Game 2: Baltimore 17, Carolina 12

OK, let's crank up the first full slate of preseason action with a LIVE blog of Marc Bulger's first outing with his new team: Panthers vs. Ravens. ESPN's call, with Tirico, Chucky and Jaws.

Ravens start us with a kick almost through the end zone, and Matt Moore will lead the Panthers out. First look I've really gotten at the guy. Terrell Suggs offsides on 1st down. After going up the middle for 2, DeAngelo Williams takes about the same play up the middle for 22 to midfield. Tony Fiammetta with a PANCAKE to spring the play. Moore throws too high for Dante Rosario. His first pass missed, too. Not accurate off the start. Ray Lewis and Jameel McClain blitz on 2nd down and force Moore to ditch-n-pitch. 3rd down, Tom Zbikowski DRILLS Moore on a blindside blitz for a sack and fumble. Panthers recover. Zbikowski brings the punt back about 30, and punter Jason Baker gets flagged for tripping at the end. Ravens will start in Panther country.

Or very close, at their 47. Joe Flacco GUNS a corner route to Derrick Mason at the Carolina 30. Play-action pass up top in the end zone for Mark Clayton, but he can't come down with it. Love how the Ravens are starting the game, though. Aggressive on offense and defense. Flacco can't hit Todd Heap on a short out on 2nd down, but hits Mason at the 12 on 3rd down. LeRon McClain rumbles off LG for 6. On 3rd-and-3, for the love of GOD, the Ravens line up MOUNT CODY at fullback. But he false starts. End Of That Experiment. Ravens go 4-wide from the 10, but Tyler Brayton beats Michael Oher for a key sack. Shayne Graham chips Baltimore ahead. Ravens 3, Panthers 0

Panthers start from their 20 again after another deep touchback. Jordan Gross false starts. They don't overcome it, with Trevor Pryce forcing Moore to rush a short out to Brandon LaFell on 3rd-and-5.

Wow, ESPN's going to cover the Jets-Giants game Monday night, who'da thunk it? Flacco misses Anquan Boldin on each sideline. Brayton beats LG Ben Grubbs this time on 3rd down to sack Flacco again and 3-and-out the Ravens. Oniel Cousins, the right tackle, has the answer to Brayton, though, landing on his ankle after the play and rolling it for him. Baltimore tackles Armanti Edwards on the punt but had an ineligible downfield penalty. Edwards brings the re-kick back to the Panther 45. Happens every time. Ravens waste two super punts by Sam Koch - 57 and 62 yards.

2nd-down end-around for LaFell gets Carolina a first down at the Ravens 43. 12 to Fiammetta in the flat. Williams can't climb Mount Cody and gets stuffed at the 32. Nice completion to King is taken away by a holding penalty on Gross, who has to be the most overrated tackle in the league. Moore appears to convert the first down again with a completion inside the 20 to Jarrett, but GROSS IS FLAGGED FOR HOLDING AGAIN. Third penalty for 25 yards, and two killed drives, by your left tackle. Panthers end up punting, and Baker kills it beautifully at the 4.

Steve Smith (the old one) is out tonight, of course, but looking ahead to Halloween anyway, let's note that Moore is looking a TON for his TE Jeff King and the fullback.

Huh, Flacco remains in. Oh God, Al Saunders is on their staff? RELEASE THE SMOKE PASS! Nice pass to Boldin outside the numbers at the 16, then McClain rumbles over left tackle for about 15 more. Dan Connor stuffs Willis McGahee to close out the opening stanza.

End of first quarter: Ravens 3, Panthers 0.

This is a preseason game? It took a whole quarter to throw the first screen pass, which McGahee takes across the 40. Now it's Screenapalooza. Welcome back to the NFL, Al Saunders! McGahee to midfield. Flacco rolls right and scrambles for another 1st. ANOTHER SCREEN TO MCGAHEE, more of a bubble screen that he takes for about 15. ANOTHER SCREEN TO MCGAHEE gets 5. Man, the Ravens are throwing a ton. And here they come again, Flacco going up top to Clayton on the right end zone sideline, beating Captain and Tennille Munnerlyn for a 30-yard TD. Ravens 10, Panthers 0.

Panthers not getting a lot of kickoff return work tonight. It's another touchback. For all the news that Jimmy Clausen can't even beat out Hunter Cantwell at Carolina, who's out as QB2? Clausen. Another false start at left tackle after an initial 1st down, but Gross is out now, the penalty's on former Ram Rob Pettitti. 3rd-and-8, Clausen does a great job reading the Raven blitz and fires over the middle for Kenneth Moore, who tips it to himself for a first down at the Raven 38. Clausen next checks to a handoff that Josh Vaughan takes off right tackle for 12. Clausen then gets away with a very dangerous screen pass back across the field to Vaughan. Vaughan gets them to 3rd-and-1 before C.J. Davis false starts. 3rd-and-6 quick out for Moore from the 19 comes up a little short under pressure. Not a bad first drive for Clausen all the same. Easy-peasy FG for - Jon Kasay? Hasn't he reached the mandatory retirement age yet? Ravens 10, Panthers 3.

And it'll be Marc Bulger leading the Ravens now from their 26. He fires deep from the shotgun, but well short of Donte Stallworth, covered well by Brian Witherspoon. Greg Hardy stuffs Jalen Parmele on an attempted draw. Annnnnnd guess what happens on 3rd down. Bulger gets sacked and fumbles. Been there. Done that. Fine job by Eric Norwood to come back and track the attempting-to-scramble Bulger down and force the fumble, recovered by Witherspoon. Don't see much of anybody to blame for that play besides Bulger himself. Martz QBs never really have been noted for their ball protection.

Clausen and the Panthers at the Baltimore 31. Tyrell Sutton pops off left tackle for 16. Good block by TE Gary Barnidge. Sutton for 5 more. Vaughan gets Carolina first-and-goal at the 5 with about 3:30 till halftime. Clausen throws a nice timing route that LaFell should have caught for a TD but dropped instead. Sutton fires up the middle but loses the ball at the 1, and the Ravens come up with a big turnover. Haruki Nakamura forced the fumble.

Bulger from his 1 with 3:07 left. Try not to screw it up too much, eh? He actually steps out of a near-sack in the end zone and hits Ed Dickson at the 15. Quick slant to Demetrius Williams near the 30. 2:00 warning.

Deep corner for Dickson incomplete. Connor tips a pass over the middle incomplete. 3rd-and-10, Bulger gets a great pocket and hits Stallworth down to the Panther 33. Bulger chucks a blank with a 2nd-down blitz coming and Dickson doesn't appear to be expecting the third down pass.

And so like much of the end of his Rams career, the best Bulger can do offensively is set up a long FG (50 yards), which his kicker (Graham) misses.

Panthers with one more shot before halftime, 1:10 left. Or not so much. On 2nd down, Paul Kruger comes at Clausen about as long and about as clearly as Lancelot charging the castle in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and Clausen STILL gets sacked anyway. That's not a great advertisement for your QB's pocket awareness. He drills Rosario at the Ravens 42 for a first down, though. Coverage wasn't bad there, either. Clausen scrambles down to the 32. Tavares Gooden blitzes right over him the next play, though, a key sack that knocks Carolina out of FG range. They use 18 of the last 19 seconds of the half on a short pass to Sutton and a spike to set up a 48-yard FG try, but holder Baker blows the hold.

Halftime score: Ravens 10, Panthers 3.

Ravens open the 2nd half with Troy Smith behind center. Parmele is still RB. Smith dances, scrambles and nearly hits Dennis Pitta on the sideline for a nice game. I agree with Chucky and John Harbaugh; it looked like Pitta actually caught that, when he was ruled out of bounds. After review, they actually get the call of the play right. Pitta stepped out of bounds before the catch and gets the penalty after the review that he should have gotten on the live play. That was a lot of freaking work by me to describe a 5-yard penalty. Jaws declares the Ravens should go with Smith as their #2 and Bulger #3, even though Chucky just got done nearly gushing over Bulger for a quarter. Greg Hardy beats Devin Tyler for back-to-back sacks to bury Smith and the Ravens inside the 10. That would be 6th-round pick Greg Hardy, a top-notch pass rusher most of his college career that the NFL shied away from in the 2010 draft because of injuries. The Rams drafted Hall Davis instead of him. File that for future reference.

Clausen and the Panthers go from midfield. After Jason Phillips stuffs a 2nd-down draw to Sutton, Dexter Jackson slips and falls on a deep out that wasn't that good a route anyway, and Cary Williams gladly accepts a gift INT from Clausen.

Think I've forgotten to mention it's been raining pretty hard in Baltimore for a while now, which may factor in on the next play. Eric Moore, who I believe is a former Ram, strips Parmele on the very next play, and C.J. Wilson returns it 31 yards for a TD. Kasay takes pity on my pick of the Ravens in ESPN.com Streak For The Cash and blows the PAT. Ravens 10, Panthers 9

Yeah, this game has hit the wall. The first 3:40 of this half feel like they've taken about an hour to play.

Smith takes the helm at the 29. Now Gruden's endorsing Smith over Bulger. So we're supposed to ignore your glowing reviews the entire freaking second quarter? I hate ESPN announcers. The Panthers stuff two straight runs and Parmele muffs a third-down pass over the middle that was way too short anyway. One punt to go, please.

We go to commercial with a closeup of a Baltimore girl with a huge sore on her lower lip. That picture's worth a thousand words. I've got nothing.

Panthers'll try it from their 29 this time. Clausen muffs the snap on 2nd down (remember the rain) and chucks a dying duck out of bounds under blitz pressure on third down. 1, 2, 3, kick!

Ravens are perched at their 24. Hardy gets a tackle for loss but Smith trumps him with a 2nd-down slant to Justin Harper for about 15. ESPN doesn't care about play-by-play or down and distance or anything anymore because Suzy Kolber, making her FIRST appearance tonight in the second half, is interviewing Ray Lewis. Lewis claims he passed out after trying to watch Hard Knocks for five minutes last night. Carolina d-line takes over the line of scrimmage now, stuffing a couple of runs and blowing up a screen to force ANOTHER punt.

Hunter Cantwell in at QB for the Panthers, starting at the 19. Mount Cody stuffs a second down Vaughan run by clotheslining him in the head. No call by the Terry McAulay crew. Carolina o-line incurs yet another false start before Cantwell has to fire a useless short pass to get out of trouble which Vaughan drops anyway.

Prince Miller fields the Baker punt at his 32 and breaks one awful Panther tackle attempt after another. Everette Brown whiffs on an arm tackle. Jamie Petrowski, ankle tackle, whiff. Mortty Ivy whiffs on a retarded shoulder block attempt. Punter Baker, of course a whiff. Sutton whiffs badly trying to tackle him by his arm. Vaughan whiffs, and so does R.J. Stanford, before Rosario finally brings Miller down at about the 10-yard line. Miller didn't do much of anything special on that play, the Carolina punt coverage unit was simply incompetent. Tirico's right after the play; most of these guys won't be in the NFL long. Nor do they deserve to be.

New Ravens RB is Curtis Steele, who would seem more at home in Pittsburgh. He gets a short gain before Smith misses Harper by a country mile on a quick fade. 3rd-and-7, Jaws correctly calls QB draw, and Smith scores easily on it from the 9. They caught Carolina stunting, and Stefan Rodgers made a nice block to spring the run. Lineman Joe Reitz totally blows the celebratory dunk attempt over the crossbar, though. Also, that was a group celebration and should have been a penalty. Carolina may be losing, but Terry McAulay's is the worst team on the field tonight. Ravens 17, Panthers 9

From the 25, Cantwell hits Edwards near the far sideline for 12. Vaughan squirts off right guard for 8. Carolina continues to kill themselves with penalties - ANOTHER false start, by Duke Robinson, and Cary Williams drills Edwards to break up what would have been a 1st-down catch. Panthers find solace in downing the ensuing punt at the 3 with :03 left in the 3rd.

End of 3rd quarter: Ravens 17, Panthers 9.

Steele actually ended the third quarter by spinning out of a tackle in the end zone and hitting another spinaroonie later to complete a 13-yard run. Eric Moore flashes again by dropping Steele for a big loss. Hardy and Moore combine for a second run stuff. Carolina has excelled at run D just about all night. The Panther d-line continues to control the line of scrimmage, basically beating every Raven lineman with a stunt on 3rd down. Smith dances away from some of the jailbreak but is eventually sacked inside his 5 by Nick Hayden.

Panthers from their 45 with 13:01 left. Not wanting to be left out of tonight's sack parade, big Lamar Divens, a 333-pound defensive END, rolls right over a cut block and conveniently grabs Cantwell for a sack. Ravens get away with blitzing on 3rd and long when Cantwell and David Gettis can't quite connect on a rollout pass to the sideline. And my God is the Baltimore d-line huge. John Fox challenges the call but Gettis has pretty clearly stepped way out of bounds before making the catch. Yep, Carolina to punt.

Carolina continues to kill itself with penalties, tacking 15 onto the punt return to set up the Ravens at the 40.

A program I forgot to cancel on the TiVo intrudes at this point, but in the name of historical completeness, I'll go to the Ravens radio play-by-play courtesy of NFL Audio Pass, and about a 2-hour-long reminder of why I hate dialup.

OK, punt on this till Monday when I have access to broadband. I can't get but two plays out of stupid dialup before it quits. Slow, I understand, but just quitting? Now you know why this challenge usually dies after about 20 games. I'm having enough trouble getting through game 2!

Back yet again. Go NFL AudioPass. A short pass to Davon Drew as the Ravens announcer detail the logjam ahead of him (Dickson, Pitta) at TE. (Proof I'm really listening to the broadcast.) Heh, even radio interrupts preseason games for freaking sideline interviews. After an incompletion, we never even hear the third-down play so they can talk to Anquan Boldin. Sam Koch shanks a 13-yard punt in protest.

Vaughan gets 4 to midfield, and now they're interviewing Terrell Suggs. Maybe I should switch to the Panthers broadcast. Suggs is doing MMA training this offseason. Cage match vs. Chris Long! 2nd down pass to Vaughan is incomplete, but Edgar Jones stupidly roughs him on 3rd down to set Carolina up at the Baltimore 26.

And those last two paragraphs were not worth the trouble I went through to get them.

7:00 left now, and back to the ESPN account of the game. Smoke route to Edwards, who has done essentially nothing tonight, for 1. Doug Dutch seems to get away with pretty clear pass interference on 3rd-and-4, but the officiating crew picks the flag back up (?), then Edwards fails to come up with a catch in a crowd near the goal line, to turn it over to the Ravens on downs. As a "Slash"-type player, Edwards looks like the next Marques Hagans.

The Ravens set to run out some close with 6:00 left from their 20, but an awful cough-up by Steele gives Carolina the ball back in two plays. The Ravens wish Steele the best in his future endeavors.

Huh, I forgot the Panthers drafted Tony Pike, who is in now at QB. After a blank, Dontrell Savage gets nowhere up the middle. 3rd-and-9 from the Ravens 26. Nakamura blitzes in on 3rd down and drags a late-to-react Pike down by the ankle for the sack. That tees up Kasay for a 45-yarder that brings the Panthers to within a TD. Ravens 17, Panthers 12

4:00 left, Baltimore at their 23. Another good block by Rodgers gets Steele an alley on the left side for 20. Moore CLUBS Smith in the head on a designed rollout and the referees completely ignore it. Ivy makes his second run stuff of the drive to force the Ravens to punt with 2:56 to go.

2:47 left, Panthers have a chance to go for the win from their 9. Cantwell to Dexter Jackson at the 19. Yes, they brought Cantwell back in instead of giving the ball to Pike. Vote of non-confidence? Kelly Talavou (334 pounds) destroys C.J. Davis to sack Cantwell. Just a 3-man rush there. Where do the Ravens get enough food to feed all of these giant linemen? Cantwell scrambles to the 25 to make it 3rd-and-5 at the 2:00 warning. And he beats a big blitz with a long sideline lob to Jackson at midfield. Petrowski has a deep pass go off his hands over the middle at the 20. 1:24 left, they're doing a sideline interview NOW? First-down pass to Gettis at the Raven 38. Panther line doesn't all know the snap count the next play. Kruger gets an uncontested run at Cantwell and flushes him over to Talavou for another sack. :50 left. Blank behind Edwards leaves us at 3rd-and-15. High pass for Gettis in traffic downfield; 4th down with 30 seconds to go. Brandon McKinney (324 pounds) punks Steve Justice and rushes a blank to preserve the win for Baltimore. Kneel and a win.

Final score: Ravens 17, Panthers 12.

Player of the game: Haruki Nakamura, who led the team with 5 tackles, forced the fumble at the goal line and had a sack. Also, he's one of my favorite players.

What did we learn: Ravens passing game looked really good. Behind Flacco. Bulger still seems to be suffering some PRSD (Post Rams Stress Disorder). For them right now he's basically Gus Frerotte and needs to step his game up. Liked the Panthers run D for the most part, Greg Hardy especially, and how the Ravens can roll one 300-plus-pounder after another out on D. Matt Moore doesn't convince me at Panthers QB, but I'm not quite sure Clausen's set to take a run at him, though he did look good. Like the Bengals last week, the Panthers really need to cut out all the penalties.

Up next: Saints-Patriots from Thursday.