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The purple and black will face the green and white on Monday night, but another color might play a major factor in deciding the outcome of the regular season opener - yellow.
The Ravens and Jets will have referee Walt Anderson and his crew officiating the game tomorrow, which means that we are likely to hear a lot of whistles and see a lot of laundry on the field.
Anderson's crew is known for calling lots of penalties, and the Ravens saw this first-hand last season when they took on the Packers in Green Bay. There were a total of 23 penalties called that night by Anderson and the boys in the zebra stripes (nine of which were for pass interference), and a whopping 310 penalty yards were awarded.
Head coach John Harbaugh and his coaching staff usually give their players a scouting report of the officials leading up to a game, and you can be certain they've done so this week. You can also bet the defensive backs have been warned about the pass interference flags they're sure to see unless they play smart.
"That crew calls a lot of penalties, there's no doubt about it," Harbaugh said yesterday. "That's kind of one of their things. But they call it the way they see it. They call it very tight."
Harbaugh went on to say that he sees Anderson's officiating style as a positive for his team on Monday. That might surprise fans who saw the Ravens give up 1,094 penalty yards last season, which was the most in the league.
But Harbaugh and his coaches made it an emphasis throughout training camp to cut down on the flags, and that focus appeared to pay off in the preseason.
The Ravens were flagged 26 times for 189 yards in their four preseason contests, an average of 6.5 penalties and just 47.5 yards per game.
"We like to say it's always been important, and it really always has been important. But after last year, there was something that we needed to do," Harbaugh said. "I think I'm very pleased and impressed with the way we played technique throughout the preseason. We've had very few defensive pass interference or illegal contact penalties; we've had very few holding penalties, if any. We've had very few personal foul penalties of any kind. Special teams has been the same way.
"I'm just really proud of the way we're playing technique, and I fully expect that to continue throughout the regular season."
They'll get their first test on Monday night. With Anderson's crew on the field, Harbaugh should get a true idea of how far his team has come in cutting down on the flags.
