the last 8 minutes of this game was heart-pounding.

what the heck was that. I’d rather just see us lose a game outright then seeing it the way its happened the last 2 weeks. Makes me sick

Flacco overthrew that about 10 yards, Clayton had no chance. You can’t blame this loss on Clayton. Leon Hall had to dive for that ball and he was about 3 strides ahead of Mark on that one.

I’ll admit they are a tough group and held us to 82 yds rushing. I was honestly impressed with their effort against the run the most today. Rey Maualuga’s a beast and will be for many more years. Give credit when credit’s due.

Don’t worry. Be patient. All it takes is time to get back ahead of the bengals.

From a bengals fan, I thought it was a good game. I love watching these two teams play each other because they always play tough. It sucks to lose, but especially when penalties killed your team two weeks in a row, so i feel you on that.

looking forward to a showdown in cincy later in the season. we have a rough stretch ahead.

i did have one question, going back to the new england game 2 years ago when they were undefeated, do you think this d has trouble dealing with pressure situations? don’t get me wrong, they’re a great d and have been for years, but it just seems like when calls start going against them, they stop playing with discipline and end up giving up big plays. thoughts?

not trying to be a jerk, but the Ravens had a long streak didn’t they? oh whoops you have it in the top of the thread. Sorry. Too lazy to delete now.

Also worrisome for the Ravens is the 2 game lead on the Steelers has been squandered. It’s still a long season ahead. See you in November. I’ll probably be there @ M&T!

Im sorry but the Ravens have now fallen to pretender status and are only an average team. This is the worst Ravens game Ive seen in a while, once the Bengals had the ball on that 2 minute warning I knew the game was over. If we would have played this bad against a good team it would have been 45-0. The Reed TD and Rice TD were the only positive plays of the game. Period. Offense played like garbage, defense played like garbage and is no longer a good defense, and we have now gone into critical mode for the season. The Ravens are not even playoff caliber much less superbowl caliber, we should be worried about going 8-8 right now. I expect us to get killed next week and then have our bye week, so get used to it Ravens fans the next month is going to be filled with disappointment.

unless we put offensive points on the board our defense will not lead us to victory anymore.

Not paying any attention to what we do at all, all the excuses we will make. There is none. We played Billick football today and it was F***ing pitiful. Peace out Beatdown, try to enjoy the week. BullS***

This team can sure embarass itself sometimes. We should have lost the game by 20, and it was a huge game and a huge loss for us. Coaching staff better be ready to make some improvements and quick.

     Cincy and the Steelers rule at this point. Congrats to both. The Ravens haven’t prevented a game winning final drive in years. That starts with their leadership. Ray Lewis jumped the shark today. I expected a WHOLE lot more from the guy but to go helmet to helmet with Chad on a HUGE down was moronic. At that point, I felt no sympathy for the loss and knew it was coming.

     Let’s add this last minute long drive to the long list of disappointing defensive letdowns. Ray is still useless in those situations. He neither stops the run, QB or the pass; simply a scarecrow. Unfortunately, the scarecrow got off his post and commited a personal foul. At least he did something……

Even after the Bengals bet us, I still found it hard to accept them as contenders, but now after beating the Ravens and owning a 3-0 division record, I am sold that this division will be a tough one this year.

Biggest thing now for the Ravens and Steelers is to keep pace. If we cannot split the series’s with the Bengals, their division record speaks for itself.

Still in a state of “wow” right now. I picked the Bengals competitive, but not like this.

Still a long ways to go, but I think I have realised that the division is wide open (except for the Browns. Derek Anderson 2/17……i couldve done better than that)

Don’t give the Bengals too much credit. They had 10 points going into the last 32 seconds. I admit that we suck in the 4th quarters but the Bengals are still smoke and mirrors. Pitt GAVE them the game.

Ill start analyzing the rest of the season and our chances as being contenders a few weeks after the Bye week. We have Minnestoa next week right after we gave up 130 yds rushing to Benson, now we got Peterson next week. The chances are we are going into the bye week 3-3 then coming out and playing the right now 5-0 Broncos, then the Bengals at Cincy after that, so the way we are playing right now, that means we will be 3-5 through the halfway mark. I will re-evaluate the Ravens in a month and decide if they have a chance at the playoffs. Forget the superbowl talk people, we need to worry about going 8-8 first.

Ray will be abused next week.

I can already see Favre pumping faking Ray out of his shoes before dumping it off to Chester or Peterson. If we can’t hang with Ben’s pumps then forget about Favre. We will also be down with self pity. I see a frustrated Detroit type game with massive penalities and defeatest attitude. We’ll rebound but we need to go down this rod first.

go down this ‘road’ is what I meant.

Today was awful. Probably one of the worst games I have seen us play in awhile. You know what though, there is way too much negativity about this team. The bengals are feeling a little success because they are not used to winning. Let them have their fun, we will see what happens by the end of this year. They outplayed us today and deserved the win. However, we are all entitled to an off day. Lets hope this was our off day. Going off of our reactions after the game, the team knows it was our fault and we got out played. They seem full with anger and ready to get back at there. That is a good step that we are not pointing the finger at anyone but ourselves. I dont see why everyone is being so negative about a defense. They played their ass off today and gave us a chance to win until they committed those stupid penalties. It was poor execution all around and we missed gaither alot. Oher did an amazing job but on that right side, there seemed to be a little more pressure and flacco never seemed comfortable. If joe completes that pass to clayton at the end we are 4-1 and everything is ok. We are a good team who just needs to learn to close. We will gather our whits and bring it together against an overrated vikings team and head to our bye and regroup. Lets not forget, we started last year 2-3 and still managed to get to the afc championship game. We are just 2 or 3 unlucky/bad plays from being undefeated. Be upset, but lets not bail on the game. We will be ok

He still has to learn that he is not as good as some of the hype and can’t just throw it up and expect guys to llways come down with the ball. Those picks at the end of the first half in NE and the first drive against Cincy killed us, just killed us.

We don’t have smart leadership on D. Leadership is showing your team how to succeed and overcome adversity. We do neither when it counts. We are shokingly undisciplined with the veterans we have on D. Maybe Dallas is a good fit for Ray. Maybe if he would stop hugging all the Miami players he might pull the rest of the team together. Maybe Zeus needs to dot his eye again.

what are we thinking when we have willis and we are in the red zone. give the man the rock

Those three points would have been great to have later in that game

i call those 50/50 balls. shovel passes and bombs. it basically says you can’t win straight up. that is where cam is mistaken.

palmer says the 7 he gave reed wouldn’t have been bad either….

for the sake of the team and getting this monkey off our back, we might want to go with Troy on the speedy Minn. turf.

? i hope. i’d like to see Kruger too!!!!

Suggs do ANYTHING today?

I cant believe what Im reading, has every single person completely written us off at this point. We played horribly, Im talking horrible and ended up losing with 20 something seconds left, its not like we got destroyed or we played our best game and still lost. We didnt show up, plain and simple. But as “fans,” we need to calm down and realize that its week 5, not 15, this game was not a make-or-break, there is a lot of football to be played.

There werent many things to get excited about, but here’s my good list:
1) Ed Reed has officially found his groove, bad news.
2) Ray Rice should be mentioned when speaking about explosiveness. He’s great.
3) Ladarius Webb is an upgrade, a huge upgrade.
4) We will be seeing less of Chris Carr.
5) 2 words: Jarrett Johnson (amazing).
6) The fact that we are taking complete blame for the loss, we came into the game feeling like we were robbed of a loss and that we were (are) better than our record shows, well we lost focus somewhere along the line. This time around theres noone to blame except ourselves, and going into Minnesota next week; we need to be as grounded as possible.

Its hard to look on the bright side after 2 straight heart-breaking lossed but I refuse to jump on the hate wagon, so lets go Ravens!

…was definitely suspect (again). Is Cam Cameron having some sort of identity crisis? Last week it was pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. This week, it’s run, run, run, run, run, run. We NEED to establish an offensive identity, one that’s preferably a balance of the punishing ground game most of us are used to seeing, along with a strong dose of the aerial firepower that we were just getting used to through the first few games of the season.

And while we’re on the subject of playcalling, is anyone else still wondering why Willis McGahee had exactly ONE touch today? I don’t understand how you don’t get your team’s leading scorer the ball. And where did Derrick Mason disappear to today? When was the last time he was held without a catch? He’s been in this league a long time, and there’s not much of an excuse for him not getting open even once. The Ravens’ vertical game was pretty much non-existent today, and his disappearance certainly didn’t help any.

Awesome game. The Ravens and Bengals both played a very physical game. And Ed Reed almost won the game by himself. He’s not human. And the Stadium sounded like it was crazy loud. Great game, and we are glad to steal this one on the road. We see these 2 teams match up again in a few weeks. Who dey!?

Yes, the Bengals are a good team, but so are the Steelers and the Ravens, who trail Cinci by only a single game. The Steelers had 2 straight tough losses just like the Ravens, but were able to bounce back in a big way in the third game. What Baltimore does against Minny next week will determine the outcome of their season. As for the Bengals, I have a feeling they’ll come back down to earth soon. Us and the Browns had them on the ropes, but simply didn’t execute when we needed to. The Packers and Ravens could certainly have won their games angainst Cinci, too. Their next four games are HOU, CHI, BAL, and @PIT(the Steelers aren’t going to let the Bungles steal two from them). Chances are they’ll go 2-2 in this stretch, and things could look very different come November…

To reach the next level the Ravens need to learn a few lessons & make some adjustments to the “Raven Way”. Peter Schmuck wrote this morning that the Ravens need to forget about what happened last week with the penalties in New England & be prepared to accept a few penalties as the price they pay for the Raven way of “violent football” as Suggs describes it. Ray Lewis must have been thinking that when he cheap shoted Chad O & cost the Ravens dearly on the last Bengal scoring drive. Schmuck asked for it, Ray delivered & the Ravens lost. Good teams outgrow this behavior & don’t self destruct on stupid penalties. Ravens have a history of this because playing thug football leads to these outcomes. Complaining about the rules & pointing fingers as was done last week does not enable a team to learn from their mistakes. The old ways are returning & the Ravens have taken a step backward. I wonder if they will ever become an elite team playing “The Raven Way”?

Both about the team and the refs. What happened to the five yards they stole from us after the fumble review? How was that one play not offensive interrference when the Bengals WR turned his back on the ball and grabbed the Raven’s arm? Sorry those two plays I think were game changing calls/missed calls…

Raven Way-

Play a good game for 3.5 quarters and then beg for a win while imploding. Beat bad teams. Lose to good teams. Split with average teams. Maybe get a Wild Card. Lose to good teams.

To those who are calling out the critics- We are not bitching about this one game! We are just tired of excuse after excuse after experiment after experiment. We have given up two 400+ yard games already. We have lost two last second games because of stupidity and lack of focus.

Raven fans don’t hate this team, we hate the way they are losing. Every game 1 or 2 guys take it upon themselves to act like a-holes and sacrifice their team with 15 yard penalties. When that person is your “leader” it becomes downright irresponsible and worthy of criticism.

In his meeting on the field in NE Ray shouted, “ain’t no team can play with us for 4 quarters…never have.” Sheeeesh. Time to put the drum down and man up.

Man, Ravens fans are freakin impatient… We were even booing yesterday on a 3 and out. I had guys around me yelling how Flacco sucks and the defense is terrible, etc… I am thinking of selling my tickets to the next home game because I was so annoyed with the drunk idiots sitting behind me. The worst is bitching about the refs when Ray Lewis took Chad Johnson’s head off.

OK… Just for the record, I was as ticked off as anyone yesterday about losing. But it was just one of those days. You can’t really blame one thing. It was a total team effort. But, they have had a chance to win in the last two games.

The Rex Ryan comment… Isn’t he the defensive Coordinator that let Pittsburgh and Tennessee drive down the field at the end to win the game last year? I had that same awful feelings in the those games.

Hats off to Cincy for a well played game. Their defense was a different Cincy DE than we have ever seen. They played better than us and we still should have won the game.

Well, thanks defense. Thanks, run-stoppers for returning to futility. Thanks, d-backs for playing like you are in high school. I don’t care where Foxworth is from, his position needs to be re-filled.

I have just made plans for next Sunday, and it doesn’t involve watching this major letdown of a team. Call me fairweather, but losing the way we have 2 weeks in a row just annoys me.

And this is a personal message to Roger Goodell: Stay Out of Baltimore. I will go to jail for punching you in the face as hard as I can, and do so with a smile on my face!

Just like a few weeks ago when everyone was picking us for the Super Bowl, don’t panic and say the season is lost. Remember this – we were in both the games we lost until the last minute and were a few plays from winning them both. Yes the Defense let us down that last drive. I laugh when people say Ray is useless in those situations cause I remember a certain 4th and 2 play by Ray against San Diego that saved the game! You do all remember that right? Should I post the link of that play on here as a reminder?? Just as last season we tend to let opponents march down the field on those last drives – Pittsburgh anyone? Until the D stops those we will never win the big games. This game was not about the last drive – it was about poor defensive backs, penalties, and as always letting the other QB have all day to throw. Why is it we just can’t get those star QB’s out of their comfort zone? Personally I think we should be playing a 4-3 line. Whatever happened to Defensive Ends who get to the QB?? The other reason we lost is because we went back to the Kyle Boller offense. 186 yards passing, jump balls, interceptions, ineffectiveness. Look at it this way – we had the ball with a few minutes left – we were basically 2 first downs from ending that game and we couldn’t get them. We had a 4 point lead and needed 2 more first downs to kill the clock and we choked – this is easily as big a deal as the defense giving up a TD. Had the offense done their job the D would never have been in that situation. As long as we stay close in these type games we still have a chance to win them.

And how come Carr is still in there? Mr. Rodgers could play better coverage while tying his shoes and putting on yet another blue sweater. He may be the WORST nickel and dime player in the league. Frank Walker’s supposedly Pass Interference was one of the best plays I have seen him made, but the refs might just know about Frank and flagged him. How the hell can you call that on 3rd and 16. That was a GREAT defense by Frank.

Cam Cameron had quite possibly a 2004 Billick type game. No balance at all. How did Mason not have one freaking catch? Are you serious? Your best WR who is maybe the best route runner in the league does not even get a LOOK? We must have dumped the ball off to McClain and Rice 20 times that game, and made what looked like a last option screen pass, our first option every freaking time. And you know what, the Cinci LB were there every time.

And that pass to Clayton at the end, which could have sealed the game, not the right play on 3rd and long. That was the FIRST deep pass that Joe threw all day. He was not in rhythm, and over threw a wide open Mark.

We lost because of one person, MARVIN LEWIS. He played better Raven football than we did, and that is bad. He got right in our faces from the start of the game, and we were backing off the whole time. He ran it down our throats often and early guess what, it worked! Cedric Benson, are you serious? Ray Lewis, you really going to let some wash-up who was just getting arrested 2 years ago for being so plastered that he fought cops? Pathetic Ray. You are looking like an average LB at best. Don’t let that play in SD fool any of you. Ray missed so many gaps yesterday, it was disgusting.

I am disgusted to be a Ravens fan today. I never expected a Billick game on offense from Cam. The Defense did good, but looked terrible because of Cam’s brain farts. He never had balance, after we asked for it. Never established the run, just like we havent at all this whole season. Still thinks Joe needs to throw it 30-40 times and hope Rice breaks a 40 yarder so Cam can look good. Our offense put up 7 points and the defense bailed them out int he beginnning, yet we still insisted on going 3 and out half the time and putting our defense back on the field against a strong Cinci offense.

Next week is make or break. We lose, I think we are finished.

how much do you think there is a falloff at the LB position with the loss of scott? he’s tearing up the field in new york and i don’t really think gooden is close to being on the level he was as a player.

PREVENT PREVENTS YOU FROM WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PREVENT=Puss Coaches who say they won’t run it and then run it because they are hyperventilating in clowe games. mattison or whatever his name is sucks and belongs in A ball.

it’s like the coach overslept the father of a player stepped in

Must agree. Whenever we go into prevent defense we basically give up 15 yard pass after 15 yard pass. You stop a team all day then change your plan the last two minutes and they eat us alive. Where is the pressure on the QB?? Any DB will look lame if you give a superstar QB 15 seconds to throw the ball. Somebody on the line needs to step it up. Where is Suggs in all this? We need to start getting real Defensive Ends and not make everyone we draft into a DE/LB. Put Paul Kruger on the end and say “Go get the QB kid!” Watch what happens! Carson Palmer barely had to worry back there in his pocket. Scare the QB and he will make mistakes.

Turtle Sluggs is trying to get his big ass around the end but can’t.