The Ravens may be 3-1 through the first quarter of the season, but certainly defensive coordinator Dean Pees has had some struggles getting the best out of his unit.

However, it appears the cavalry may be coming over the hill-maybe in as little as two weeks.

ESPN’s Chris Mortensen is reporting that Ravens linebacker and Defensive Player of the Year Terrell Suggs-who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles suffered in the off-season-will try and return in two weeks on October 21st against the Houston Texans.

Suggs, who is currently on the PUP list and has to miss the first six games of the season, would be eligible to return then, and thought of that as his target date to return.

Suggs suffered the injury at the beginning of May, and told WNST shortly after, “Tell Baltimore I’ll be running out of that tunnel in mid October.”

The Ravens linebacker said the tendon injury was not as severe as first expected, and why he is planning on returning in 2012-not next season.

However, he did have more reasonable expectations a month later, telling ESPN, “Maybe we were shooting too far, but you never know.”

Ravens coach John Harbaugh also has been keeping tabs on Suggs’ recovery, and it appears from the ESPN report like he will make an executive decision to hold Suggs out till after the Ravens bye on October 28th.

That would put Suggs back in action on November 4th against the Cleveland Browns on the road.

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After Baltimore Ravens victories, Ryan Chell and I award players who made positive contributions with “Pats on the Ass” during the “Nasty Purple Postgame Show” on AM1570 WNST.net.

The Ravens fell to the Eagles 24-23 Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, meaning there were no Pats to be awarded.

So instead of offering “Pats on the Ass”, Ryan and I again offered “Slaps to the Head” postgame. A slap on the side of the head from a coach tends to come along with them saying something along the lines of “you’ve gotta do better than that.”

Same rules as there were with Pats. Two offensive players, two defensive players, and a Wild Card (Special Teams player, coach, or another Offensive or Defensive player). One player gets “two slaps” (or a slap on both sides of the head), it’s the opposite of a “Player of the Game” honor.” Ryan and I select five different players/coaches after each game.

Here are our five Ravens that have “gotta do better than that.”

Glenn Clark’s Slaps…

5. Arthur Jones

4. Matt Birk

3. Cary Williams

2. John Harbaugh

1. Joe Flacco (two slaps)

(Ryan’s slaps on Page 2…)

As always, this week’s 15-7-0 is brought to you by Roofing By Elite. Visit them at roofingbyelite.com. We make 15 observations about football ELITE, 7 about football “not so ELITE” and one “zero” who deserves to sleep on the roof from outside of football.

(As a reminder, we don’t do Baltimore Ravens game analysis here. We do PLENTY of that elsewhere. This is about the rest of the world of football.)

The “ELITE” 15…

1. It was way more interesting than it needed to be, but Maryland got a nice win Saturday.

Ryan Chell and I made the drive up to Filthy Saturday, and I will admit I expected much worse than what I got.

As Darren Pang would say, “holy jumpin’!” Perry Hills wasn’t great-but he made some nice throws. Marcus Leak was fantastic, and Stefon Diggs more than made up for an earlier fumble with that spectacular catch you saw there at the end of the game.

Most of us would have settled for just not giving up 12 rushing touchdowns like it felt like they did a year ago against the Owls. Instead we got Randy Edsall’s first EVER road win.

While I was in the “Illadelph” (to quote The Roots), I had a tasty chicken cheesesteak and a pretzel. I did not however get to stop at the place The Nasty One recommended, “Talk of the Town” for one of their steaks.

Anything anybody can tell me about this place?

I was a little disappointed we didn’t bump into Temple fan and friend of “The Reality Check” Bill Cosby at the game, but apparently he was busy looking dapper at UMass…

2. Rex Ryan and the Jets are perhaps the greatest trolls in the history of football.

The Jets didn’t just look BAD in the preseason, they looked like one of the worst teams in the history of football. They scored one offensive touchdown. They looked to have the offensive ineptitude of a JV football team, but at one of those schools where they only have like 300 students so the JV team is mostly made up of girls and kids that thought they were trying out for badminton.

And then, this.

I’m not as baffled as you. I’m significantly more baffled. I had sort of assumed the Jets were just going to panic and line Tim Tebow up at every position to try to set some sort of bizarre record because they cared so little about winning.

What the eff? I PICKED THE JETS TO WIN?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!!?

Heh. I knew it all along.  And you doubted.

Here’s what Thurman Thomas thought about the Bills’ effort…

But other than that I hear he enjoyed it. Before we move on, here’s Bills TE Scott Chandler knocking down Rex Ryan…

Here’s Antonio Cromartie flipping into the endzone…

And after the game Bart Scott announced a media boycott. Who says he didn’t learn anything from Ed Reed while in Charm City?

3. Most of the talk after Redskins-Saints is related to Robert Griffin III, but Billy Cundiff probably deserves a bit of attention himself.

About effing time someone started paying attention to RG3, don’t you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlSFtmr7vj4

The real question for the Skins? Is the former Heisman Trophy winner REALLY this good or did he play a dreadful defense?

The real question for the Saints? Can things get better or will not having their head coach prove to doom the season?

The other question? Will Nike be able to capitalize on adidas pitchman Griffin’s “Heart”?

I wish I could root for this guy. DAMNIT why did he have to be drafted to DC? For example, I’d LOVE to enjoy this…

…but clearly there’s no chance.

Oh and also! Billy Cundiff made all four of his field goal tries. That seems noteworthy for some reason, I just can’t think of why.

4. The SEC again emphatically proved to be greater than the Big 12. Wait. The hell? Missouri and Texas A&M aren’t in the Big 12 anymore?

I had just sorta figured a college basketball-style “Big 12/SEC Challenge” had been scheduled this weekend. I was as surprised as you.

The story of Georgia/Missouri was the jawing about “Old Man Football”. It was good enough to win…

Also, another look at Mizzou’s unis, please…

The story of Florida/Texas A&M was the Aggies forgetting they play two halves in college football still…

There was however this Ben Malena absolute BLAST for TAMU fans who want to feel better about things…

And since we’re here…did you happen to see the live broadcast of Midnight Yell Practice from Kyle Field Friday night on ESPNU?

There were 40,000 people there. To practice yelling. I have no words. I’m going to wear overalls to Maryland/UConn next week. And then there’s this…

5. Perhaps Mark Sanchez got a lesson in quarterbacking from Matt Barkley this weekend.

For like five seconds as it was storming in New Jersey Saturday there was a thought Syracuse could hang with USC. Nope.

There was a bit of a weather issue in the New York area Saturday (hell…in the Baltimore area too). You might have noticed it if you were watching the U.S. Open semifinal between Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych…

6. Jay Cutler is REALLY happy to have Brandon Marshall, but Matthew Stafford still has Calvin Johnson folks.

You know how good Calvin Johnson is? He had over 100 yards receiving Sunday and NO ONE noticed. No one except Matthew Stafford of course, who needed somewhere to throw the ball to help move past his THREE interceptions…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLSpaBwVE4M

What you missed in that highlight package? Cortland Finnegan chucked an ear pad from Megatron’s helmet to the Rams’ sideline. Dirty? Clever? Rhubarb?

Here’s a picture that shows the Lions cost Floyd Mayweather $100,000 during the first half of the game…

Meanwhile…in the Windy City…the Brandon Marshall experiment is working thus far. Who would have ever thought a tall receiver would be something a NFL team would actually want?

And if I were to ask you, “who is the longest tenured player in Chicago Bears history?”, what would your answer be?

Would your answer have been this?

That’s LS Patrick Mannelly, who began his 15th season with the Bears today.

Don’t worry. No one else has heard of him either.

7. Randy Moss was a difference maker at Lambeau Field. This is not a repeat of a 15-7-0 from 2003.

Quite the day in Green Bay for the Niners Sunday, especially K David Akers…

Well…I guess it was quite the day for everyone involved in the game that DIDN’T try to dunk the ball over the crossbar. I’m looking at you, Vernon Davis…

Here’s Jim Harbaugh’s reaction…

The Packers, Saints and Giants all lost at home on Week 1. Apparently “parity” isn’t just a well known Civil War battleship.

I honestly still can’t believe some of the things I read/heard/saw last week about Baltimore Ravens OT Bryant McKinnie.

If you missed it, McKinnie was not on the fall last week in Owings Mills during mandatory minicamp at the Under Armour Performance Center. When asked why McKinnie was not practicing, head coach John Harbaugh said “Bryant McKinnie is a guy that we held out just for conditioning purposes. We’re going to probably continue to do that and continue to try and get him in good shape. I think practice-wise, he’s just as well doing the conditioning part of it.”

Let me start this post by saying I fully understand a few things. One is that Harbaugh has never felt the need to share more information than necessary about any of his players. Another is that the information was new to reporters, so asking follow up questions might not have seemed pertinent. I wasn’t present at minicamp (media availability was scheduled during my radio show “The Reality Check” on AM1570 WNST.net each day) and was unable to fully grasp exactly what was going on.

With no media availability scheduled before the start of Training Camp, reporters felt it necessary to question Harbaugh later in the week for more information about McKinnie’s status. Unfortunately the coach was again vague, offering “we will leave that between us. That’s something that is an in-house type of thing right now. Bryant has done a good job, he’s worked hard. It’s not as simple as some of you guys want to make it. It’s just a situation where we are going to do what is best for the team, what is best for Bryant. We want him here; there’s no reason he wouldn’t be here. He has worked hard, so you try to do what’s most beneficial for every guy in every situation, and it’s always individualized.”

Now’s the part where I offer some examples of various stories I’ve read about Bryant McKinnie.

Here’s this from SI.com…

“Cut last season by the Vikings, Bryant McKinnie, who sat out Thursday’s practice, may be on the verge of extending an ignominious streak. Here is a player who has a history of being overweight and struggled with the same problem last season. He also reportedly has financial problems, yet can’t get into good enough shape to participate in minicamp. You have to question his commitment and when a team starts signing veteran offensive linemen and McKinnie gets held out of minicamp, it could be a sign of things to come.”

And this from SB Nation…

“The Baltimore Ravens gave veteran left tackle Bryant McKinnie a $500,000 roster bonus earlier this spring, but now might be regretting the outlay of cash. McKinnie came to Baltimore after the Minnesota Vikings cut him last summer for reporting to camp overweight. The Ravens rounded him into shape and he had a pretty solid year, allowing the team to shift Michael Oher over to right tackle and solidify that side of the offensive line.

McKinnie reportedly was on his way to getting in good shape earlier this year, but the most recent news was that the team held him out of the mini-camp this past week for “conditioning reasons.” This does not bode well for either the Ravens nor McKinnie.

Bryant is on the short end of a legal case where he defaulted on a $4 million loan he took out during the NFL Lockout last year and seriously needs a full season paycheck to pay it back. If he does not report to the Ravens Training Camp in six weeks in excellent shape, there is a very good chance that the team may decide to cut ties with him and let him go.”

Allow me to be fair again for a second. The SI.com blurb was a clear re-write with no author attached. While SB Nation does have a handful of experienced journalists and columnists, their sites are still largely made up of part-time writers/editors with no actual experience truly covering a team.

So perhaps CSNBaltimore.com’s veteran writer Ray Frager would be a better source.

“Offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie’s conditioning issues have been a big part of the Ravens chatter over this week. There is speculation he is around that 400-pound summit that caused him to lose his job in Minnesota.”

Maybe even the Baltimore Sun’s Mike Preston would be a better option.

“The entire McKinnie episode is strange and you wonder if he is going to be around when training camp opens. Here is a player who has a history of being overweight and struggled with the same problem last season.

He also reportedly has financial problems, yet can’t get into good enough shape to participate in minicamp. You have to question his commitment and when a team starts signing veteran offensive linemen and McKinnie gets held out of minicamp, it could be a sign of things to come.”