New England

I plan to plant 20 low-bush blueberries. I've prepared the beds with leaf mulch, compost and sulfur. How do you recommend planting to maximize survival? We hope you have not purchased these plants yet, as we suggest that you plant Northern or Southern high-bush blueberries instead. Low-bush blueberries are essentially wild, woodland plants that are not cultivated so much as maintained by growers in New England. One reason it's difficult to grow low-bush berries in our area is that we have different mycorrhizae (beneficial soil fungi)

Many times Baltimore area fans simply take their sports much too seriously. I confess, I am one. And sometimes it is nice to see an article in the line of humor to lessen the load after a serious loss such as the Ravens faced in New England. My Thanks to Jean Marbella for "Quoth the reeling Ravens fan, evermore" (Jan. 29). It was a very clever, funny and humbling piece that kind of puts the picture in focus for this particular fan. And made me consider again, what things would be like without our sports teams to support.

Robert H. Schuh, a golf pro who owned and operated Pleasant Valley Golf Course in Stewartstown, Pa., died Sunday of heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 78 and lived in Baldwin. The son of a banker and a homemaker, Robert Hall Schuh was born in Chevy Chase and moved to Wollaston, Mass., with his family in 1947. He attended Landon School in Bethesda, Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., and graduated in 1952 from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H. After graduating in 1956 from Dartmouth College, he served for two years in the Army, where he trained in the Nuclear Guidance Systems program at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. He studied under rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun and later was stationed in Germany in one of the first U.S. guided-missile units in Europe as part of the Nike program.

Nothing has changed regarding the Ravens' defensive coordinator vacancy and the feeling remains that the team's linebackers coach, Dean Pees, is the clear front-runner to replace Chuck Pagano who is now the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. Back in 1983, Pees was the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Miami of Ohio in 1983, mentoring a young defensive back by the name of John Harbaugh. As a coach, Pees has worked for Nick Saban, Lou Holtz and Bill Belichick. He was the Patriots' linebackers coach under Belichick in 2004 and 2005, and then took over as defensive coordinator in 2006 after Eric Mangini left to coach the New York Jets.

The Ravens' contingent at Sunday's Pro Bowl game in Honolulu, Hawaii keeps shrinking by the day. Defensive tackle Haloti Ngata and safety Ed Reed have become the latest Ravens to pull out of the game, leaving them with four representatives instead of the original number of eight. Ngata has been hampered by a thigh injury that didn't force him to miss any games, but team officials believed that it significantly affected his performance down the stretch. Reed dealt with shoulder/neck issues much of the season and then hurt his ankle in the Ravens' divisional playoff victory over the Houston Texans.

• FoxSports.com's Greg Couch believes the Ravens squandered the final opportunity to win a Super Bowl for aging defenders Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. Joe Flacco should be a star quarterback now. The defense of Ray Lewis and Ed Reed should be in the Super Bowl, but they're not going. Not now. Not in the future. This was the last chance for a legendary combo. • Chris Burke of SI.com grades the Ravens' performance in the loss, including lots of praise for the secondary . Ed Reed made a couple of real nice plays in pass coverage, highlighted by a huge break-up of a third-down play late to get Baltimore the ball back.

Terrell Suggs stood on the sideline, and the man who is never at a loss for words could only mouth the words “Oh, my God.” Ray Rice and Torrey Smith said nothing, choosing instead to stare straight ahead and wonder in silence how a long football season full of legitimate Super Bowl aspirations could possibly end like this. Fourteen yards from the end zone and a Super Bowl berth, and seemingly in position for no worse than a game-tying field goal that would force overtime, the Ravens watched two potential touchdown passes get broken up, and then Billy Cundiff pushed a 32-yard field goal wide left with 15 seconds remaining.

Raymond Berry can't fathom the odds. Who'd have thought that, the same year he was asked to present the Vince Lombardi Trophy, the two locales most dear to his heart would be playing on Sunday for a Super Bowl berth? That's Baltimore, the town Berry helped win two world championships as a Colts receiver, and New England, the club he later coached to the Super Bowl. Either the Ravens or Patriots will advance Sunday to the big game, giving Berry a rooting bias in Indianapolis two weeks hence.

Since the New England Patriots moved into Gillette Stadium, no team in the NFL has compiled more wins at home than New England. The Patriots are 67-13 in the regular season there and 8-2 in the postseason. Wintry conditions in the months of December and January and a raucous fan base have helped turn that stadium in Foxborough, Mass., into one of the more imposing venue in which to play. But running back Ricky Williams said the New England mystique is blown out of proportion.

In 2007, Steve Bisciotti made his first major decision as the majority owner of the Baltimore Ravens. He fired Brian Billick, in part because the team had just gone 5-11 to miss the playoffs for the third time in four years, but also because he wanted to change the entire culture of the organization. He wanted someone who possessed not only a first-rate football mind, but also someone who would deal with the players, the media, the community, the fans and the support staff differently.