Less than an hour into the start of free agency, the Ravens have sustained their first loss as linebacker Paul Kruger has signed a five-year deal with the Cleveland Browns.

Multiple reports are saying the contract is worth an estimated $41 million with $20 million in guaranteed money. Despite not being the Ravens’ top priority among their unrestricted free agents after quarterback Joe Flacco was inked to a $120.6 million contract, Kruger was the Ravens’ most attractive commodity on the open market and didn’t last very long after the start of free agency at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

Finishing with a team-high nine sacks in the regular season and adding 4 1/2 more in the playoffs, the 2009 second-round pick was hitting the open market at the perfect time after serving as a reserve in his first three seasons with the Ravens.

Kruger thrived in a situational pass-rusher role and saw his production increase with the mid-October return of Terrell Suggs this season. The 6-foot-4, 270-pound linebacker collected 12 sacks in the final 12 games of the season including the playoffs.

It was determined early in the offseason that Kruger’s asking price would not be met by the Ravens, who were unlikely to offer such a steep contract to a player not particularly strong against the run or in pass coverage. Kruger played in only 22 of the Ravens’ 62 defensive snaps in Super Bowl XLVII but collected two sacks in the 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

The Ravens will likely depend more heavily on 2012 second-round pick Courtney Upshaw, who started at the strong-side linebacker position in the base defense and played primarily in running situations. Baltimore will also look to the draft as well as young pass rushers Michael McAdoo and Adrian Hamilton to help fill the void left behind by Kruger.

It’s difficult to recall a 6-2 start ever coming under more scrutiny than that of the 2012 Ravens, with major concerns existing on each side of the football and many doubting their ability to even make the playoffs despite being in excellent mathematical position in the AFC.

This marks the third straight year Baltimore has started 6-2, but the climate of this campaign has been much more uncomfortable as Sunday’s 25-15 win over Cleveland marked only their second margin of victory exceeding a single possession. In their first six wins last season, four had come by multiple scores as the Ravens looked the part of one of the best teams in the NFL.

Aside from expectations that were at opposite ends of the spectrum at the start of their respective seasons, the Ravens and Orioles share stunningly similar qualities in showing an ability to win close games and seemingly outperforming the eyeball tests suggesting they’re not as good as their records indicate. In the same way that many pointed to the Orioles’ run differential proving they were little more than a .500 baseball team that ran into plenty of luck, the Ravens’ plus-23 point differential would put them between four and five wins using similar metrics.

Regardless of how the second half of the season unfolds for the Ravens, this calendar year has brought an interesting case study of fan psychology with locals struggling to embrace an Orioles team playing over their heads all season and bracing for an inevitable collapse that never did happen. In comparison, many of these same fans have failed to enjoy the Ravens’ 6-2 start and are insisting the prosperity won’t continue against a beefier schedule over the final two months of the regular season. Others have even gone as far as suggesting the Ravens have underachieved, though it’s difficult to be much better than a 6-2 record when remembering the personnel losses this offseason and the injuries sustained on the defensive side of the football.

In an NFL season consumed with convoluted mediocrity as only a few teams have distinguished themselves as appearing to be very good at this point, it’s important to remember how little we actually know about the entire league and who the real contenders will be by season’s end. Few would have envisioned the New York Giants of a year ago or the Green Bay Packers of 2010 as Super Bowl champions at the midway points of those seasons.

What’s not to say the Ravens’ formula for offensive success at home doesn’t suddenly appear for road games later this season or that the defense can’t make some improvement with healthier versions of Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata in the fold? Or, will reality set in during the second half of the season, sending the Ravens crashing back to earth?

The truth is none of us really know what to make of this year’s Ravens, but it’s a much more enviable position to be 6-2 while coaches and players try to figure it all out.

> One of the central themes of the first half of the Ravens’ season has been the failure of young defensive players to fill the void left behind by free-agent departures and injured players, but fourth-year linebacker Dannell Ellerbe has been the exception to the rule while emerging as one of the best players on the Baltimore defense.

That doesn’t speak highly for the rest of a unit ranked 26th in yards allowed, 28th in run defense, and 15th in points surrendered per game, but Ellerbe deserves credit in not only being the Ravens’ best linebacker in pass coverage but also providing some juice to a listless pass rush as he leads the team with 3 1/2 sacks. Always thought of as an effective “thumper” while playing the run, Ellerbe has been a capable blitzer and recorded three quarterback hits and a sack against Cleveland’s Brandon Weeden on Sunday.

Some were surprised the Ravens offered Ellerbe a second-round tender when he was a restricted free agent this offseason, but the former rookie free agent from Georgia has more than earned his $1.92 million salary to this point. Fellow inside linebacker Jameel McClain received a three-year contract this offseason, but Ellerbe has had the better season and might be finding himself as part of the team’s long-term plans if he can remain healthy and effective.

Coach John Harbaugh has pointed to the young linebacker’s heightened level of professionalism after it was no secret that Ellerbe wasn’t always in the best physical shape in past seasons and had a reputation of lacking passion for the game. Another key for Ellerbe has been his ability to stay healthy as he missed seven games last season while dealing with hamstring and groin injuries.

Ellerbe’s 49 tackles rank third on the team and are already a new career high, but he is a sure bet to lead the unit in that category by season’s end as he’s topped the Ravens defense in tackles in each of the last two games.

> As I wrote on Monday, Ngata’s play over the last two games must be a concern for a defense already struggling to control the line of scrimmage. It’s clear that knee and shoulder injuries are hindering his ability to take on blockers and make plays, and you have to wonder if the Ravens missed an opportunity to provide a useful period of extended rest for the All-Pro defensive tackle by not sitting him out against Houston in Week 7.

Perhaps the extra week of rest coupled with the Week 8 bye would have done the trick, but now the Ravens are staring at two critical matchups with the Pittsburgh Steelers over the next four weeks without knowing how effective the three-time Pro Bowl selection will be moving forward. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees is desperately looking for others to emerge as viable options up front, so you can understand the Ravens’ hesitation in sitting down Ngata right now, but they must also weigh the long-term implications of continuing to play him at substantially less than 100 percent.

Considering the Oakland Raiders are banged up at the running back position — starter Darren McFadden and backup Mike Goodson are both dealing with high ankle sprains — and will likely lean heavily on Carson Palmer and the passing attack, it might be worth considering resting the big defensive tackle in hopes that he can look more like his normal self when the Ravens travel to Pittsburgh next week. But as Harbaugh said Monday, the Ravens are trying to win every game and this season has proven none are guaranteed victories.

CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE >>>

Below are our Tuesday Top 7 Ravens players in the 25-15 win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 9. We’ll track our rankings throughout the 2012 season using the following point system:

No. 1 – 7 points
No. 2 – 6 points
No. 3 – 5 points
No. 4 – 4 points
No. 5 – 3 points
No. 6 – 2 points
No. 7 – 1 point

To hear the full explanation for the respective lists, click HERE.

Luke Jones’ Top 7 …

7) DeAngelo Tyson

6) Bernard Pierce

5) Vonta Leach

4) Torrey Smith

3) Dannell Ellerbe

2) Anquan Boldin

1) Ray Rice

Drew Forrester’s Top 7 …

CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE >>>

Following every Baltimore Ravens game this season, Ryan Chell and I will take to the airwaves Tuesdays on “The Reality Check” on AM1570 WNST.net with a segment known as “The Five Plays That Determined The Game.”

It’s a simple concept. We’ll select five plays from each game that determined the outcome. These five plays will best represent why the Ravens won or lost each game.

This will be our final analysis of the previous game before switching gears towards the next game on the schedule.

Here are the five plays that determined the Ravens’ 25-15 win over the Cleveland Browns Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium…

(Note: not all pictures are always of actual play)

Glenn Clark’s Plays…

5. Bernard Pierce 12 yard TD run on 3rd & 1 (1st quarter)

4. Brandon Weeden pass intended for Greg Little incomplete on 4th & 2 (4th quarter)

3. TJ Ward roughing the passer called after Joe Flacco incompletion (4th quarter)

2. Torrey Smith 19 yard TD catch from Joe Flacco (4th quarter)

1. Anquan Boldin 21 yard catch from Joe Flacco (4th quarter)

(Ryan Chell’s Plays on Page 2…)

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — With a slew of injuries hampering a depleted Ravens defensive line, All-Pro defensive tackle Haloti Ngata has tried to play through two ailments of his own over the last month of the season.

Listed as questionable on the final injury report in the Ravens’ last two games against the Texans and Browns, the seventh-year defensive lineman has played with knee and shoulder injuries, but his performance hasn’t lived up to his usual standards as one of the best defensive players in the NFL. Though stat sheets rarely tell the story in describing the effectiveness of a defensive tackle, Ngata has just one tackle over his last two games as he’s played in a reduced number of snaps.

Ngata registered one tackle in the 43-13 loss to Houston two weeks ago as he played 48 of the Ravens’ 80 defensive snaps. In Cleveland on Sunday, the 28-year old increased his workload to 53 of 70 possible defensive reps, but he failed to record a tackle and appeared unable to control and beat blockers at the line of scrimmage in the way he typically does.

“I thought he played solidly,” coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s not 100 percent — he’s got the shoulder and the knee a little bit — but he’s fighting through it. He’s playing well.”

Harbaugh remained noncommittal in how the Ravens will handle his practice work as many are beginning to suggest the possibility of sitting down the Pro Bowl defensive tackle in hopes of improved health for the final stretch of the regular season. It doesn’t help that the Baltimore defensive line has struggled to find any play-makers to complement Ngata as younger players such as Terrence Cody, Pernell McPhee, and Arthur Jones have failed to step up.

For now, the Ravens are likely to continue limiting his practice time, but they desperately need Ngata to regain the dominant form not seen since early last year when he was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate prior to sustaining a thigh injury that hampered him in the second half of the season.

“I think you take that day by day and week by week,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll just have to see. We need to win every game. Every game the division championship’s on the line.”

The only notable injuries suffered in Sunday’s game came along the offensive line as right guard Marshal Yanda tweaked his knee and ankle and was replaced by backup Jah Reid for five offensive plays while he received treatment. Right guard Bobbie Williams also suffered a mild ankle sprain, so the Ravens will closely monitor their practice time leading into this Sunday’s game against the Oakland Raiders.

Yanda would figure to be ready to play, but it will be interesting to see how Williams responds after suffering a fractured ankle last season in his final weeks with the Cincinnati Bengals.

“[Yanda's] moving around. The MRIs were all positive, nothing there,” Harbaugh said. “Bobbie Williams had an ankle — nothing on the MRI — sprain, so we’ll see. We’ll probably give him some rest during the week sometime and try to get him to Sunday. Those were the only two things that were really anything that were significant injury-wise.”

Should either player be deemed unfit to play, Reid would likely receive the first opportunity in the starting lineup after he was active for the first time all season against the Browns. He took nine offensive snaps, with five coming at left guard and the others as a blocking tight end in run-play situations.

“Jah played well,” Harbaugh said. “He played 10 or 15 snaps at different positions in there, and he played well and did a nice job. First time of really taking any kind of extended time out there and he wasn’t overwhelmed at all. That’s kind of what you look for in a young guy.”

Pees goes upstairs

CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE >>>

As crazy as it sounds after going two whole quarters without even picking up a first down in their uneven 25-15 win over Cleveland, the Ravens offense made progress on Sunday.

Their point total nearly matched their output over the previous 10 quarters they’d played on the road (28 points), and their performance over the game’s first 15 minutes might have been the most polished offensive quarter of the season — home or away. The Ravens began the game with 58 rushing yards on 11 carries, went 6-for-6 in the air for 70 yards, were 4-for-4 on third down, and possessed the ball for more than 12 minutes to build a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

A beautiful play-action pass to tight end Dennis Pitta was good for 27 yards and another first down with 8:38 remaining in the second quarter. It was all looking too easy against the Cleveland defense.

And then the Ravens offense disappeared until midway through the fourth quarter.

Completely.

It’s at this point in the narrative when critics typically begin blasting offensive coordinator Cam Cameron for not feeding the ball to Pro Bowl running back Ray Rice, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday. After carrying 11 times for 58 yards in the first quarter, Rice continued to receive carries but couldn’t do much with them, gaining 40 yards on 14 additional rushing attempts the rest of the way.

Rice received his 25 carries and, yes, the Ravens won the game, but anyone who watched a horrendous 30 minutes of offensive play in the middle of Sunday’s win saw they couldn’t move the ball consistently through the air or on the ground, going seven straight drives without collecting a first down.

The criticism against Cameron not involving Rice enough had been fair leading into Sunday’s game, but to point to the play-calling alone for the offensive struggles against the Browns is too simplistic. As has been the case all along, the problems run deeper than just the maligned offensive coordinator, though that doesn’t free him from blame, either.

“I think all of us were probably frustrated a little bit there,” quarterback Joe Flacco said. “We weren’t able to move the ball, we weren’t converting on third down, and so, yeah, I think you have to deal with it. It’s how well can you deal with the frustration and go back out there and pick yourself up.

“I think we’re tough physically, but being tough mentally is just as important or more important. I think we’re good in both of those areas.”

Fortunately, the offense awoke just in time after a 14-point lead and showed the mental toughness Flacco described, but you have to wonder where that confidence went for two quarters. The Ravens talked over the bye week about the need to be on the same page offensively, but the offense wilted quickly after an encouraging start.

Is the confidence level too fragile after extensive offensive struggles on the road this season?

Did complacency set in after building a two-touchdown lead?

Was the offense simply wearing down after playing a more physical style early on?

The disconnect that’s existed in contrasting the offense’s excellent play at home against their poor work on the road came into full effect Sunday as the good and the bad appeared in tandem at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

”We started fast and we finished strong,” Harbaugh said. ”In the middle? It was a little bit iffy there. But we came together at the end to win the game.”

They were able to snap out of their offensive coma when Flacco threw a 21-yard strike over the middle to Anquan Boldin to give the Ravens a first down with less than nine minutes to play, the first time they had moved the chains since the Pitta completion in the second quarter.

It was the catalyst for the eventual 19-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith who caught a quick throw from Flacco and spun away from cornerback Joe Haden to give the Ravens the go-ahead score with 4:26 to play. The third-down pass was the first third-down conversion for the Ravens since beginning the game 4-for-4 as they finished a meager 5-for-14 on third downs against Cleveland.

Whether it becomes the turning point of the season for a Baltimore offense trying to find its way on the road remains to be seen, but it prevented what would have been a full meltdown after jumping out to a 14-0 lead against the 2-6 Browns.

CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE >>>

Let’s get this out of the way right away – the Baltimore Ravens are 6-2 and any complaining about Sunday’s 25-15 win over the Cleveland Browns won’t change their slim lead in the AFC North or color the obvious breakdowns and weaknesses that are apparent to anyone who has watched their choppy work.

But as a Ray Rice told me at the podium on the shores of Lake Erie after another win: “There are no bad wins in the NFL.”

We can deal with the offensive inconsistencies later but my concerns center around a defense that will continue to take the field with a squad of patchwork underachievers and glaring fundamental issues.

The four deadly sins of defense continue to haunt the Ravens, if only for the first 80 yards of the field in Cleveland on Sunday. Rushing the passer. Stopping the run. Covering in the secondary. And tackling in general.

Let us count and assess the issues one by one…

The Ravens have no pass rush. Despite having the return of a seemingly spry Terrell Suggs in Houston two weeks ago, he was no factor in Cleveland. Joe Thomas ate him up and most teams will simply get some help on No. 55 if he becomes a pest and the Ravens lack a backup quarterback chaser with any push. Paul Kruger hasn’t been effective. Pernell McPhee, who flashed some visions of a pass rush specialist last season, has been mostly invisible this year and was an injury scratch on Sunday. Haloti Ngata continues to struggle physically and the leaks continue all around him on the defense.

Of course, no pass rush leads to trouble in the secondary with any quarterback and wide receiver tandem that has is given ample time to make a play. This will be an especially daunting issue when the Ravens see the Steelers in two weeks as Ben Roethlisberger has made a Hall of Fame career by making positive plays happen after the play breaks down.

With the injuries to Lardarius Webb, the Ravens secondary has been stressed tremendously because Cary Williams is now carrying the weight of marking every team’s No. 1 receiver. Aside from the obvious with Sergio Kindle being unable to play after his brutal fall and head injury, Jimmy Smith has been the Ravens’ most disappointing first-round draft pick since Travis Taylor. He’s the most penalized defensive player on the team and is consistently getting beat by top-notch receivers on a weekly basis. To my eyes, they’re simply targeting him and the likes of Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers and the Manning brothers will literally be frothing at the mouth awaiting a chance to throw the ball into this secondary.

After more than a decade of dominance against the run – and a source of massive pride of a local fan base that would routinely chant “you can’t run” from my seats up in Sect. 513 – the Ravens’ run defense has been porous as it’s been four straight weeks of allowing running backs to gash the front seven and get deeper down the field where the secondary becomes a de facto part of the tackling corps.

And all over the field tackling has been a consistent source of frustration. You can blame not-so-new-anymore defensive coordinator Dean Pees. You can talk about the loss of personnel like Ray Lewis via injury or Jarret Johnson, Cory Redding, etc. to free agency, but there have been leaks all over the field when it comes to second chances and fellows in purple flailing and missing.

Eight games into the season, the Ravens are 6-2 and there’s ample reason to be energized by their gaudy record and seat atop the AFC North.

The offense has certainly been capable as witnessed by their early-season success and it even managed 25 points yesterday on the road in Cleveland by managing to play about 20 minutes of decent football and still spending more than an hour without a first down. But there have been many times recently when Joe Flacco and the offensive crew have been stumbling their

SEE PAGE 2

After every Baltimore Ravens victory, Ryan Chell and I take to the airwaves on “The Nasty Purple Postgame Show” on AM1570 WNST.net to offer “Pats on the Ass” to players who have done something to deserve the honor.

We give pats to two defensive players, two offensive players and one “Wild Card”-either another offensive or defensive player, a Special Teams player or a coach. We offer a “Pat on Both Cheeks” to someone who stands out, our version of a “Player of the Game.” Ryan and I select five different players/coaches each.

Here are our “Pats on the Ass” following the Ravens’ 25-15 win over the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Browns Stadium…

Glenn Clark’s Pats…

5. DeAngelo Tyson

4. Cary Williams

3. Sam Koch

2. Anquan Boldin

1. Ray Rice (Pat on Both Cheeks)

(Ryan’s Pats on Page 2…)