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BALTIMORE -- The night was supposed to be about the long-awaited returns of quarterback Joe Flacco and linebacker Terrell Suggs.Instead, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh ended up lamenting two significant injuries and a preseason schedule filled with games that are not meaningful.Flacco went 11 for 16 for 94 yards in his first action since November, but the Ravens apparently lost tight end Benjamin Watson for the season during a 30-9 preseason victory over the Detroit Lions on Saturday night.After Watson tore his right Achilles tendon on the games first play, promising rookie running back Kenneth Dixon left in the second quarter with a sprained knee.Harbaugh said both players would receive MRIs on Sunday. He then provided his unsolicited take on the NFLs four-game preseason.Maybe its more games than we need, he said. Fewer preseason games and bigger rosters -- thats good for everybody.Harbaugh said the leagues coaches dont need the games to get their teams prepared for the regular season.We can find ways to get our guys ready to go and evaluated without the risk the game necessarily entails, he said.Asked how many preseason games he would like to see, Harbaugh said: If I had my druthers, Id go none. That would be my thing.Underscoring the notion that results in the preseason mean nothing, Lions running back Ameer Abdullah said, Ill start caring about winning when they keep score.The game did have some positives for Baltimore, most notably Flaccos return from knee surgery.He took the Ravens (3-0) to a field goal in their opening possession and played in one more series, ending his performance by misfiring on a fourth-down pass from the Detroit 43.Suggs, meanwhile, participated in his first game since tearing his Achilles tendon in the season opener last year. He made two tackles.The Ravens signed Watson as a free agent in March, hoping he would become one of Flaccos prime options this season. That plan ended when the 35-year-old appeared to trip while running a pattern and slumped to the turf.Beset by injuries while going 5-11 last season, the Ravens hoped this season would be different. But their lengthy injury list includes three tight ends: Watson, Dennis Pitta and Maxx Williams. In addition, Nick Boyle will miss the first 10 weeks for violating the leagues drug policy.With Watson out, Flacco turned his attention toward wide receiver Mike Wallace, signed as a free agent during the offseason. Wallace was targeted six times, catching three for 37 yards.Matthew Stafford played the first half for Detroit (1-2), completing 14 of 23 passes for 95 yards. He threw an interception and did not produce a touchdown.We couldnt make plays down the field when we had the chances, then when we made plays, we hurt ourselves with penalties, Stafford said.QUOTABLELions: Abdullah on the offense: A lot of this stuff was self-inflicted. Its not like they were coming in and imposing their will. There were a lot of penalties (nine) and thats what killed us.Ravens: Flacco on his performance: I was a little quick on a couple of things, but it felt great to be back out there.ROOKIE WATCHLions: Devon Bell misfired badly on a 42-yard field-goal try, but rebounded to hit one from 33 yards. Veteran Matt Prater, on the other hand, kicked a 60-yarder to end the first half.Ravens: Top draft pick Ronnie Stanley remains a fixture at left tackle. He started next to fellow rookie Alex Lewis, who played left guard for the injured John Urschel (contusion).POSITION BATTLELions: Undrafted rookie TE Cole Wick had mixed results in his effort to impress at a position beset by injuries. He had two catches for 20 yards, but was called for holding on a touchdown run.Ravens: With Dixon out, Terrance West appears poised to be the backup behind Justin Forsett. He gained 43 yards rushing compared to 15 for Javorius Allen.WELCOME BACKStandout defensive end Haloti Ngata faced the Ravens for the first time since being traded from Baltimore to Detroit last season. He had three tackles and a sack.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL Alfonso Boone Jersey Retro . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Stan Olejniczak Jersey Retro . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie. https://www.cheapjerseyslines.com/mike-fitzgerald-jersey-retro/ . Each of Houstons starters scored in double figures as the Rockets improved to 2-0 against the Spurs this season, with both victories coming on the road. They also moved within 3 1/2 games of San Antonio (22-7) for the lead the Southwest Division. Myron Pryor Jersey Retro . Giroud, who wasnt in the starting lineup for two matches after allegations about his private life and a decline in form, scored twice in the first half. Tomas Rosickys chip made it 3-0 before half time at Emirates Stadium, while defender Laurent Koscielny scored an unmarked header in the second half. Bruce Thornton Jersey Retro . -- Arizona knocked off some quality opponents, rolled over a few overmatched ones and grinded out victories even when things didnt go so well. Forty. Its a good average but not a good score. An innings of 40 occupies that hinterland between success and failure, a liminal score, a score for the flaky talent or the not yet good enough. Forty is as likely to annoy the selectors as excite them. When he remembered the golden run that saw him average more than 100 for two full first-class seasons in 2006 and 2007, Mark Ramprakash said: If I gutsed out 40 or 50 on a difficult wicket, I thought, Yeah well done. But it also meant if conditions were in my favour, I was absolutely ruthless.A score of 40 does not represent ruthlessness in the mind of Ramprakash, or of any serious batsman. The reactions of the fielders if they dismissed a Lara or a Ponting or a Kallis for 40 said it all: it was a win, a bullet dodged, a cause for celebration. And take a look at the face of Brian or Ricky or Jacques - were they happy with 40? They were not. In a strange way, theyd rather get out early than fight through all of that and then chuck it away. Its like putting Led Zeppelin IV on the stereo and turning it off again before Stairway to Heaven.Most batsmen fail to make their average in two-thirds of their innings. This rule applied even to Don Bradman, the most ruthless of all, who was as vulnerable to early dismissal as everyone else (Jack Hobbs apparently had more chance, statistically, of reaching 10). But of his 80 Test match innings, Bradman made just four scores between 40 and 50. He passed fifty 42 times, and turned 29 of those into a hundred or more. Thirty-six per cent of his innings were centuries, and 25% were scores of fewer than 20. He was the ultimate converter of starts.The second innings of Englands defeat to Pakistan at Lords contained three scores in the 40s. They demonstrated how the light refracts differently depending how the runs were made, and by whom. James Vince scored 42, Gary Ballance 43, and Jonny Bairstow 48.They were very different knocks by players in very different places. Vince is four Tests and six innings into the apparent seven-game run that every new gun is afforded under Andrew Strauss. He cover-drives as though the ghosts of Dexter, Vaughan and Bell are at his back, the riflle-crack of the ball leaving his bat at stark odds with the languorous fluidity of his strokeplay.dddddddddddd Of his 112 Test runs, 76 have come in boundaries. At Lords before lunch he seemed to ride the wave, the ball scudding across the green as a herald to his talent, and yet it was suddenly quelled by the kind of shot that so often extinguishes other batsmen touched by aesthetic beauty. Forty-two for him, and more murmuring. Ballance had bet the house on his unaltered technique, still crabbed and crease-bound. Stubbornness, though, is a quality prized by pros and selectors. His 43 was as ugly and hard-won as Vinces was apparently casually knocked off. Most of those 43 runs seemed to go through slip and left him white-faced with effort. It was a score that seemed somehow more virtuous for being difficult.Bairstows grim countenance had little to do with his immediate future in the England team. He was a man who knew he could do it when it mattered, and it mattered now. Yasir Shah had bowled pure kryptonite at him in the UAE, and then in the first innings, Bairstow had tried to cut one off middle stump, a shot full of doubt and fear. Now he played with a vertical bat and a clenched jaw, looking for all the world like a young redbeard King Hal.He and Chris Woakes, another player with the sun shining down on him at last, were deeply aware that they were the last, thin chance England had. Yasir tired, and Bairstow pulled a long hop for four to move within six of 50. Then came another, but this time with an extra zap from wrist or fingers, met by a waft that was neither punch nor pull, and he was done. The fiery demeanour gave way to shattered realisation.Three men, three innings, three forties, one defeat. Bairstow drew plaudits for his. Ballance, it was generally acknowledged, should get another game. For Vince, a stereotype was reinforced. Perhaps he can ask Bairstow about how he might reinvent himself if - and probably when - the axe comes.For all of them, and for all of their reasons, 40 was, as ever, far from enough. ' ' '