The message for the team, is that we are coming off the bye week and to block everything else out. Know everything that we went through in the first half of the season, and understand where we are. You can't ask for anything else, no matter what your record is, than to be playing for first place. When you do have that opportunity, you have to seize that moment.

The most exciting part is we know that this is a love/hate relationship with the Steelers. We respect them, but we don't sit well with Pittsburgh and they don't sit well with us. It's a nasty ballgame, and that's why I said there's no better team than to go in and do it the way we're going in to do it. All the pressure's on them, it's their house, they are favored and it's Monday Night Football...The nation is watching.

It's the second half of the season, let's roll! Because we don't have pressure on us; nobody's looking for us to do anything, like always. When you line up the players, you know who's coming to play. And that's what the message was pretty much about. Look forward now, let's do what we do. Let's play Ravens-style football without listening to what everybody else is talking about, and let's go into Pittsburgh, a team we know and match up with very well with, and let's get us a victory.

Yesterday I shared my message to the team this week and now I have one for the Yardbarker fans. Once again in life, everything on the outside ain't really what's going on with you on the inside, and that's what you've got to be able to decipher from living in the world today.

You've got to know that every day you're waking up to find a different purpose about your life. 'What am I up today? Who am I supposed to effect? Why should I do this? Why should I do that? Why should I work out? Why should I break? Things like that. And those are the things that I think we forget every day of our life because of our worldly duties. I have to work, I have to cook, I have to clean... All of this, instead of really focusing on what we should focus on first, and that's our purpose every morning.

So if there's a message today, it is once again waste no time. Let's roll on finding out who you truly are in life. And I think everything else kind of falls in place.

Yardbarkers,

First off, I would like to apologize for missing last week, we had a lot going on with the team, so I was all over the place...Don't think I forgot about you though...It's good to be back.

My message to the team this week is Brotherhood is found thru our struggles, But now we have overcame, it is our time. Take it upon yourself to be better everyday. It was really just talking about adversity. We've been through adversity, dealing with all these injuries, all the ups and downs, and my message is very simple: that stuff pulls champions together. When you go through things like that and you have to fight through it. Once you learn how to deal with those things and you know how to fit people in like 'next man up', the next thing to do is keep moving.

Now it's time for us to grab momentum because the scariest thing ever is when you add confidence and camaraderie with talent. And that's one thing that we have and probably makes us one of the best in the business right now. When you add that together, we'll get on the right road. That's pretty much what my message was about. 5-2 going into the bye is the only thing that matters.



Last week we played well as a defense. I think every year it just shows what our identity is. At the beginning of the year we get all our kinks out very early, and then as the year progresses we get more and more dominant. I think last week really showed, as a team, defensively once we get up on anybody it's going to be hard for teams in this league to just try and come back on us. So I think last week was a big win to getting back to what our true identity is, which is running the football and doing the things we're supposed to be doing and playing hard-nosed defense.

Sometimes in life, we try to create what we think should happen. Sometimes God has a totally different plan. He wants to see if I can continue to be the leader that I am. He wants to see if I come to work with the same energy to lead my ball club, no matter what happens. No matter if someone fumbles, no matter if somebody blows coverage, am I going to turn my back on my teammates? And it's the same thing in life. What do you get out of life when things don't go your way? What if it's not your season? What if it's not your week? I want to tell my Yardbarker fans that life ain't always the way you planned it. But make sure your mind is in the right place, no matter what the situation is. And when the day ends, you'll be able to say that no matter what came at me, I was able to stand against whatever came. And that's the same thing I think life is about. Life is about making a stand. Making one stand that I know things won't always be the way I want them to be, but I got faith enough to know that whatever it is, I'm OK with it because I know God is willing our mind. If I got a message for anybody, just know that life ain't always perfect. But if you have your mind right in life, you don't have to run around all circumstances. You don't run from losses. You go through them, because when you go through them, that's what builds a man, that's what builds integrity, that's what builds character -- going through things, not around them.

This week I'm looking for complete togetherness as a team, bringing everything together...offense, defense, and special teams. We should go take care of the business that we need to take care of. We're playing against some young ball clubs coming up, and the 49ers are a very good team, they're young in a lot of different places and we need to play like the veteran club we are. We need to go establish that we are a team to be reckoned with. And that's getting a win on the road for the first time this year.

Message of the Week: It's never about the fall. What is your mindset thru the journey. Character is found thru adversity.

Because the season is young, you have to ask yourself as a team, 'What's the big picture?' And the big picture is Arizona [Super Bowl XLII]. When you find yourself in a hole, whatever the hole may be, when you find yourself losing a game like we lost to Cleveland, giving them the game the way we did, you have to understand everybody's going to go through that. Everybody's going to go through a downside. But the bottom line is, what do you do when you come back to practice? Do you worry about what you messed up in Cleveland, or do you say, 'When I come to practice I'm going to get better.' As a team, we've got to understand one thing: OK, we lost. We're 2-2, let's deal with it. And that's why my message is what it was. You can stay stuck in misery, you can stay stuck in doubt, you can stay stuck in fear. But, when you've got your eye on the prize, there's only one thing that matters, and that's the next week...win, lose or draw. So that's why it is what it is. What is your mindset? Do I come back to work and get better, to understand that this is a 16-game season? And in the first-quarter of this season, we're at .500. Here we go. Same thing last year, [after] we started off 4-0, we lost 2 in a row and it was perceived that everything was wrong with us. We couldn't score, defense couldn't get anything done -- we finished 13-3. I have been on both sides of things... I've started off hot, I've started off cold...but, the thing is to get the kinks out now. Because late in November and December, that's when you need everything clicking. So, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything. Of course you want to win, but if you do lose and you find yourself in a difficult position, how encouraged are you in your mind? What makes you come back? And for me, that's why my message is what it is.

What's up everyone, I am happy to join the Yardbarker world...This is my first of many blog posts, I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you, and responding to your questions and comments whenever I can.

I think that through the blog, you can expect is just an open honest view that a lot of people won't share. A lot of people have perspectives but I truly believe that even a fool is counted wise until he opens his mouth.

The beauty of what I want to tell you guys is that if you're a true fan of the Baltimore Ravens, go look at our record when we play in November and December. They're talking about all these hard teams that we've got. But the bottom line is no matter who lines up and plays football against us... if you're a Ravens fan, your bet is good.

When you look at our defense, we're sitting right now I think number 8 in defense. We were kind of the same way the last 3 or 4 years and we're number 1 in rushing defense. There are so many things that we're doing as a team right now that is going to prepare us for when we get into the second-half of the season.



I put a thought of the week on the board leading into our locker room every week. Things that we, as a team need to focus on.

This week, the message was: The only thing close is horseshoes. Take this win and lets roll. It's OUR time right now.

By that, I mean that nothing else matters. You hear all the things that people want to talk about like the game was close and that game was close. The only thing close counts is horseshoes. And that's why I put it up there. Because in this business, there's only one thing that matters and that's a win and a loss. If we're 1-3, then everybody wants to say, 'Oh, the Ravens ain't this.' We're 2-1. We're sitting second in our division, and the only thing that matters in our mind right now is Cleveland. That's it. That's a division game, not a Jamal rivalry. To all these former guys, it's a Cleveland, divisional game -- one that we need to win. So my message is very simple: it's time to get done what we need to get done as a team. That's special teams, offense, and defense. And that's why the message is what it was.

Here's a very simple personal message for off the field: Always work. Always know that the greatest gift in life is love. So the greatest way to express love is to always walk in love. And walking in love sometimes means you've got to go through a lot of pains to even see yourself in the other side of love. So a lot of things now, off the field, when you're dealing with everyday issues...understand that everyday issues are supposed to be there...but at least seventy-percent of them we create ourselves. But when we're able to slow life down, we'll really appreciate chasing our purposes.