I know this seems random among all the discussion of the coaching search, but I was looking for some feedback for the 5 biggest wins for football during Friedgen's tenure. 

So far my list is:

• Peach Bowl vs. tennessee
• First win over FSU
• Gator Bowl win over WVU
• Win over NCST to clinch ACC title
• 2nd FSU win.

i know there was a picture of the concepts post before, here it is modeled in action, thanks to NCAA Football '12.

Continue reading this post »

As the title states, who is coming to fanfest? It's on Saturday, from 11 am to 6 pm, but I'm pretty sure the state of the Orioles address starts at 10 am for season ticket holders. Last year I met Dave and Stacey at fanfest, and I figure all the CC'ers attending could meet up at one time or another during FanFest, so who will be coming, and when will you be there?

Also, because I need more words, I'll just quote directly from the O's site.

The Birdland offseason tradition continues as 2011 Orioles FanFest presented by the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau returns to the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday, Jan. 29.

Enjoy a day-long celebration of Orioles Baseball packed with current and former player appearances, interactive Q&A sessions, youth clinics, memorabilia exhibits and interactive games.

If there's not a strike, here's what our 2011 schedule will look like
Home:

Bengals

Steelers

Browns

Texans

Indy

Jets

Niners (Harbaugh Bowl)

Seahawks

Road:

Steelers

Browns

Bengals

Cardinals

Rams

Jaguars

Titans

Chargers

One of the Ravens-Steelers game is just about a guarantee to be primetime, Chargers, Jets and Colts are also strong candidates for a SNF/MNF game.  The Harbaugh bowl also seems very likely to be a primetime game (do they have home footage like they do for the Mannings? LOL) I'm not making predictions yet, just looking over the schedule for next year to see who we'll be facing. 

Okay Testudo Times, the hire is official, Randy Edsall is the new coach at Maryland. And I want to take the pulse of testudo times on the hire. I know I'm disappointed and almost pissed off by the move. I can understand the baggage on Leach, but what's wrong with Malzahn? It was a weak move by Anderson, if you want to fannies in the seats and fannies in the suites, you don't make a boring, conservative hire like that.  But that is just my opinion on the matter, I want to sample many opinions, so what better then a poll to get those opinions. Below is a poll with options 1-10, with one being worst hire ever, and 10 being best hire ever. What say ye Testudo Times, what say ye?

I'm going to take the main concerns that I've seen so far and offer a rebuttal to each.

• He locked Adam James in a shack.  How do we know what was reported is 100% true? If you don't think that who his dad is played a role in the whole situation, please remove your head from the sand. I feel pretty confident in saying that ESPN had bias in presenting the facts because of Craig James. Also, IIRC, it was an isolated incident. Graham Harell and Crabtree have both spoken highly of him. Adam James wasn't getting much play, and saw an opportunity to get back at Leach. I'm not saying he's innocent, I'm saying look at the facts objectively.
• Fridge did Fine. If you consider mediocrity to be fine, so be it. But I don't. When was the last time Maryland won a big game that could lead us to something bigger? 2010 FSU, loss. 2008 FSU, loss. 2006 Wake Forest loss. if we won any of those games, we could've won the Atlantic, and possibly have gone to BCS game. In the past 5 years, Fridge didn't once win the game that got us to the next level. He could give us nice little 7-5 and 8-4 season, but we could never reach the next level after those first 3 years.
• He's a bad recruiter. If that's so, how come he never had a losing season at TTU? The scheme he has built doesn't require great 5 star athletes, you just need average or above average recruits for this great air raid offense to work. That's one thing about why is scheme works, great recruits are not required. 

There you have it. 

Hello the Falcoholic, SBN blog of Atlanta Falcons, of the NFC South. I'll start of by saying the name of the blog is rather clever. In case you hadn't heard, The Ravens and the Falcons will be playing each other on Thursday Night to open up the NFL Network's slate of Thursday/Saturday games. It will be the first time the two quarterbacks of '08 draft will play each other in the regular season. So, whatchu wanna know? Ask any questions you have, and there will be answers.

Hello and salutations those of The Phinsider, the SBN blog for the Miami Dolphins, I come form Baltimore Beatdown, SBN's Ravens blog. Myself, as well as others, will answer questions you have about the Ravens, in an anticipation for the game in Baltimore on Sunday. 

A  FAQ that I'll get out of the way right now:

What have your rookies done?

Sergio Kindle hasn't played due to falling down the stairs and suffering head trauama, Terrance Cody comes in for relief when Kelly Gregg needs a breather, but if you've watched him in college, you know he's a OL-inhaling monster, he's very raw right now. Ed Dickson has showed up on a few plays, but hasn't made much, if any, of an impact. I don't think Dennis Pitta has come on the field, and our later draft picks haven't gotten on the field either.  

As the title says, I'm a Maryland, and a huge one at that, many relatives are UMD alumni but I love my ducks, and I figure I'd share why that is with SBNation blog for Oregon:

• Uniforms: They're awesome, the amount of combinations is amazing, I love think of all the different combinations, deciding which ones are my favorites, and what combinations I want to see. Also, wings on a jersey is bad-ass.
• The "I Love my Ducks" music video: It's a catchy tune, and really creative. The song has been stuck in my head for weeks, and I'm not bothered by it at all. The video is really cool, and the creativity in the lyrics, managing to incorporate a large portion of the starters on the team, is impressive. After seeing it for the first time, I thought to my self "Another reason why Oregon is awesome."
• Oregon in NCAA Football 11: They're so much fun to play with in the game, the Thomas-LMJ speed option is unstoppable, they have my favorite playbook in the game, they're perfect for a video game.
•  The Offense: I love the spread, it's so fast paced, so exciting, it's just fun to watch, I'd watch any game that has a good spread offense, the read option is great play and Oregon runs a great spread, it's just a piece of art, . The goofy signs are just icing on the cake. 

Hello people of Buffalo Rumblings. It is a tradition among those on SBN NFL blogs to post a FanPost on the other team's site that they are playing that week. This is exactly what I am doing, so if you have anything to ask about the Baltimore Ravens, please post here, and myself and Mr MaLoR, and hopefully some other guys on Baltimore Beatdown to answer your questions. So go ahead - what do you want to know?

It's Flacco's fault the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

It's Flacco's fault we went into Vietnam.

It's Flacco's fault JFK was shot.

It's Flacco's fault the Cold War started.

It's Flacco's fault the Berlin Wall went up.

It's Flacco's fault the USA had the Great Depression.

Is Flacco to blame for the lose? Yes, but Cameron, Billy Cundiff, the defense and Le'Ron McClain were also to blame for the loss as much if not more.

discuss.

Seattle at Chicago	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  |	Soldier Field
Miami at Green Bay	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Lambeau Field
San Diego at St. Louis	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Edward Jones Dome
Baltimore at New England	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Gillette Stadium
New Orleans at Tampa Bay	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  |	Raymond James Stadium
Detroit at NY Giants	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  |	New Meadowlands Stadium
Atlanta at Philadelphia	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  |	Lincoln Financial Field
Cleveland at Pittsburgh	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Heinz Field
Kansas City at Houston	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Reliant Stadium
Oakland at San Francisco	4:05 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Candlestick Park
NY Jets at Denver	4:05 PM	CBS	Tickets  |	Invesco Field at Mile High
Dallas at Minnesota	4:15 PM	FOX	Tickets  |	Metrodome
Indianapolis at Washington	8:20 PM	NBC	Tickets  |	FedEx Field
MON, OCT 18	TIME (ET)	TV	RESOURCES	LOCATION
Tennessee at Jacksonville	8:30 PM		Tickets  |	EverBank Field

Maryland has a better record on the season then these traditional college football powers:

• Miami 
• Penn State
• Texas
• Southern Cal
• Florida

Hello, Pats Pulpit. We are a very knowledgeable bunch of bloggers, and we will gladly answer any questions you have about the 4-1 Baltimore Ravens.  The Ravens met the Pats twice last year, once in a regular season, a close loss for the Ravens and then in the wild card round of the playoffs, were the Ravens ran all over the Pats. So fire it at us, myself and plenty of other people on the blog will gladly answer your questions. 

Oh, and I agree with Moss, Brady does look like a girl...;)

If you have any questions on the 3-1 Baltimore Ravens please post here. Me, and plenty of people on Baltimore Beatdown will answer questions about the Ravens that you guys at Mile High report would like to ask. On another note I think you guys have one of the best blogs and communities on SBN NFL if not all of the SBN. So go ahead, gives us questions and we will answer then for you. 

SUN, OCT 3	TIME (ET)	TV	RESOURCES	LOCATION
San Francisco at Atlanta	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Georgia Dome
Cincinnati at Cleveland	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	Cleveland Browns Stadium
NY Jets at Buffalo	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	Ralph Wilson Stadium
Seattle at St. Louis	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Edward Jones Dome
Denver at Tennessee	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	LP Field
Detroit at Green Bay	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Lambeau Field
Baltimore at Pittsburgh	1:00 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	Heinz Field
Carolina at New Orleans	1:00 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Superdome
Indianapolis at Jacksonville	4:05 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	EverBank Field
Houston at Oakland	4:05 PM	CBS	Tickets  | Travel	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Washington at Philadelphia	4:15 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Lincoln Financial Field
Arizona at San Diego	4:15 PM	FOX	Tickets  | Travel	Qualcomm Stadium
Chicago at NY Giants	8:20 PM	NBC	Tickets  | Travel	New Meadowlands Stadium
MON, OCT 4	TIME (ET)	TV	RESOURCES	LOCATION
New England at Miami	8:30 PM		Tickets  | Travel	Sun Life Stadium

Continue reading this post »

It's Week 3. The Ravens will be playing the Browns, which is a likely W and the Redskins are playing the Rams, also, likely, a W. There's the Battle of Texas with the Cowboys going to Houston and playing The Texans. The Saints are playing the Falcons. The primetime games are the Revis-less Jets vs. the Phins and DA Bears will be hosting the Packers. So let this be the thread for real or fantasy football talk for this week of NFL football.

 Full slate of games below.

Tennessee at NY Giants	1:00 PM	CBS		New Meadowlands Stadium
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay	1:00 PM	CBS		Raymond James Stadium
Cincinnati at Carolina	1:00 PM	CBS		Bank of America Stadium
Cleveland at Baltimore	1:00 PM	CBS		M&T Bank Stadium
Dallas at Houston	1:00 PM	FOX		Reliant Stadium
San Francisco at Kansas City	1:00 PM	FOX		Arrowhead Stadium
Detroit at Minnesota	1:00 PM	FOX		Metrodome
Buffalo at New England	1:00 PM	CBS		Gillette Stadium
Atlanta at New Orleans	1:00 PM	FOX		Superdome
Washington at St. Louis	4:05 PM	FOX		Edward Jones Dome
Philadelphia at Jacksonville	4:05 PM	FOX		EverBank Field
Oakland at Arizona	4:15 PM	CBS		U of Phoenix Stadium
San Diego at Seattle	4:15 PM	CBS		Qwest Field
Indianapolis at Denver	4:15 PM	CBS		Invesco Field at Mile High
NY Jets at Miami	8:20 PM	NBC		Sun Life Stadium
MON, SEP 27	TIME (ET)	TV		LOCATION
Green Bay at Chicago	8:30 PM

This will probably happen tonight.

Opening game for the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football. I like you guys more then the Baltimore Beatdown guys for the large part, plus there's plenty of Ravens fans on this blog. If the Redskins can gave a thread, so can the Baltimore Ravens. My pick, 14-10 Ravens, with Sanchez throwing a pick late in the game killing the Jets, because he's never done that before.  :P

Going into the game, the big story line was CC Sabathia, he needed to beat the O's to get this 20th win, should've been pretty easy seeing as though he's put up insane number in NYS and vs. the O's.

CC had bad first inning, something that he is known to do. B-rob got on, moved up to second on a wild pitch and Felix drew a walk. Markickass then singled to left to load the bases with no one out. Wiggy drop a ball into the outfield. Then Adam Jones hit one into left field and scored Pie and Markakis. So just like that it was 3-0, O's. The big inning ended as the bottom third of the lineup came up and all were retired. Arrieta had an ok first inning, allowing a few hits but then getting a double play. CC and Jake had strong innings, both only facing three batters.

The O's came back with fury in the third. Wiggy got a double on a poor play by Curtis Granderson, one of several during the game. After an AJ flyout, Nolan Reimold MASHED one into the second deck, 5-1. Arrieta continued to look dominant with a 1-2-3 inning. The 4th was uneventful, two 1-2-3 innings.  CC seemed to regian his control and set the down the O's batters in order again. Lance Berkman got a single to start the bottom of the 5th, Adam Jones then took a horrible route on a Jorge Posada fly ball and it dropped for a double. Jake Arrieta got out of the jam, getting the next three Yankee batters out. CC continued to show why he was a Cy Young candidate with yet another quick inning. Arrieta allowed a hit to Jeter with Jeter getting a hit only he could get. Arrieta struck out Tex, and got a fly out and a ground out.

Josh Bell reached to start the 7th on a god-awful play Granderson in right field. B-Rob singled to have runners on the corners with no outs. Felix struck out, but Nick singled to knock in the Nugget, 6-2, O's. Kerry Wood came in and got both Wiggy and AJ to strike out on foul tips. Adam Jones allowed another double that a Gold Glover should catch. Posada then got the walk. Buck had seen enough of Jake, and Phat Albers came in. There was some confusion on a popup between Andino and Jones and the ball fell in, but they still got the force at 2nd, thanks to smart play to cover second by B-rob. A*Roid came in to pinch hit, and hit a liner at Andino, he knocked it down andthrew it to secondfor the force. Gardner ground to B-Rob and he threw to Wiggy for the force. Nothing happened in 8th except for a bunch of outs. The O's did nothing in 9th and Hendo came in to get some work at got a 1-2-3 inning to end it. The O's have won a series vs. the Yankees for the first time all year! Huzzah!

Sponsored by Xfinity: Inside the Red Zone 

Baltimore Ravens not ruling Sergio Kindle out for 2010 season

Baltimore Ravens rookie linebacker Sergio Kindle, who fractured his skull in a fall down a flight of stairs in July, is "ahead of schedule" and hasn't been ruled out for the 2010 season, coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday.

From ESPN

 I would pretty nice if we could get our second round draft pick linebacker, from Texas out on the field for the 2010 season for the Ravens.

Since Buck Showalter has taken over the Orioles, they have been playing fantastic baseball, winning three straight series, going 8-1 as of August 12th. And I have and as well as probably almost everyone else who follows the O's closely is wondering how much of this is a result of Buck taking over the team and how much is other factors like really good luck and things of that variety. So I'm curious Camden Chat, how much of sudden improvement in play be attributed to our new manager, Buck Showalter on a scale of 1 to ten, 1 being "Juan Samuel/Dave Trembley could have done this" and 10 being "This 100% Buck, it's not luck or anything like that it's solely Buck leading us to these victories!" I would say a 7, I feel Buck definitely has improved the players, but  not to the point where he could make Freddie Bynum (interesting example, I know) an All-Star,  but there's a clear correlation between him taking over and our improvement.  

Madden NFL 11 dropped today and the Ravens are one of the best teams in the game. I'm curious what the guys on here  think about the team when they get their hands on the game. I'll be getting it soon, it's a back-to-school to present that a relative in Florida is mailing to me. 

A few questions I have in particular are

I've seen Ray Rice's ratings, but is Ray Rice as great in the game as he is in real ife?

Again, I've seen the ratings, but does Q play as good in the game as you expect him to in real ife?

Is there a clear difference between how good Flacco was in '10 vs. '11.

it is the semi finals, the finals and the third place game.

The first matchup in the FIFA World Cup semifinals is Uruguay vs. the Netherlands. The Netherlands got here by rolling through their group and Slovakia in the round of 16. They then a quarterfinals matchup with the #1 team in soccer, Brazil. After trailing 1-0, with the help of a Brazilian red card, the Netherlands came back and won the game 2-1. Uruguay got to the knockout stage by capitalizing on France's epic choke, and surprised most people and escaped the group. They then beat South Korea 2-1 in a rainy game, they met Ghaha, where it looked they'd lost, when Ghana had a last second PK, but a clutch save was made. It went to PK's, and then Uruguay won, capitalizing on  multiple Ghaha mistakes.

The later matchup willl most likely be the more competitive of the two semis, and it pits Espana and Deutschland.  Both suffered a surprising loss in the group stage, Germany to Serbia, Spain to Switzerland. But since each of those losses, neither has lost a game. Spain beat Portugal in a matchup you'd expect later on the tournament, followed by a 1-0 W against Paraguay. Germany played England, and routed them 4-1, and then played Messi and Argentina, and destroyed them 4-0.  

Both these games look to be very good, and the winners will go to the World Cup finals.

THE FINALS

It was brought up on the broadcast that some people around the Blogo'sphere where suggesting Miguel Tejada going back to Shortstop.

If this move were to take place when B-Rob is off the DL, as well as when Pie gets off it, it'd give the offense an additional spark, by virtually eliminating the offensive black hole that is Cesar Izturis. And if Nolan Reimold can fix his hitting problems (which I expect him to do) and get back in Baltimore, and if he the front office decides he's best suited for first base, there wouldn't be a "black hole" in the lineup.

Who'll take third you might ask. That would be Ty Wigginton. He's mediocre fielding won't hurt the O's as much at 3B as it would at 2B, considering the several errors Wiggy has made. Also, the corner infield positions are Wiggy's primary positions.

With no regard to batting order, if this were to be done, this what the every day lineup would look like

• Wieters (C)
• Wigginton (3B)
• Reimold (1B)
• Roberts (2B)
• Tejada (SS)
• Scott (DH)
• Pie (LF)
• Jones (CF)
• Markakis (RF)

Find me a weak hitter in that bunch. 

This could be just what the Orioles need to have a good offense, and start winning more games.

That was just a poor showing by nearly everyone. We were shut out by their #5 starter, lemme say that again, we were shut out by a #5 starter. I thought this team had good offense. Apparently not.

David Hernandez was solid, and for a 5 starter, it was pretty strong performance, 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R.  Alas, it wasn't enough for the O's. It's encouraging though, perhaps DH can be a good pitcher for us, and keep himself in the rotation. Jason Berken looks like he could actually be useful member of 'pen, allowing a run in 2 2/3, he also allowed a pair of hits.

The offense was just trash. One inning Dana Eveland only had to throw 4 pitches. That's just bad. The whole team seemed to have absolutely no plate discipline. Each one of the residents of 2110 Eutaw Street managed to GIDP and were a combined 0-6, although Nicky did draw 2 walks. A positive note is that Julio Lugo got his first as an Oriole, and got a second one as well. Yet another interesting note is Garett Atkins has a 5-game hitting streak going for himself, so guys, keep insulting him, because I think he hears it! But overall, the offense looked like a 7-8-9 part of lineup repeating over and over. It looked very pathetic at times and no where near what the offense is really capable of doing in terms of hitting.

Ty Wiggington did flash quite a bit leather playing at first base, making several good fielding plays, speaking of fielding,  AJ was presented with his Gold Glove tonight, and there was a nice ceremony pre-game.

Tomorrow it'll be Romero vs. Millwood at 1:05, and I'll be attending.