How's it going guys? Mr MaLoR (or Brian if you like) here from Baltimore Beatdown, the Ravens blog. Critical match-up this week between the Ravens and Lions in our great city of Baltimore. The Ravens have their playoff hopes on the line with this next game, and even though you guys are out of the playoff picture, I am sure it would be a great confidence boost for your entire team and new head coach to get a win over a team that has had much success this decade.

As most of us know by know, your franchise Quarterback, Matthew Stafford, is out for this game and good old Daunte Culpepper will get the start. I have always had a great deal of respect for Culpepper and the way he has played the game since his days in Minnesota. Tough football player for sure and I like your offense with him in there. 

Even though the record might not show it, you guys have some serious talent on your team, with some very underrated players. I have always thought that LB Ernie Sims is one of the best in the league, but because of the Lions' lack of success lately, he has been overlooked by many. Your team has promising young talent in guys like Calvin Johnson, Kevin Smith and one player I really like, is the Safety Delmas.

I am sure the lead writer for Baltimore Beatdown, Bruce, would have started one of these very soon, but the weekend is right around the corner and it is time to move on from our losses last week and focus on Sunday. So feel free to ask any questions you have and please do the same over at our blog. Good luck and stay healthy.

- Brian

From www.NFL.com

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions plan to rest rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford's banged-up, non-throwing shoulder for at least one game.

They don't expect to shut him down for the rest of the season.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz said Wednesday that Daunte Culpepper will start this weekend against the Baltimore Ravens and Stafford likely will be the No. 3 quarterback.

Stafford aggravated his left shoulder during last Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

"If he hadn't taken that hit in the fourth quarter of the Cincy game, we wouldn't be having this discussion," Schwartz said. "It was a very similar hit to the one that he took in the Cleveland game, and we want to avoid the situation where it becomes something chronic.

Man, I was really looking forward to have the DB's feel what it is like to intercept a rookie 3 times this year.

Happy Wednesday BTSC. I am sure Bruce would get around to getting up the weekly question and answer we like to have, but it just seems right that myself gets this one going.

Well this game could not have come sooner enough, for both teams actually. Ravens and Steelers both sit behind the Bengals in the AFC North race right now and all 3 teams are certainly still in the playoff picture if things pan out the way we each want them to. While the Bengals do own first place and have a could resume against both our teams so far this season, they still have work to do if they want to close out the AFC North atop the standings. One of the things they are looking into this week is the game between us.

Sunday night's game brings together 2 teams that are struggling at the moment, with both coming off heart breaking losses. The Steelers have their problems with Special Teams right now and closing out games while the Ravens are having Offensive problems and battling with a weak secondary that has lost a starter. Injuries have certainly hurt both teams, and it is showing in games.

So while we try to beat you and get to 6-4 in the AFC, you will be trying to quite possibly end the Ravens playoff hopes with a win in hostile Baltimore

Lets get this going, be civil and try to figure out what each team is going to do in order to walk away with a victory. Good luck (not really) and please rec'd to keep on the front page. I will try to get to these questions as soon as possible tomorrow, but I expect many member of the Beatdown to answer them as well.

BRING IT!

When Chris Carr was able to snag the Ravens' second interception of the game, Brady Quinn took a cheap shot at LB Terrell Suggs by trying to take him out with a hit below the knees. This caused both players to lay on the ground for a good amount of time, but the way Suggs was acting, it did not look too good.

Now, it is said to be that Suggs could miss up to a month with a sprained knee, something we do no need right now with the pass happy teams that we must pressure in the coming weeks. Ray Lewis had this to say about the cheap shot from Quinn.

"Heck yeah it was a cheap shot. When you’re running down and you’re looking at the quarterback going at somebody’s knees who doesn’t even have the ball. I want to see if he gets the same fine I got or even higher. Now this man is out four or five weeks because of some baloney like that."

Quinn stated that he did not mean to hurt Suggs and that he clearly made a mistake after he had realized what had happened.

"I was trying to go for the ball carrier, Suggs came across at the last second in my vision. I would never wish that upon anyone. I was upset about it on the field. We worked out in Arizona together. I couldn’t be any more sorry about that. That was never the intent. I’m sorry to Terrell and the rest of their team."

Thank you so much Quinn. But at least we have gotten our wish to see some more of Paul Kruger.

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

about 1 month ago: Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson (32) heads upfield against Baltimore Ravens linebacker Jarret Johnson (95) in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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• Nothing clicked for us today. Flacco was rushed all day long and the line couldn't seem to stop a pass rush that was missing their best player.
• Defense played well in the second half, but screwed up big time for us in the first half. The whole game plan was thrown out the window because of a 0-17 deficit at halftime.
• Penalties killing us again. This time, it was not because of the refs but rather our selves. Leading the league in pass interference calls is a terrible stat to have associated with your team.
• At least we got the Browns next week......

Tony Fein, the former Ravens LB who was in here for OTA's, died last night in Port Orchard, Washington. Result of the death has yet to have been told to the public.

The reports originated via Fein’s agent, Milton D. Hobbs.

“It’s a very sad situation,” Hobbs told the Baltimore Sun. “I am still trying to figure out what happened.”

If anyone forgets, Tony Fein was also the same Ravens player who was arrested at a Baltimore City restaurant after an officer thought he saw Fein pass another man a gun, which turned out to be a silver cellular phone.

The group was passing around a large, silver cellular phone, but employees suspected it to be a handgun after a recent rash of violence in the area and called the authorities. According to the police report, when Fein was confronted and refused to stand up, he shoved an officer in the chest and was arrested.

Hobbs called the event racial profiling. Fein was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.

“This is stunning, sad news,” said Ravens senior vice president of public and community relations Kevin Byrne of Fein’s death. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”

More photos » by Elise Amendola - AP

2 months ago: Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Mark Clayton (89) cannot catch the ball as New England Patriots cornerback Darius Butler (28) and safety Brandon McGowan (30) defend on the last Ravens play of the NFL football game Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, in Foxborough, Mass. The Patriots won 27-21. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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With the Baltimore Ravens coming off their first loss of the year, many will be examining throughout the rest of the week what the Ravens did to in fact receive the loss and what they could have done to get the win. In a game like this there are a million factors that contributed to a 21-27 Ravens loss, some that should be taken lightly and some that will be taken with serious action involved.

Baltimore is in pain after a game like this where a victory and 4-0 start was clearly within reach, but the people out there who have been with us from the start and continue to stick with our beloved purple and black need to let this one go and focus on the Bengals next week. So to start things off, lets fess up to our loss today in New England and take a look at why we lost this game. I really cannot say too much about the players, because most of them looked great with what they had to work with. Feel free to add anything else in the comments to why we lost or what we could have done to win. There are so many.

• Play Calling: Even though the Ravens were able to yet again have big numbers and put up 363 total yards of offense, the stats can be deceiving. Today looked to be the worst coaching performance of the year for Cam Cameron. This is not to say that some of the plays called were terrible, because many, many great plays were executed. However, the balance just did not seem to be there. What stands out is the 16 rushing attempts between Rice and McGahee. As much of a transition that we would all like to see, our style of football is still smash mouth. Flacco had 47 pass attempts today, 20 of which were incomplete. Take away 10 or so of those passing attempts and convert them into runs, the game could have really had a different turn out. The passing attack has been great all season, but we dominated the Patriots on the ground today by rushing for an average of 6.8 yards per carry and abandoned one of the strongest aspects of our game many times. 3rd and 1, we sneak with Flacco. 4th and 1, we run with McGahee. Don't we have a pro bowl fullback in LeRon McClain? Oh, wait he did not see a single carry or pass all day.
  
• Clock Management: Tom Brady is good, really good. Bill Belichick is good, really good. So when you allow for these two masterminds to stay on the field for nearly 35 minutes, a loss is almost inevitable. Yes, we were very close to the win, but having the ball for only 25 minutes today is a difference in the 6 points that New England beat us by. Again, a healthy balance of what was a dominating rushing attack could have made the difference here.
• Return Game: You would think that a player who turned what was once the 32nd ranked return team in Tennessee to the 1st ranked return team would be able to have some serious success for us right? Wrong. Chriss Carr has looked nothing of an improvement over Yamon Figurs. Not once today did he ever it ever look like Carr would break a tackle, which he didn't. And a fumble on the opening kick-off? Come on now Chris. There is a reason you were taken out for rookie Lardaius Webb, who had his first return taken 38 yards and set us up perfectly. I think change is upon us in Special Teams. Yes, I know that we were playing from behind most of the game, but we definitely could have afforded to turn some of those incompletions off of 47 pass attempts into a few more runs.
  
• Tackling: Multiple first downs were gained by the Patriots because of poor tackling. Poor tackling on what is a very average RB group that seemed to find the gap pretty well on the dump off pass. There were multiple plays were the initial tackle was the difference between a scoring drive or not. 
• Mark Clayton: I really hate to put the burden of a loss on one player, but that dropped pass killed us. Joe did everything you could ask for on that drive and set us up to get the first. Joe threw a perfect pass and Mark, who is usually sure handed, could not pull it in. Keep your head up though, Mark.
• Officiating: Decided to leave this as the last one because we should not blame this totally on the way that the game was officiated today. The referees were not the ones who put the ball in the end zone for 27 points. But were they a part of it? Yes. Two phantom roughing the passer calls, one of which had Terrell Suggs pushed from behind and skimming the leg of Tom Brady. Brady then resorted to pointing and jumping up and down asking for the flag and was later seen smiling. When have we ever seen a roughing the passer call with a QB standing up, jumping for a flag? Hmmmmmmm......... To anyone who would like to see the Ravens' reactions to the officials, here you are.

Yes, this team did a few things today to show that we deserved to lose. However, there were many positives to this game that we should take for granted. Check out why we could have won after the jump.

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