The Arizona Cardinals come to Baltimore along with the ghost of Todd Heap to challenge the Ravens to right their offensive ship on Sunday. As for what happened in Jacksonville last Monday night?— time to let it go.
Todd Heap comes back to Baltimore as a Cardinal… although a little banged up himself right now, his presence on the opposing sideline may help inspire the Ravens offense to remember how to involve the tight ends more when the sledding gets rough…
There are still huge problems to solve on the Ravens offensive line. Unfortunately, guard Ben Grubbs will not be available to help. He most likely will remain on the inactive list due to lingering toe and foot injury. That’s not a good situation at all for the offense, which is struggling with leaky guard and tackle play, and overall poor pass protection in general. WR Lee Evans is still out, too. It therefore seems apparent to me that the Ravens’ tight ends have to step up in the overall scheme, with more plays involving TE blocking and screens…and coming back to the ball when Joe Flacco is in trouble.
Ironically, the Ravens will be facing yet another team in the throes of a 5-game losing streak…and the Cardinals are banged up, too.
Grubbs briefly came back two weeks ago but his injured toe was stepped on, Harbaugh said. He hasn’t practice since. Evans hasn’t practiced since being shut down following Baltimore’s Week 2 game against Tennessee.
Ravens safety Tom Zbikowski is progressing, and returned to practice as a full participant on Wednesday. He said he didn’t have any contact yet, however. Zbikowski originally suffered a concussion against the New York Jets on Oct. 2.
Less than two days after colliding with each other, nose tackle Terrence Cody and safety Ed Reed were also both back on the practice field. They weren’t even listed on the injury report after suffering “stingers” in Monday night’s game.
For the Cardinals, longtime Raven Todd Heap has missed the last two games with a hamstring injury and was limited at practice. He’s caught 15 passes so far this year for 150 yards. “He’s real close, but we’ve got to make sure as this week progresses that he can handle it; opening up and blocking and asking him to do those things he can do,” Arizona Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt said.
Running back Beanie Wells, who suffered a knee injury that was thought to be perhaps season-ending last week, did not practice but his prognosis isn’t nearly so grim. “He is hopefully going to rapidly progress as we go from this point,” Whisenhunt said. “But it’s such a relief from where we thought he was after the game to where he is now. It looked like we lost him for a long time. It doesn’t look that way not at all.”
SO the stage is set… with the ghost of HEAP in the mist at M&T Bank Stadium. Although the Cardinals defense is not nearly as strong as the Jaguars’, this really is a deja-vu do-over opportunity for the Ravens offense to get healthy…and to find some answers involving their tight ends when the wide receivers can’t get open and the running game can’t get going. Todd Heap could appreciate that concept.
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