Tuesday Morning Leftovers: A Monday Night To Remember
HOME, DIVISION STREAKS CONTINUE; ROSTER MOVE MADE
By Joe Platania
BALTIMORE 44, CINCINNATI 13
The game marked the beginning of the 15th regular season of operation for the facility now known as M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens are 134-107. It is also the 10th year that the team will be playing on SportExe Momentum Turf instead of grass. m... The Ravens play their first road game in Philadelphia (1 p.m., Sept. 16; WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM). ...
The Ravens are now riding an nine-game intradivisional winning streak and now have won 28 of 33 home games, including the last 12, under head coach John Harbaugh. ... The Ravens went into Monday's game having won three straight against Cincinnati after losing nine of the previous 12 meetings. ... The Ravens now hold a 19-14 lifetime head-to-head edge against the Bengals. ...
The team waived running back Bobby Rainey before the game and promoted Anthony Allen, a 2011 seventh-round pick, to the active roster from the practice squad. ... The crowd marked the Ravens' 129th straight regular-season sellout, covering every home game in team history. The entire regular-season schedule has already been sold out, which will run the streak to 136. ...
Wide receiver Jacoby Jones, ostensibly the team's top choice for both kick and punt returner, was nearly non-existent in that regard, running back one punt for 9 yards. Lardarius Webb fair-caught one punt and ran another back, also for 9 yards. Undrafted rookie Deonte Thompson ran back four kicks for a 22-yard average, his longest runback going for 27. ...
The Ravens are now 33-21 in September, their best-ever month, and a league-best 10-3 under Harbaugh. ... Five members of the suddenly contending Baltimore Orioles -- catcher Matt Wieters, shortstop J.J. Hardy, relievers Jim Johnson and Darren O'Day, and first baseman Mark Reynolds -- were at the game. Cal Ripken, Jr. and Brady Anderson were also present. ...
With two sacks, defensive tackle Haloti Ngata had his third career multiple-sack game. ... Ray Lewis notched his 20th career forced fumble during the fourth quarter when he stripped the ball from Andy Dalton and Lardarius Webb recovered. It led to a Ray Rice 1-yard touchdown. ... Center Matt Birk played in his 195th career game and his 49th straight game as a Raven. ...
Punter Sam Koch played in his 97th consecutive game, tops among all current Ravens and tying himself with kicker Matt Stover for the fifth-longest streak in team history. That tandem is surpassed only by Jarret Johnson (129), Peter Boulware (111), Stover (110) and Terrell Suggs (105). Joe Flacco and linebacker Jameel McClain each played in their 65th straight games. ...
The Ravens committed six penalties. Last year, the team was flagged for 92 infractions, the third-lowest single-season total in team history and just three below the all-time mark of 89, set in 2001. After last year's opener, the Ravens had seven penalties. ... The 13 points the Ravens allowed was slighlty less than the team's league-best per-home-game average of 13.3 since 2008. ...
The Ravens have now played 159 straight regular-season games without being shut out. They have scored in 255 of 257 lifetime games and haven't been blanked at home since the 2002 home opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Including the postseason, Baltimore has scored points in 272 of its 274 all-time games. ... Safety Ed Reed turns 34 years old Sept. 11. ...
Baltimore ran the ball 23 times and attempted to pass it 35 times, with three sacks allowed. The team's run-pass ratio last season was -118 (459 runs, 577 passes, including quarterback sacks allowed), a respectable number for the league's current pass-laden era. ... Last year, the Ravens' 16 regular-season games were decided by 198 points, or 12.3 points per game. ...
Heading into Monday night, the Ravens could claim the third-longest active winning streak in season openers, having taken their last four straight. New England has won its last nine Week One games and Green Bay had won five in a row. The longest active season-opening-game losing streaks belong to the Cleveland Browns (eight), St. Louis (six) and Carolina (four). ...
Sunday's usual gameday-eve walk-through practice featured a visit from former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Early during his career, Ali battered an opponent that wouldn't acknowledge his name change from Cassius Clay by hitting him and saying, "What's my name?" The Ravens have an amended version of that -- "What's our name?" -- as a rallying cry...
According to the latest salary-cap figures provided to Pro Football Talk, the Ravens now find themselves with a mere $1.4 million in cap room after the restructuring of left tackle Bryant McKinnie's contract, the fourth-lowest figure in the league. San Francisco has the least room at $880,000; Pittsburgh is at $1.6 million;, and Philadelphia has the most with $21.4 million. ...
Backup lineman Ramon Harewood, who has missed each of his first two seasons while on injured reserve (knees, ankle), is appealing the $8,000 fine he received from the league from landing on St. Louis defensive tackle Michael Brockers, an LSU standout who was the team's first-round draft pick. Brockers is expected to miss at least the season's first four games. ...
The Ravens won the coin toss and chose to receive. ... The visiting Bengals wore white jerseys and white pants while the host Ravens wore purple jerseys and white pants. ... The Bengals were introduced as a team before the game, while the Ravens had their offensive unit run through the tunnel. ... The Ravens' captains were Flacco, Lewis, Bobbie Williams and Corey Graham. ...
The Ravens deactivated guard/tackle Jah Reid, whose troublesome calf did not heal quite fast enough for him to make it back for the game. Also sitting out were rookie cornerback Asa Jackson, tight end Billy Bajema, rookie defensive end DeAngelo Tyson, wideout LaQuan Williams (Poly, Maryland), linebacker Sergio Kindle and defensive tackle Bryan Hall. ...
Cincinnati had a longer injury list coming into the game and fewer decisions to make. The Bengals sat down rookie cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick -- the team's top draft pick this year has a knee problem -- defensive end Carlos Dunlap, running back Bernard Scott, cornerback Jason Allen, tight ends Richard Quinn and Donald Lee, and wide receiver Ryan Whalen. ...
With 19 touches, running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis now has 556 touches without a fumble since he came into the league as an undrafted free agent in 2008. ... Backup quarterback Bruce Gradkowski and his brother, Ravens center Gino Gradkowski, both got into the game during the fourth quarter. ... For the 17th straight game, Mike Nugent did not attempt a 50-yard field goal...
The Bengals' Andy Dalton was one of 10 rookie or second-year quarterbacks to start in Week One, a league record. ... Last year, Cincinnati faced six backup quarterbacks. ... The Bengals are one of 10 teams to have made the playoffs during two of the last three years. ... Last year, Cincinnati was 1-7 against teams with winning records and 0-8 against eventual playoff teams. ...
Because the Ravens and Bengals played each other in Cincinnati to end the 2011 season, Monday night's game marked the second time in Bengals history that they have opened a regular-season schedule versus the team against which they closed the previous year. Cincinnati ended the 2005 season against Kansas City, then opened 2006 by playing the Chiefs again. ...
The Ravens won the turnover battle at plus-2. Since Marvin Lewis became coach in 2003, the Bengals have a plus-30 turnover ratio, tied for fifth best in the league and just plus-6 behind Baltimore. ... In total takeaways since 2003, the Ravens are second (285) and Cincinnati fifth (267). In points off turnovers since '03, the Ravens are tops (937), but Cincinnati is in fourth place at 808. ...
The Bengals' staff includes defensive backs coach Mark Carrier (Ravens, 2006-09), quarterbacks coach Hue Jackson (Ravens, 2008-09), special teams/linebackers Paul Guenther (Western Maryland, 1994-95), special teams coach Darrin Simmons (Ravens, 1998), strength coach Chip Morton (Ravens, 1999-2001) and assistant Jeff Friday (Ravens, 1999-2007). ...
A moment of silence was observed in honor of Art Modell, the former majority owner of the Ravens, who passed Sept. 6 at the age of 87. An Air Force flyover and an "ART" marching band formation preceded the game. Also, Olympic swim legend Michael Phelps was honored and tossed the coin. Six other Olympians were feted at the end of the third quarter. ...
The head official was replacement referee Richard "Matt" Nicks, one of only a few officials that got four preseason games. It now appears that the replacements will work all games through Week Five. ... Scouts from the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns were in attendance. ... The game took three hours, four minutes to play after a preseason during which the Ravens' four games averaged 3:15. ...
Former Ravens tight end Todd Heap, now with the Arizona Cardinals, was spotted in the Ravens' locker room late Monday night. He is in town to attend the Modell funeral. ... Kickoff temperature was 74 degrees with clear conditions.
Posted Sept. 11, 2012
