Ravens Reasons To Celebrate

Other than the fact they escaped with a win, the Baltimore Ravens still have reasons to celebrate despite the "ugliness" of their 9-6 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Beyond the simple fact that a win is still a win regardless of the score, there were definitely positive points to be gleaned from the game.

Rookie placekicker Justin Tucker continued to prove the team was correct in selecting him over veteran Billy Cundiff as the team's kicker. Tucker was good on all three of his attempts yesterday, making him 11 for 12 this season while Cundiff is wondering if he will even have a job in the NFL by this weekend, as he is only 7 of 12 this season.

Outside linebacker Paul Kruger easily had his best game as a starter, finishing with five tackles, but setting the edge much better than in previous games. He was constantly disrupting the outside running game, especially in the second half, making tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

There had been murmurs that perhaps Kruger would be best utilized as a situational pass rusher, but now seems to have solidified his spot in the starting lineup. Same goes for rookie Courtney Upshaw, who was seen running parallel to the line of scrimmage from the weak side to catch the ball carrier. For a big guy, he shows great agility and appears to be grasping the confusing schemes of the Ravens playbook.

There's no question that there needs to be improvement in many areas from what was seen in the game, but there was also a lot of good things that came out of what still was a victory and perhaps as recently as last season, might have ended in a loss.