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Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears offense found ‘more of an identity’ on an encouraging day. Now they need to build on it.

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

It didn’t take long for Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields to find his first completion Sunday against the Denver Broncos. First snap, out of a diamond formation. Play action, tight end to the flat. Easy pitch and catch. Nine-yard gain to Robert Tonyan.That’s how the Bears always want to start. Straightforward concept. Crisp execution. Positive momentum. Stack the completions from there.Two in a row for Fields. Three in a row. Four.Five in a row, six.Fields’ seventh consecutive completion came on the first play of the second quarter, a deep shot to his favorite receiver. Against a single-high safety look, DJ Moore gained outside leverage against cornerback Ja’Quan McMillian down the right sideline. And when Fields’ pass dropped toward Soldier Field’s north end zone, Moore made a highlight-reel grab, somehow managing to get both feet down inbounds.Touchdown.Ideal. Keep that flowing. Stay in the rhythm.Eight completions in a row. Then nin...

Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 28-3 win over the Cleveland Browns

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

The Ravens punished rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Lamar Jackson played an impeccable second quarter to secure an easy AFC North road win, 28-3, over the Cleveland Browns.Here are five things we learned from Sunday’s game.The Ravens capitalized on their good fortune, which is what the best teams doWhen they looked ahead to their road date with the Browns, the Ravens could not have imagined they would face neither Nick Chubb, the best running back in the league, nor Deshaun Watson, whose sore shoulder forced him to hand the reins to Thompson-Robinson.If we’re singing ballads of misfortune, the Ravens (3-1) brought plenty of their own to this AFC North party. They played without their starting left tackle, their best cornerback, their $70 million safety, their No. 1 running back, two of their top three edge defenders and two of their top three wide receivers.Cleveland would still guard its home field with the top defense in football, which had allowed a...

Ravens signing CB Tre Swilling after Duron Harmon poached from practice squad by Bears; WR Dontay Demus Jr. waived

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

The Ravens’ practice squad shuffling continues.On Tuesday, the Chicago Bears — 0-14 since trading All-Pro inside linebacker Roquan Smith to Baltimore midway through last season — signed safety Duron Harmon from the Ravens’ practice squad. In a subsequent move, Baltimore added cornerback Tre Swilling to its practice squad.They also signed tight end Eric Tomlinson and defensive back DeAndre Houston-Carson to the practice squad and waived undrafted rookie wide receiver and former Maryland standout Dontay Demus Jr.Swilling, 24, is the son of former NFL All-Pro linebacker and 1991 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Pat Swilling. Undrafted out of Georgia Tech in 2022, he signed with the Tennessee Titans, who later waived him at the end of preseason, before joining the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad. From there, he signed with the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad in December before being released, re-signed to a reserve/future contract in Febr...

Mike Preston: With Ravens in first place, rest of AFC North is quickly heading south | COMMENTARY

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

A month into the season, the AFC North isn’t looking so tough anymore.On Sept. 9, a genius sports columnist from The Baltimore Sun wrote that it was the toughest division in the NFL. He apologizes. OK, it was me. At this point of the season, I stand corrected.If the season continues to unfold the way it has during the first four weeks, the Ravens are going to run away with the division title. They easily beat up on the Browns in Cleveland on Sunday, 28-3, and are in first place with a 3-1 record.Both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Browns are 2-2, and the Cincinnati Bengals, who have played in the past two AFC championship games, are 1-3 and heading south.If the Ravens were just managing to get by, it would be one thing, but they’ve played the past few games without five, six or sometimes seven starters. They had a hiccup last week in a 22-19 overtime loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Baltimore, but they are still winning without receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Rashod ...

The Ravens’ new offense hasn’t been as explosive as expected. It hasn’t slowed Lamar Jackson.

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

Lamar Jackson is doing things that he has never done.His 74.3% completion rate is eight percentage points higher than his career-best mark in a season. His 16 yards per attempt are nearly 3 1/2 yards more than the highest rate of any year of his career as the full-time starter. He’s leading a Ravens offense that is tops in the NFL in red zone efficiency at 80% with 12 touchdowns scored in 15 trips.“He’s able to do so many other things that other quarterbacks can’t do,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “That’s a beautiful thing. Lamar Jackson’s second to none.”Technically, he is — only Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has a higher completion percentage at 74.8.But for all of Jackson’s passing fancy, the additions of wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr., Zay Flowers, Nelson Agholor, a new offensive coordinator in Todd Monken and $170 million spent on the offense — most in the NFL — the Ravens haven&...

NFL power rankings, Week 5: Ravens, despite injuries, in a class of their own in AFC North

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

Each week of the NFL season, The Baltimore Sun will rank all 32 NFL teams. The rankings will take into account not just weekly performance, injuries and roster depth, but how well each team measures up as Super Bowl contenders.Here are the rankings heading into Week 5:1. San Francisco 49ers (4-0, No. 2 last week)Last week: Win vs. Cardinals, 35-16Up next: vs. CowboysThe Niners make winning look so easy. Behind a career-high four touchdowns from Christian McCaffrey and a nearly perfect day from Brock Purdy — who finished 20-for-21 for 283 yards to set a franchise record for completion percentage in a game — San Francisco won its 14th straight regular-season game. The 4-0 start has come against a relatively easy schedule, so Sunday night’s game against Dallas will be an important measuring stick.2. Buffalo Bills (3-1, No. 6)Last week: Win vs. Dolphins, 48-20Up next: vs. JaguarsFacing the hottest team in the league, the Bills showed they still rule the AFC East. Th...

Chicago Bears WR Chase Claypool didn’t attend the game at Soldier Field, but Matt Eberflus expects him at Halas Hall on Monday

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

Chicago Bears wide receiver Chase Claypool was not at Soldier Field on Sunday to watch his team blow a 21-point lead in a 31-28 loss to the Denver Broncos.The Bears said they asked Claypool to stay home after deciding he would be a healthy scratch for the first time this season.Bears coach Matt Eberflus originally said the team told Claypool “it was a choice (whether to attend), and he’s at home right now.” But a media relations staffer later clarified the team gave the instruction to stay home.Eberflus, however, said he expects Claypool to be at Halas Hall on Monday as the Bears prepare for the Washington Commanders on Thursday.The Bears benching Claypool came after he answered “no” when asked Friday if the team was using him in the best way to showcase his talents.When asked what coaches can do to better utilize him as the offense looks for a spark, he said, “I’ll let them decide that. I’m not going to give any pointers. That...

War and political instability will likely take center stage at a summit of European leaders in Spain

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

GRANADA, Spain (AP) — European leaders will gather on Thursday in and around one on of the most renowned havens of tranquility — Spain’s Alhambra Palace — in an attempt to fix their increasingly turbulent continent where war and political instability are starting to unhinge nations and institutions.Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus were not invited, but just about everyone else is expected to fly into southern Granada to assess the many wounds that have blighted Europe over the past months and years. “Crises are everywhere,” said European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on the eve of the gathering. One wound is so recent that President Aliyev of Azerbaijan pulled out of the gathering at the last moment, when expectations rose that a possible summit-within-the summit would unite key players and go-betweens in his country’s crisis with neighboring Armenia. The humanitarian tragedy of some 100,000 Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh,...

Google packs more artificial intelligence into new Pixel phones, raises prices for devices by $100

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

Google on Wednesday unveiled a next-generation Pixel smartphones lineup that will be infused with more with more artificial intelligence tools capable of writing captions about photos that can be altered by the technology, too.The injection of more artificial intelligence, or AI, into Google’s products marks another step in the company’s attempt to bring more of the technology into the mainstream – a push they signaled they were embarking upon during their annual developer’s conference five months ago.“Our focus is on making AI more helpful for everyone in a way that is bold and responsible,” Rick Osterloh, Google’s senior vice president of devices and services, said during Wednesday’s event held in New York. As if to leave no doubt about Google’s current priorities, Osterloh described the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones as a conduit for having “AI in your hand.”The company’s next moves will include allowing its 7-year-old Google Assistant to tap into the company’s recently...

Oops! Nobel chemistry winners are announced early in rare slip-up

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 20:53:03 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — The most prestigious and secretive prize in science ran headfirst into the digital era Wednesday when Swedish media got an emailed press release revealing the winners of the Nobel Prize in chemistry and the news prematurely went public.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it was investigating.About four hours before the official announcement was planned Wednesday, several Swedish media received a press release from the academy revealing that U.S.-based scientists Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov had won the 2023 chemistry prize for their work on quantum dots.The Associated Press did not receive the press release in advance and decided not to publish the names until confirmed by the academy, but many Swedish media organizations did. Many were suspicious of the email at first. They published the information, however, since the academy didn’t write it off as false, merely insisting that the final decision on a winner had not yet been taken.“We don’t k...