Ravens

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he doesn't believe the Patriots intentionally manipulated the Gillette Stadium scoreboard late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's AFC Championship game. "We knew what the down and distance were on our last series," Harbaugh told the team's website. "The scoreboard was not a factor for us. Any suggestion that the wrong down information was a deliberate effort to affect the outcome of the game is nonsense. " Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal that would have tied the game in the Patriots' 23-20 win. The kicker blamed no one...

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs has a partial tear in an Achilles tendon, according to an ESPN report, but he says he will be back in action by midseason. Early reports indicated Suggs would be out for the season, but Suggs told ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols he would return during the 2012 season. "That's just going to make it so much sweeter when I run out of that tunnel and prove everyone wrong," Suggs said . One source in the initial report said Suggs was injured playing basketball, but another source couldn't confirm that.

Quarterbacks PATRIOTS: Tom Brady, Brian Hoyer, Ryan Mallett. RAVENS: Joe Flacco, Tyrod Taylor. As personal statistics go, no opponent has given Brady more trouble than the Ravens. Including the playoff game after the 2009 season, in five starts against Baltimore, Brady has completed 55.9 percent of his passes with six touchdowns, six interceptions, 6.09 yards per attempt, and a rating of 71.4. But in the most important statistic, Brady is 4-1 against the Ravens, and 15-5 overall in the playoffs.

Veteran nose guard Ma'ake Kemoeatu has rejoined the Baltimore Ravens six years after leaving as a free agent. The 33-year-old Kemoeatu last played for the Ravens in 2005 before joining the Carolina Panthers. He signed a two-year, $7 million contract with the Washington Redskins in 2010 and started 12 games and recorded 29 tackles. Kemoeatu didn't play last season after being released by the Redskins on July 28, 2011. He was bothered by Achilles tendon and shoulder injuries.

BALTIMORE - The Denver Broncos went from unbeaten to overmatched during a 60-minute beatdown by the Ravens. Rookie Lardarius Webb returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, and Baltimore ended a three-game losing streak with a surprisingly easy 30-7 victory yesterday. It was Denver’s first loss under rookie coach Josh McDaniels. The Broncos (6-1) came in with the NFL’s top-ranked defense, a plus-7 turnover differential, and one of the league’s best kick returners in Eddie Royal.

NASHVILLE - The Baltimore Ravens are rolling down a familiar road. It's a route they once took to a Super Bowl title. They expect it to lead to the same place. In January 2001, the Ravens stuffed their wild-card playoff berth down the throats of four opponents to win their only NFL crown. One of the teams they beat was Tennessee. On Saturday, the Ravens eliminated the Titans, the AFC's top seed, 13-10. That followed a 27-9 victory over Miami in the wild-card round. Next up is another division winner - the Pittsburgh Steelers, who beat Baltimore twice this season to...

FOXBOROUGH - John Harbaugh could see the kick bending. The ball was still in the air and you could see the Ravens coach appear to mouth the words, "He missed it. " Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs couldn't stand the sight. "Oh, my God," he said, watching the ball hook left. Patriots coach Bill Belichick's eyes were fixed on the kick. Then his head snapped to the right. The look on his face wasn't one of delight or relief. He appeared almost puzzled by what he had witnessed.

The Ravens starred in this version of “Hard Knocks,’’ punishing the Jets with plenty of them. The Jets intrigued audiences in the preseason with their no-holds-barred, behind-the-scenes TV show, but it was the Ravens who grabbed the spotlight last night with a 10-9 victory in East Rutherford, N.J. They held New York to 176 yards, six first downs, allowed Mark Sanchez just 74 yards passing and kept Rex Ryan’s crew out of the end zone....

The Ravens upgraded their receiving corps again by agreeing to terms yesterday with T.J. Houshmandzadeh . To make room for Houshmandzadeh on the roster, the Ravens traded wide receiver Mark Clayton to the Rams for an undisclosed draft pick. Clayton, drafted 22d overall by Baltimore in the 2005 draft, ranks third in Ravens history with 234 career catches and 3,116 yards. Houshmandzaheh, a 10-year veteran who turns 33 Sept. 26, was cut by Seattle last week. He signed a five-year, $40 million free agent deal with the Seahawks before the 2009 season and had a team-high 79 catches...

The Baltimore Ravens emphatically shut down the Miami Dolphins’ highly successful road show. Billy Cundiff kicked four field goals, and the Ravens forced three turnovers in a 26-10 victory yesterday that ended the Dolphins’ unbeaten run on the road. Baltimore (6-2) won its seventh straight home game behind Cundiff and a defense that blanked Miami (4-4) after halftime. Cundiff connected from 26, 39, 20, and 24 yards, and the Ravens limited the Dolphins to 24 yards rushing over the final 30 minutes.

‘People love the gory ones," a newspaper editor tells Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack) early on in "The Raven," and presumably that line was part of the producers' original pitch meeting. I'm guessing the phrase " ‘Se7en' meets ‘Sherlock Holmes' " was tossed about, too. A grimly preposterous serial-killer thriller set in 19th-century Baltimore, this riff on the final days of the author of "The Tell-Tale Heart" and other masterpieces of the macabre might qualify as literary desecration if it weren't so silly.

NEW YORK – John Cusack is not familiar with the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl/Guy" archetype. It's not that the concept is so widespread or well known that it should be on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's just that he is often a Manic Pixie Dream Guy. That is, when he's not going dark. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a term coined by film critic Nathan Rabin, is a flighty, free-spirited character whose lack of inhibition teaches the brooding protagonist the true meaning of life.

The Baltimore Ravens strengthened their special teams by agreeing Friday to a two-year deal with cornerback Corey Graham and on a three-year contract Brendon Ayanbadejo. Graham, a Pro Bowl special-teamer for the Chicago Bears, previously visited the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. Graham intercepted a career-high three passes with one forced fumble last season and should play a role in Baltimore's secondary. In five NFL seasons, Graham has 180 tackles, four interceptions and two forced fumbles.

Raven-Symone is all grown up — and going to a convent. The former cutie from "The Cosby Show" will take over the lead part in Broadway's hit musical "Sister Act" later this month, playing a nightclub-singer-turned-nun. The 26-year-old actress and singer says she's in rehearsal almost every day of the week from "sun-up to sun-down" to "make sure I have everything down" when she takes over at the Broadway Theatre on March 27. Raven-Symone says she fell in love with the musical the moment she saw it. "I was definitely one of the audience members dancing in the aisles," she says.

Ray Rice has been designated the franchise player of the Baltimore Ravens, who hope to buy some time while negotiating a lengthy deal for the two-time Pro Bowl running back. Rice's contract expired after a season in which he amassed an NFL-best 2,068 yards from scrimmage and helped the Ravens advance to the AFC championship game. As a franchise running back, Rice will earn $7.7 million in 2012. Baltimore, however, intends to have him around a lot longer. "As we have in the past, placing the franchise designation on a player allows us to keep negotiating on...

Thanks to our very thorough friends at profootballfocus.com , which is worth the money for those of you into a Sabremetrics-type look at football, here's a look at how many snaps each player played for the Patriots on defense in the 2011 season (count includes all three postseason games). PFF counted a total of 1,362 defensive snaps for the season CB Kyle Arrington - 1,177 snaps DT Vince Wilfork - 1,173 CB Devin McCourty - 1,142 LB Rob Ninkovich - 1,126 LB Jerod Mayo - 1,126 S James Ihedigbo - 917 S Patrick Chung - 773 DL...

HOUSTON - Arian Foster was in his first season as a starter for Houston back in 2010 when the Ravens came to town. When Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis grabbed the running back after a play, he didn't know what to expect. Turns out Lewis had become a fan and told Foster: "I love the way you play this game. You have a very, very bright future. " Since then, the pair have become friends, though that bond will be put aside Sunday when the Ravens and Texans meet in an AFC divisional-round game.

Ricky Williams is retiring from the NFL. Again. This time, however, it appears to be for good. The 34-year-old Williams told the Ravens yesterday he won't be back to fulfill the second year of a contract he signed in August. Playing as a backup to Ray Rice this year, Williams ran for 444 yards and scored two touchdowns. He also became the 26th player in NFL history to reach 10,000 yards rushing, reaching the plateau in the season finale at Cincinnati.

For every Drew Brees and Ray Lewis, there is a David Tyree or Larry Brown. Not only do superstars win Super Bowls, super nobodies are heroes, too. And there are plenty of candidates for Sunday's title game between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. "Look at a guy like Sterling Moore," said Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich, a good candidate himself to leap from obscure to acclaimed. "If Sterling doesn't make that play against Baltimore, we obviously would not be here.