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Falcons 10, Ravens 9

Joe Flacco: 8-for-13 for 72 yards
Casey Bramlet: 7-for-21 for 100 yards and two interceptions

Ray Rice: seven carries for 37 yards

Player of the game: ATL RB Jason Snelling: 15 carries for 88 yards and two catches for 22 yards
Play of the game: The Falcons’ final kneel-down, ending the preseason!

——4th Quarter
10:03: 4th and 10, and Bramlet throws an incompletion. Game over, or soon to be over, that is. The Falcons are in the victory formation, and the score will end with the Falcons on top, 10-9.

9:57: Jim Leonhard picked off another Harrington pass, but an offsides penalty negated it. That could have been the ballgame there. The Ravens will be getting the ball back, though, and Bramlet will have a chance to march the team downfield for the go-ahead score. Don’t hold your breath.

9:55: The Falcons are slowly milking out the clock, and we’re close to ending the national nightmare known as the 2008 Ravens preseason. OK, it’s not a national nightmare, but that sounds a lot cooler than a regional nightmare.

9:43: No sooner I say that, Leonhard picks off a tipped pass to get the ball back for the Ravens. Sadly, that was the only-semi exciting moment of the first half of the fourth quarter. Gotta’ love preseason football.

9:42: I’m still here, there’s just not much going on outside a bunch of Falcons’ penalties and some guy named Snelling tearing up the Ravens’ D.

——3rd Quarter
9:24: Bramlet is intercepted again, thanks to a five-yard loss on the previous play by Patrick. All order is restored in the world.

9:21: Bramlet to Patrick has a nice ring to it. Hopefully we don’t have to get used to that.

9:18: I am a better QB than Joey Harrington. Then again, he’s a multi-millionaire. Advantage: Harrington.

9:11: Joey Harrington!

9:10: Twenty-four percent of Ravens fans polled by WBAL think the Ravens will win the AFC North. What are you people smoking? Maybe there’s something wrong with my TV.

9:08: Bramlet just made his first nice throw of the night, hitting Matt Willis on a 37-yard gain downfield. What a rope. All I can think about is how it must be weird for him to fly here overnight, throw on a foreign uniform and play the bulk of a football game, mainly to show people around the league he’s worthy of a roster spot. And Stover nailed another field goal, this one from 48 yards out, to pull the Ravens within one. Falcons 10, Ravens 9.

9:04: Good news, Ravens fans! You can catch Trapt next Thursday at the stadium! Wait a second, who’s Trapt?

8:58: It’s safe to say that Jim Leonhard has earned a spot on this team. He’s filled in well in Ed Reed’s absence. He made two straight plays in the red zone, forcing the Falcons to kick a field goal. Falcons 10, Ravens 6.

8:51: The Falcons use Shockley a lot like they used Mike Vick: a lot of bootlegs and rollouts. Insert your own dogfighting joke here. Shockley is picking the Ravens’ backups apart right now.

——2nd Quarter
8:27: The Ravens defensive backs just did their best Matt Stover impressions as they failed to tackle Eric Weems, along him to run loose in the secondary and move into Ravens’ territory. That was pathetic. The big gain allows the Falcons to score on a 20-yard TD strike from D.J. Shockley to take the lead. I guess Coach Harbaugh can’t cut ALL of the backup defensive backs, can he? Falcons 7, Ravens 6.

8:22: Matt Stover bangs another one through the uprights, and he’s percent on the preseason. So much for my proclamation that he could lose his job to Piotr Czech. Ravens 6, Falcons 0.

8:20: Nice play by rookie RB Allen Patrick, making a 25-yard reception. He followed that up with a six-yard run on a draw play. He’s on the roster bubble, so this could be his last chance to prove himself.

8:15: The Ravens’ D continues to look solid tonight (though Ronnie Prude almost got burned for a long TD pass). That has be refreshing for Rex Ryan. Say that ten times real fast.

8:12: And our hit of the game: Cory Ross getting drilled as he tried to haul in a screen pass. And he’s limping. Just what the Ravens need: another injury.

8:00: Here’s what I learned real quickly about Bramlet on his Wikipedia page: he’s a former World Bowl MVP, he went to school at Wyoming and he was a member of the National Honor Society in high school. Good stuff there. Then he threw an interception. Maybe he’s not the answer. In his defense, he took a red-eye to Baltimore last night and probably doesn’t even know the names of ten guys on the squad. Chemistry will obviously be an issue with him tonight. This could get ugly.

7:57: Ladies and gentleman, it’s Casey Bramlet time! I couldn’t be more excited right now. Flacco was solid in his second preseason start. He had decent numbers, but could only produce three points. Still, not bad for a rookie QB. Just not good for your starting QB.

7:54: I’d be embarrassed to tell my family that I was a professional male cheerleader. Just putting that out there. Nice hit by Dawan Landry, too, by the way.

7:49: It’s pretty bad when you can’t run over Matt Stover.

7:46: Ravens come short and are forced to kick a field goal. And I’m forced to chug three, um, glasses of chocolate milk. Ravens 3, Falcons 0.

7:44: Ray Rice continues to impress with his vision and agility. He has six rushes for 36 yards right now as the Ravens move into the red zone.

——1st Quarter
7:40: One bright spot tonight is the fact that the Ravens finally have their top three receivers all in the lineup together. That will always make things easier for any QB, let alone a rookie one. At the end of the first quarter, Flacco is 7-of-10 for 66 yards, including two nice passes right before the half: a slant to Mark Clayton and a post to Demetrius Williams.

7:34: With Matt Ryan, the No. 3 pick in this year’s NFL Draft, starting for the Falcons this season, do you think Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens’ brain trust wish they would have pulled the trigger on the trade that would have brought him to Baltimore on draft day? I’m not going to say for sure either way, but you know they’ve thought about it…

7:29: For those who don’t know, the Ravens picked up QB Casey Bramlet off waivers to give Joe Flacco a rest whenever he starts to get tired from standing motionless in the pocket. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the relief. And if you don’t know that Kyle Boller is out with a shoulder injury and that Troy Smith has been sick all week, how can you call yourself a Ravens fan?

7:25: I’m just kidding about that whole drinking thing. You know, because I’m on the clock and all. Just chocolate milk for me, I swear.

7:24: We’re midway through the first quarter here and there hasn’t been much action so far. Then again, it’s the preseason. The way things are going, I’ve decided to make this interesting. For each point the Ravens score tonight, I’m going to chug a beer. By the end of the night, I’ll probably still be able to operate heavy machinery.

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