The View from 151

8/31/16

The big question from last week’s game is, are the Lions just that bad or are the Ravens coming together as a team? Getting some of our starters back gives us a glimpse of what the team will look like at Game One of the regular season against the Bills.  Joe looked like Joe always does- calm, cool and collected in the pocket.  Joe passed well to open receivers.  That’s right I said open receivers, something we have not seen in the past few years.  Joe’s timing with the receivers looked good.  The offensive line for the most part protected Joe except for the one play where Haloti Ngata sacked Joe.  You could see it coming- Haloti pressuring up the middle. I closed my eyes and held my breath to see if Joe would get up and as I peeked at the TV what did I see but Haloti helping Joe up and give him a little welcome back pat on the butt.  It brought a tear to my eye to see our gentle giant still has a soft spot for the Ravens.  Have a good season Haloti.  OK enough of that, bottom line is I think the Ravens played well last week and as we get more of the starters playing our team will only get better.

RAVENS vs SAINTS

The preseason Game Four is usually just for the bubble players and the coaches but not this year WR Breshad Perriman is scheduled to play in his first professional football game.  Breshad has not played since his last college game in December of 2014. He has not even played in a preseason game due to his knee problems going back to training camp 2015.  We finally get to see our first round draft pick from last year.  It will be a good test for Breshad since the Saints are planning to play their starters three quarters of the game.  So keep an eye on number 18.  The starting offensive line will play at least one quarter to test the left side where we are starting two rookies. This year’s number one draft pick 79 LT Ronnie Stanley who has played well so far and our fourth round pick 72 LG Alex Lewis.  These two rookies will be protecting Joe’s blindside when the season starts. That’s a scary thought.   Joe won’t be playing Thursday so don’t start worrying yet.

Bubble guys like Keenan Reynolds (the player from Navy) will be playing just to show the coaches he deserves to be a Raven.  Keenan is a long shot to make the team as he just has not played well enough.  Good luck Keenan.   Other bubble players like RB Terrance West (Towson University) WR Chris Moore, TE Daniel Brown and DE Brent Urban have better chances of making the team.  They have played well enough or due to another player’s injury.  Watch to see who stands out and makes the plays.

The coaches are really the ones in spotlight this week they need to reduce the roster to 53 by 4:00 PM Saturday.   They will make decisions that chance players lives and build a team to get us to the Super Bowl.   Just a little pressure no big deal.

I can’t wait to see the final roster.

Enjoy the game. Just the View from 151

GO RAVENS!