When it comes to football, there’s nothing quite like Ravens-Steelers week. There seems to be just a little more purple being worn around the Baltimore area. There’s just a few more flags hanging out car windows and just a few more people ready to strike up a conversation about the game at a moment’s notice. Oh, and there’s just a little more trash talking, too. Even Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz couldn’t help himself this week. “Not sure if I just saw the scariest costume of the night or if it was just a Steeler fan,” Kamenetz wrote on Twitter the evening of Halloween. Kamenetz’ …

Former Ravens fullback Le’Ron McClain couldn’t believe he was booed in his return to M&T Bank Stadium during the NFL preseason. Former wide receiver Derrick Mason had the displeasure of being booed twice in three weeks when he was traded from the New York Jets to the Houston Texans. Now, with former tight end Todd Heap returning to the city he represented as a Raven for a decade, will Heap, too, be booed? The Arizona Cardinals' tight end is apparently doing what he can to avoid that, as he took out a half-page ad in The Baltimore Sun Friday thanking the organization, the fans and reminding …

Joe Flacco can’t catch a break. Even in a week after he stood in against a surprisingly tough Houston Texans pass rush while still throwing for 305 yards and leading the Ravens to a 29-14 win, it only took a couple minutes of searching to find one of the fourth-year quarterback’s detractors. “@RealSkipBayless claims that Ravens as a team not sold on Flacco as their QB. C'mon Skip... Don't show up at any Ravens bar,” Lance Beasman wrote on Twitter. The tweet, of course, was referring to ESPN analyst Skip Bayless, who’s rarely had nice things to say about Flacco. That’s fine, of course. Bayless…

Few have much doubt that the Ravens will beat the Houston Texans when the teams meet up at 4 p.m. Sunday, and that’s the problem. The Ravens struggled to stop the Texans last season, when Baltimore needed overtime to gut out a 34-28 win in December 2010. This year, the team has already suffered one letdown, losing to the Tennessee Titans after a huge win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. “#Ravens must be careful not to fall into media's trap against #Texans,” Ravens blogger Samuel Njoku wrote on Twitter. The trap, of course, is that most are picking the Ravens to easily dispatch of the injury-…

The Ravens may be off this weekend, but that doesn’t mean today isn’t still Purple Friday for many around Baltimore.  Still, not everyone is celebrating the way they might like. “I really wish we could wear our Ravens jerseys on purple Fridays at work,” wrote @britnystarr on Twitter Friday morning. I’ve worked places where the ritual of wearing a football jersey to work on Friday joined the ranks of which department the boss favors and who forgot to clean out the microwave in office gossip circles. Some say wearing a football jersey to work is unprofessional, period. Others ask what’s wrong …

It’s not like Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata needed to make a splash in the season’s first two games to get paid. Already a two-time Pro Bowler, Ngata established himself as one of the best defensive tackles in football in recent years. But it couldn’t have hurt Ngata’s contract negotiations that he was the most disruptive player on the field through Baltimore’s first two games, a giant win over Pittsburgh and a deflating loss to Tennessee. So, finally, after the 330-pound mammoth showed he might actually be getting better, the Ravens signed him up earlier this week. Then, they rejoiced…

Is there such a thing as having too big a win on the opening week of the NFL season? The Baltimore Ravens beat up on their bitter AFC North rival in a 35-7 domination of the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week One. Even the Ravens themselves were somewhat surprised by the final score. Now, the question is whether the team has anything left for a follow-up this weekend versus the Tennessee Titans.  “Is it possible the Baltimore Ravens won their Super Bowl on opening Sunday,” ESPN analyst Skip Bayless tweeted. “Waited all offseason for that game. Dominated nemesis. Now what?” The Ravens must travel to …

Ravens linebacker and special teams ace Brendon Ayanbadejo had no illusions about what would happen to the team’s roster following its final preseason game last week.  “It's that time of year where you have to say goodbye to friends,” Ayanbadejo Tweeted. With rosters all around the NFL being cut down to 53 players,  there were more than a few football players looking for jobs after Saturday’s 6 p.m. deadline. In Baltimore, the most notable cut may have been backup running back Jalen Parmele. It was Parmele who was clearly on Ayanbadejo’s mind when he Tweeted. “@Jayparmele gonna miss my dog,” …

As he was announced as a Kansas City starter before Friday’s preseason game in Baltimore, former Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain got quite the surprise when some fans in M&T Bank Stadium booed the Pro Bowler. After the game, he let the Twitterverse know his feelings in a tweet to former teammate Fabian Washington, a cornerback with the New Orleans Saints. Said McClain: “You know they booed me Tonight** still went hard!!!!” The fullback left Baltimore following a season in which he unsuccessfully but quietly campaigned to receive more carries. The back was instead relegated to full-time …

This hasn’t been an easy week for Ravens fans. Just as the reeling Baltimore faithful were starting to collect themselves following the departure of wide receiver Derrick Mason and the surprising signing of running back Ricky Williams to play back-up to Ray Rice, those same fans were forced to watch as the Ravens stumbled through 13-6 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the first game of the NFL’s pre-season. With talk radio and Twitter still flooded following the loss, in which Ravens wide receivers struggled, the team’s off-season roller coaster took yet another unexpected turn when General …

How many times have you driven past 1 Winning Drive right off Deer Park Road and wondered to yourself what the Baltimore Ravens coaches and players were up to right at that moment? Football is adored in Baltimore, as demonstrated by the 24,000-plus fans who made the trip to M&T Bank Stadium Saturday, not to watch a Ravens football game, but to watch a Ravens football practice. For the record, just over 18,000 people were announced at Saturday night's Orioles game. Then again, with the Birds in last place at 44-67 as of Monday afternoon, it could be argued the O's game was just as meaningless…