baltimoreorgan.com

Watching Baltimore suffer a heart-breaking 17-15 loss to the unbeaten Indianapolis Colts Sunday and drop to 5-5, an observer could draw a strong parallel between the primary needs of the Ravens and the Orioles, their hometown baseball “”cousins.’

  Like the Orioles, the Ravens are hoping to find players who will provide a significant upgrade at the corner positions.  Both teams will also be looking to secure a “deep’’ threat, be it a home-run hitter or a wide receiver who can outrun the secondary for a long reception.

  And both the Birds and Ravens are searching for a legitimate “closer.’’ In the Orioles’ case, Jim Johnson failed to prove he could do the job.  The same might be said for second-year quarterback Joe Flacco.  Despite the immense popularity he gained here as a rookie after the Ravens made a surprising late playoff run, this season Flacco has too often failed to produce a critical game-winning touchdown despite repeated opportunities in the red-zone (inside the 20).

  Although he played an error-free game for more than 57 minutes,  Raven fanatics and radio talk show hosts will spend the week leading up to a showdown with Pittsburgh second-guessing Flacco on his third-and-7 pass over the middle to diminutive running back Ray Rice that was intercepted by the Colts’ alert linebacker Gary Brackett.on the 13-yard line.

  With or without hindsight, it was a dumb call. There were several options that would have proven far less risky. If Flacco felt his best chance of achieving a first-down or securing a touchdown was passing the ball, then targeting Derrick Mason had to be his choice.  The wily, old wide receiver had repeatedly left young Colt defenders flatfooted with his precise routes, finishing with a game-high 9 receptions for 142 yards.

  Or, as a second option, there was Todd Heap, who could use his size and weight to out-maneuver the Indianapolis secondary which was playing without its usual starters.

  And then there was the “play-it-safe’’ option of running the ball and most likely giving new place-kicker  Billy Cundiff an opportunity to kick a sixth field goal from inside the 35 to give the Ravens an 18-17 lead with just over two minutes left.

   Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron accepted the blame for the final blunder. “When you’re already in field goal-range, you have to make a better call,’’

  Cundiff, who was signed last week to replace shaky Steve Hauschka, had converted from 46 44, 38, 36 and 20 yards in  his debut, but missed wide right on a 30-yard attempt in the third quarter that might have proved the difference.

   But the Ravens, perhaps fearful that even a successful Cundiff kick might leave Peyton Manning, the unquestioned master of the two-minute drill, too much time to put his team in position to win the game, elected to gamble on the pass play to Rice, who did his best to get Cameron off the hook.

  “I knew they would double me on that play,’’ said the all-purpose back who combined for 142 yards running and receiving. “I was trying to clear out for an underneath route to Todd (Heap. I took two guys with me. I’m not sure if Joe (Flacco) had pressure on him, but if I took two defenders with me, somebody’s got to be open. That’s the moral of the game.’’

   If Flacco and the Ravens had only failed this one time, it might have been forgivable.  But Baltimore had the ball four times inside the 20 and could not cross the goal line.

 Surely, the most frustrating of these blown chances came early in the fourth quarter when a 12-yard reception by Mason made it first and goal from the 1-yard line.  A sneak by Flacco and two up the middle runs by Willis McGahee resulted in a loss of two yards, and Ravens coach Jim Harbaugh had to again call on Cundiff.

   Doing the game color, Dan Dierdorf said that Flacco had informed him earlier in the week that he would be given a chance to call his own plays rather than looking for direction from the sidelines. But in the post-mortems,  Cameron again took responsibility fo

Back in the late Eighties, we enjoyed a trustful reporter-athlete relationship with the Washington Bullets Darrell Walker, a rugged defensive guard and effective playmaker.

He was always forthright and incisive in analyzing a game, attributes that would serve him well in future years when he became an NBA coach.

   But Walker was always one to openly dispute a referee’s call if he felt it was unjust. One referee, in particular, did not enjoy Walker questioning his decisions. During pre-game warm-ups, Walker would amble over to the press table and inquire, “Is Steve Javie working tonight?’ When the answer was affirmative, Walker would shake his head and say, “Then I’ll be gone by halftime.’’

    His prediction invariably proved true.  The first two times Walker opened his mouth or gave his tormentor a dirty look, Javie would hit him with a couple of quick technicals and the granting of an early shower.

     This bit of history came back in sharp focus last month when disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who served a 15-month prison term for conspiring with gamblers, successfully sold his jail-penned, “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA’’ to Triumph Books, a subsidiary of Random House.

  Watching the Ravens lose for the second time to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday was mindful of an 18^th century British nursery rhyme:

   “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye.

     Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie…..’

   Taking a few liberties, it was 38 Ravens who were baked, basted and battered by the Bengals.  In their first encounter three weeks ago the Ravens fully utilized their crying towels after committing three costly penalties to give Carson Palmer enough chances to find wide receiver Andre Caldwell open in the end zone for the winning touchdown.

   But this second encounter was devoid of any real drama. It was decided in the first 23 minutes when Cincinnati scored on its first three possessions to take a 17-0 lead. Baltimore played a futile game of catch-up the rest of the balmy afternoon, including a blown fourth-quarter 34-yard field goal attempt by Steve (“Wide Left’’) Hauschka that killed the Ravens’ momentum.

   At one point late in the tell-tale first half, the Ravens had almost as many penalty yards (73) as offensive production (85).  Clearly, Bengals’ boss Marvin Lewis, who played a major role in the Ravens’ Super Bowl victory in directing the unyielding, opportunistic defense, has now created a similar one in Cincinnati.

    A carefree driver busy texting slams into the back of a car stopped at a light. A dwarf-like man steps out of the damaged car, examines the extensive damage to his bumper and says, “I’m not happy.’’

   And the instigator replies, “Then you must be “Sleepy’ or ‘Sneezy.’”

   Now, the Ravens’ Ray Rice is not a dwarf, but he is a midget by NFL standards.  Wikipedia lists him at 5-8, while the Ravens’ guide adds an extra inch to a compact 195-pound frame.  If you believe Rice is 5-9, than I’m Wilt Chamberlain.

   It’s mindful of how Baltimore Bullets’ Hall of Fame center Wes Unseld was forever  listed in the NBA Guide as being 6-8, the same height from his All-American days at Louisville.  But, as Unseld would later reveal, he was barely 6-5 (minus his Afro), about the same size as Bullets’ power forward Gus Johnson.