change to a balanced air ground game or if they didn't run much in the preseason because they wanted to give reps to the air game(?) sometimes we see less of something in the preseason not as an indication they are going away from it, but because they feel comfortable with it. Flacco can make any throw they ask him to. I guess we'll have to wait and see what they ask of him. My prediction is no sophmore slump for flacco and another hard fought season in the afc north.

I think they didn't run much for three reasons: 1: Wanted to see what the rookies could do. 2: Wanted to rest the big three as much as possible and 3: Want to develop a passing game. I think the Raven's accomplished all three.

[rob]

Rex J Steelman wrote:

<quoted text>
I'll grant you the Ravens are going to be awesome this year. And your assertion about the receivers may be correct when they're playing subpar secondaries, but the Steelers secondary is the best they've had since the days of Woodson and Lake (in fact, it may be better), and so the Ravens need those rookie acquisitions to turn into polished route-runners really quickly. It's possible that a couple of them have rookie breakout seasons, but right now it looks like a bit of an achilles-heel to anyone on the outside (just as the Steelers O-line does).

Yes life is strange, everyone thought the O-line last year would be the weakest link and it ended up being a strength. Part of the problem is these national beat writers who fly into town for a few days of camp or a preseason game and write a whole story and develop an opion based on three days of observations. You have to watch everyday to see what's really going on for any team.

[rob]

Jopa-n wrote:

<quoted text>I expect the Ravens to do well this year. I believe Flacco will as well. I strongly disagree on the preseason being any kind of team barometer of success since 85% of the games and 2/3 of the players will not have a direct impact on the season at all. Individually we can see things that make us feel like a certain player is doing well but nothing more IMO.
Bob is a very upbeat fan who likes to go into a game psyched up for success (and considering the reults of last year, who can argue as of yet?). I'ts got nothing to do with being big headed IMO. I'm more tempered but if somebody rips on my team I take great issue with it and can tend to overstate a little as well. Trust me Rob, we both, and most others know this is gonna be a war. Don't let pregame banter get misunderstood for how much we understand the situations at hand.

I agree. I don't pay any attention to what anyone says out there, those two games are probably the best football going on anywhere in the NFL during the year (barring any big injuries of course).

Maybe the Raven's are oddballs, but they ran the ball alot in the preseason last year and then ran the ball well all year. This spring, Cameron promised a wide open passing game and that's all they did in presaeson. I kept thinking I was watching a Manning or Dan Marino offense,lol.

One thing I will take from preseason is that somebody dialed up Flacco's cannon a notch and he was just drilling people in the numbers all over the field. And I didn't just see that in games, I saw it in camp the many days I swung by Westminster.

Hey Balmer folks, by the way, Flacco's brother (drafted by the Orioles) got promoted from Rookie League to Single A Delmarva. Not bad for a guy who ways playing at Catonsville CC last year.

[Bernie Kosar]

Hey Guys, had a couple of minutes to check in.
Let the games begin!

[Bob Roberts]

Bernie Kosar wrote:

Hey Guys, had a couple of minutes to check in.
Let the games begin!

good to hear from you again Bernie! Good luck this season with the new coach and all...just not good luck against the steelers of course.

[Bernie Kosar]

Glad to see nothing has changed! LOL I got to see all the pre-season Browns games, I the Mangini has them in the right direction.( I hope) Can't be any worst I guess. We got some new guys that seem to be pretty good. we will see. Did the Steelers do well in the draft?

[Amadeo]

rob wrote:

<quoted text>
Maybe the Raven's are oddballs, but they ran the ball alot in the preseason last year and then ran the ball well all year. This spring, Cameron promised a wide open passing game and that's all they did in presaeson. I kept thinking I was watching a Manning or Dan Marino offense,lol.

They used the entire pre-season to test. Alot of throws to work things out...a lot of plays designed to test Oher. More than anything that's what impressed me about the Ravens. They were trying stuff out and still won all the games.

[Bob Roberts]

Bernie Kosar wrote:

Glad to see nothing has changed! LOL I got to see all the pre-season Browns games, I the Mangini has them in the right direction.( I hope) Can't be any worst I guess. We got some new guys that seem to be pretty good. we will see. Did the Steelers do well in the draft?

8 rookies made the team this year so I guess they did pretty well. One of them was an undrafted free agent so 7 draft picks stuck. They also put 4 rooks on the practice squad. I think at least two of them are undrafted. We also drafted a fullback that made the team who has a cool nickname. Frank "The Tank" Summers. listed at 5'10 230 on the steelers website but his numbers are actually 5'8" 245...i'm not sure why they listed him the way they did...maybe so as not to scare the rest of the afc north! lol. The dude brings it.