SB Nation - Justin Bannan

Opponent History: Buffalo Bills at Kansas City Chiefs

sireric — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:00:22 -0000

Buffalo Bills (4-8) at Kansas City Chiefs (3-9)
Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 1:00 PM EST
Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

Two long-time rivals get re-acquainted this week when the Buffalo Bills travel to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Kansas City Chiefs. This will be the 41st all-time meeting between these two storied franchises, dating all the way back to November 6, 1960, when the Bills lost to the Dallas Texans 45-28 in their first-ever meeting. The Bills hold the all-time series lead 22-18, even with this being the sixth time in the last seven meetings that the Bills have had to travel to Kansas City. Recaps of the last five meetings between these two teams are after the jump.

November 19, 2000: Bills 21, Chiefs 17
Elvis Grbac and Tony Gonzalez beat up on the Bills' defense in this one. Grbac finished with 341 yards and two touchdowns, and those two touchdowns were both hauled in by Gonzalez, who had nine total catches for 76 yards and the two scores. The Bills countered with Rob Johnson. Yes, you read that correctly. Johnson only had 196 yards passing, but he did throw two touchdowns - one each to Jay Riemersma and Eric Moulds - and he was the leading rusher with 42 yards, including a score of his own. The rushing score came with under three minutes to play and gave the Bills the win. If you can believe this, Grbac was sacked more than Johnson, too. The Bills had five sacks - two each by Sam Rogers and Marcellus Wiley, and one by Keith Newman. Chris Mohr even hit Daryl Porter for a 44-yard gain on a fake punt.

November 17, 2002: Chiefs 17, Bills 16
Almost exactly two years to the day after their last meeting, the Chiefs again scored 17 points against the Bills; this time, however, their defense holds the Bills' offense to only 16 points in victory. In the battle of the running backs, Travis Henry got the better of Priest Holmes. Henry finished with 126 yards on 24 carries and added another 38 yards on four catches. It is a safe bet that he went out and fathered another child to celebrate his good day. Holmes finished with 104 yards on 31 carries and added 23 yards on three catches. Holmes, however, put the ball into the end zone, while Henry did not. Mike Hollis hit three field goals and Moulds brought in a nine-yard pass from Drew Bledsoe for a score, but it was a nine-yard scramble by the ever fleet-footed Trent Green that proved to be the decisive score. Chidi Ahanotu recorded the only Bills sack.

October 26, 2003: Chiefs 38, Bills 5
The Bills started the game by blocking a punt out of the end zone for a safety; it was pretty much all downhill from there. Three straight Kansas City touchdowns - two by Priest Holmes - would provide all the scoring Chiefs needed. After Rian Lindell hit a meaningless field goal, Gonzalez and that Holmes guy each scored to put the game away. Holmes was again out-rushed by Henry, 83 to 124 respectively, but again it was Holmes who put it in the end zone. Henry again fathered a child after the game as per his post-game ritual.

November 13, 2005: Bills 14, Chiefs 3
After Lawrence Tynes opened the scoring with a field goal for Kansas City, the Chiefs' offense went and hid. The Bills didn't do much better, and were in fact out-gained on the day 316-209. The Bills, however, benefited from two J.P. Losman-to-Lee Evans touchdown passes to get the win. The Bills sacked Green six times, with Aaron Schobel (2.0), Justin Bannan, Angelo Crowell, London Fletcher and Ryan Denney doing the honors.

November 23, 2008: Bills 54, Chiefs 31
Turnovers were the story of this game. The Chiefs had five turnovers and the Bills had none. Neither defense could stop the other offense, but Leodis McKelvin's two interceptions, one of which he took back 64 yards for a touchdown, helped put the Bills over the top. The Bills kicked the ball off eleven times. Think about that - when was the last time the Bills kicked the ball off ten or more times in a game? I also have to throw some love Trent Edwards' way. He had his best day as a pro in this game, completing 24 of 32 passes for 273 yards and two touchdown passes. He also scrambled for 38 yards and two more scores.

Ravens 53 Man Roster: My Picks

Bruce Raffel — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 11:00:24 -0000

Here are my picks for what the Ravens will end up doing later today when they announce the 53 man roster that they will be trimming down to when they release 22 guys to get down to the NFL max.

Offense

QB: Joe Flacco, Troy Smith, John Beck

WR: Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams, Kelley Washington, Justin Harper

RB: Ray Rice, Willis McGahee, LeRon McClain, Jalen Parmele

TE: Todd Heap, L.J. Smith, Davon Drew, Edgar Jones

OL: Matt Birk, Ben Grubbs, Jared Gaither, Chris Chester, Marshal Yanda, Michael Oher, David Hale, Oniel Cousins

Defense

DB: Ed Reed, Dawan Landry, Fabian Washington, Domonique Foxworth, Haruki Nakamura, Tom Zbikowski, Chris Carr, Lardarius Webb, Frank Walker, Derrick Martin

LB: Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs, Jarret Johnson, Tavares Gooden, Jameel McClain, Brendon Ayanbadejo, Paul Kruger, Prescott Burgess, Antwan Barnes

DL: Haloti Ngata, Trevor Pryce, Justin Bannan, Kelly Gregg, Dwan Edwards, Brandon McKinney

Specialists

P: Sam Koch

PK: Steven Hauschka

LS: Matt Katula

That’s only 52 guys and my final spot is a tough one to decide upon. I am looking at one of the following guys:

Yamon Figurs, Jason Cook, Jason Phillips, Joe Reitz, Kelly Talavou

Figurs still has the speed and with Webb looking a bit shaky on returns, Yamon gives us another option behind Chris Carr. Jason Cook gives us another fullback along with LeRon McClain. Jason Phillips was a 4^th round draft pick in 2009 and Ozzie doesn’t like to release draft picks. Perhaps Phillips will be IR’d to keep our hands on him (I expect the Ravens to IR undrafted rookie LB Dannell Ellerbe as well). Joe Reitz gives us more depth on the offensive line as well as Kelly Tavalou does the same for the defensive line.

I don’t want to take the easy way out by only selecting 52 players, so I will have to go out on a limb and make my selection and therefore the 53^rd spot on the Baltimore Ravens roster goes to Yamon Figurs.

The other players I was undecided about go onto our Practice Squad, where we can have up to eight players. Of course, I would expect the team to peruse other teams’ cuts to add a player or two to either our roster or Practice Squad, and vice versa for the rest of the league. However, in advance of that info, my Practice Squad would look like this:

Cook, Reitz, Talavou, Foster, Riley, Peerman, Smolko, Stallings

Additionally, as I stated earlier, the team would place both Dannell Ellerbe and Jason Phillips on Injured Reserve (IR), which would end their 2009 seasons, but ensure the team retains their rights while giving the players their full 2009 salaries, which do count against the team’s salary cap. However, being rookies, that should not be much of an issue.

Your thoughts and comments on those last few slots?

Ravens Recent Injuries Create Opportunities

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:25:01 -0000

The Baltimore Ravens are not unlike most any other NFL teams in that they've had their share of injuries in Training Camp as well as pre-season. Luckily, other than Adam Terry and Marcus Smith, both looked at being reserves anyway, the team has escaped the devastating loss that could drastically affect a team's season.

After the game Monday night against the New York Jets, a couple of other injuries came out to the public. Tight end L.J. Smith has a bum hamstring and DT Kelly Gregg injured his shoulder. There is every reason to believe that both guys will return by the time the regular season begins in a little over two weeks. We've already been informed that wide receiver Mark Clayton has returned to the practice field and will be ready for the home opener on September 13th against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Clayton's absence in practice and the exhibition games has opened the doors for Kelley Washington and Justin Harper, both who have had their share of success. Washington looks to be the guy willing to go over the middle and his enthusiastic approach to the game is contagious and refreshing. Harper, who looks to be the guy who will make the deep acrobatic catch one moment and then miss a pass that hits him in the numbers the next one, has made great strides this year compared to last year when he was ignored on the Practice Squad.

With Clayton's return, the depth chart just got a little deeper and it may be hard to find significant playing time for all of the receivers, which is a nice problem to have for this team, since it has been widely criticized for the lack of a star receiver. Derrick Mason is still the go-to guy for QB Joe Flacco and this team will remain a run-first offense no matter who is playing wideout here. However, if teams decide to stack the box to stop the run and force us to pass, then they will be quickly burned by the strong arm of our second year QB, who has the cunning Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron in his helmet radio not afraid to light it up if the opportunity arises.

L.J. Smith's injury leaves Todd Heap as the only other proven tight end on the roster. Rookie Davon Drew has had a great opportunity the entire camp and pre-season but just hasn't earned the right to get the chances he could have. The team also has converted linebacker Edgar Jones, but his pass catching abilities have been less than promising and Isaac Smolko, from Penn State on the roster. Smolko has actually looked good but was so far down the depth chart that he might have been forgotten up until now. Many radio callers are saying that the team should bring back former Raven Daniel Wilcox, who was a fan favorite but couldn't stay healthy last year. I say put both Drew and Smolko in there for a majority of the last two pre-season games after Heap gets his reps and let's see if they sink or swim.

Kelly Gregg's injury is no big deal to the defensive line, as he missed a huge portion of last season and we didn't miss a beat with Justin Bannan in his place. We now have a healthy Dwan Edwards as well as a plethora of others to man the d-line in so many combinations. Brandon McKinney and Kelly Talavou are just two names who contributed last year but are not exactly household names on this star-studded defense. However, both could probably start on many other NFL teams.

All in all, the injuries are just a part of the game. The team's mantra has always been "next man up," and will continue to be that way, as this team is deeper at most positions than it has ever seemed to be. While they are thin on the offensive line, their starters are as good as any other team and should be a major strength, providing they stay healthy. So for now, the team will reload and play out the final two exhibition games, giving some of the reserves the chance they need to earn a roster spot before the final cuts are announced over the next two weeks.

Ravens Training Camp: Tuesday AM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:13:32 -0000

No afternoon practice today, nor will there be any morning practice on Wednesday as well. However, the offense turned up the heat today and made some real nice progress in the air game, with QB Joe Flacco seeming real interested in developing a connection with veteran wide receiver Kelley Washington.

Flacco throws a bomb that traveled over 50 yards in the air before Washington ran under it and reached out before falling to the ground to haul in the deep pass amid cheers from another huge crown in attendance. Joe also hit Todd Heap over the middle for a 20 yard TD and even Troy Smith got in on the TD action with a 20 yarder down the sidelines to a wide open Justin Harper.

It was nice to see safety Ed Reed in full pads and without the red (no contact) jersey. Tavares Gooden and Paul Kruger were running with Reed, Ray Lewis and the first team defense. Gooden looks like he'll be taking Bart Scott's position and Kruger is filling in for the injured Terrell Suggs.

In 11-on-11 drills today, Ray Rice looks explosive as he burst up the middle, while DT Justin Bannan collapsed the 2nd team offensive line to meet the running back in the backfield for a loss.

One of the funnier plays of the morning had Flacco rolling out looking for someone to throw it to before winging it out of bounds, but into a kneeling Ray Lewis' arms on the sidelines, drawing laughter from the players as well as the fans!

After an incomplete pass to L.J. Smith, DT Kelly Gregg rags on him, saying "way to go, LJ, stop thinking about Kendra," referring to Smith's former teammate on the Philadelphia Eagles, Hank Baskett, who is married to the former Playboy Playmate and Hugh Hefner's old girlfriend, Kendra Wilkinson.

Gee, have you seen this before? Troy Smith's overthrown pass was picked off by centerfielder Ed Reed and taken down the left sideline for a TD!

Flacco throws a bullet over the middle complete to Kelley Washington in traffic - again! On a simple screen play, it's interesting how the two lead blockers both blocked Ray Lewis, leaving T-Gooden and Dawan Landry unblocked to tackle the running back.

Field goal time: Steven Hauschka hit consecutively from 47, 34 and 36 yards, but missed from 47 and hit the crossbar (no good) from 51 yards. Similarly, Graham Gano hit from 46, 38, 36, but also missed from 47 and 51 yards. No clear cut difference between the two today, although Gano's leg has more distance on his kicks.

Flacco hits L.J. Smith in the corner of the end zone over Dawan Landry for a TD, with Smith tiptoeing to stay in bounds and then leaping over the rope and into the crowd of fans. He then hit LJ again over the middle for another 15 yard TD pass. The Ravens next surprisingly lined up four wide with Derrick Mason, Kelley Washington and Justin Harper on one side and Ray Rice on the other, before Joe hits Kelley for a nice five yard TD pass over the middle - again!

Finally the defense gets some revenge as Domonique Foxworth jumps in front of a Flacco pass to Harper and then fakes a lateral to Ed Reed, prompting Reed to jokingly yell, "you should have given it to me!"

LeRon McClain is on the sidelines, first on his knees and then laying on his back, complaining of a hard shot to his stomach. Later, Willis McGahee, Ray Rice and Derrick Mason gather around and give him a raft of stuff, teasing him.

Defensive lineman William VanDeSteeg (who?) drops back into coverage against RB Matt Lawrence and picks off a Troy Smith pass. Later, during punt coverage drills, Head Coach John Harbaugh is giving pointers to the players, including Special Teams' ace Kelley Washington.

The heat is oppressive and the players are glad when practice ends, as they head over to the throng of fans to sign autographs before getting a well deserved afternoon off.

More Notes From Ravens Friday AM Practice

Bruce Raffel — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:11:47 -0000

Troy Smith was QB-ing with a trio of tall wideouts on either side of him, Ernie Wheelwright, Justin Harper and Eron Riley, all over 6'3" in height. Ray Rice made a nice one handed grab of a Troy Smith sideline pass. Joe Flacco had a long completion to recently signed wideout Biren Ealy while Demetrius Williams caught a 17 yarder from Flacco just afterwards. Willis McGahee ran up the middle into a group of defenders, and you could hear the thuds of full contact on the sidelines.

Mark Clayton pushed off CB Frank Walker to make a sideline grab and then was taken down on a hard tackle by Dawan Landry. The referees called Clayton for interference, as even the zebras need Training Camp.. A misdirection running play had RT Michael Oher knocking DT Justin Bannan to the ground.

Troy threw a bullet to WR Justin Harper, who stiff armed the helmet off of cornerback Chris Carr's head. Mark Clayton went up to grab a high pass from Flacco and was unceremoniously slammed to the ground by rookie CB Lardarius Webb.

I notice that while most of the other players trot on and off the field, Kelly Gregg sprints out every time like a kid who is just happy to be playing the game.

Webb's good defense got kudos on the sidelines from Ray. Troy Smith rolls out and throws a short crossing pass to rookie TE Davon Drew that goes off his fingertips on a pass that he should have caught.

Last part of practice is the kickoff drill, with Graham Gano booming shots into the end zone.

My new "buudy," Haruki Nakamura came off the field in front of me, sees me and give me the cool nod of acknowledgement. Justin Harper fist-bumped me after practice on his way tot he locker room. There's former Baltimore Colt great Lenny Moore, talking football technique on the side.

As the players head to either the locker room or do to interviews, I see one little girl up front against the fence. She can't be much older than six, wearing a pink #9 Steve McNair jersey. She has casts on both arms due to two broken wrists. Hopefully, she'll get to be first in line and receive whatever autographs she wants.

Lots of players head over to sign autographs for the fans, which was impressive. See my FanPost for my one-on-ones that I had.

Ravens Training Camp: Wednesday PM Edition

Bruce Raffel — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:34:57 -0000

The afternoon session in Westminster was a bit more subdued than the morning one. As the day moved towards the end, some of the veterans began to trickle in to say hello to the coaches and other players. We saw LB Jarret Johnson, safeties Ed Reed and Haruki Nakamura, WR Marcus Smith and DT Justin Bannan on the field in shorts. Veteran CB Samari Rolle made an appearance in uniform, but just seemed to be stretching and not participating.

I overheard one of the defensive line coaches laughing, saying he heard that DT Haloti Ngata has brought his own bed with him to the team hotel!

Believe it or not, OL teammates Robby Felix and Bryan Mattison were STILL going at it, one-on-one!

The offense was practicing a wide variety of sets, including multiple wideout and triple option plays with different players at every position.

In 7-on-7 drills, the offense had a good series of plays. QB John Beck hit newcomer WR Jayson Foster, Troy Smith hit Justin Harper and Joe Flacco completed a good one to Demetrius Williams, who outjumped a shorter Lardarius Webb. Beck then hit Mark Clayton with Fabian Washington hanging all over him. Another fingertip grab by Clayton, once again over Washington, would have been a catch-and-run 50 yard TD in a game situation.

In field goal drills, rookie Graham Gano drilled a bunch with different holders, including successfully with Joe Flacco holding. Fortunately, CB Chris Carr will not be a holder, as when he did put one down for Gano, Graham drilled his offensive linemen in the back, causing them to yell, "Carr, get out of here!"

As I said earlier in this piece, DT Justin Bannan was there in shorts and a sleeveless top, showing off his incredibly huge "guns" which are apparently notorious amongst the players.

CB Derrick Martin, due partly to the absence of enough safeties (although it is runored that due to CB depth, he is moving to the safety position), played with confidence and was very talkative, directing the rookies playing alongside him on defense.

Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb broke up consecutive passes with nice defensive moves.

WR Isaiah Williams (Maryland Terrapins) was cut after yesterday's session to make room on the roster for newly signed WR/KR Jayson Foster.

Photos after the "Jump."

What else do Ravens need before NFL Draft?

Rexx — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 18:13:15 -0000

The Ravens made a big splash in free agency, with two signings in key positions by signing CB Domonique Foxworth and center Matt Birk. Both signings are to replace starters who either left via free agency themselves or were released by the team. Center Jason Brown signed with the St. Louis Rams for way too much money and the Ravens released veteran CB Chris McAlister for a bevy of reasons, one reportedly being his inability to get on board with new head coach John Harbaugh.

Now that most of the big free agent names are off the board, teams will be looking at the rest of the players still looking for 2009 teams, and perhaps some bargains salary-wise. Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome says the team is not finished signing players and wants to fill other needs before the NFL Draft so that when they make the 26th pick in April, they will be able to take the best available player, not specifically to fill an open need.

So what else are they looking for? Placekicker Matt Stover has been told by the team that they will not be re-signing him and there really isn't another free agent kicker still on the market that interests the Ravens. John Carney is still available but is actually even older than Stover, although he does seem to have a stronger leg. Stover's longest FG last season was 47 yards while Carney hit one from 51 yards. For the season, Stover was 27 of 33 while Carney was 35 of 38. However, Carney was six of eight from beyond the 40 yard line while Stover was a poor five of ten from the same distance. Most likely, the Ravens will continue to look at kickoff specialist Steven Hauschka and give him some competition through the draft or afterwards.

By filling the CB and center positions through free agency, the Ravens are pretty much set with starters along the offensive line and CB. However, depth will always continue to be a need. The status of veteran CB Samari Rolle is still up in the air and the resolution of this will determine whether or not the Ravens will continue to have a void there. Corey Ivy is rumored to be signing with his old boss Rex Ryan and reunite with former Ravens Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard on the NY Jets. If Rolle is given his requested release, the Ravens will have a void in the nickel back position. The Ravens are reportedly talking with former Denver Borncos Karl Paymah, but he was a reserve with them so I can't see him being anything other than that with the Ravens. There are still a bunch of veteran CB's out there, most notably former Steelers Bryant McFadden, although his price tag will be way higher than what Baltimore is interested in paying. However, the name that interests me is former Carolina Panther, Chicago Bear and St. Louis Ram, Ricky Manning, Jr. He is a six year veteran who only two years ago have five interceptions as part of the Bears 2006 team that lost in the Super Bowl to the Indianapolis Colts. However, the Ravens may just want to look at a CB in the draft come late April.

Despite the loss of LB Bart Scott, the Raven continue to be deep in that position and have a variety of options on their current roster that could step in and fill that void. Defensive line is pretty set, although the future status of DT Kelly Gregg has been rumored to be shaky, although reserve Justin Bannan stepped in and played great in his absence and will continue to do so if needed.

The Ravens have not re-signed FB Lorenzo Neal, as their thought process appears to be that if they can get a blocking TE in there, they can go with more one back sets without needing a FB in front of the RB. Personally I'd like to see Neal back there again, as our "heavy" package, with an additional tackle lined up along with the 255 pound Neal blocking for the 260 pound Le'Ron McClain poses huge matchup problems for most every team we faced last year.

Either way, the Ravens will be in the market for another TE, be it through free agency or most likely the draft. Depending on who is still on the board in the first round, the Ravens may actually pick a TE depending on who is available. Even if they don't select one with their first round pick, expect the team to select one on the first day of the draft. Other than the obvious top TE's in the draft (Brandon Pettigrew), I also like the big kid out of Maryland (Dan Gronkowski), who looks to be a good blocker, something that Todd Heap had problems with when counted on.

That leaves the wide receiver position, where there is the obvious need for someone to stretch the field. There really is nothing that fits that need still available in free agency, so it appears that this position is the biggest need on their draft board. At the same time, there are guys still unsigned that could definitely compete for the slot position, such as former San Diego Charger, Malcolm Floyd (6'5", 225 pounds) and the former Dallas Cowboy, Miles Austin (6'3", 216 pounds), who also has serious speed. However, the wideout position is also one of the deepest in this year's draft so don't be surprised if the Ravens wait until the second round to select one.

So chime in and let me know your thoughts on what else the Ravens should do prior to the draft to add depth to this team.