Game 16: Ravens 29, Eggles 3

Quick! Name the stadium the Ravens play in. "M&T Bank Stadium"? Dick Stockton and Moose Johnston are your first-half announcers.

Eggles start with the ball. Not much of a kick return for former Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom. Donovan McNabb is out for the game; AJ Feeley starts at QB. The Kevin Curtis era in Philadelphia officially begins with his 9-yard catch on their first play. Baltimore has passed Oakland for loudest crowd so far. On 3rd-and-12, Ray Lewis WHIFFS on a sack of Feeley, but AJ still can't scramble far enough for the first. Punt pins Baltimore inside the 10.

Supplemental draft pick Jared Gaither starts at LT for Baltimore. The Baltimore broadcast is one of the few that takes care to list the actual starters of the game. Most broadcasts just lazily list the projected lineups for the regular season, whether those guys are actually in the game or not. Willis McGahee's 2nd touch is a 16-yard run off LT with Gaither delivering a big block. That's followed by Todd Heap running free in the Eggle secondary for 22. Heap's second reception. McNair hits Derrick Mason for 21 inside the Eggle 10. Steve McNair spears Quinn Sypniewski in the back of the end zone to put Baltimore ahead 7-0. Eggle defense barely registered during the drive, light pass rush, poor pass coverage.

Eggle offense moves a little better the second time, with Feeley getting better room to throw. Brian Westbrook does what he does best, taking a screen pass for 23. They're at the Raven 25 when Terrell Suggs knocks down a 3rd-and-5 pass to force a FG attempt. And David Akers misses it, uncharacteristically badly. Still 7-0 Baltimore.

McNair's already out and Kyle Boller's in for Baltimore. Musa Smith replaces McGahee. Brodrick Bunkley, who's reportedly tearing it up in camp, stuffs Musa on 1st down and a blitzing Quintin Mikell rejects Boller's 3rd down pass for a 3-and-out.

Kelly Holcomb now QBing the Eggles. Dennis Haley stuffs Tony Hunt on the last play of the first quarter. Antwan Barnes blitzes through untouched to take down Holcomb for a 10-yard loss to open the 2nd quarter. Barnes and friends stuff Hunt on 3rd down after an Eggle holding penalty. A minus-19 yard "drive" for Philadelphia.

3 passes and out for Boller and the Ravens, but they were lucky enough to have started the drive deep enough in Philly's territory to try a long FG. Matt Stover drills it from 50 to put Baltimore up 10-0.

Eggles dink and dunk their way to midfield before being slowed down by a false start. On 3rd-and-11, Holcomb holds the ball altogether too long, and blitzing DB Ronnie Prude isn't too embarrassed to sack him though originally slowed down by Buckhalter. Philly's getting almost nothing done on offense.

Ravens essentially 3-and-out at midfield. Demetrius Williams false-starts on 3rd-and-2 and Rashard Barksdale makes a good play to hold a pass to Mike Anderson in the flat to 2 yards.

Bloom is getting more dangerous with each return, bringing this punt back 19 yards. Holcomb takes another sack (Prescott Burgess) for holding the ball far too long, but bails himself out by hitting Greg Lewis on the sideline for the first down. Brent Celek turns a short pass into a 30-yard reception, breaking several tackles, to put Philly inside the 10. They don't convert, though, as Baltimore has Hank Baskett blanketed on 3rd down and Holcomb throws it away. Akers' FG makes it 10-3 just before the 2:00 warning.

The Raven 2:00 offense successfully gets into FG range. Boller scrambles across midfield for 20. They surprise the Eggles with an inside handoff to Cory Ross for 11. Boller hits Devard Darling for 11 more. He can't connect with Clarence Moore on a deep sideline route thanks to Barksdale's blanket coverage, so Stover hits a 41-yarder to extend the Raven lead to 13-3.

Kevin Kolb enters as QB 28 seconds before the half. Baltimore blitzes him on the last play of the half and Gerome Sapp takes him down for a 16-yard loss. 13-3 Baltimore at halftime.

Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith starts the 2nd half for the Ravens. Doing what he does best, he scrambles for 13 for a first down. The Eggles hold after that. Yamon Figurs can't come up with a low ball on a 3rd-down route that was 5 yards short anyway. Ravens punt. Bloom has to fair-catch this one.

The Ravens must not like Kolb much; they keep blitzing him. A third down blitz, bringing two DBs like the blitz before halftime, forces Kolb to throw a sloppy screen pass off his back foot for an incompletion. The blitzing's probably the right idea; Kolb has looked fine without the extra pressure coming.

Baltimore goes 3-and-out with Figurs' brutal drop of a Smith pass on 3rd-and-7. Figurs has not impressed so far. Another fair catch by Bloom on the punt.

3-and-out for Philly on three Kolb incompletions. Drop by Celek, big Raven blitz to force an incomplete screen pass, downfield pass for Celek broken up. Antwan Barnes was in on the blitz and continues to shine for Baltimore.

Corey Ross is having a fine night for the Ravens at RB. He bounces a run outside for 24, taking advantage of an overplay by the Eggle LB, to go with a couple of 10+ yarders he has already. Smith hits Moore with a laser at midfield for a first down. Rollout pass to Marcus (not Morgan) Freeman nets 17 down to the Eggle 32. The Eggles hold there, as Barksdale continues to stand out in pass coverage, and a 3rd-down blitz flushes Smith and leads to an incompletion. Stover hits again, from 50, to give Baltimore a 16-3 lead.

Ryan Moats has to be carted off the field with a broken ankle. Bloom in at WR for Philly; Kolb finds him for 11 to beat a blitz and 5 to convert a 2nd down. Kolb getting good protection, and having a good drive, until he thinks run on a 2nd down near midfield while his RB Nate Ilaoa is thinking pass. Prude recovers the fumbled ball for Baltimore.

Very quick 3-and-out for the Ravens. Smith has to throw it away under heavy pressure on 3rd-and-2. Yet another fair catch for Bloom on the punt.

The Eagles cheerleader calendar, by the way, receives my full endorsement.

Eggles also 3-and-out at the start of the 4th quarter, with Corey Ivy clobbering Kolb on a 3rd down blitz. My God, the Ravens are blitzing a lot tonight. Saverio Rocca, an Australian football import, has a 56-yard punt nullified by penalty, but follows with a 65-yard punt. That obviously outkicks the coverage, and Figurs brings it back for 17 to midfield. Barnes -blasts- Rocca on the return, which incenses Eggles commentator Ike Reese. That did seem like a cheap shot. Michael Gasperson gets a 15-yard penalty defending his teammate.

The new Ravens QB is Drew Olson. After a 1st-down sack/fumble that Baltimore recovers, he finds Kendrick Ballantyne open deep in zone coverage for 33 down to the Eggle 5. From the 4, Le'Ron McClain is left alone in the flat for an easy TD catch. It's now 23-to-3.

Kolb remains in and hits Jermaine Jamison with a fine pass over the middle, but Prude, who's starting to look pretty conspicuous, strips it out to get Baltimore the ball back again.

Ravens play some ball-control offense and take about 5:00 off the clock with a bunch of handoffs to - man, I'm getting old - Greg Pruitt, Jr. Pruitt would have had a TD from the 5 but his own lineman , Chris Pino, got in front of him and knocked him down. Ravens settle for Stover's millionth FG of the night and it's 26 to 3.

Kolb looks pretty decent; he's adjusted well to the oncoming pressure. But Zac Collie drops a 4th-and-4 pass to return the ball to the Ravens. Woof.

Ross is having a formidable game for Baltimore, squirting through left tackle for 19 to open the drive. He finishes the night with 11 rushes for 65 yards. The Eggles force ANOTHER Stover FG by stringing out Ross on a 2nd down sweep and by pressuring Olson into a low incompletion intended for a wide-open Damien Linson. Stover makes it 29-3, Ravens.

Kolb is sacked by Bill Swancutt to force one last punt with 2:00 left. Rocca hits it 50 yards; Figurs returns it 18. Ravens run out the clock for the win.

Baltimore took this one a lot more seriously than Philadelphia did. They were blitz-heavy on the rookie Kolb, and they stopped kicking to Jeremy Bloom. But they unveiled some good young players, too. Gaither looks like borderline-starting material already. Barnes and Prude were all over the place. Ross played like a game-breaking runner.

The Eggles had a lot of bright spots, for a team that lost by almost 4 TDs. Kolb fought off those Raven blitzes and had a strong game. On defense, Bunkley looks good and Barksdale looks like a keeper. Both Bloom and Rocca look like big future contributors on special teams.

Up next: A little nap, then Falcons at Jets to close out week 1 of the Preseason Challenge.