Ask Baltimore Beatdown: Ravens Blogger

He is a small back, but put on another 10 pounds of muscle this off season and actually was an “between the tacdkles” guy at Rutgers. He will be the feature back of the three and will indeed be a three down back. He will lose goal line carries to LeRon McClain and might lose some more to Willis McGahee when we are wearing down defenses in the fourth quarter.

However, he is a solid kid with a bright future running and receiving, and is tough to bring down on initial contact.

Rice is the starter.

but McGahee will get his share of carries. No one-back offense here in Baltimore, it’s stilla three-headed monster.

As far as the game Thursday, starters will be in for one or perhaps two series, but that’s it. We still need to fill a couple of roster spots and need to see what those guys can do or not. I expect pretty much the same from your Falcons.

list that as our biggest weakness. However, we are without a doubt a run-first offense and the receiving game is just a function of Flacco finding the open receiver. Too many teams will stack the box against us and Joe will find the open receiver in one-on-one coverage. As Coach Harbaugh said," whatever receiver JOe is throwing to will be happy."

1. The defensive schemes are more dependent on Ray Lewis than any of the Ravens D-Doordinators over the years (Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan, Rex Ryan). None of those guys have or will go on to head coaching success. As long as Ray, Ed Reed and others are there, we will be a smash mouth, talkative, demonstative defense and will back it up with success.
2. Bart Scott’s loss will be minlmal at best. Over the years, we’ve lost that last great Ravens LB such as Jamie Sharper, Edgerton Hartwell (you know him, ha!), Adalius Thomas, all who have gone on to mediocrity when they left the sahdow of Ray Lewis. The next Ravens linebacker you wil hear about is Tavares Gooden out of Ray’s U of Miami, who missed most of last year due to injury. Foxworht fits in great here, between the physical front seven and hard hitting safeties and paired with Fabian Washington might give us two of the faster corners in the league.
3. Landry is 100% and has actually lost weight and built muscle. See some earlier Training Camp posts on BaltimoreBeatdown.com to see how he looks like a safety in a linebacker’s body. He is ripped and will be a thumper back there.
Thanks for the good questions!

that the biggest difference we Ravens fans preach about between Flacco and Ryan is that Matt was put into the gameplan to start for Atlanta from the get-go. Flacco was supposed to be 3rd string but injury and illness to both Kyle Boller and Troy Smith thrust Flacco into starting, but not until the 3rd pre-season game. Therefore, he had significantly less time to prepare to be the starter compared to Ryan.

Now he’s had the entire 2008 season (and post season) plus the entire off season and Training Camp to get ready for his sophomore year. His o-line will be better and he will make leaps and bounds of progress in my opinion.

and the way Marshall handled this situation, there’s no way I want that idiot on my team. Besides, we are and will be a run-first offense and do not need to spend so much money on a WR that would want a huge contract taking up way too much cap space. No thanks, I’ll pass on him, but I will take Anquan Boldin if you insist!