David Steele

Suddenly, it all falls apart for Ravens

October 13, 2008

The specific question was about Joe Flacco's three interceptions. Were they the result of bad throws, bad decisions, bad protection, good defense, what?

    Recent columns

  • All the rage? No more

    October 12, 2008

    Jan. 13, 2007. That's when Baltimore's rage over the departure of the Colts to Indianapolis flickered out.

  • Hold off on the calls to fire Friedgen

    October 9, 2008

    No one has started a Web site that's called firefriedgen.com. Or firethefridge.com. Or fireralph.com. Or, it appears, any combination of these. Honest. I checked.

  • Ravens' loss a real head-slapper

    October 6, 2008

    What are you madder about this morning? The injustice? Or the collapse?

  • Flacco starting well, but so did Young

    October 5, 2008

    Not to throw ice water on the Joe Flacco story, but everyone surely is aware of who will be on the opposite sideline from him at M&T Bank Stadium today.

  • Wild pitch: O's should re-sign Cabrera

    October 2, 2008

    I think I speak for all long-suffering Orioles fans when I say to Andy MacPhail and the rest of the big decision-makers for the 2009 season …

  • Flacco keeps poise, shows nerves of steel

    September 30, 2008

    Shouldn't Joe Flacco have fallen apart after coughing up that ball? That should have done it for him, and for the Ravens, and for the idea that a rookie quarterback could win his first NFL road start.

  • Newsome shows that actions trump words

    September 29, 2008

    It's one of life's funny coincidences that Matt Millen finally got fired by the Detroit Lions the same week Ozzie Newsome's Ravens got ready to take a 2-0 record into Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. (And the same week Jerry Reese's defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants took their bye at 3-0. But that's getting ahead of the story.)

  • Win games, win fans

    September 28, 2008

    A statement - of faith, or just of their sense of history - could have been made by too-long-suffering Orioles fans in this final weekend of another lost season. But long before today's regular-season closer against the Toronto Blue Jays, the biggest statement already had been made.

  • UM looks to break off pattern, go up top

    September 25, 2008

    Now, with Saturday's game at Clemson, comes the start of Maryland's quest to win a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

  • Weathering a long, hard road ahead

    September 15, 2008

    Think of it this way. Imagine if, in the first game of the John Harbaugh Era and the first game of the Joe Flacco Era, the Ravens had lost. With Hurricane Ike shaking up the remaining schedule (among other things), everybody would have had an extra week to marinate in the gloom and doom.

  • Postponing game the right call

    September 14, 2008

    As soon as you woke up yesterday morning, turned on the TV and saw the reports from Texas, you knew there wasn't going to be any NFL game played in Houston this week. NFL officials had to know it then, too.

  • With UM, expect the unexpected

    September 13, 2008

    This could end up being just another classic Maryland football tease, you know.

  • Terps' Williams spectator to history

    September 11, 2008

    The fact that a Texas Western team with an all-black starting lineup was facing an all-white Kentucky team for the national championship is not what first caught Gary Williams' attention as he sat at Cole Field House on a March afternoon in 1966.

  • Defense shows its mettle is rust-proof

    September 8, 2008

    How often does this defense, the near-legendary Ravens defense, find itself in the shadows of its offensive counterpart? Even on a day like yesterday, when that offense managed to be uncommonly clever and efficient yet still shoot itself in the foot time and time again?

  • If Reed walks away, it should be with his head held high

    September 7, 2008

    Nobody should feel bad at all if Ed Reed is not in uniform this afternoon for the Ravens' season opener. Not the fans, not the Ravens, definitely not Reed himself.

  • Well, the QB situation could be worse — right?

    September 4, 2008

    Kyle Boller wasn't in the locker room at the Castle early yesterday afternoon, not surprising because he likely had not known for long that his season, and probably his Ravens career, was over. Troy Smith wasn't in the locker room, largely because he isn't close to returning to practice. Todd Bouman wasn't in the locker room at that point, probably because he had barely been an official member of the team for more than a few hours, if that.

  • ACC bigger, but certainly not better

    September 1, 2008

    One week into the college football season might be a little early to remind everybody of what a disaster the big expansion was for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

  • Beginning of mystery

    August 31, 2008

    It should have been only a quarterback "competition," and a settled one, for that matter. Maryland picks Jordan Steffy, he plays three quarters against Delaware in the season opener, he sits in the fourth quarter in favor of Chris Turner and the Terps hold on, 14-7.

  • Running out of time, QBs

    August 29, 2008

    Coming into this game, the consensus was there was more riding on it than your average preseason finale. More than any other preseason finale in the entire NFL. More than any other preseason finale ever. There was no downplaying how important this was.

  • Robinson to King to Obama, a combination for progress

    August 28, 2008

    Today's date, Aug.28, links two epic moments in American history and in the progress of African-Americans in this country: The Rev.Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington in 1963 and Barack Obama's speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president tonight. That has been well-documented.

  • Ragtag 'D' might not hold Ravens together

    August 25, 2008

    The good news is that right now, the Ravens have about six candidates for the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year Award.

  • Looking for trouble? Then look at how Ravens compared with ragtag Rams

    August 24, 2008

    The St. Louis Rams didn't have Steven Jackson or Orlando Pace in uniform, did have a group of young or ordinary receivers in uniform, and had a quarterback with a 14.1 preseason passer rating.

  • Quick QB resolution wasn't in the cards

    August 21, 2008

    In hindsight, we were all out of our minds to think this quarterback thing would be resolved by now, weren't we?

  • One throw away from QB controversy

    August 18, 2008

    Joe Flacco was 13 yards from sending the Baltimore metropolitan area into complete panic Saturday night.

  • Rice takes opportunity, runs with it

    August 17, 2008

    In his second NFL start, Ray Rice delivered a shot of adrenaline to the Ravens' offense.

  • Once again, Terps, Ravens share questions under center

    August 14, 2008

    Time for the weekly football training camp quiz. (Well, not "weekly," just today, actually.) Which prominent coach in the state - the Ravens' John Harbaugh or Maryland's Ralph Friedgen - said the following this week:

  • Despite ailments, O's on track

    August 11, 2008

    You see games like this, and you wonder how they're as close to .500 as they are. Then you remember - wow, they are.

  • Throwing flags on absurd play

    August 10, 2008

    Sixteen final thoughts about the Brett Favre saga, and I do mean final. (Subject to complete reversal of plans later.)

  • No need for overreaction in QB battle

    August 7, 2008

    One of the many positive and exhilarating aspects of any NFL team's first preseason game is the opportunity for everybody to wildly exaggerate the outcome.

  • Broken promise from O's starters

    July 21, 2008

    One after another, like line drives up the middle, reminders keep coming of what the Orioles' starting rotation could have been and what it has turned out to be.

  • Questions linger for quarterbacks

    July 20, 2008

    Joe Flacco's signing last week means a lot of things, but among them is this: The first-round pick and the quarterback of the future will report to Ravens training camp on time tomorrow.

  • All-Star ties aren't so bad, Bud

    July 17, 2008

    All right, everybody, let's say it together. Bud Selig, we are so, so sorry.

  • Anthony exhibit step in right direction

    July 14, 2008

    It was a day full of new and surprising experiences for Carmelo Anthony. He was the center of attention yesterday as the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards unveiled the exhibit dedicated to him - but he was unaware some of the artifacts, such as a photo of him as a child taking a jump shot on a Baltimore playground, would be in the exhibit.

  • City sits on sideline in NBA competition

    July 6, 2008

    The two news items from early and late Wednesday weren't exactly related, but they were more than coincidental. In the morning: a front-page story in The Sun about how The Relic on Howard Street (aka 1st Mariner Arena) still makes a decent profit. At night: a settlement that allows the NBA's SuperSonics to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City.

  • Ogden top of the line

    June 13, 2008

    When Brett Favre officially retired that day in March in Green Bay, he drew a big crowd, much as Jonathan Ogden did yesterday in Owings Mills. Just like Favre's announcement, and like Michael Strahan's earlier this week, Ogden's farewell was carried live on national TV (in homes that get the NFL Network, at least).

  • O's charm is not limited to city

    June 8, 2008

    Putting "Baltimore" back on the Orioles' road jerseys next season is a good thing; no one can argue that. Anything the franchise can do to cater to the core of the fan base - after all the years of alienating it in so many ways - is welcome. You don't have to be an Orioles lifer to get that.

  • Railbird

    May 15, 2008

    By nature, he's a bird trainer. But he's no chicken.

  • Caught a break

    January 19, 2008

    Not that Jason Garrett isn't making enough money now, but the Ravens should send him a bonus. A thank-you for not taking the head coaching job. A token of appreciation for sparing the franchise a big potential headache and, possibly, for opening the door to a better candidate.

  • Bisciotti should take chance, put Ryan in charge

    January 1, 2008

    Rex Ryan should be hired as the Ravens' next coach before he gets away.

  • Throw out the lead runners

    December 16, 2007

    After everything the Mitchell Report laid out about the depth and breadth of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, after all the suggestions and recommendations, after all the names were named and blame was assigned ... the same two foxes were left to guard the henhouse.

  • Unanswered questions with hasty conclusions

    November 28, 2007

    Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, said it as well as it could be said. The sudden, violent, premature death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, he said yesterday, "leaves many people behind struggling to understand it."

  • Arena first step in filling basketball void in city

    March 25, 2007

    Enough area basketball fans and observers said it while walking around HSBC Arena last weekend to make it more than a fleeting thought by a niche audience:

  • Another Colt in No. 88 jersey is more injustice for Mackey

    January 29, 2007

    Old-time Baltimore football fans weren't the only ones who thought there was something strange about the sight of No. 88 on the Colts.

  • Sainted Hall should allow all tainted players

    November 30, 2006

    You don't want to be in the shoes of the Baseball Hall of Fame voters right now. A lot of them don't want to be in their shoes.

  • With O'Neil's passing, bit of past slips away

    October 8, 2006

    Everybody, it seems, has a Buck O'Neil story today. My story is this: I never got the chance to meet him.

  • Robinson's dismissal is crying shame

    October 1, 2006

    For the second time this season, Frank Robinson was moved to public tears. The first time, in May, after he had to bench an overmatched catcher in mid-inning, showed the depth of his humanity beneath that famously tough exterior.

  • Memory of shock, emptiness still fresh 20 years later

    June 19, 2006

    I was sleepy. But I couldn't have been that sleepy.

  • Lonise Bias: reaching people since 1986

    June 18, 2006

    Lonise Bias has made it her mission over the past 20 years that her son Len's death not be in vain. Tuesday was the latest proof that it was not.

  • Cheers for Palmeiro's last at-bat could be start of new beginning

    August 15, 2005

    WITH TWO OUTS and two on in the bottom of the ninth inning yesterday afternoon, the Rafael Palmeiro saga officially turned back into a baseball-only story.

  • Forgiveness is in air at yard as team's fallen hero signs in

    August 12, 2005

    IT WAS big, almost as big as the girl waving it over her head. It was bright orange with black lettering, and it read, "Welcome Back Raffy."

  • Fans can make a stand -- by sitting at home

    August 11, 2005

    SO, Rafael Palmeiro is still lawyering up. Fine. He spent the last nine days of his 10-day steroid suspension in silence and solitude.

  • Anthony saves face; message saves lives

    May 12, 2005

    OFFICIALLY, THE gathering in a vacant lot behind Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday afternoon was the kickoff of a state-run anti-violence project.

  • As a voice is stilled, memories are stirred

    March 7, 2005

    IT WAS THE spring of 1977. I was 12 years old, living in Landover, pondering my upcoming ascent to high school and sitting at a crossroads. I needed a baseball team to call my own, and it was obvious by then, six years after the Senators moved, that my hometown was not going to provide me with one.

  • Heading back to East Coast a long, strange trip for columnist

    September 9, 2004

    YOU'RE NEVER coming back from there.

David Steele

David Steele

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