Any Baltimore Ravens fan can easily make this week's selection, as Ray Rice is the undisputed recipient of the Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week' award for his career-best performance in Sunday's 30-24 victory over the New Orleans Saints. Rice lugged the ball 31 times for 153 rushing yards, which included one TD run and another for a long of 50 yards. In addition, Ray caught five of QB Joe Flacco's ten completions for another 80 yards, including a sweet TD reception as well.

Every time the Saints needed a key stop to put the ball back into the hands of QB Drew Brees, Rice would come through with a gashing run or catch a pass in the flat and turn it into a first down gain. Shoddy tackling by New Orleans certainly helped, but Rice was on a mission and the Ravens finally reverted to that team of yore which used to bully opponents by pounding the rock down their throats to control the game clock and ultimately win the game.

Congrats to Ray-Ray for busting out just when we needed to prove we are still in the hunt!

Even when a team loses a game in the manner which the Baltimore Ravens did in their 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers last night, there has to be at least one guy who stood out on the field and gave it his best. That player for the Ravens is obviously and clearly Terrell Suggs. 'T-Sizzle's' name was called out all night long as he basically made life miserable for Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger and the rest of the Pittsburgh offense.

Finishing with four tackles, one assist and one and a half sacks, Suggs' impact was felt much more than the numbers indicated. He chased Roethlisberger all over the field, ran down running backs and pushed offensive linemen into their own backfield play-after-play-after-play.

Having been criticize after signing a $60 million contract last year, Suggs has already doubled his season QB sack total from last year and still has a quarter of the season remaining. If this is not indicative of a Pro Bowl-caliber season, then what is?

Suggs talks a lot in the locker room and on the field, but he is one guy who not only "talks-the-talk," but also "walks-the-walk" and for that, Terrell Suggs gets the Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week.'

Going into Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, everyone including the Panthers, expected the Baltimore Ravens to roll over Carolina. Once the Ravens scored on their second offensive play and then kicked a FG to go up 10-0 by the end of the first quarter, it began to lookas if the Panthers were going to roll over themselves. Alas, that was not to happen and the Ravens defense had to rise to the occasion to put the game away late in the fourth quarter with two interception returns for touchdowns.

However, once the game was over and the stat sheets distributed, it was clear to all who the recipient of this week's Sprint ' Game Ball of the Week' was going to be. Third year QB Joe Flacco started the game with a sweet 56 yard TD pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh and continuously found his receivers, with blistering rockets as well as soft touch passes to nine different receivers.

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After yesterday's 26-10 win for the Baltimore Ravens over the Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Beatdown has a tall task of determining who merits the Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week.' The list of those well deserving of it included Joe Flacco, the guys in the secondary who picked off Dolphins QB Chad Henne three times, and placekicker Billy Cundiff, who nailed four FG's and put almost every kickoff deep into the end zone for touchbacks.

However, the obvious honoree this week needs to be running back Ray Rice, who ran and caught passes that frustrated the players, coaches and the fans, especially my three cousins born and raised in Miami as Dolphins' fans, who came to Baltimore to join me at the game. What a poor host I turned out to be, huh!?

Rice sliced and diced the Dolphins defense for 180 total yards, 83 on the ground on 22 attempts, and 97 through the air on seven pass receptions. All afternoon, Flacco found Ray open in the flats andhe then outran the slower linebackers desperately trying to catch him from behind. This time the fans were not upset with Joe checking down to Ray, as Rice was so wide open a few times, there was no one near him until long after he had turned the short pass into a first down and huge gain.

Ray Rice touched the ball 29 times yesterday and made the most of his opportunities, averaging six yards every time he got the ball one way or another. However, the disturbingtrend I wrote abut last year of giving Rice the ball on the very next play after a big gain continues to almost always result in little or no gain when they have a tired opponent's defense on the field and a rested and bigger Willis McGahee on the sidelines. McGahee got his chances as well, catching the screen pass on the Ravens first possession and taking it 32 yards for the opening score.

Congrats to Ray Rice for earning this week's Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week!'

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Baltimore Beatdown will continue to give out a Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week' on a regular basis and in the Baltimore Ravens 37-34 OT win over the surprisingly tough yet winless Buffalo Bills, the choice is relatively clear. One might want to hand it right over to All-Pro free safety Ed Reed, but after the defense allowed the Bills to put 34 points on the board against them, I cannot see a way to give any defensive player a game ball.

Instead, we are presenting this week's honor to placekicker Billy Cundiff, who hit three field goals Sunday in the victory, none more important that the 38-yarder he nailed in overtime for the win. Cundiff was perfect on all three of his attempts and has proven all season long that the Ravens made the correct choice when they decided to retain him rather than turn the kicking chores over to veteran Shayne Graham, who was brought in for Training Camp to challenge Cundiff.

In addition to his field goal accuracy, Cundiff leads the league in touchbacks on his kickoffs, placing a high percentage of them deep enough into the end zone for their opponents to be forced to take a knee rather than risk bringing it out. Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens for their hard fought victory and especially to Billy Cundiff, whose play has resulted in earning the Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week.'

(This post sponsored by Sprint)

Baltimore Beatdown will be giving out a Sprint 'Gameball of the Week'on a regular basis and after the Baltimore Ravens 31-17 destruction of an overwhelmed and one-dimensional Denver Broncos team this past Sunday, the game ball is being handed to Ravens running back Ray Rice. Rice broke out of his slump in 2010 by finally putting on a show reminiscent of what he did most of the 2009 season. He ran for 133 yards on 27 carries with two TD's and caught four passes for another 26 yards. Time and time again, he gashed Denver's soft run defense as the Ravens offensive line opened huge holes for not only Rice, but for other RB's Willis McGahee (67 yards on 10 carries) and LeRon McClain (13 yards on 5 carries) to burst through all day. 

But it was Rice who shouldered most of the load and surprisingly got the nod and the ball on the goal line when McGahee got most of those touches last season. Rice continues to prove he can run between the tackles as he bulked up in the offseason and no longer is just an outside running back.

Congrats to 'Little' Ray for getting the honor of Baltimore Beatdown's Sprint 'Game Ball of the Week.'

(This post sponsored by Sprint)

This headline will be reappearing on a regular basis throughout the rest of the season, as we will be giving out a virtual game ball to one player on the Baltimore Ravens after each game, win or lose. This week it was a tossup between two guys whose success was directly linked to each other. Both QB Joe Flacco and WR Anquan Boldin have the other guy to thank for his success Sunday. Flacco threw for three touchdown passes and Boldin was on the receiving end of all three passes. Was it Joe who made Anquan look good by dropping those passes into his waiting hands or did "Q" just run under balls that were just thrown up in the air?

What came first the chicken or the egg? This is pretty much a toss up, but I'm respectfully presenting this award to Anquan Boldin. Had Flacco thrown those same three TD passes to three different receivers, then Joe would be the easy decision. However, for Boldin to be as open as he was on pretty much all three receptions means he earned those receptions by running routes that got him into the clear to haul in those passes.

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