Ravens receiver Derrick Mason is glad he only has to face the team’s defense during practice.
“They were just relentless,” he said following a 17-10 win over Cincinnati on Sunday. “They looked like the old defense. All of our players were back and we don’t have any injuries. They wreak havoc on other team’s offense.”
The Ravens defense, which yielded more than 24 points and 306 yards per game last season, looked more like the unit that made the team a perennial playoff contender for much of the past decade.
The Ravens held the Bengals to 154 yards and no offensive touchdowns.
“We sucked, basically,” Bengals receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said of getting stymied by the Ravens. “We can’t get a first down. We can’t run, we can’t throw.”
The defense will have a chance to continue its success against the Houston Texans (0-1) on Sunday afternoon at 4:15 in Reliant Stadium. The Texans are coming off a 38-17 loss to Pittsburgh in which they managed a meager 234 yards of offense.
Texans quarterback Matt Schaub completed 25-of-33 passes for just 202 yards with a touchdown against two interceptions.
Having a ball
Ravens equipment manager Ed Carroll has been busy the first week of the season. Before the win over Cincinnati, he rounded up the team’s white home jerseys with black pants, the first time that combination has been used since 1997.
Next, Carroll was in charge of ordering 94 footballs. Instead of awarding an individual game ball to a one or two players, Harbaugh said the entire team gets one — 53 for the players, nine for players on the practice squad, eight for those on injured reserve, 23 for the coaching staff and one for owner Steve Bisciotti.
Rock you like a hurricane
With Hurricane Ike expected to hit Texas around Sunday morning according to the National Weather Service, it may impact the Ravens’ game against the Texans.
But Harbaugh isn’t worried about the storm, especially since Reliant Stadium has a retractable roof.
“We’ll be all right,” he said with a smile. “We’ll play.”
