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.

If anybody needs tickets to games, remember to click the tickets link at the top.

Bernard Pollard knows one style of play, and it’s not always a popular one. But it’s one that makes him a perfect fit with the Baltimore Ravens.

He calls it old school.

Wide receivers call it a prelude to pain killers.

“I’m an old-school football player,” Pollard said in a phone interview. “I’ll hit you when you’re going out of bounds. I’ll hit you when you come down field. If you’re in the way, you’re going to get hit. I’m just an old-school type football player. The league can try to change rules and everything else, but you can’t call this smash-mouth football if you’re worried about a penalty.”

That quote is Pollard in a nutshell: Aggressive, straight-forward and fully comfortable in his style. The Fort Wayne South Side High School alumnus needed four games to crash – and that is the best word – the Ravens’ starting lineup.

Now he’s a tandem with the Ravens great safety Ed Reed, and loving it, as the Ravens (9-3) play the Indianapolis Colts (0-12) at 1 p.m. Sunday in Baltimore.

Pollard spent three seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs and two years with the Houston Texans and felt like he fit in with both teams, but if ever his attitude fit with a defensive personality, it’s with the Ravens. Baltimore’s success has been defined by its defense, led by linebacker Ray Lewis and a number of great players over the years.

“One of the things I’ve always known about this team is they’re going to play ball,” Pollard said. “I love that they put their defensive players in position to go play. They want bullies They want to go out and do what they can to be the dominant team on the field. …They have 11 dogs on defense and they don’t have any kind of leash.”

Pollard calls Reed “the greatest safety to play this game” and says their connection has been strong from the start. They discuss film, text regularly awayy from the field and joke with each other constantly. On the field, it’s all business.

“We connect in so many different ways,” Pollard said. “It’s so much fun, knowing the safety next to me is accountable to this defense. He brings his ‘A’ game every single Sunday.”

Reed went to the University of Miami, where he was a friend and teammate with Colts receiver Reggie Wayne. Pollard earned a bit of infamy cursing at the Colts receiver after Wayne caught a ball and stepped out of bounds last season. Trash talk goes on every game, but Pollard’s rant was caught on an open microphone and went over the air.

Pollard said he talked about that incident with Reed the other day.

“Tempers flare and everything else,” Pollard said. “At the end of the day, I respect that man (Wayne) for everything he’s done. He’s a great guy, a Hall of Fame receiver. I’m excited to play him again. I just get frustrated when he goes down before I can hit him.”

Pollard knows the Ravens will be heavily favored against this version of the Colts, but he says Baltimore cannot afford to enter the game with any sort of overconfidence.

“As much flack as they’re taking, they’re still a really good team,” Pollard said. “You look at that receiving corps. Reggie Wayne is one of the best receivers in the game, still. Pierre Garcon, that dude is playing the game. Austin Collie is one of the best slot receivers in the game.”

Of course, Pollard and the Ravens will be facing a different quarterback, with Peyton Manning still out after neck surgery and journeyman Dan Orlovsky behind center. Orlovsky and Pollard were teammates with the Texans.

“It is weird to watch film on them and not see 18 with the ball,” Pollard said. “Dan’s doing a great job. He put up 24 points on New England. …They are capable of beating us. We have to go play ball, I don’t care how many losses you have. Nobody comes in on Sunday and just rolls over.”

Pollard certainly plays with only one style, regardless of the opponent.

His approach dates back to his formative days in Fort Wayne.

“My father was a big-time football fan, a big-time football player,” Pollard said. “Me and my brother would sit there and watch and see the (Steve) Atwaters, the Ronnie Lotts, the Night Trains (Lane) come through and slap that dude.

“That’s how football’s supposed to be played,” Pollard said. “I thought, ‘This is how I have to hit.’ When I hit that way, the biggest thing is I’m going to have a bruise. Just go hit. That’s something I picked up, and I ran with it.”

BALTIMORE (AP) — Beating the Baltimore Ravens on the road is a difficult task, even for a healthy team riding a crest of momentum.

So here come the Houston Texans, limping into town Sunday without their two best players and bringing a sore-armed quarterback whose final throw last week sealed a maddening loss to Oakland.

The Texans (3-2) listed 18 players on their midweek injury report. Andre Johnson, Houston’s leading receiver, is recovering from surgery on his right hamstring; Mario Williams, Houston’s sack leader, is gone for the season with a torn pectoral muscle; and Matt Schaub saw limited practice time because of a tender shoulder.

A year ago, Johnson had nine catches for 140 yards and two touchdowns in Houston’s 34-28 overtime loss to Baltimore. Williams never got to quarterback Joe Flacco, but the Ravens yielded four sacks while trying to nullify the big defensive end.

Baltimore (3-1) is delighted both won’t be around for the rematch.

“We know they’re going to have guys come in,” running back Ray Rice said. “But when you think about the next man up, you cannot replace an Andre Johnson, you cannot replace a Mario Williams. Those guys are names in the NFL that everyone knows. If we were playing them, we would have to account for those two guys.”

Flacco, who’s been sacked eight times in four games thus far, won’t have to look over his shoulder for an oncoming Williams.

“They’ve got a lot of good guys over there on defense, but anytime you take a guy like that out of the game, I don’t want to say it makes it easier, but it will definitely help us out a little bit,” Flacco said.

Baltimore has won 12 of its last 13 home games — including blowouts this year over Pittsburgh and the New York Jets by a combined 69-24 score.

And now, following a bye, the rested Ravens face a depleted Houston team coming off a 25-20 defeat to the Raiders in which Schaub threw an interception in the end zone as time expired.

“The more you think about it and the more you dwell on it, the more you’re hurting yourself for this week,” Schaub said. “So we’ve got to continue on and go to the next play.”

Which very well might be handoff to Arian Foster, who ran for 100 yards last season against Baltimore. No one has done it since.

“You have to hit him. He’s one of the most complete backs you can see,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “We know with Andre being out and them going through some things offensively, they’re going to run the ball on us. I think we’re up for the challenge.”

A year ago, Foster won the NFL rushing title while running behind Pro Bowl fullback Vonta Leach. Now, after signing as a free agent with Baltimore in August, Leach is blocking for Rice.

“He’s one of my better friends in the NFL today,” Foster said of his former leading man. “I can’t wait to see him.”

Leach was replaced in Houston by James Casey, who has a chest injury and might be forced to sit out Sunday’s game.

“Well, next guy steps up,” said offensive coordinator Rick Dennison, a line that just might turn out to be the theme of Houston’s 2011 season. “It’s like anybody else — if we have somebody go down, we’re going to miss them, but somebody’s got to go out there and compete. Maybe our versatility isn’t what it was before, but we’ll make do.”

Schaub threw for 416 yards last week, but he realizes nothing will come easy against a defense that features Haloti Ngata, Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed and Lewis, who’s having another standout season at age 36.

“He’s still Ray Lewis. He still plays instinctive, reacts to what he sees. He’s seen virtually everything that you can throw at him,” Schaub said. “You just have to know where he is, much like No. 20 (Reed) back end. You’ve got to know where he’s at and 55 (Suggs) up front. They have a ton of playmakers, and you’ve got to account for them wherever they are.”

Baltimore scored three defensive touchdowns against the Jets and has forced 14 turnovers, tied for second in the league behind Buffalo (16).

“We’re trying to get off the football field,” Reed said. “We’re trying to cause havoc, we’re trying to put pressure on you, we don’t want you to score.”

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

That’s all the news for today.

Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens rouses the crowd during the game against the New York Jets at M&T Bank Stadium. / GETTY

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BALTIMORE – Beating the Baltimore Ravens on the road is a
difficult task, even for a healthy team riding a crest of
momentum.

So here come the Houston Texans, limping into town Sunday
without their two best players and bringing a sore-armed
quarterback whose final throw last week sealed a maddening loss to
Oakland.

The Texans (3-2) listed 18 players on their midweek injury
report. Andre Johnson, Houston’s leading receiver, is recovering
from surgery on his right hamstring; Mario Williams, Houston’s sack
leader, is gone for the season with a torn pectoral muscle; and
Matt Schaub saw limited practice time because of a tender
shoulder.

A year ago, Johnson had nine catches for 140 yards and two
touchdowns in Houston’s 34-28 overtime loss to Baltimore. Williams
never got to quarterback Joe Flacco, but the Ravens yielded four
sacks while trying to nullify the big defensive end.

Baltimore (3-1) is delighted both won’t be around for the
rematch.

“We know they’re going to have guys come in,” running back Ray
Rice said. “But when you think about the next man up, you cannot
replace an Andre Johnson, you cannot replace a Mario Williams.
Those guys are names in the NFL that everyone knows. If we were
playing them, we would have to account for those two guys.”

Flacco, who’s been sacked eight times in four games thus far,
won’t have to look over his shoulder for an oncoming Williams.

“They’ve got a lot of good guys over there on defense, but
anytime you take a guy like that out of the game, I don’t want to
say it makes it easier, but it will definitely help us out a little
bit,” Flacco said.

Baltimore has won 12 of its last 13 home games – including
blowouts this year over Pittsburgh and the New York Jets by a
combined 69-24 score.

And now, following a bye, the rested Ravens face a depleted
Houston team coming off a 25-20 defeat to the Raiders in which
Schaub threw an interception in the end zone as time expired.

“The more you think about it and the more you dwell on it, the
more you’re hurting yourself for this week,” Schaub said. “So we’ve
got to continue on and go to the next play.”

Which very well might be handoff to Arian Foster, who ran for
100 yards last season against Baltimore. No one has done it
since.

“You have to hit him. He’s one of the most complete backs you
can see,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. “We know with Andre
being out and them going through some things offensively, they’re
going to run the ball on us. I think we’re up for the
challenge.”

A year ago, Foster won the NFL rushing title while running
behind Pro Bowl fullback Vonta Leach. Now, after signing as a free
agent with Baltimore in August, Leach is blocking for Rice.

“He’s one of my better friends in the NFL today,” Foster said of
his former leading man. “I can’t wait to see him.”

Leach was replaced in Houston by James Casey, who has a chest
injury and might be forced to sit out Sunday’s game.

“Well, next guy steps up,” said offensive coordinator Rick
Dennison, a line that just might turn out to be the theme of
Houston’s 2011 season. “It’s like anybody else – if we have
somebody go down, we’re going to miss them, but somebody’s got to
go out there and compete. Maybe our versatility isn’t what it was
before, but we’ll make do.”

Schaub threw for 416 yards last week, but he realizes nothing
will come easy against a defense that features Haloti Ngata,
Terrell Suggs, Ed Reed and Lewis, who’s having another standout
season at age 36.

“He’s still Ray Lewis. He still plays instinctive, reacts to
what he sees. He’s seen virtually everything that you can throw at
him,” Schaub said. “You just have to know where he is, much like
No. 20 (Reed) back end. You’ve got to know where he’s at and 55
(Suggs) up front. They have a ton of playmakers, and you’ve got to
account for them wherever they are.”

Baltimore scored three defensive touchdowns against the Jets and
has forced 14 turnovers, tied for second in the league behind
Buffalo (16).

“We’re trying to get off the football field,” Reed said. “We’re
trying to cause havoc, we’re trying to put pressure on you, we
don’t want you to score.”

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

Comment Below!.

Entering Sunday, Ray Rice was tied for 12^th in the NFL with 66 carries to go along with 16 catches. Because something good happens seemingly every time Rice touches the ball, I’ve heard numerous people say that the Ravens need to get him the ball even more. That may be true, but it’s appropriate to point out that Rice has seen a significant increase in touches compared to the first four games of last year. His 82 touches are 11 more than he had through four weeks last year when he had 60 rushes and 11 receptions. And that holds true even though Rice has played sporadically in fourth quarters because really only one of the Ravens’ games this season has been still in doubt at that point in the game. 

Since the Ravens signed Bryan McCann during the bye week, there hasn’t been an opportunity to ask coach John Harbaugh about where the young cornerback fits in the team’s plans. That question will obviously be more pertinent if several of the injured members of the secondary return this week as expected. But I’d have to imagine that the Ravens, who signed McCann to a two-year deal, are hoping that he plays his biggest role in the return game. The Ravens have used Lardarius Webb and Ed Reed on returns, and their beat-up secondary simply can’t afford to lose either with an injury. I understand the importance of special teams and I know injuries happen, but they seem to happen a lot to Ravens on kickoffs and punts. Jimmy Smith, Haruki Nakamura and David Reed have all been hurt on special teams.

The Ravens have dealt with their share of injuries, but they certainly are catching a break with the timing of their matchup against the Houston Texans. Not only did the Ravens have a bye week to potentially get back some of their ailing players, but the Texans may have lost their best defensive player yesterday in a 25-20 loss to the Oakland Raiders as outside linebacker Mario Williams left in the second quarter with a pectoral injury. Williams had gotten his fifth sack of the season earlier in the game. The severity of Williams’ injury is unknown, but with All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson (hamstring) expected to miss the game, the Texans could be without their top offensive and defensive player.

I’m a little late – OK about a week  – with this observation, but I thought one of the best moments during the Ravens’ 34-17 victory over the New York Jets eight days ago was that stretch where they ran the ball 11 straight plays spanning the third and fourth quarters. Fullback Vonta Leach and a couple of the offensive linemen kept motioning to the sidelines as if to say to them, “Let’s keep this going.” With Leach facing off against his old teammates this week, I can’t imagine he won’t be in the ears of the Ravens’ coaches, encouraging them to run it early and run it often. 

Wasn’t fullback Le’Ron McClain’s main gripe when he was with the Ravens that he didn’t get to handle the ball enough? He signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in the offseason and through five games, McClain has seven carries for 17 yards, and three catches for 19 yards. And that’s on a team that lost their starting running back (Jamaal Charles) in the first quarter of Week 2 with a knee injury. Just for comparison’s sake, McClain had 13 rushes for 33 yards and seven catches for 52 yards through the first five games with the Ravens last season.

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