Ravens Training Camp: Monday Edition

The Baltimore Ravens were back on the practice field at their Owings Mills Under Armour Performance Center after a day off since their M&T Bank Stadium practice in front of over 20,000 fans. It was nice to see WR Tandon Doss on the field for a change, as well as DT Haloti Ngata and OT Bryant McKinnie. Unfortunately, among the noticeable no-shows continue to be rookie OLB Courtney Upshaw, as well as CB Jimmy Smith and RB Anthony Allen.

In 11-on-11 drills, QB Joe Flacco lofted a sweet soft-touch pass to TE Ed Dickson behind a beaten Paul Kruger. Kruger has seemed to have locked up a starting spot and is solid moving forward and rushing the passer. However, whenever he back-peddles into pass coverage, he better have over-the-top help from a safety as he regularly is left in the receiver's wake.

A long Flacco-to-Torrey Smith completion draws cheers from the lucky fans in attendance. A later Flacco-to-Smith pass falls just beyond Torrey's outstretched arms, causing Joe to fall to the ground and roll onto his back in frustration of knowing he just missed his wide-open receiver.

(More news on Monday's Ravens Training Camp after the 'Jump')

Safety Bernard Pollard is rocking to the loud music being played to simulate playing in front of hostile enemy crowds. It's interesting to see him mouthing the words to Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train,' then continuing to rock to other hard rock songs including Led Zeppelin and then Earth, Wind & Fire.

It was heartening to see RB Ray Rice yell over to the family of a young, disabled boy whose family brought him down to the edge of the field where Rice shook his hand and played with him a bit. No question they all will remember that and obviously were huge fans of Ray's as evidenced by the entire family wearing #27 jerseys.

Towards the end of practice a bad snap resulted in a whistle and when the crowd of players broke up, DT Terrence Cody was lying motionless on the ground. A quiet hush came over the field until Cody jumped up, presented the recovered fumble and trotted off the field, obviously uninjured, with everyone letting out a huge sigh of relief.

As practice ended and the players headed towards the locker room, the age-old tradition of rookies carrying the should pads of the veterans was observed, as rookie LB Nigel Carr carried the pads of senior linebackers Ray Lewis and Brendon Ayanbadejo.