The Baltimore Ravens play their 1st road game of the season when they travel to Houston to meet the Texans this Sunday, 9/14. Kickoff at Reliant Stadium is 4:15 p.m. ET. The Ravens, who won their debut (17-10 over the visiting Bengals) under 1st-year head coach John Harbaugh last Sunday, are 1-0.  Here’s a tongue-in-cheek slide show presentation of what might await the Ravens in Houston accompanied by the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies…

The Texans, 0-1, lost at Pittsburgh, 38-17, despite 2 sacks and a forced fumble by DE Mario Williams. Houston QB Matt Schaub, who was 25 of 33 for 202 yards, was sacked 5 times by an aggressive Pittsburgh defense. The Texans trailed 21-0 in the 2nd quarter and 35-3 in the 3rd.

The preliminary roof report is closed for Sunday's Liberty White Liftoff regular season home opener against the Ravens at Reliant Stadium. The high temperature is predicted to be 92 degrees with a 30 percent chance of precipitation. Then of course there is the issue of Hurricane Ike.  For the latest on Ike’s developments click HERE.  

BALTIMORE TO HOUSTON CONNECTION ~ Texans S Will Demps originally signed as a rookie free agent with the Ravens in 2002. Demps started 46 games with Baltimore from 2002-05…Texans DE Anthony Weaver was Baltimore’s 2nd-round draft pick in 2002. Weaver posted 14.5 sacks for the Ravens in his 4 seasons with the team…Texans WR Kevin Walter played 31 games in 2004-05 with the Cincinnati Bengals, where his WRs coach was current Ravens QBs coach Hue Jackson…Ravens G Ben Grubbs went up against Texans DE Stanley McClover in practice every day at Auburn from 2004-05…Texans WR André Davis was the primary kickoff returner for Cleveland under the tutelage of current Ravens special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg from 2002-03…Both the Ravens and the Texans feature former Nebraska Cornhuskers as specialists. Ravens P Sam Koch graduated from Nebraska in 2005, while Texans K Kris Brown left Nebraska in 1998.

THE NOTABLES ~ Baltimore is 2-0 all time vs. the Texans. The Ravens’ most recent win over Houston came in 2005 (12/4) in a tight 16-15 contest at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens look for their 1st win on the road since a 9-7 victory over San Francisco in Week 5 last season (10/7). The 49ers game was Baltimore’s lone road win in ‘07.

Baltimore has won 4 of its last 5 Week 2 games, including last season’s 20-13 win over the New York Jets (9/16).

TIS’ THE SEASON FOR GIVING? After the Ravens’ 17-10 win over Cincinnati last Sunday, a game ball wasn’t awarded. Actually, 94 were. As stated by head coach John Harbaugh in the locker room, “Today’s game ball goes to the entire team.” With that, equipment manager Ed Carroll is having 94 footballs painted to commemorate Week 1’s win: 53 for active roster players, 9 for practice squad players, 8 for Injured Reserve players, 23 for each coach and 1 for owner Steve Bisciotti.

DID YOU KNOW ~ The Ravens and Falcons experienced similar success in Week 1, with both teams featuring rookie head coaches (John Harbaugh and Mike Smith) and starting QBs (Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan) who helped lead their respective teams to victory.

The last rookie head coach to start a rookie QB in Week 1 was Dallas’ Jimmy Johnson with Troy Aikman in 1989 (9/10 vs. NO)…Not since 1971 has a pair of rookie QBs won on opening day (Jim Plunkett vs. Oak. and Archie Manning vs. LA Rams on 9/19). Flacco and Ryan became the first 1st-round rookie QBs to start on opening day since 2003. The last was the Ravens’ Kyle Boller, who made his starting debut in a 34-15 loss in Week 1 at Pittsburgh (9/7). Flacco and Ryan are also the first 1st-round draft pick QBs to win their starting debuts since Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger led his team to victory in 2004 at Miami (9/26). The last 1st-round rookie QB to start and win on opening day was Houston’s David Carr in 2002, a 19-10 victory over Dallas (9/8).

MURDER BY NUMBERS, 1, 2, 3 ~ 3…The number of attempts and successful conversions on 3rd-and-1 rushes for Ravens FB Le’Ron McClain last week. All 3 occurred in the 4th quarter and gained 23 of his 86 total rush yards…3, the number of sacks by Ravens LB Terrell Suggs in the 2005 Baltimore-Houston game at M&T Bank Stadium. With that career-high, Suggs helped lead the Ravens to a 16-15 win…8, the number of Three-and-outs the Ravens’ defense forced on 12 Bengals drives last Sunday. Baltimore’s “D” allowed only 8 1st downs all day (2 by penalty)…13:17, the time of possession the Ravens held in the 4th quarter against Cincinnati, compared to the Bengals’ 1:43. Baltimore held the overall TOP edge during the game, 36:15 to 23:45.

MORE NUMBERS ~ 2007 marked the 1st season in team history that the Ravens produced a 1,000-yard receiver and rusher. WR Derrick Mason posted 1,087 receiving yards on 103 catches, complementing RB Willis McGahee’s 1,207 rushing yards. But don’t get too excited.  In 2007 despite being 1 of only 7 NFL teams in to field both a 1,000-yard rusher and receiver, only the Colts and the Giants made it to the postseason.  The other teams were Arizona, Cleveland, New York Jets and Philadelphia.

THE QUOTABLES ~ Ray Lewis on Rex Ryan: “Rex Ryan is a huge piece of our puzzle. John [Harbaugh] keeping him, making him the assistant head coach is so, so important for us. On the football end, Rex is the best. He’s our heart and brains on defense. We love him. On the player to coach end, he knows the veterans. He helped John and the other new coaches learn about us. That’s a real plus, too…Rex and the other coaches had us ready for the Bengals. It was beautiful to see and fun to play in.”

“When you come into a situation like this, you want to set an attitude. We want to have a positive attitude. We want to have an aggressive attitude. You want to lay a foundation on the fundamentals and techniques that we’re going to use on Sunday afternoon. And you want to create an identity. [The question is] – Who are we going to be, and how are we going to be remembered?” ~ OFFENSIVE LINE COACH JOHN MATSKO ON THE RAVENS’ IDENTITY THIS SEASON

SPECIAL TEAMS COACH JERRY ROSBURG ON WHERE HE’S SEEN THE BIGGEST IMPROVEMENT FROM WR/RS YAMON FIGURS: “The biggest change that I’ve seen in Yamon since my arrival here from what I saw on last year’s tape was the way he approaches the game. Without specifics to a return or a particular scheme, I think that he’s playing the game with a great deal of toughness. I’ve seen him playing gunner. I’ve seen him playing kickoff coverage. I think those things have helped him in the return game. He’s now a guy that’s going to pour it up in there and not stop his feet before he gets to the crease. He’s a guy that is able to change direction at a high speed and not slow down before he changes direction. Those are the things that I’ve seen as the biggest improvement from Yamon.”