As if Hurricane Ike wasn't enough, Hurricane Raven will follow it up on Monday night as it will come ashore with its full brunt of power directly over Reliant Stadium, beginning,oh, say around 8:30pm. The leading edge of the storm will last for two quarters, er, I mean 30 minutes, followed by the eye of the storm (halftime) and then the back edge that should last the same amount of time as the first part, but the majority of the damage will have been done long before it's over.

The makeup of the Hurricane will be led by a bunch of former Hurricanes, including Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Willis McGahee. There's also the rookie linebacker from Miami, Tavares Gooden, who is rumored to be the heir apparent to Lewis at the middle linebacker position, although don't expect him to see much time, except on Special Teams. Speaking of Special Teams, the status of the All Pro gunner Brendon Ayanbadejo is still undecided, although the Ravens will have their two tough rookie safeties, who both have a great history of enjoying contact. Third round pick Tom Zbikowski (Notre Dame) was a nationally ranked Golden Gloves boxer with a 60-13 amateur record, including a 49 second knockout in his professional debut at New York's Madison Square Garden in 2006. Sixth round pick Haruki Nakamura (Cincinnati) has a black belt in judo, as his parents came to the US to teach judo and his brother was in the US Olympic Trials and his sister was a national judo champion. Together, they give the Ravens depth at safety, as well as toughness on Special Teams. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, a former Special Teams Coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles, is certainly pleased with their addition to the squad.

Luckily for the city of Houston, Hurricane Raven will not leave a huge path of damage in its wake. It may linger in the players on the Texans that plan to unwisely not evacuate the playing field when it approaches, but they should recover over time. Hurricane Raven will flood the Texans backfield with the storm surge lead by Trevor Pryce, Terrell Suggs and Bart Scott. It will flood forward on offense and the running game hits like a huge wave against what last week in Pittsburgh was a defenseless Texans wall. Most likely, it will be over long before the last Hurricane leaves the Reliant Stadium area. Hurricane Raven will arrive on Monday night with a snarl on its face and leave with a smile.

Grab the family and hide in the basement. It's almost game time!

...the Ravens are still not getting any respect for their win against the Bengals, as evidenced by their being an underdog at Houston.

...I'm not too sure how the Texans can get steamrolled by the Steelers and still be favorites over the Ravens, who won last week.

...it's not like the Texans were upset last week, or they were supposed to be such a good team this season.

...the national media have a much clearer memory of the Ravens injury-riddled 2007 5-11 team as opposed to the healthy 2006 13-3 one.

...with the Ravens healthy this season, it should more closely resemble the 2006 one.

...after the Cleveland Browns lose to the Steelers this Sunday to go 0-2 with both losses at home, they will slink into Baltimore for their first road game and third loss of the season next week.

...the Cincinnati Bengals return home with a very important game on the line for the team and especially head coach Marvin Lewis. An 0-2 start puts them in the division basement & a slow boat to a high draft pick.

...the best games this weekend are the Patriots-Jets, Broncos-Chargers and the Cowboys-Eagles.

...I'm also interested in the Vikings-Colts game, as one of them will end up a very disappointing 0-2 start.

...I fully expect the Colts to still be in the playoff chase with a win or loss this weekend because as long as Peyton Manning is on the field, they are one of the better teams in the league.

...the Pats will still be a very good team and new QB Matt Cassel will have some pretty good targets to still throw to.

...a lot of Tom Brady's TD passes to Randy Moss were completed because of Moss' ability, not because of Brady's.

...therefore, don't be surprised if Moss still has a dozen TD receptions and Cassel ends up looking pretty good.

...weren't the Pats' fans panicking when Drew Bledsoe went down with an injury years ago and the Pats were left with an unproven 6th round draft pick named Tom Brady?

...I'm not saying Matt Cassel is the next "Tom Brady" but if he is, you heard it here first!

...while Brett Favre is an upgrade over Chad Pennington for the Jets (sorry Miami!), I'm not convinced which "Brett Favre" he will be this season- the horrible 2006 one or the incredible 2007 one!

...the Raiders, Bengals, Texans, Dolphins will line their respective division basements in the AFC.

...the Lions, Redskins, Falcons and 49ers will do the same in the NFC.

...the above opinions are mine and only intended to spark debate, not piss off the fans of the teams I degraded. Sorry.

Peace to all those affected by the events of 9/11. We are all Americans. U-S-A, U-S-A!!!

As Hurricane or Tropical Storm Ike heads towards the Gulf Coast, it looks like the Baltimore Ravens are going to have to wait and see what havoc it wrecks on the Houston area. The team will most likely head to Houston earlier than normal, hunker down in their hotel and wait to see what Ike brings this weekend. The Houston Texans play in Reliant Stadium, which actually has a retractable roof. However, the roof is not the problem, it's what the area will be looking like on Sunday morning after the storm hits. If there is widespread damage and flooding, it doesn't matter if the field is dry, the game will probably be postponed. That might mean a Monday Night Football game, which would be cool, but anything other than that would be a huge scheduling issue.

The Texans and Ravens, as well as the entire city of Houston, are hoping to be spared the brunt of the storm, and the game can go off without a hitch, whether the roof is open or not. Either way, we will watch with unusual interest, the path of the storm and its expected ferocity, as the Ravens hope to be the only ones inflicting damage on Houston this Sunday!

Update: As of Thursday afternoon, it was determined that it would be best for everyone's safety to postpone the Ravens-Texans game, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, until Monday night at 8:30pm. Therefore, the Ravens will get another game on Monday Night Football, along with their upcoming game in two weeks at Pittsburgh.

The NFL is the best sports league of any of the major sports. For the most part, it is pretty easy to predict who will be among the best in the league each year. However, football seems to be the one sport where almost every team has a chance each year. Hence the over-used term and aptly named movie, "...any given Sunday..."

This season has only just begun and already this has become extremely evident. After only one game, arguable the best offensive and defensive players in the entire league have been lost for the season to bad knee injuries, and many others may soon follow. Tom Brady is gone from the Patriots, which should significantly upset the balance of power in the division, much less the whole league. Shawne Merriman is out for the Chargers and their defense will look a lot different without him. Vince Young is out for a few weeks for the Titans, who may actually be a better passing team under Kerry Collins than they were with Young. Brodie Croyle is hurt in KC, and will miss a few weeks. Ben Roethlisberger has a hurting shoulder but he shouldn't miss any time, according to the Steelers. Kyle Boller was placed on IR by the Ravens, and....well,...nevermind.

These injuries may change the entire post season and we haven't even begun to talk about the injuries to the other positions around the league. Even with a so-called healthy Peyton Manning, the Colts have already felt the effect of having him not take a snap in the preseason while he recovered from offseason surgery. Throughout the season, the injury list as well as the amount of players placed on IR will continue to grow, as this is such a violent and physical sport and the athletes keep getting bigger, stronger and faster each year. The team that stays healthy will have the best chance of still playing in the post season. One major injury in a key position can make or break a season.

That is one reason why the NFL is such a great form of entertainment. Whether you are from New England or Arizona, you can go into the season thinking, "what if?" That is also why us Ravens fans can see the results from only one game against an opponent even weaker than what we were supposed to be, and still think that if things continue to develop and improve, then yes, even the Ravens can still be playing meaningful games late into the season and then, who knows, even into January and beyond!

Bring on week 2!

The signs were printed and on display all over M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday and the cheers began shortly after he ran 38 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. By the way, Joe Flacco set an NFL record for the longest TD run by a rookie QB in his first game in league history! So, one game for the rookie and he's already not only in the Ravens record books, but the NFL one as well! Pretty good first showing, eh?

However, Joe, as well as all Ravens fans, don't expect the rest of the league to roll over for you just yet. The fact is, your stats weren't that good, just good enough to win. At the same time, they don't need to be good, but as we said, just good enough. Here is where we put in the memory link to the 2001 Super Bowl Champs (see 'Trent Dilfer'). The Texans defense might have gotten rolled over on by the Steelers in Pittsburgh, but the Ravens should expect a much tougher Houston team when they open up their home schedule this Sunday afternoon. Our offense isn't anywhere close to Pittsburgh's, but our defense might actually be better than theirs. So while we may not score 30+ points in this game, we might not give up 17 either.

The Ravens have been anemic on the road the past year and until they prove they can win as visitors, they will continue to be the underdogs when they travel to enemy territory. Then again, this team after only one game, has given me and the rest of the Raven's Nest hope that perhaps, just perhaps, we have just seen the beginning of something special this season. After all, what did Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger do in his first season after being forced into a starting role thanks to my Ravens? He just won 15 games in a row his first year and a Super Bowl title his second. Sounds pretty darn good to me!

The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 17-10 in a game that wasn't anywhere near as close as the score indicated. If not for a poor call that led to a fumble on an unnecessary play, the Ravens could have and should have blown out the Bengals. Cincinnati's offense did not score a TD all day, and it was only the third time in his career that Bengals QB Carson Palmer threw for under 100 yards. Ravens rookie Joe Flacco enjoyed a great opening to his career and threw in an incredible 38 yard TD run on what appeared to be a busted play. However, Ravens fans must remember it was against a pretty inept Cincinnati team that was just what the doctor ordered (see yesterday's prediction) and we should not expect the Houston Texans to roll over like that in their home opener next week when the Ravens visit them.

Flacco reminded me a lot like Ben Roethlisberger looked when he had that great rookie season for the Steelers a few years ago. His stats line would have looked a lot better if not for a bunch of dropped balls from usually sure-handed receivers, specifically Todd Heap, who also contributed a fumble on the Ravens second play from scrimmage and was virtually invisible all day Sunday (can you say "over-rated?").

Ray Rice ran real well in Willis McGahee's absence, although his fumble caused us fans a little more indigestion late in the game. However, Cam Cameron ran a flawless gameplan and the Bengals never touched the ball again after that miscue as the Ravens ran out the last 7+ minutes of the game with a long drive based on a brutal ground game. The fumble was off a short toss, a play that I thought and yelled that it was too risky and unnecessary to call at that point in the game. Luckily, no harm, no foul in the end, although we were on our way to another score that would have put the game out of reach as the Ravens would have been up by at least three scores with less than eight minutes left in the game.

The offensive line made the Bengals front seven a non-issue all game, as Flacco had loads of time to look for an open receiver and he consistently found his secondary option and dump offs like a veteran. His foot speed will never confuse him with Kyle Boller or Troy Smith, but when was the last time they ran for a 38 yard touchdown!? Smith probably would have ran out of bounds and Boller would have thrown the ball away before crossing the line of scrimmage! The need for Willie Anderson was negated by the fine play of the o-line all day long.

The defense played a lot like they did in 2006, when they were the dominant force in the league. I understand that the Bengals helped us out a bunch, but hey, I'll take it every game if they give it to us. Palmer had little time to make decisions and we barely heard the words, "Ocho Cinco" all day! As I said in my previous post, the game's outcome would be decided by one big thing and that was the pass rush. Well, they made me look good, as the Ravens hounded and put a "Baltimore Beatdown" on Carson Palmer all day. This made the Ravens cornerbacks look like All Pros, although I'm sure it helped to have Ed Reed, Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle healthy and on the field together for the first time in 2008. McAlister had a great game, with an interception and fumble recovery, although it was good to see him not screw it up with a stupid lateral along the way. Don't forget that we also get cornerback Fabian Washington back from his one game suspension next week as well.

All in all, it was a great day all around. The weather was incredible, the fans were loud and proud, and the team started off the season on a winning note. Next week on the road in Houston will not be an easy game, as the Texans were blasted by the Steelers in Pittsburgh and will be angry and glad to be in front of their home crowd. However, this victory makes it a fun week, looking ahead and gives us hope for at least one more week.

Congrats to head coach John Harbaugh on his first NFL victory and kudos to his assistants for having a great gameplan!

Finally, the offseason and preseason are over and now the season begins. All across America, football fans will flock to stadiums to root their home teams on to victory. TV sets will be tuned to the game and nationwide, half the football fans will rejoice while the other half curses and frowns. As far as I'm concerned, all is well in the world (uh,...not quite).

Here in Baltimore, the Cincinnati Bengals invade M&T Bank Stadium for the first game of the NFL season. The Bengals have enjoyed pretty good success against the Ravens, winning six of the last seven, including three of the last four in Baltimore. The Ravens seem to play other teams tough at home, but for whatever reason, pull out the stinkers against the Bengals. It all seemed to start a few years ago, when Carson Palmer brought the Bengals back from a 17 point fourth quarter deficit to victory here. Since then, the streak mentioned above started and the Ravens hope to put a fork in it starting today.

The Ravens were the final team in the league to name a starting QB, but that wasn't their fault, as they had to wait to see who would be the Last Man Standing (by the way, I took the hated Steelers in my 'Last Man Standing' suicide pool!). Rookie Joe Flacco will start and deservedly so, as he was the only Ravens QB who lasted the entire preseason healthy, and actually outplayed the others along the way. Journeyman Todd Bouman will back him up, at least for now, or until Troy Smith regains the 15-20  pounds he lost in his bout with a rare tonsil infection and gets into football shape. Head coach John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron have enough confidence in Flacco to give him a gameplan that is relatively simple but not so basic to play into the hands of the drooling Bengals, who will throw the bus at him every chance they get. Expect the Bengals to blitz on obvious passing downs, and to put eight in the box on running plays to slow the rushing game down and force the Ravens to pass much more than they want to.

Injuries originally ruled the headlines in preseason but should not be an excuse at this point. The Ravens will be a lot closer to full strength than anyone would have guessed, with Ed Reed looking the most doubtful. Everyone else is close enough that they are planning to play, including Willis McGahee, Todd Heap, Chris McAlister, Samari Rolle and the entire offensive line, including recent addition, former Bengal and All Pro Willie Anderson.

If the Ravens take the field and stay healthy throughout the game, I fully expect the Ravens to win this game, even though they are a home underdog to the Bengals. There are a bunch of matchups that can be delved into, but to me there is only one that will make or break this game. Everything else is pretty consistent and given. The Bengals will not be able to run against the Ravens. The Ravens offense will not put a lot of points on the board. The Bengals defense is one of the worst in the league, so the Ravens should be able to move the ball, and they will put points on the board as long as they don't turn the ball over.

No, those issues ae not the key to this game. It all comes down to one basic thing: If the Ravens defense puts a good pass rush on Bengals QB Carson Palmer and not only sacks him, but hits him hard and often, they will win the game. Palmer will have to set up and release the ball quicker than he wants, and that will lead to interceptions that the Ravens offense needs to gain the short field and put even more points on the scoreboard. Conversely, if the Ravens pass rush fails to materialize, then Palmer will sit back there, waiting for 85 and TJ to get open and pick us apart all day for an easy Bengals victory.

Very simple, good pass rush, we win; poor pass rush, we lose.

I'm banking that with a healthy Trevor Pryce along with T-Sizzle and Bart Scott, we will rebound to start the season off on a high note and get to Palmer repeatedly, battering him and making that shield he will wear to protect his broken nose an unfortunate necessity and facesaving device. I will be there early in my Club Seats cheering and yelling like one of the 70,000 idiots for our Ravens, watching my predictions come true as the Ravens prevail in a close one.

Ravens-23  Bengals-17

Here we go with my picks and pans for the opening week of the 2008 NFL season:

NY Giants over Washington: I predict a 16-7 Giants victory (wait,...what...oh, nevermind)

Sunday's Games

Detroit over Atlanta: Matt Ryan won't be a star just yet. Hopefully, no one else will steal Rudi Johnson's bags, either!

Seattle over Buffalo: Seahawks too tough even over an underrated Bills team. Could end up being a Bills upset, so don't be surprised.

Jacksonville over Tennessee: Jags running game is excellent while Vince Young hasn't impressed me lately. Both defenses excel, so don't expect too many points.

NY Jets over Miami: Brett Favre will lead the Jets to victory while Dolphins will be better in 2008. Can they be any worse? Oh yeah, ask my Ravens!

New England over Kansas City: Puh-lease! Poor Tom Brady missed all preseason? Wahhh! Still a no-brainer.

New Orleans over Tampa Bay: Saints start off season with big division win at home while Bucs running game is undermanned and passing game unpredictable.

Philly over St. Louis: Eagles overwhelm Rams defense with Westbrook and McNabb. We'll see how healthy Bulger and Jackson are in this game.

Pittsburgh over Houston: Steelers just too tough at home with their defense putting a hurting on Matt Schaub. Texans defense pretty tough but offense will stall.

San Diego over Carolina: Chargers offense and defense will rule Panthers, who should improve over 2007 but not this week in San Diego.

San Francisco over Arizona: Cardinals are popular pick, but Frank Gore says otherwise. This game should be close and could go either way.

Dallas over Cleveland: With or without Jamal Lewis, Cowboys too tough on both sides of ball, while I'm not sold Browns can repeat last season's success.

Indy over Chicago: Bears offense so woeful it can't compete with Colts offense, even with an injured Peyton Manning missing all of preseason (see Tom Brady "Wahhh" comment above).

Baltimore over Cincinnati: Gee, you thought otherwise? More to follow tomorrow morning in detail on this game.

Monday Night

Green Bay over Minnesota: Aaron Rodgers is underrated and the Packers are too tough on both sides for the Vikes, who have a tough D and AP, but no QB.

Denver over Oakland: Despite the home crowd of Raider Nation and Jamarcus Russell now in charge, the Broncos are too polished for the Raiders. Should be a closer game than most expect, though.

...I'm pretty darn excited about seeing how Ravens rookie Joe Flacco handles his starting gig.

...if he doesn't pull a "Boller," he could actually lead this team to a victory Sunday.

...Ocho Cinco's new name was a perfectly good nickname and his legal change to that makes him look like an idiot to me.

...if we hit Bengals QB Carson Palmer early and hard, it will change the entire game.

...based on the above comment, the entire key to the game will be based on our pass rush.

...if we do indeed get constant pressure and sacks from our pass rush, we will win.

...at the same time, if we don't we get picked apart and badly beaten.

...staying in the division, the Steelers are the favorite to repeat in the AFC North.

...they don't look nearly as strong as they did last year, due to their offseason personnel losses, especially on the offensive line.

...I'm not convinced the Browns can repeat their incredible offensive performance from last year.

...the Browns defense still looks to be a real weak link, despite their offseason additions.

...the Bengals will be a good offensive team, even though they will have to rely more on their passing game this season.

...the Bengals defense will rank among the worst in the entire NFL.

...conversely, the Ravens offense will still remain around the bottom of the league.

...if their defense stays healthy, they should return to the top tier of defenses.

...the combination is worth at a least a .500 record, and who knows what else.

...obviously, I can't wait for Sunday afternoon!

It was just reported on ProFootballTalk.com that the Baltimore Ravens just signed recently released Cincinnati Bengal veteran offensive tackle Willie Anderson. Anderson was rumored to be in Baltimore for a physical and this confirms the rumors and supposedly seals the deal. ESPN's John Clayton is reporting the terms of the deal as $10.5 million over three years, which is probably the main reason he signed here rather than with a more likely playoff contender. Not a bad payday for a 13 year veteran.

This is a huge signing for the Ravens. Even though it appears both offensive tackles may be healthy and ready for Sunday, Anderson's presence should give the coaches and rookie Joe Flacco a bit more confidence. I'm not exactly positive but I thought Anderson was a right tackle and should he stay there with the Ravens, that would most likely move Adam Terry over to the left tackle position and putting the youngster Jared Gaither on the sidelines as a pretty decent insurance policy.

All in all, an impressive pickup for a team just not satisfied to play the youngsters and see how the season stacks up. The Ravens still believe they can compete in this division and I have seen crazier things happen, as their defense, if healthy, should keep them in most games this year.