WHAT? ANOTHER POST? Yeah.

I'm back to writing on this blog, something I haven't done since the beginning of the NFL season. And we've only had one blogpost since then, and a lot happened this past weekend, so this blog is going to have a lot of writing. Read it in chunks.



Ravens

The game over the weekend was rough to watch. The game started off with a Chris Carr fumble recovered by the Patriots. Jared Gaither's injury caused a large stoppage of play, which was followed by a Ravens sloppy-looking end to the first half, including Joe Flacco throwing his third interception of the season on the Patriots side of the field with less than two minutes to go. The Ravens had a shot to win it at the end, but a dropped pass by Mark Clayton sealed the win for the Patriots, and the Ravens first loss on the young season.

What hurt the Ravens the most were two roughing-the-passer penalties on two different drives that led to Patriots touchdowns. Both were rather questionable, but the Ravens had a similar roughing-the-passer call go their way in this game, as well. Overall, the Ravens had a shot at this ball game and blew it themselves. The officiating was not great, but the fact of the matter is that the Ravens had a winning drive going at the end of the game, and Mark Clayton dropped the ball.

It's all good, though. The Ravens were going to lose this season eventually. It's just unfortunate that they had to lose to the New England Patriots, for these teams might have to play each other again down the road, probably in Foxboro.

Good matchup this weekend between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals in Baltimore. The winner of the game will have sole possession of first place, as both teams are 3-1. The Bengals have surprised many by beating the Packers and Steelers, but they nearly lost to the Browns in Cleveland last weekend, barely winning it in overtime. I believe the Ravens will win this one handily, 38-24, to go to 4-1 on the season.



Terps Football

What a difference a week makes. After watching this team fall apart against Rutgers on their way to 1-3, the Terps slugged it out against Clemson in their first ACC game of the year and won it 24-21. Granted a lot of this was luck, as it seemed like the Terps were trying to lose it, but Clemson wanted to lose it more, missing two key field goals and fumbling with 7 seconds left on the clock. The Terps defense was phenomenal, and the offense was stable enough to get this team to 1-0 in the ACC, and in first place in the Atlantic Division.

With three winnable games coming up (at Wake Forest, home against Virginia, at Duke) the Terps have a shot at going 4-0 in ACC play early on. This probably won't happen, but if the Terps play the way they played on Saturday, minus some of the poor play-calling by Ralph Friedgen, they should be able to take at least two of the next three. If they go back to playing the way they did against California, James Madison, Middle Tennessee State, and Rutgers, then look for three losses.

Let's hope the Terps can keep it up. They got the fans back on their side after last game, but they can quickly lose them again with a few more losses. Fans know that Maryland Madness, which promotes Maryland basketball, is October 16th, meaning Maryland basketball is just around the corner, and that team has a lot of potential. If this team loses games in the next couple of weeks, fans will go back to solely caring about the basketball team.



Orioles

The Orioles finally wrapped up their season. I always miss baseball when it ends, but it's good to see the Orioles go after having a terrible season. Good news: the Orioles finished the season 3-0 after the announcement that Dave Trembley will be coming back for the 2010 season. The Orioles finished overall on a 4-game win streak, which directly followed a terrible 13-game losing streak. They completed their twelfth straight losing season, finishing 64-98, their second worst season during this streak of losing seasons, second only to 63-98 in 2001.

Despite all of this, I believe Trembley deserves the chance he is getting. I have hated on Trembley all year, but he's done his job in terms of getting the young players playing time, and trying to mature them. What I like about this announcement by Andy MacPhail is that he says it's all about wins and losses next season. This is Trembley's last chance. If the Orioles have yet another down season, the Orioles will be looking for someone else in the managerial position. If the Orioles have a pretty good season, then it's perfect all around.

Goodbye Orioles baseball. As of now, I don't miss you too much, as you were, as usual, quite a downer. However, in a couple months I will miss baseball. And no doubt after the Ravens are finished I will be anticipating the start of next season. For now, however, I'm glad this miserable season is over.

Here are my Orioles awards for 2009:

Orioles Rookie of the Year: Nolan Reimold. Statistics- .279 BA, 15 HRs, 45 RBIs.
Sorry to: Matt Wieters, Brad Bergesen (remember him?)

Orioles Pleasant Surprise of the Year: Felix Pie. Statistics- .266 BA, 9 HRs, 29 RBIs. Hit for the cycle. Sorry to: Luke Scott, Adam Jones, Brian Matusz

Orioles Disappointing Player of the Year: Melvin Mora. Statistics- .260 BA, 8 HRs, 48 RBIs.
Way to avoid it to: Jeremy Guthrie, Chris Ray

Orioles MVP of the Year: Nick Markakis. Statistics- .293 BA, 18 HRs, 101 RBIs.
Sorry to: Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, Luke Scott

Before I continue on, I'd like to acknowledge Melvin Mora, who will most likely be leaving the Orioles. He was a class act on and off the field in his tenure with the Orioles, which extended from 2000 to 2009 (ten years of losing baseball). He stayed with the team, and had no complaints until this year, which was probably due to frustration at his own play more than anything else. He has been one of the best Orioles players in that timespan, with his best season being 2004 when he hit .340 with 27 home runs. I wish Mora luck in the future, and would like to thank him for what he brought to Orioles baseball for ten, miserable seasons.

Baseball postseason
Quickly, my picks for the postseason. Yankees will play the Cardinals. Cardinals will win the World Series in seven games.

NFL picks. How are those going?
A month back I picked the Patriots to beat the Packers in the Super Bowl. How is that looking right now? Well, the Patriots just beat the Ravens (which was my AFC championship pick) to go to 3-1, and the Packers are 2-2, having lost to their rival Vikings last night. Still a possibility that these two teams will meet, but they both haven't looked as good as advertised in the preseason.

Hope you didn't read the whole thing all the way through.