The Maryland Sports Blog

In honor of Derrick Mason retiring as a Baltimore Raven yesterday I wanted to pass along this video. Hope everyone enjoys it. Mason was a great Raven on and off the field and had to put up numbers with some sub-par quarterbacks early in his Ravens career. Enjoy

Quarterback - A: Joe Flacco’s stats may not tell the whole story. Not many quarterbacks put game-winning drives up in the forth quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers and nobody does it on their home turf.

Running Backs - C+: They were all hurt so it is really hard to judge this group. Ray Rice played well when he needed to even though he had a hurt knee.

Receivers –  A+: Derrick Mason and Anquan Boldin were beastly throughout the game. They have had only one bad game. Todd Heap also made some key plays.

Offensive line – A+: The offensive line put up the best performance I have ever seen against the Steelers. They held them to only one sack.

Defensive Line - B: Haloti Ngata was a beast and the line put good pressure on the quarterback. I would have liked to see more of Terrence Cody.

Linebackers- A+: This group stood on its head. Jameel McClain had one of his best games and Ray Lewis closed it out with an interception.

Secondary – C+: They were beat on some key plays. Fabian Washington gave up some big plays. Lardarius Webb made some fantastic plays.

Special Teams- B+: Billy Cundiff was huge on kickoffs and made a key field goal. Sam Koch had a great game. Pittsburgh is the hardest places to kick so Cundiff’s missed field goal is not surprising.

Today was the last day of Ravens training camp and also the last day of my internship. I go back to school on Sunday to search for a job and other opportunities. I have to thank everyone at WBAL, 98 Rock, the Baltimore Ravens, and all the other members of the media that were so kind to me.

Eric Garfield was my boss at the beginning of my internship, he left about when training camp started so I had the chance to help the whole station. I owe a lot to Garfield, he taught me the everyday things that go on at a radio station and the preparation it takes to prepare for a show.

Mike Wellbrock the executive producer and Brett Hollander the host of sportsline were also helpful. Hollander and Wellbrock were two of the nicest people I have ever had the chance to work for, truly class acts.

It was an honor working for Stash and Kieth Mills, two of my idols growing up. I love listening to those two guys, meeting them was an honor and working with them was a dream come true.

Other members of the media that I met while at Ravens training camp included John Clayton, James Walker, Suzy Kolber, Jaminson Hensley, Aaron Wilson, and Matt Vensel just to name a few. All of them gave me great advice to help me in the future. I thank each and everyone of them for their kindness and advice.

John Parr deserves his own shout out, he writes for this site and was one guy that I could call a friend during this internship. Working with him was easy.

Regarding practice today, wide receiver Mark Clayton and tight end Ed Dickson did not practice. Head coach John Harbaugh said it was nothing major.

All the players seemed to happy it was the last day, Terrell Suggs was shouting as usual.

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie was at practice today. He was Haloti Ngata’s guest, well him and his family.

Baltimore Ravens long snapper Matt Katula was waived today by the team, this gives undrafted rookie free agent long snapper Morgan Cox the job. Katula was roster spot was filled by cornerback Brad Jones.

It just goes to show that long snapper is the easiest position to lose in the NFL. For years Katula was perfect on just about every snap. Last year he was off with some of his snaps, he had elbow tendinitis which was thought to have been the problem.

Today was a hard practice, there was a lot of hitting. There was a big emphasis on blocking drills from the beginning of practice to the end of practice. The Ravens ended practice with linemen drills, everyone got in a circle and watched as linemen went against each other one-on-one.

Cornerback Cary Williams continued to impress today as he had an interception and returned it for good yardage. Tight end Dennis Pitta also had a great day today, he made a lot of hard catches on balls that were close to the ground.

Running back Le’Ron McClain got yelled at by the defense today for dropping a ball. One of the defensive backs on the sidelines yelled “HI HE SAID MO CARRIES NOT MO CATCHES.” I think it was Ken Hamlin but I am not positive.

The Ravens have off tomorrow. All the players were surprised and some thought there was some sort of “catch.” I guess the catch was having a really hard practice today.

The Baltimore Ravens beat the Carolina Panthers 17-12 last night.  Here is a six pack of things that stuck out to me.

1. The pass attack looks better than it did in the first two games of last season when quarterback Joe Flacco was healthy and throwing the ball all over. Flacco hit a number of receivers including Anquan Boldin, Mark Clayton and Derrick Mason. Look for him to continue this into the season and get even better. Tonight they refused to go to Ray Rice, so just add that to the weapons department.

2. The tight end position is now a position of strength. Last year the Ravens could not put two real tight ends on the field, but tonight they put three tight ends on the field at the same time multiple times. Ed Dickson looked just as good as I thought he would.

4. The offensive line needs Jared Gaither back. The offensive line looked shaky at best today and the left side did not look good at all. They need to get better if they want Flacco to stay healthy.

3. Run defense could use some work. There were a few too many long runs from the Panthers tonight; they have a great running attack but the Ravens should have shut them down.

4. Corners actually looked good. Cary Williams looked great against the Panthers and so did most of the other members of the secondary. Prince Miller was impressive on defense and special teams.

5. Haruki Nakamura had no business playing in the fourth quarter. Nakamura could be a starter on a lot of teams. Last year he got valuable playing time on defense and stood out on special teams. He was on the ball every time one of the Panthers quarterbacks threw the ball and read the ball very well.

6. Troy Smith needs some work. Smith looked terrible tonight, as he has all training camp. At this moment I think ESPN is wrong: he is not a valuable option as the number two quarterback and looked terrible tonight partly because he was pressured but also because he just did not throw the ball well.

Extra- Congrats to Mark Clayton for catching the first touchdown pass of the preseason. No one has been nicer to me at Ravens training camp than Mark. He is a great guy off the field that all the younger guys should look up to.