Jared Gaither went from a left tackle to a tackle left behind.

Sunday, the former Baltimore Ravens blocker will play a pivotal role — good or bad — for the San Diego Chargers.

Gaither, released by the Ravens after last season, has started the last two games at left tackle for the Chargers, ably protecting the blind side of quarterback Philip Rivers in victories over Jacksonville and Buffalo. The Chargers signed him after he was cut by Kansas City three weeks ago.

The position has been a soft spot for San Diego since Pro Bowl left tackle Marcus McNeill suffered a neck injury against Oakland on Nov. 10. Gaither has done a good job filling that vacancy on short notice.

Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said he watched the tape of Gaither’s two performances and, “I was like, wow.”

But a tougher test will come against Baltimore outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, who leads the AFC with 13 sacks, seven in the last three games.

“He’s beaten a lot of different tackles a lot of different ways,” Gaither said this week, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “He comes with the total array.”

The 6-foot-9, 340-pound Gaither was a converted big man who only played two seasons of college football at Maryland. He was selected by the Ravens in the fifth round of the supplemental draft in 2007 and eventually stepped in at left tackle when All-Pro Jonathan Ogden retired.

Gaither started 26 of 27 Baltimore games he played in in 2008 and 2009, but frustrated his coaches before the 2010 season when he showed up at camp 30 pounds lighter than expected, and he was later put on injured reserve because of a back injury, sitting out the entire season.

Chargers Coach Norv Turner said the addition of Gaither has “had an impact on Philip.”

Now, it’s Gaither’s job to make sure he’s the one making that impact, not the Ravens.

— Sam Farmer

Chargers’ next opponent

Baltimore Ravens (10-3)

5:20 p.m., Sunday, Qualcomm Stadium

The Ravens have lost only three games. Each time, they were on the road. For all their success, the Ravens are no better than 16-14 in away games under head coach John Harbaugh.

So, ahem, there’s that.

About the last thing the Chargers needed to come along at this particular point – the virtual point of no return in terms of postseason contention – was a game with the smash-mouth Ravens. Baltimore’s a good opponent to have when it’s early in the season and you’re trying to measure yourself against the league’s better franchises – especially if you’re wondering about your own toughness — but not when you’re under .500 in mid-December and possibly one loss from elimination.

Baltimore’s not without a sense of urgency, either, despite a sweep of the arch-rival Pittsburgh Steelers and unbeaten record within the AFC North. The Ravens are one of four AFC teams at 10-3 and all too aware of the importance of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Those two wins over the Steelers won’t mean much, either, if Pittsburgh finishes with a better record than Baltimore.

When last the Chargers faced the Ravens two years ago – see Series History below – Baltimore was built around (now) 12-time Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis. He’s missed four games – all Baltimore wins — with turf toe.

The Ravens are the NFL’s best defense against the pass and second-best against the rush, allowing an average of 15.5 points per game and an opponents’ third-down percentage of just 28.7. If anything, this year’s ravenous Ravens seem even more on the offensive when on defense.

Baltimore’s 8-5 in prime-time games during Harbaugh’s tenure, 4-1 in “Sunday Night Football’ affairs.

Three players to watch

Terrell Suggs, LB: You can toss a dart at the Ravens’ defensive lineup and hit somebody you want to avoid in your game plan, but even with Ed Reed at safety and Haloti Ngata at nose, the first force to be reckoned with is Suggs on the pass rush. Three times this season, he’s recorded three sacks in a game, putting him within two quarterback drops of the team record of 15. In addition to three picks Sunday, he also forced three Indianapolis Colts fumbles. He’ll be dancing with a former Ravens teammate Sunday night in Jared Gaither, now the Chargers’ starting left offensive tackle.

Joe Flacco, QB: Of the top 26 quarterbacks in the NFL in completion percentage, 25 are doing better than Flacco, who’s hit just 56.6 percent of his passes. He’s no higher than 21st in passer rating at 79.9. But there’ll only be two quarterbacks in the Super Bowl, and nobody would be surprised if Flacco is one of them. Why worry so much about passing stats, too, when your primary job is getting the ball to …

Ray Rice, RB: This not a height joke, but the 5-foot-8 Rice actually had been running well below the radar until most recently breaking off consecutive 100-yard games – incredibly, the first time he’s done that in his career. Rice leads the NFL with 1,622 total yards from scrimmage, including 10 rushing scores and two TD receptions. He’s now working behind one of the league’s premier fullbacks, Vonta Leach.

Kansas City, Mo. — Le’Ron McClain remembers the first practice of his rookie year with the Baltimore Ravens. The big fullback pulled in a pass, turned up field and ran smack into All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis.

There’s a good chance he’ll run into him again awfully soon.

McClain joined the Chiefs in the offseason after four mostly successful years in Baltimore, joining a wave of ex-Ravens on the team they helped knock out of last season’s playoffs. Quarterbacks guru Jim Zorn, defensive tackle Kelly Gregg and offensive tackle Jared Gaither are here, too.

They’re all returning to Baltimore for a preseason game tonight.

“I’ve been with the Kansas City Chiefs for a few weeks now, you know?” McClain said. “I’m a Chief now, so I’m going to go over there as a Chief, playing as a Chief. They know the physical ball that I’ve been playing these last four years, they know how I play, so I’m going to bring it when I’m in there.”

McClain, a former fourth-round draft choice, ran for more than 900 yards two years ago, when he was named first-team All-Pro. But he watched his number of carries dwindle the past two years. He toted the ball only 28 times last season while serving primarily as a blocking back for Ray Rice.

Gregg played in at least 14 games each of the last eight seasons for Baltimore, a period during which the franchise fielded one of the best defenses in league history. The Ravens decided to let him go in part because of his age — he’ll be 35 in November — and the Chiefs quickly snapped him up. They’re hopeful he still has at least one season left in the tank, and that he can help shore up an abysmal run defense.

Gaither started 15 games at left tackle in 2008, and 11 games the following year, but he missed all of last season because of injury. Zorn, meanwhile, was fired in January despite helping Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco achieve a career-best 25 touchdown passes with a career-low 10 interceptions.

“I think it is a compliment to those guys and to the organization,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who wouldn’t have minded at a least a couple of them staying in Baltimore. “Those guys are all good players. They’ve all proven themselves, and they’ve been contributors here, and it’ll be fun going up against those guys.”

Gregg acknowledged that tonight’s preseason game will be strange for all the ex-Ravens, but he also believes the Chiefs have come together during training camp, and that might take some of the edge off.

“We’re just worrying about the Chiefs,” he said. “We’re not worried about anybody else.”

That included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who embarrassed the Chiefs in a 25-0 rout last Friday night. Kansas City hardly created a game plan for the preseason opener, and K.C. is taking a similar approach to Baltimore. The Ravens are coming off a 13-6 loss to Philadelphia.

“I think the Tampa Bay game, from a score standpoint, you can say it didn’t go well, and that’s the name of our game, but we feel we made real good progress through that first game and we feel like we’re making progress this week,” Chiefs coach Todd Haley said. “A lot of coaching and teaching that goes on — like last week, how we come out of the locker room, we kind of had to educate everyone. Now it’s what to wear on the plane, how to get on the plane, how we act in the hotel. … It’s another day that’s going to be just as critical.”

Haley has stuck to a master plan throughout camp, slowly trying to get his players up to speed after the lockout wiped away much of the offseason. Much of the work has centered on conditioning and learning the playbook, and the result is an appearance that Kansas City is far behind the rest of the league.

Haley wouldn’t say how long his starters will play tonight, though it figures to be more than the eight or so plays they were in against Tampa Bay.

Meanwhile, the Ravens’ starting group plans to play well into the second quarter because, Harbaugh acknowledged, “we need to get ready to play.”

“We’re going to be playing a regular season game very soon,” he said.

While the Chiefs are focused mainly on themselves, Harbaugh is taking a different approach. He views the preseason as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, so the Ravens have looked at film of Kansas City and will put together a game plan just like they would for a game that counts.

“They obviously won their division last year. We played them in the playoffs, they’re a heck of a team, and they’ve only gotten better in the offseason,” Harbaugh said.

Copyright 2011 The

Associated Press.

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McClain joined the Chiefs in the offseason after four mostly successful years in Baltimore, joining a wave of ex-Ravens on the team they helped knock out of last season’s playoffs. Quarterbacks guru Jim Zorn, defensive tackle Kelly Gregg and offensive tackle Jared Gaither are here, too.

They’re all returning to Baltimore for a preseason game Friday night.

“I’ve been with the Kansas City Chiefs for a few weeks now, you know?” McClain said. “I’m a Chief now, so I’m going to go over there as a Chief, playing as a Chief. They know the physical ball that I’ve been playing these last four years, they know how I play, so I’m going to bring it when I’m in there.”

McClain, a former fourth-round draft choice, ran for more than 900 yards two years ago, when he was named first-team All-Pro. But he watched his number of carries dwindle the past two years. He toted the ball only 28 times last season while serving primarily as a blocking back for Ray Rice.

Gregg played in at least 14 games each of the last eight seasons for Baltimore, a period during which the franchise fielded one of the best defenses in league history. The Ravens decided to let him go in part because of his age — he’ll be 35 in November — and the Chiefs quickly snapped him up. They’re hopeful he still has at least one season left in the tank, and that he can help shore up an abysmal run defense.

Gaither started 15 games at left tackle in 2008, and 11 games the following year, but he missed all of last season because of injury. Zorn, meanwhile, was fired in January despite helping Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco achieve a career-best 25 touchdown passes with a career-low 10 interceptions.

“I think it is a compliment to those guys and to the organization,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who wouldn’t have minded at a least a couple of them staying in Baltimore. “Those guys are all good players. They’ve all proven themselves, and they’ve been contributors here, and it’ll be fun going up against those guys.”

Gregg acknowledged that Friday night’s preseason game will be strange for all the ex-Ravens, but he also believes the Chiefs have come together during training camp, and that might take some of the edge off.

“We’re just worrying about the Chiefs,” he said. “We’re not worried about anybody else.”

That included the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who embarrassed the Chiefs in a 25-0 rout last Friday night. Kansas City hardly bothered to create a game plan for their preseason opener, and they’re taking a similar approach to Baltimore. The Ravens are coming off a 13-6 loss to Philadelphia in their preseason opener.

“I think the Tampa Bay game, from a score standpoint, you can say it didn’t go well, and that’s the name of our game, but we feel we made real good progress through that first game and we feel like we’re making progress this week,” Chiefs coach Todd Haley said. “A lot of coaching and teaching that goes on — like last week, how we come out of the locker room, we kind of had to educate everyone. Now it’s what to wear on the plane, how to get on the plane, how we act in the hotel. … It’s another day that’s going to be just as critical in this process.”

Haley has stuck to a master plan throughout camp, slowly trying to get his players up to speed after the lockout wiped away much of the offseason. Much of the work has centered on conditioning and learning the playbook, and the result is an appearance that Kansas City is far behind the rest of the league.

The third-year coach wouldn’t say how long his starters will play Friday night, though it figures to be more than the eight or so plays they were in against Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Ravens’ starting group plans to play well into the second quarter because, Harbaugh acknowledged, “we need to get ready to play.”

“We’re going to be playing a regular season game very soon,” he said.

While the Chiefs are focused mainly on themselves, Harbaugh is taking a different approach. He views the preseason as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, so the Ravens have looked at film of Kansas City and will put together a game plan just like they would for a game that counts.

“They obviously won their division last year. We played them in the playoffs, they’re a heck of a team, and they’ve only gotten better in the offseason,” Harbaugh said. “They’ve added some former Ravens that we would have liked to have had here, so they’ve got some good players. They’ve got a lot to play for. I know they’re very highly-motivated to come here and play and I think we understand that.”

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Since the NFL lockout ended and training camps began, we have talked at length about the various areas of concern relating to the Baltimore Ravens. The fans have been asking questions about the team and we still have to wait for the answers.

Are the wide receivers, as a group, better than last season? Can Joe Flacco become an elite QB? Can offensive coordinator Cam Cameron get the most out of Flacco? Those are just some of the questions being asked.

To me, the biggest question mark for this year’s team is the offensive line. They say the game is won in the trenches. Are the Ravens capable of getting it done in this area. Honestly, I don’t know.

Last year, Joe Flacco was sacked 40 times. That’s not a very impressive number. On top of that, Baltimore’s yards per carry dropped almost a full yard in 2010 (4.7 to 3.8) from it’s 2009 average. The Ravens are usually one of the best running teams in the league. Last season, that was not the case.

Over the past few weeks, the Ravens have lost lineman Chris Chester, Jared Gaither and Tony Moll via free agency. Is this a case of addition by subtraction? Right now, it doesn’t look that way.

The team has high hopes for rookie tackle Jah Reid from UCF. But he has some work to do and must beat out O’Neil Cousins for the RT spot. Cousins, who was terrible in the pre-season opener against the Eagles, has to play better. Center Matt Birk has been out of action after knee surgery. The Ravens signed Casey Rabach as insurance for Birk, but he failed his physical. Michel Oher is a talented player who must overcome his tendency to make mistakes. These mistakes, both mental and physical, limit his effectiveness at LT.

The Ravens open the season against the Steelers on September 11th. So there is still time for the O-Line to get healthy and improve.

However, until they prove they can play, I’m going to consider this area of the 2011 Baltimore Ravens question mark numero uno.

BH