Exhibition Football: Vikes In Town (+Phelps)
I hesitate to say too much about tonight’s Ravens game at M&T, because, frankly, exhibition football is a waste of time. It serves one need, though, and that is to help move some guys up and other guys down.
Thus, an open thread for tonight’s game because it represents arguably the most important moment of Troy Smith‘s professional life so far. The starting QB job — at least for the beginning of the season — is his for the taking. I don’t think anybody wants to give it to Kyle Boller, despite his edge in experience, and Joe Flacco is simply not ready. So if Smith can manage to stay average or slightly better, he’s in. But if he looks anything like the Troy Smith many folks think he’ll end up being…then he doesn’t deserve it anyway.
Also keep an eye on two things: Ray Rice and the O-line. There’s still much to be learned there, and this game and the next one should say a lot.
PS — yes, I’m in awe of what Michael Phelps is doing, just like everyone else. But I’m struggling with what I could possibly say here that hasn’t been said already in every single other media outlet. Feel free to discuss away, but for my part all I can do is sit back and admire. I don’t think I have an angle on it.
only one thing i can add to the michael phelps story: these AMAZING animated gifs i found.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/spazzydancecore/1218634337628.gif
http://i38.tinypic.com/30dccpj.gif
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x18/gr8080/1218710866347.gif
http://content.ytmnd.com/content/6/0/5/6054acd84ebb524a1e1ad81656deb368.gif
I’ll toss my two cents in, in lieu of throwing a whole post, which I agree isn’t entirely necessary since it’s all over the place all the time.
The guy is a complete athlete, perfectly built for the most difficult swimming events out there.
Most impressive in my mind outside of the fact that his program is like running a marathon or two every day for eight days was the 200 freestyle win and world record. This is the event that every swimmer dreads coming up. It’s like the 800 in track. It’s not a sprint, but it’s not a distance event either. You have to go out at a pretty nasty pace and maintain it for the entire race, not an easy thing to do. For this kid to go out and crush that race as seemingly effortlessly as he did really speaks volumes about what the kid’s got up his sleeve.
It was disappointing to see Katie Hoff swim so poorly this Olympics, but sometimes these things happen at meets. You just hope it’s not when you’re on the world stage. Could be a bad taper, or just bad luck. The body doesn’t always do what you want it to. I feel for the kid, and I’m sure she’ll be back huge for the Pan Am games, and 2012 in London as well.
My question is this, if Phelps does it tonight, and wins more medals at one Olympics than anyone else, do you even bother trying to come back and do that again in 4 years? Or do you go out on top, knowing that it’s probably gonna’ be another 36 years before somebody does it again?
Either way, bad ass stuff. And, while I’m sure none of you are as into it as I am, the US men’s water polo team upset #1 ranked Croatia today and can secure a quarterfinals berth if they beat Germany on Monday. It’s exciting stuff, as the US is rarely a contender in the sport; normally it’s central and eastern European countries looking this good.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE
1st drive:
4/55 and a td
There you have it: eight gold medals — eight!! — for Michael Phelps. What can possibly said about that other than “wow”?
Meanwhile, is there a more ridiculous name for a radio show than “Baltimore Gameday Uncensored Postgame Show Powered By Comcast”?
The answer, if you’re struggling, is no. I’d say that 1300 should be ashamed, but they’re just doing what radio stations do. They never met an empty space they didn’t want to immediately plaster with an ad.
Mad props to Phelps.
Less mad but still plenty of props to Ray Rice, who looks damn good for a 5’8″ 200lb running back. He’s got the moves. Very happy we drafted him.
from the sun:
It’s difficult to tell which quarterback is ahead when looking at the ragged ratings of Smith (33.3) and Boller (36.8)
yikes.
it will be interesting to see what harbaugh will do if both of them continue to stink up the joint. i still think troy smith gives us a better chance, even if it’s a team psychology thing. i don’t think any raven feels that they’re going to win with boller.
and as tempting as it may be to throw flacco out there (he looked pretty awesome last night) i still think it would be a mistake.
again i ask, why the hell didn’t the ravens go after favre?
Flacco? awesome? I thought he looked decent, even though he was holding on to the ball a little too long, IMO.
HE certainly looked the best out of the three, but that being said, they weren’t on a even playing field.
Rice looked great…Walker looked horrendous.
Re: Phelps
Amazing to watch. Clearly an impressive, inspiring athlete.
And I admittedly need to do more homework, but that hasn’t stopped me from throwing things out here before.
Seems to me that swimming is a battle of half-seconds, tenths of seconds and smaller.
Has anyone ever beaten world records (in swimming) by 2-3 seconds before?
It seems odd to me. It seems fishy. In the context of fake fireworks, fake national anthems, walled ghettos and underage preteen gymnasts, well……
China is communist and communists are propaganda machines. They clearly were willing to stop at nothing for this olympics to be an international success.
Does that shaving an inch or two off each side of a pool?
I don’t know how they would do it, honestly.
I will look, but if someone can show me another instance where a swimmer conquered a world record by 2-3 second then…well…I will be Wrong.
Interesting theory, Joe. And it would be a SERIOUS shame if something like that were true. Can you imagine being Phelps if that were the case? It’d be crushing, absolutely crushing, both nationally and personally.
I will say from experience that different pools have different feels, and this one has been reported to be extremely fast. Most actual Olympic pools are built to be. They’re deep which affects how much the water moves when you move through it, they use new lane lines (which as silly as it sounds has a really big effect), they’re engineered to reduce turbulence, all in an effort to reduce times. In the same respect, the faster swimmers are rewarded by being seeded in the middle lanes, where the water is more still — think ripples moving out from the center. All of these things are legal, but you have to question how much oversight the IOC has when a pool is being built. I would imagine they get to inspect the pool prior to a race beginning, but who knows what they’re capable considering some of the other stuff we’ve seen.
Again with a H2O Polo update, didn’t get to see it as they were playing too early in the morning/too late at night for me to see it, but the US men defeated Germany 8-7 to advance to the quarter finals. This is huge, as it gives us momentum as we move into the elimination rounds. US coach Terry Schroeder has said he feels this team has a legitimate shot at the gold. This would be huge as the men have not medaled since 1988.
Reading the play by play, it’s apparent that the game was really competitive. 25 five meter penalty shots, US goalie Merill Moses blocked 14 shots on goal, and . The US plays the winner of Spain/Serbia on Friday.
There’s some controversy about that game, as the Serbs have been accused of taking a dive on their game against Italy — they used their second string goalkeeper, and a number of questionable shots on goal have been reported. Had they won, the Serbs would have faced more traditionally difficult opponents in the form Montenegro and Hungary, instead of Spain and the US. An intentional loss could give them a seemingly easier shot at the final and the gold.