The Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII

Several years ago, I stopped writing about the Ravens (and the Orioles and Spurs) in this blog, for fear of jinxing them. People that know me however, know that I follow all 3 teams religiously, particularly the Ravens. Prior to this year, I had seen the Orioles win the World Series in 1983, and the Spurs win the NBA Finals in 2003, in person. There's something very fun about being there when the confetti drops. Obviously, seeing the Ravens win a Super Bowl was on my Bucket List.

This year, the Ravens made it to the Super Bowl. Normally, I would have watched this game at Upper Decks in Austin, with the rest of Nest 512, my weekly ritual during Football season. However, when my lifelong friend called and said he wanted to go to the game, and asked if I was interested, I immediately said yes.

After watching tickets services for days, and exploring every option for airfare, and hotels, we settled on a plan. My friend would fly into Houston, I would pick him up in a rental car, and we would drive to Baton Rouge, which is about an hour outside of New Orleans. After waiting a week, the ticket prices started to come back down, we got ours on the Tuesday before game day. Game on!

Saturday

Getting up early, I left Austin and drove to Houston, where I picked up my buddy at Bush airport around 11AM. It was a great 4.5 hour trip to Baton Rouge. Fortunately, the weather was fantastic.

After checking in to our hotel, we drove into New Orleans, went to the French Quarter, had some excellent Cajun food, and then walked Bourbon Street. There was a surprisingly large contingent of fans for both teams.

Super Bowl Sunday

We got up fairly early Sunday, had breakfast at our hotel and then headed into New Orleans, where we had prepaid for parking all day. On the way in, we stopped at the Marriott near the Convention Center, to pick up our tickets from PrimeSport. I must say, PrimeSport has quite the operation. There was a continual stream of people coming in and picking up tickets.

Tickets in hand, we parked our car. Surprisingly, some people from Baltimore had the space next to us, and were tailgating in the parking garage. This made sense, since there really isn't much space for this at the Super Dome, making me wonder what they do during the regular season.

After a couple of hours, I was able to text some other friends from Nest 512 in Austin, and set up a rendezvous at Cafe du Monde. The Cafe is one of my favorite places in New Orleans. Of course, we had some delicious Beignets, and coffee.

Leaving the Cafe, we then headed over to water front where Nestor Aparicio and WNST were have pre-game party for the Ravens, in Woldenberg Park.

After a 90 minutes or so, all of the Ravens fans present got in a line and walked from the Park to the Super Dome. It was an impressive sight. The line easily extended for more than 9 blocks or so. The entire street was filled with purple jerseys.

The Super Dome and the Big Game

There's no need to recap the game. I must say, the security checkpoints getting into the Super Dome left a little to be desired.

I did manage to get a few shots of myself with the field behind me. Here's one.

Although the game almost looked like a blowout until the power outage, it ended up being quite close. None the less, the Ravens prevailed and won 34 - 31. We spent about a hour or so afterwards down at field level, looking at the aftermath.

Without a doubt, this was an unforgettable weekend.

Update

I found this really cool panoramic picture of the Superdome, two minutes into the first quarter at this site. I have tagged myself in the picture.

The O's escape Tampa with their first win

Last night, the Orioles avoided a sweep by the Devil Rays. For the third straight night, they were involved in a one run ball game. Unlike game 1, the closer Gonzalez came away with the save, in the bottom of the ninth. He did make it a little too interesting, however.

Surprisingly, there were several calls by the Umps that went our way, and I must say that I very much like the MLB app on my new toy. (Great work Steve Jobs!)

In other news

NFL draft day is almost upon us. I'm very excited by the Raven's signing of Boldin. With WR shored up, I'm hoping that we go after a shutdown corner in the draft.

Ravens vs. Patriots - Week 4

It sucks to lose a game like this. Mark Clayton, you have got to catch that ball. Several Ravens and Coach Harbaugh will most likely be fined, for comments about the officiating. Harbaugh was clearly audible dropping the S* bomb on TV.

To be honest, the referees deserve every bit of criticism they got.

Ravens vs. the Browns - week 3

As part of my very extended weekend trip, I was present at M&T Bank Stadium, to watch my Ravens slaughter the Browns, 34 - 3.

After raining all morning, the sky cleared up just before kick-off, and we had nothing but blue skys. As luck would have it, my friend and I were able to swap our upper deck tickets for seats in the Club Level. What a great exclamation point, to punctuate the trip with.

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Ravens vs. the Chiefs - week 1

Something strange is happening here. The Ravens had 501 yards of Offense, winning 38 - 24, with 5 TDs and 1 Field Goal. Joe Flacco had 300 yds passing, and the 3 headed monster in the backfield, Rice, McGahee, and McClain are really going to be something.

So this is what it's like to have an Offense?

Added bonus from yesterday, I finally found a Sports Bar in Austin where fellow Baltimorons congregate, The Tavern on 12th and Lamar. There's probably 30 of us.

Ravens wrap up

I have mixed feelings about this season. On one hand, I feel they exceeded all expectations. With 16 players, including 3 defensive starters, on IR, a Rookie QB and Head Coach, the thought of playing the AFC Championship game seemed almost absurd. Losing the game however, was bitter sweat. Windows into the big game are hard to come by, and nothing is guaranteed next year.

Fate unforunately, conspired against the team. Hurricane Ike forced the team to take their bye in week 2, rather than originally scheduled, week 10. As a result, Sunday's game was the 18th straight week that they had played. I knew in my heart that they didn't have anything left in the tank (running on fumes, as they say).

Well, it's 8 months until Camp and Flacco is clearly a Franchise QB! I guess I'm rooting for the Cardinals in two weeks ;)

It's week 10 and my Ravens are 6-3

Wow, I've been silent up to this point not wanting to jinx anything. My Ravens seem to have an offense. You have to love what John Harbaugh is doing with this team, and I can't say enough good things about Cam Cameron. Joe Flacco seems to be the first real QB on the roster, since Vinny Testaverde. I'm enjoying watching balanced football games, with nice long clock killing drives.

The only bad thing this week, having to root for the Slurs and Clots because they're playing the Appalachians. It makes me feel dirty, but the playoffs are not an outlandish possibility now.

First Ravens Post of 2008

Honestly, I'm nervous about the Ravens this season. I'm particularly nervous about our secondary and D line because of injuries;( So far, they haven't looked very good in either of the preseason games that I have watched. That said, this year is probably a gimme' for Harbaugh.

I be there a week from Sunday rooting for them against the Bungles. Hopefully, it will end better than last year's opener at Cincy. At least this one is at home.

Off Season Thoughts

Well the SuperBowl is over (good game, but I found it hard to care about the outcome), and the Ravens have their new coaching staff in place. So far, things look good. I like what I've heard about John Harbaugh, our new OC, Cam Cameron, and am happy that we retained Rex Ryan. I like all of the moves we made on the offensive side of the ball with the Quarterback, Running Backs, and Receivers coaches. If we're healthy, we could easily be the number 1 Defense again.

The big question for Raven's Nation will be, "Will we finally have an NFL caliber offense?"

Billick Era Over

You may have noticed that I stopped blogging about my Ravens, when their 9 game losing streak was in full force. It was quite depressing to see a team go from 13-3 last year, to 5-11 this year. Since I refuse to be a bandwagon fan, I still watched every game. Having to "take it like a man" just like the DirecTV commercial guy, says.

To make matters worse, this is the first time in 8 seasons that I was unable to get back to Baltimore to see at least 1 game. Strangely enough, fate intervened when I was supposed to see them play the Rams, which ended up being the last win before the losing streak.

Anyway, Steve Biscotti pulled the trigger and fired Brian Billick and all of his assistants, with the exception of Rex Ryan. I have mixed feelings about this, since Billick had a winning record, a Super Bowl, two Wildcards and two Division titles. But, our offense has never been more than putrid since his arrival. Rumor has it that he had lost the team.

Now the speculation begins ... Rex Ryan? Cowher? Marty Schottenheimer? Marv Levy?

Happy Bday?

Well I celebrated the week leading up to my birthday, finding out that I may have to move unexpectedly. It seems my Apt was actually a Condo, and it is alleged to have been foreclosed. So rather than going back to MD, I ended up starting to preemptively pack. ;(

Fortunately, the Ravens helped me today by winning. The offense was effective but not impressive, the defense was punishing. Samari Rolle was finally back! One more week until our bye, and then Trevor Pryce is hopefully back. Watch out NFL, you haven't seen the full strength Raven's defense.

Ravens vs. the Cards

Well, we had another ugly win today, blowing a 23-6 lead, but winning with a walk-off Stover Field Goal. I found myself asking during the 4th quarter, Who is this team on the field and what did they do with the Ravens' defense? The drop-off in our pass rush, with Trevor Pryce out, is big ;( Worse, with Samari Rolle out, our mutated 46 defense is not all that effective. Having our Nickle or Dime back cover a #2 receiver is dangerous.

That said, Kyle Boller, in relief of McNair, saved the day, with a good drive to put us in FG position. In the last 3 games, he is starting to look like a legit NFL starter. I'm actually happy for him, since he has been generally vilified in the past.

Ravens vs. Jets

My Ravens beat the Jets in their home opener, yesterday, but it looks as though there's much to worry about. Two more injuries, Trevor Pryce and Demetrius Williams. Ouch!

In addition, the Defense gave up 177 yards passing in the fourth quarter and almost blew the game. Our ability to hold on to a victory was in doubt, up until the last minute. On the plus side, the much derided, Kyle Boller had a respectable outing and Figurs looked good returning kicks.

Ravens vs. the Bengals on MNF

Well my Ravens opened their season with a Prime Time game this past Monday, against the Bengals. In keeping with their recent tradition of playing shitty on MNF and in the rain, they managed to turn the ball over 6 times and amass a ton of injuries. B.J. Sams our ProBowl caliber kick returner, has had a season ending injury at Paul Brown stadium for the last 2 years. (Talk about Bad Kharma!) Unfortunately, the special teams drop-off will hurt us.

Despite all of this, our D played fantastically in the 2nd half, and the Ravens took the lead in the 4th quarter, only to blow it on a stupid interception. Then, they almost tied the game with less than 90 seconds with a TD Pass from Kyle Boller to Todd Heap. Unfortunately, in what will go down as the worst fucking call I have ever seen in an NFL game, Heap was called for Offensive PI. The referee responsible needs to go back to officiating Pop Warner games. Of course, Billick sealed the deal, snatching defeat from the jaws of a tie, with some very questionable play calling.

For now, I'm telling myself it's only the first game of the season. The Jets are next, and are one of the few teams in the NFL worse off than the Ravens, injury wise. (Actually, both NY teams are in trouble already).

On the positive side, Willis McGahee looks like an upgrade from Jamal. And, the Austin City Limits Festival is less than 2 days away now!

Ravens vs. Giants - Primetime Preseason

I was somewhat pleased because I didn't have to make special arrangements to watch the Ravens tonight. They were the Primetime game. Most likely because there's a Manning involved.

I was going to comment more on this, but it looks like both the Offense and Defense went a little backward this week. We came out on the short end, 13-12. Troy Smith looked good, Boller looks like he's done. I'm slightly worried about McNair. He doesn't do too well in the rain or the snow.

Ravens open their preseason vs. the Iggles

Watched the Ravens first preseason game against Filthadelphia. The Ravens controlled all aspects of the game throughout. McNair and Drew Olsen looked great. (Olsen probably won't make the team). The season is less than a month away, can't wait. I expect big things and a number 1 defense again.

The only downer so far, they have away games during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most likely, I will only get to see one game at M&T Bank Stadium this year, against the Rams, in October.