Baltimore Ravens Recap and Reaction

Yesterday Joe Flacco and the defending 2013 Super Bowl Champions, the Baltimore Ravens rolled into south Florida to do battle with the Miami Dolphins. The Ravens coming off a 23-20 loss last week to the Buffalo Bills had something to prove today down in Miami the Ravens running game this season has been struggling this season, Ray Rice has not looked like the Ray Rice of the past. Joe Flacco has had his struggles this season as well. So yesterday against a struggling Miami team hopefully the defending champs can work out the kinks and get back on track, the Baltimore Ravens for the last 5 years since John Harbaugh has become the teams head coach has made the post season every years he has been there.

In the first half of play The Ravens struggled on offense, Flacco had difficulty moving the ball down the field the Ravens only were able to muster up two Justin Tucker field goals, Ray Rice fumbled the ball at one point, it looked like his struggles were going to continue for this game. Meanwhile The Dolphins struggled on offense too, Ryan Tannehill had trouble moving the ball down the field and only were able to achieve two Caleb Sturgis field goals, then at the end of the 2nd quarter Tannehill threw a 9 yard touchdown pass to Charles Clay, so at halftime it was 13-6 the Dolphins with the lead (Man Harbaugh better have a plan!!).


The Second half of play it seemed as though Harbuagh did have a plan, in the third quarter The Ravens defense shut down Tannehill and the rest of the Dolphins offense, meanwhile The Ravens scored twice first with a 2 yard touchdown rush scored by Ray Rice! and later in the quarter a 25 yard field goal by Justin Tucker, at the end of the third quarter it was 16-13 The Ravens were in the lead!! The 4th quarter The Ravens scored another touchdown, a 3 yard run by Ray Rice his 2nd touchdown for the day. Ray Rice had 74 yards today and 2 touchdowns a season best for him. That would be the last Raven touchdown for the day, The Dolphins scored again in the quarter with a 48 Yard Caleb Sturgis field goal. It didn't stop there later in the quarter Flacco got picked off by Reshad Jones who ran it back for a 25 yard touchdown, now it's getting ugly. However The Ravens held on and would score one more time with a 44 yard field goal to win the game for the Baltimore Ravens 26 -23 over the Miami Dolphins in Miami.

Well it was an ugly game, however a win is a win. Joe Flacco went 19/32 for 269 yards, 1 pic, and no touchdown passes. Flacco struggled at times but got off some nice passes especially to Torrey Smith who had 6 catches for 121 yards. Ray Rice really looked good today, especially since he scored 2 touchdowns.  The highlight of defense for the Ravens was Terrell Suggs, who had a hat trick with 3 sacks on Ryan Tannehill for the day! The Ravens go to 3-2 for the season and next week The Ravens are back in Baltimore and host Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, should def be an exciting game. I will be on twitter later today from 5-6 while Around the Horn and PTI are on, see you then.

https://twitter.com/DMVSportswire

Washington Capitals and University of Maryland Thoughts

The Caps took the ice last night in the lone star state, to do battle with the Dallas Stars. Washington coming off an exciting shootout victory against Calgary Thursday, and last night Braden Holtby was back beneath the pipes despite an amazing performance from Neuverith Thursday night.

The first period the Capitals struck early in 4:26 The greatness of 8 scored his 4th goal of the season!! but the Stars were shining bright for Dallas tonight in 8:01 it was a goal by Erik Cole for the Stars were tied 1-1 at the end of the 1st, not much out of the offense in the 1st period but the defense played very well.

The second period begins and at 12:07 Alex Chiasson scores one for the Stars, the rest of the 2nd period was a back and forth stalemate, the 2nd period ends and it's 2-1 Dallas up on Washington.

 The third period was a complete defensive game, with both teams playing clutch on defense. Neither team scores and the game ends 2-1 The Dallas stars get the win over The Washington Capitals. I think the Caps played much better defense than the first 2 games, but the offense forgot to produce tonight something they were able to do the first 2 games. Ovechkin has scored so far every game this season he seems to be back in full form this season, and I think that Holtby has been terrible the 1st three games giving up more than 2 or more goals in each game so far, put in Neuvirth IMO! The Caps next game is Thursday night against The Carolina Hurricanes.

The Maryland Terrapins rolled into the sunshine state Saturday undefeated, and ranked # 25 in the nation to do battle with the # 8 undefeated Florida State Seminoles. Maryland fans were very enthusiastic and excited for this game, a day later Maryland fans are horrified and embarrassed to be Terrapin fans. Maryland lost to Florida State 63-0!!!! I repeat 63-0!!! what can say say! embarrassing pathetic here is what coach Randy Edsall had to say about the game "We weren't very good. ... I take full responsibility for this. We didn't play well offensively, defensively, special teams." That about sums up this game I can't say much more about this game either hopefully next week they will fair better against Virgina. I will be tweeting today on the twitter page during the Ravens game, and tomorrow will write about today's Baltimore Ravens vs Miami Dolphins game, time today at 1:00 PM.

Washington Capitals and University Of Maryland Thoughts and Previews

   

Tonight the Washington Capitals travel to the lone star state to battle the Dallas Stars, game time 8:00 PM est, The Capitals coming off a wild Thursday night, home opener, winning in a shoot out victory over the Calgary Flames. Tonight Braden Holby will be back between the pipes for the red, despite a poor performance Thursday giving up 3 goals in the 1st period. I hope Holtby will be back in full form tonight, because Neuvirth played lights out Thursday stopping 2 shots in the shoot out against the Flames. The great 8 is back in Ovechkin form this season, Ovi had 2 goals Thursday and scored n the shoot out. Another player I am very excited about is Connor Carrick, who Thursday night got his first NHL goal against the heat, and on Tuesday night against the Blackhawks in Chi town we saw Mikhail Grabovski score 3 goals; who is currently leading the team in goals right now. Now the Offense has been able to score in the first two games but the defense has played very poorly, although Thursday night in the 2nd and 3rd period the defense looked much better, hopefully tonight the defense will step it up and be consistent the whole game. The Caps will not have Jack Hillen on the ice with them tonight after suffering an injury Thursday night from a nasty hit he took against the Flames. It should be an exciting one tonight in the Big D ( We Want Dallas!!!) I will be tweeting tonight during the game.

Noon Today the undefeated and now ranked # 25 Maryland Terrapins do battle with # 8 undefeated Florida State Seminoles in the sunshine state. Maryland who now under the 3rd full season of the Randy Edsall administration who last 2 seasons have been horrendous to watch, are now undefeated and ranked # 25! what a turnaround, Maryland biggest victory this year was a 37-0 demolishing over the University of West Virginia! that was the W that got them ranked # 25 historically though Maryland has not done well against the Seminoles though so we will see what happens today but I will be watching and I'm def excited for this one! if Maryland looses they will def lose their # 25 ranking but if they can pull of an upset here, or at least give the Seminoles a run for their money! than they might have a chance. Tomorrow I will be writing my thoughts on both games today!

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Capitals Win a Donnybrook in the home opener

Thursday night @ The Phone Booth in our nations capital, the great 8 and The Washington Capitals took the ice in their home opener against the Calgary Flames from the great white north. The Caps coming off a loss Tuesday in Chicago  to the defending champs had something to prove tonight in their home opener. The Caps for a decade straight have not been defeated @ home on opening night until last season.

The 1st period was a terrible performance both on the offense and the defense by the boys in red, Calgary struck first in 5:18 a goal by David Jones ( The fucking monkeys), then is got worse in 10:13 The Flames were burning again with a goal by Lee Stempnia, and then again in 16:22 the Flames burned one past Braden Holtby a shot by Jiri Hudler. The three goals led to a keeper change for the Caps out went Braden Holtby, and in went Michal Neuvirth. In addition Calgary's Lance Bouma put a nasty check on Jack Hillen knocking him out of the game with an injury, which led to a fight between Washington's Tom Wilson and Bouma, where Wilson pummeled him. That is how the 1st period went with the Caps trailing 3-0, I needed another Molson at this point.

The 2nd period got better (Thank God) in 7:30 Washington's rookie Connor Carrick scored a beautiful goal on Calgary, and all of a sudden there is life in Washington and the restless crowd at this point. Then in 9:05 this eternal Flame wasn't burning out, a goal for Calgary by Lance Bouma. Down 4-1, I'm thinking when is TNA Impact coming on? with the fate of Hulk Hogan, until the Great 8 put one in the net in 11:24, allright were back in it!, and Then again it was his greatness of eightness to strike again! with another goal!!! in 15:25, so at the end of the 2nd period its 4-3 and now we have a real donnybrook on our hands going into the third period.

The third period was a back and forth stalemate the Caps D and Neuvirth were clutch all period completely shutting down the Flames, and in 14:10 Nicklas Bakstrom struck with a goal to tie the game up 4-4, that's how it would end in the 3 rd period, going into overtime!! 5 more minutes and overtime ended in a stalemate!! which means shoot out(my favorite)!!!

In the shoot out Neuvirth was clutch, he successfully stopped both shots against him by Sven Baertschi, and Jiri Hudler. The Caps scored on both their shots first one by Mikhail Grabovsk, and The great 8 Ovechkin for the win! 2-0 in the shoot out, giving the Caps the W.  What a wild game, The Caps looked like a whole new team after Oates pulled Holtby for Neuvirth, the 3rd period the Caps defense looked good, and I was very impressed with the play by the rookie Connor Carrick it will be exciting to see how he progresses this season, I will write another entry tomorrow talking about the Caps game tomorrow night against the Dallas Stars, and the Maryland Florida state game. I will be tweeting tomorrow, during the Caps game and some of the Maryland game; see you tomorrow!!

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Washington Capitals Home Opener Preview!

 

Tonight @ 7:00PM Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will be rocking the Phone Booth in our nations Capital, for the home opener against a team from the great white north; The Calgary Flames. Hopefully that means that allot of rowdy Canadian fans will be in the house tonight which always makes going to a cap allot more fun, and the Molson Golden will be flowing tonight especially for this writer as I watch the game tonight! Tonight the Capitals need to step it up on the defense, Tuesday night's game in Chicago we saw Mikhail Grabovski score 3 goals we will see how he fares tonight, and how the goal playing of Brandon Holtby holds up tonight, last season was the first 10 time in 10 years the Capitals lost their home opener, 4-2 to the Winnipeg Jets; hopefully the Caps tonight can make it 10 out of 11 years they win their home opener. We will see tonight and I can't wait I'll be on our twitter page tonight during the game, and will write about the game tomorrow with my thoughts about the game and all the fall out from it. Here is a link for the twitter page! see you tonight! and lets rock the Red!!

 https://twitter.com/DMVSportswire

Washington Capitals Open Night! by Dan McHugh

Tuesday night a show down in Chitown, Alex Ovechkin and the boys in Red rolled into the windy city to do battle with the 2013 Stanley Cup defending Champions the Chicago Blackhawks!  The atmosphere in the United Center was exciting! def a big time game atmosphere, and the game being on NBC sports network, and not on Comcast Sports net. It was Ovechkin in prime time, on the big stage! going up against Patrick Kane and the defending champs!  Anticpation for an exciting showdown in Chi Town!

4 Minutes into the game the Hawks struck first  Brandon Bollig getting one past Holtby, but then in 10:42 in the first it was Ovechkin getting a goal! off the power play, followed up by a goal by the Blachawks; Patrick Kane in 11:06 in the 1st period, first period was fast pace and hard hitting the Caps were loosing but batlling hard the whle period.

The 2nd period was a back and forth stalemate for the first 10 minutes, then a goal by Mikhail Grabovski for the Capitals, but the champs would strike back with a goal in 14:32 Brent Seabrook off the power play. The Caps at the end of the 2nd Period trailing 3-2, but still very much in this game.


The 3rd period, The Caps stike hard and fast with goal # 2 for the night for Grabovski 59 seconds into the period. Then in 5:16 it was Grabovski for his third goal of the night! off a power play, however that would be it for our boys in Red as the Hawks would go on to score 3 more goals for the Caps to fall 6-4 to the Blackhawks, in Chicago. Barndon Holtby would have 29 saves for the night, but gave up 6 goals. Coach Adam Oates said after the game that felt the Caps had to many turnovers tonight and its hard to win when you trunover the puck as much as they did tonight.

I think that Caps looked good tonight despite the loss, they battled the Champs hard in a 6-4 loss. However clearly they need to improve on defense you can't give up 6 goals in a game, no matter  how good your offense is and expect to win games, Def a shining light for the game was Mikhail Grabovski with 3 goals for the night, it will be exciting to see what more he does as the season progresses, I will write on tomorrow night's game against the Calgary Flames, gametime 7:00 PM! from the Phone Booth in our nations capital!

7/10/12

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8lRTAKQhs4&feature=related

7-10-12 DMV SportsWire Returns!!