It's Cundiff

The Ravens signed Billy Cundiff today, replacing released kicker Steve Hauschka.

It was between Cundiff and former Buccaneers kicker, Mike Nugent.

I would have preferred Nugent over Cundiff, but it's like picking between a green and red M&M.

Cundiff has played for the Cowboys, Saints and Browns. The Browns called him when their kicker, Phil Dawson, was injured earlier this season, and Cundiff went 6 for 6, including kicking the game winning field goal during the Browns' only win this season.

So it's safe to say that Cundiff is battle tested (joking).

Before the Browns, Cundiff was out of the NFL for 2 seasons. His career field goal percentage is 74.2%.

He's not Matt Stover, but he should be an improvement over Hauschka and that is all the Ravens can hope for in a kicker during Week 11.

Hauschka Outschka

The Ravens released kicker Steve Hauschka yesterday.

Much was made about Hauschka since he missed what could would have been the winning field goal in Minnesota in week 6. His other key miss was last week against the Bengals, a kick that could have brought the Ravens within 1 touchdown of the Bengals. Instead, he missed the kick and the Ravens eventually lost 17-7.

All said and done, Hauschka was 9 for 14 in his field goal attempts with one extra point blocked.

I do believe that Hauschka took a lot of the blame for the Ravens currently disappointing 5-4 record. Had he made that kick in Minnesota, the Ravens would be 6-3 and tied with the Steelers for second place in the division. But the Ravens defense, which allowed 426 yards to the Vikings is as much to blame for that loss.

That said, it's time for the Ravens move on. Hauschka couldn't be counted on to make crucial kicks.

The Ravens are expected to sign either Billy Cundiff or Mike Nugent today. Either kicker is likely to be an improvement over Hauschka, but not as consistent as Matt Stover, who has been perfect kicking for the Colts while Adam Vinatieri is injured.

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NOTE: Terrell Suggs will miss 2-3 weeks with a torn MCL obtained from Brady Quinn's low block during an interception on Monday night. He could also miss the rest of the season....St player and back-up safety Haruki Nakamura will miss the rest of the season with a broken ankle.

Interesting...

The ironic history of Baltimore football is on display this week.

Last night, the Ravens played the Browns. The Ravens were the Cleveland Browns before they moved to Baltimore after the 1995 season, ditched the Browns colors and history, and became a new franchise.

Cleveland was awarded an expansion team -- the new Browns -- in 1999.

This Sunday, the Ravens play the Indianapolis Colts, who played in Baltimore until 1984.

Just thought I'd point that out.

Brown Out

Ray Rice ran for 89 yards and a touchdown on Monday night.

The Ravens (5-4) looked very unimpressive on offense in their 16-0 win over the Browns (1-8) last night. In a game they should have won by at least 20 points, the Ravens were blanked by the Browns defense in the first half and only managed to score points when the defense created turnovers deep in Cleveland territory.

They totaled just 274 yards of total offense against the Browns 31st defense. That's 3 straight games now where the Ravens have failed to go over 300 yards of total offense.

Joe Flacco and Ray Rice lead the way again, with Flacco tossing for 155 yards and no turnovers while Rice rushed for 89 yards and the only touchdown on offense. Derrick Mason turned in a decent performance after being shut down in Cincinnati with 78 receiving yards.

But despite some decent single performances, the offense as a whole sputtered for most of the night. The Browns defense does deserve some credit for stepping up and playing a good game, but the Ravens offense, which was 9th in points scored coming into the game, should've put the game away in the first half. Instead they went into halftime tied at zero and needed Browns turnovers to score points on offense.

Last night's game is just another example that the league has figured out the Ravens offense. Give Rice his yards, but pressure Flacco and box out the Ravens WR's.

And the Colts, who come to Baltimore this Sunday, have been figuring out the Ravens for years.

The Ravens' lone bright spot last night was the defense, which held the Browns' 32nd ranked offense to just 160 total yards and no points. They played physical, and did an excellent job pressuring Browns' QB Brady Quinn, but I won't put too much stock in their shutout last night. The Browns offense is worse than most college teams and maybe some high school teams. They didn't attempt to stretch the field until their final drive. They failed to challenge the Ravens' weak secondary. And they barely used Jamal Lewis, the kind of physical running back the Ravens have had trouble stopping this season.

Also, the controversy surrounding kicker Steve Hauschka should continue for another week after he missed his first field goal attempt of the game, a 36-yarder. He did, however, come back and make a 44-yarder later in the game but I wouldn't be surprised to see the Ravens make a move this week. Too bad a certain former Raven future Hall of Fame kicker will be wearing a Colts uniform this Sunday.

Anyway, the Browns are bad, really bad, and the Cleveland fans should have stuck to their plan of walking into the stadium after kickoff, leaving the stadium mostly empty for the start of the game. However, during the weeks since that plan was announced the Browns have taken steps to mend the fences in Cleveland and the stadium looked mostly full at kickoff.

All in all it was a less-than-impressive win over the Browns who are easily the worst team in the NFL. The Ravens on offense look slow and uninspired and the defense will still have issues against a team that can actually complete a forward pass.

Last night the Ravens played the worst team in the NFL. This Sunday, they play the best.

They better bring their A-game against the Colts, or the Ravens will be looking more like the team they were before they moved to Baltimore.

Missing McClain

The Ravens have sorely missed Le'Ron McClain on offense this season.

Looking at the Ravens and what ails them 8 games into the season, it's not hard to see that the Ravens have struggled to maintain drives during their 4 losses.

Yesterday, the Ravens held the ball for only 20 minutes.

In 2008, the Ravens lead the NFL in time of possession. And one of the biggest reasons for that was RB Le'Ron McClain.

In 2008, McClain had 902 rush yards, 10 rush TD's and 1 receiving TD. The Ravens used him in a closer role, as McClain's massive 260 pound frame wore down opposing defenses in the 3rd and 4th quarter of games.

Flash forward to the mid-point of 2010 and McClain has just 78 yards rushing, and 1 TD.

The reason? In 2008, McClain had future Hall of Fame fullback Lorenzo Neal blocking for him. In 2009, McClain is doing the blocking for Ray Rice and Willis McGahee.

It's a shame the Ravens let Neal walk and then never picked up another fullback during the offseason. Because the Ravens are much better off with McClain sharing duty with Rice as one of the Ravens running backs.

So who is to blame for this oversight?

None other than Ravens offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.

Cameron is too enamored with his new weapons, Joe Flacco and Ray Rice, to realize what he has in McClain. Cameron has basically brought his San Diego offense with Philip Rivers and Ladanian Tomlinson and set it up here in Baltimore. Only, Flacco and Rice are not at the level of Rivers and Tomlinson -- yet -- and the Ravens offense is much more one-dimensional than the Chargers ever were. If opposing teams can contain Rice you can shut down the Ravens offense.

So maybe an embarrassing loss to the Bengals and a 4-4 first half will wake up Cameron and some of the Ravens coaches, prompting them to realize that McClain needs to be reinstated as a RB instead of a FB.

Ravens lose to Bengals, playoffs in jeopardy

Joe Flacco was sacked 4 times by the Bengals in the Ravens' 17-7 loss.

Technically, the Ravens played a football game yesterday.

I beg to differ.

The Ravens turned in one of the worst performances in a couple years, yesterday, in a "not as close as the score indicated" 17-7 loss to the Bengals.

The Ravens fell to 4-4 on the season and erased any momentum they gained after crushing the Broncos a week before. They came out flat on both sides of the ball and the Bengals picked them apart.

On the first drive of the game, Carson Palmer drove the Bengals drove down the field on a 6 minute long drive that resulted in a touchdown pass to Andre Caldwell, putting the Bengals up 7-0. On the Ravens first drive, they sputtered out quickly, not even holding the ball for 2 minutes. The Bengals got the ball back, and drove down the field over the course of 4 and a half minutes, and scored another TD, this time coming from Cedric Benson.

Once the final seconds ticked off the clock in the first quarter, the Ravens had the ball for just over 4 minutes, were trailing 14-0 and had gained just 41 yards of offense.

When the second quarter began, it didn't get any prettier. The Bengals first drive lasted for 7 minutes and resulted in a field goal, putting them up 17-0. Thankfully, the Bengals must've eased up on the gas pedal after taking the 17-0 lead because they didn't score again.

But that still didn't make the game any less of an embarrassment for the Ravens.

The Ravens' longest drive of the day was 2:43. They scored a measly 215 yards of offense. Joe Flacco played what could possibly be the second worst game of his pro career, throwing for 195 yards, 0 TD and 2 INT. Again, Ray Rice was a large chunk of the Ravens offense, gaining 135 total yards. The Ravens' receivers couldn't get open, they were bottled up by the Bengals secondary all afternoon.

You have to give credit to the Bengals though. Thy held the Ravens 5th ranked offense to just 14 total points in their 2 wins over the Ravens. They just had the Ravens figured out, and it showed.

On defense, the Ravens reverted back to the defense from their 3-game losing streak. There was no pressure on Palmer. The secondary was routinely beaten. And again, Cedric Benson abused our defensive line for 117 yards and a TD. So much for a consecutive streak of holding opposing RB's to less than 100 yards, Benson has already done it twice this season. Even with Haloti Ngata, who missed the game with an injury, it wouldn't mave made much of a difference.

The writing is on the wall, ladies and gentlemen. The Ravens defense is finished.

Greg Mattison may have been a poor choice to take over for Rex Ryan but it's not all his fault. The Ravens put on another poor tackling clinic yesterday, trying to finger tackle Bengals players all day. Ed Reed, obviously still bothered by his neck injury looks like a shell of his former hard-hitting self. He whiffed on several tackles. Maybe it's time to see what Tom Zbikowski or Haruki Nakamura can do in his place.

And finally, Steve Hauschka missed a crucial field goal that would have put the Ravens within a touchdown with 7+ minutes left in the 4th quarter. It was a 38-yarder, not a chip shot by any means, but still...at some point he's going to have to make some crucial field goals. Meanwhile, Matt Stover is perfect for the Colts.

At 4-4, the Ravens are on the fringe of the playoff race along with the Steelers (5-2), Chargers (5-3), Texans (5-4), Jets (4-4) and Jaguars (4-4). They still have several tough games on their schedule. A record of 11-5 will likely get you a seat at the table, but 10-6 could also get you in too. That means going at worst, 6-2 down the stretch. Based on what I saw yesterday, there's no chance this Ravens team can do it.

They looked like a team beaten before the game began yesterday. The win over the Broncos may have been their last hurrah. And on top of that, the Bengals showed the NFL how to destroy the Ravens in their two wins and teams around the NFL will take notice. The Colts and Steelers already know how to beat them. They've been doing it for years. But teams like the Bears and Packers just saw how to beat the Ravens.

It's sad to see, but this isn't your Ravens of old any more. No more smash mouth defense, grind it out offense. It's been replaced by sketchy coaching, poor tackling, and ill-timed penalties.

The Ravens motto this year has been "Play like a Raven".

I used to know what that meant, but I have no clue what the hell it means any more.

Bye bye losing streak!

The Ravens got back to their winning ways yesterday in a big way, shutting down the previously undefeated Denver Broncos, 30-7.

The Ravens were coming off a bye week that had followed 3 consecutive losses. A loss to Denver yesterday would have put the Ravens at 3-4 and likely ended their chances for the postseason with the Bengals and Steelers sitting atop the division at 5-2 each.

But the Ravens came out of their bye week a drastically energized team that pretty much fixed all their problems on defense. The first play set the tone -- Jarrett Johnson came in untouched and sacked Broncos QB Kyle Orton for an 8-yard loss. The Broncos went 3-and-out and the Ravens never looked back on their way to the win.

They held the Broncos to 200 total yards of offense. They sacked Orton twice and forced a fumble. Most importantly, the secondary played excellent, and held Broncos start WR Brandon Marshall to 4 catches and 24 receiving yards.

On offense, the Ravens had some trouble getting started. They kicked a couple of field goals to take a 6-0 lead before Ladarius Webb returned the post-halftime kick off 95 yards for a TD to put the Ravens up 13-0.

And after some costly penalties resulted in a prolonged Denver drive that ended with a Broncos TD, the Ravens tightened back up and the offense -- meaning Joe Flacco and Ray Rice -- got going.

Flacco completed his last 14 pass attempts and finished 20 of 25 for 175 yards and a TD. Rice rushed for 84 yards and a game-sealing score late in the 4th quarter. On the receiving end, Kelley Washington hauled in 4 passes for 58 yards, 3 of which came on 3rd down conversions. And Derrick Mason caught 4 passes for 40 yards and a TD.

In the end, it was a huge relief to see the Ravens come out and shut down the Broncos yesterday after 3 consecutive close losses. It also restored the fans hopes that the Ravens can still contend for the division or the wild card.

Next week, the Ravens travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals, who stole a win from the Ravens during their previous meeting in Baltimore.

It's another must-win game for the Ravens, who are pretty much playing "must-win" games for the remainder of the season.