Right Off Russell

It is hard to look back at the 1989 Orioles and not have a nostalgic, even emotional response, when remembering what that team almost accomplished.  It was a year when everything broke right.  Players had career years and late inning rallies were commonplace.  The ‘89 O’s were a young bunch that scrapped and clawed for everything and almost pulled of an amazing worst to first turn around.  And personally, it was truly magical.  I had just jumped into sports fandom, sure I was aware of the Orioles, but 1988 was the first year I followed them with a passion.  Nice timing, huh?  Experiencing the ‘89 season only solidified the Orioles lifelong hold on me.

As we know ‘89 ended just short of our wildest dreams and the subsequent years were rough.  Part of me wonders if the ‘89 season was a bad thing for the Orioles as a franchise, because it made them believe they were closed to contending than they actually were.  This mistake precipitated one of the worst trades in club history when the team sent up and comers Steve Finley, Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch to Houston for the disappointing Glenn Davis.  The trade effectively ended a re-build that needed a few more years and some of those young players back.  But I cannot argue with the sheer joy I felt that year and I look back on all the nights I feel asleep to John MIller and Joe Angel calling the games on the radio.  I would not trade that experience unless you dangled a World Series in front of me.

The Baltimore Sun ran several pieces commemorating the 20th anniversary of the ‘89 O’s.  Here are the links.  If you have not sat back and enjoyed these memories in a while, I encourage you to do so.  If nothing else it gives us hope to ask “Why Not?” again.

The Final Push

O’s Quotes

Billy Ripken Q&A

Dave Johnson Q&A

When George Sherrill was traded away, the O’s handed the job to Jim Johnson. I think we all knew that this was a stop-gap measure. There was really no point in investing in a new relief pitcher. Heck, if anything it was Johnson’s chance to show the O’s that there would be no reason to look for a new closer in the off-season.

Johnson has 6 blown saves on the season and 3 of those came since Sherrill was traded. The O’s haven’t had a ton of save opportunities since then, so his percentage has been lousey. He also hasn’t performed well in non-save chances. He is currently carrying a 4.16 ERA and 6 losses.

I want to be clear and say that Johnson could be a valuable and productive member of this relief staff. That being said, he hasn’t been able to make the most out of this opportunity.

What’s next? Do the O’s try out another player currently on the system? Is it Kam Mickolio or Chris Ray? Is it JIm Miller in Norfolk. Is it converting Jake Arrieta to a closer? Or do the O’s find a former great closerr and pay him off for a couple of years.

What a difference facing non-competent quarterbacking makes.  When you compare the throws made and ability to command an offense by Phillllip Rivers to the Browns combo of Brady Anderson (just made that up on the spot), the difference is night and day.  The Browns QB’s looked lost out there.  Credit to the Ravens secondary for stepping  up.  Fox and Fabian covered well and Landry and Reed suckered the opposing signal callers into many bad throws.  Just a dominating performance all around.

Offensively, Joe Flacco engineered another stellar offensive performance: 479 yards, 28 1st downs and 4 more td’s.  Flacco is reading his progressions so quickly and checking down so well that he is making the pass offense nearly indefensible.  The offensive line was great as well.  To have 3 rushing touchdowns where the running back was not touched is a credit to the holes the line was creating against the out-manned Browns front seven.  The also gave Flacco plenty of time to throw.  The line has not faced a dominant defensive front yet, but it is hard to believe they could play much better.

Defensively, the Ravens corrected a lot of problems they had last week against San Diego.  Some of that can be attributed to a step down in the level of the opponent, but it also has to do with guys stepping up and a more organized secondary.  The line controlled things in the run game, but I still did not see a lot of pressure generated from the defensive line.  Right now the line does not look athletic enough to consistently create pressure on opposing QB’s.  Greg Mattison will have to come up with other ways to create pressure, because even some of the blitz packages did not look that good.

Finally, special teams coverage was strong.  They held Josh Cribbs in check and really prevented the Browns from gaining momentum in one of the few areas they had the opportunity or ability to do so.  Steve Hauschka was good on kick-offs and field goals.  Sam Kock also got good air under his punts to slow down Cribbs.  Very little to complain about in this performance, but the competition gets much better next week.

On paper, week 3 is a mismatch in favor of the Ravens offense.  The Browns bring a defense to Baltimore that is allowing opponents nearly 380 yards and 30 points per game.  An average of 205 of those yards come on the ground against the Browns, who are allowing 5.6 yards per carry.  This bodes extremely well for a balanced Ravens offense that is putting up nearly 35 points per game and running the ball at 4.5 yards per carry.  The Browns are also allowing opponents to convert nearly half of their 3rd downs.  Let’s break down the areas where the Ravens will have the advantage on offense.

Running Game:  The Ravens offensive line has been very strong this year.  This will be their 3rd look in 3 weeks at a 3-4 defensive scheme, so I see no reason to expect anything other than a good day of run blocking from the group.  The Ravens have faced 2 below average defensive lines and the Browns are more of the same.  The Browns do have a difference maker in Shaun Rodgers, but he is a guy with motivation issues and you have to wonder if he will bring it if the Ravens jump out against the 0-2 Browns. Read more »

As the season winds down the Orioles continue to climb towards a higher and higher draft pick with a seven game losing streak. The Orioles would seem to have a strangle hold on the 3rd pick in the draft and an outside shot at #2, but don’t look now the streaking Indians are trying to crash the O’s party. Cleveland has lost 11 games in a row and sits a mere game behind the Orioles for the coveted 3rd pick.

This series will surely go a long way in determining final draft positions for both clubs with just 10 games left in the regular season. Sad to see the state of both clubs, especially the Indians. Not trying to pile on but this team was one win away from the World Series in ‘07 and had relatively high expectations coming into this season. After having traded away Cy Young award winners in back to back years the Indians are in full on re-build mode much like the Orioles. Read more »

Thanks to Steve DiMatteo the Cleveland Browns blog, Dawg Pound Daily, for giving us some insight into Ravens upcoming opponent.

Most of the national news surrounding the Browns is “Brady verses Derek”. So what’s your take on the situation?
As far as the debate between Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson goes, the decision has been made to stick with Quinn and that is the right way to go. No matter what kind of growing pains there are, and there have been plenty, Eric Mangini needs to see what Quinn is made of and the answer can’t be found in just a couple of bad games. That isn’t exactly Peyton Manning sitting on the bench behind Brady Quinn, either. Derek Anderson has plenty of deficiencies of his own, so despite what the national news is, the Browns are making the right decision in sticking with Quinn for now.

The defense seems to hold its own during the 1st half and then struggles in the 2nd half. Are teams adjusting well? or is depth an issue? Read more »

For this weeks defensive preview I was tempted to just cut and paste my defensive preview from week 1 vs. Kansas City.  Why?  Because it feels like the same type of game.  A completely overmatched team coming into M&T Bank Stadium with serious quarterback questions and very little offensive talent.  Of course, the Chiefs game didn’t go as planned so who knows if the Browns game will either.   The Ravens are 2-0 and I’m betting the defense is gonna come out with a vengeance on Sunday.

Let’s examine the Browns offensive rankings:

Total offense: 32nd (last)

Passing offense: 28th

Rushing offense: 27th

PPG: Tied for 30th

Yards per rush: 25th Read more »

ESPN’s Week 3 Power Rankings find the Ravens at #1.  As a fan it is good to see the respect the national media is giving the Ravens earlier on.  I also heard Shannon Sharpe tab the Ravens as the team to beat right now on Colin Cowherd’s radio show on Wednesday.  CBS Sportsline has the Ravens at #5.   So does NBC Sports.  All are playing up the improvement of Joe Flacco and the offense as the reason for the high rankings.  I also have to add that as a Ravens, Orioles and Terps fan it is good to see one of my teams get some pub over teams that are traditional powers or teams in bigger media markets.  But is this a good thing for the Ravens?

Obviously, this is not college football and these rankings mean little.  I am sure John Harbaugh and the coaching staff has the team focused on the task at hand, that is improving every week and peaking come play-off time.  But if the praise continues to be heaped on the Ravens, at what point does it get in the Ravens head?  Or does it at all?  The Ravens seem to be a tough minded team who play the underdog/not enough respect card to perfection.  At least they did on their way to Super Bowl XXXV.  Does a team start to lose it’s edge when they keep hearing how good they are?

It is still early and the talk about the Ravens being one of the best in the league has been tempered.  I also think the Ravens, as a team, expect to be one of the best in the NFL.  If wins start piling up there will be a new challenge for the coaching staff to face.  Keeping a team hungry as a front runner is harder to do than keeping one hungry as the favorite.  So is it good, bad or nuetral for the Ravens to receive early accolades?

What can I say that has not already said about the Ravens defensive performance against the Chargers?  At times they looked bad, the secondary was exposed, the pass rush did not bring consistent pressure, the scheme allowed far to many one-on-one match-ups down field and because of all that the Chargers put up 26 points and 474 yards of offense.  There are many problems to fix, but you have to give it to this defense.  Forcing 4 red zone field goals and a turnover on downs in the red zone was huge.  They tightened the screws when they had to and add in 2 turnovers that led to 10 points and the defensive performance was not as bad as it looked or felt.

Line: Bottled up the run and basically forced the chargers to throw all game long.  Maybe if this unit were not so convincing against the run teams would not attack the Ravens weakness on defense so regularly.  The problem is that for the 2nd straight week the defensive line had trouble generating enough of a pass rush to keep Phillllip Rivers off balance.  Trevor Pryce seems a step slower right now, he is getting good push but seems to lack the explosiveness needed to get to the QB.  Terrell Suggs also seemed to fade as the game wore on.  His conditioning should improve with each game.  Read more »

Offensively, the Ravens put together an efficient an balanced performance against the San Diego Chargers in week 2.  Red zone offense had to be the area of most encouragement for Ravens players, coaches and fans as the club took advantage of a San Diego defense that was giving up chunks in the running game and also had some huge lapses in pass coverage.  The Ravens also got great contributions from the running backs, especially Willis McGahee, and a passing attack that spread the ball around for the 2nd week in a row.  let’s break down the offensive performance by position:

Backfield: Joe Flacco had another commanding performance.  You can really sense his improvement over his rookie campaign as he is much better at finding receivers when options 1 and 2 are taken away.  Flacco is also much better at finishing drives this year.  Whether it is improved play calling, improved line play, or just better decision making by the 2nd year starter it has been hard to keep the Ravens out of the end zone this year.  Flacco did throw a big 4th quarter interception while under pressure.  It was a bad throw into coverage that kept San Diego’s hopes alive. Read more »