JonnyBaltimore

2 hours ago, PuRock said:

Imagine if you told Ravens fans at the beginning of the season that Joe would throw for over 4,000 yards for the first time in his career.  We'd all envision a successful season like 10-6 or 11-5.  This was the ugliest 4,000 yard season.  Definitely not how any of us would have pictured a 4,000 yard season.  

When 12 of 15 games were decided by less than 1 possession, I am not surprised that our record is around .500. The difference between 10-6 and 8-8 is just a few plays.

We loss today because Antonio Brown made an amazing play at the end of the game. At the end of the day, in order to be a consistent winner, we have to put teams away early and often. This year we had way too many ups and downs. When our defence was rolling, our offence was not. And when our offence was rolling our defence couldn't get the stops.

13 hours ago, Rav'n Maniac said:

This will be interesting to see how the board reacts.

Joe presently has completed 3788 passing yds to date which is an average of 271 yds per game. He needs 212 yards in the Pitt game to get to 4000 for the 1st time in his career, something many here have been clamoring for. Is this his best passing season?

Keep in mind that, although it's not an impossibility, it will be difficult for Joe to match his TD output of 2014 with 27 in-season scores with sitting presently at 19 and two games remaining. I feel what is more realistic is that he could match or beat the 2012 SB season of 22.

Also consider his interceptions to date is sitting at 13 on the season which is his average per year for his career.

In my opinion, some of his accolades this year has been the result of the lack of or abandonment of a run game. Still, I feel Joe is having a very good (not great) year of production for Joe Flacco standards and my hopes are that he continues his best through the remaining two games. Light'em up Joe! 

I'll say that if Joe can play 2 "lights out games" to end the year and we win the AFC North at 10-6, he'll be considered ELITE. Right now, he has set it up as it can go either way. If he plays lights out, he'll have a career year. If he doesn't, then he'll have an average year.

He's generally pretty clutch, so here's hoping he can lead the team down the stretch.

I think the Steelers being at home for Christmas will be a distraction and we have the advantage being away for this weekend. It will be tough but I expect to jump on them early. Can we stop them when they make their run? It will be a good matchup in late December!

23 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Couple issues I have with this...

1. I suppose you could argue that Williams is a "foundational piece", but I'm not really big on paying, say, $10M a year to a player who really is only playing about half of his teams defensive snaps. The fact that Michael Pierce is playing so well also gives me pause there. To be frank... I think the drop off from Williams to Pierce isn't as big as the dropoff from Wagner to Lewis. Most of that is simply because I have no idea how good a RT Lewis can be or will be. And that's independent of the fact that Williams will likely cost significantly more than Wagner will.

I can tell you that a lot of people in the industry would say that the only kinds of defensive players you should pay top tier money to is Corners and Pass rushers. Brandon Williams isn't close to being either of those things.

2. While I agree the defense is good, there are no shortage of places where upgrades are needed. Our pass rush is still highly inconsistent and can be non existent at times, and we certainly need a lot more depth and maybe even a starter at Corner. Basically any time Jimmy Smith isn't on the field, this team immediately drops down tremendously in terms of defensive production. 

Not to mention the fact that we have two starting safeties over the age of 30, with Webb being no sure thing to return to the team next season either. 

Frankly, I can make a strong case that the defense is most likely to get the bulk of the personnel upgrades.

3. While I agree the Offense is by far the weaker unit... there's really not a huge amount of turnover in personnel that's really possible there.

60% of the starting offensive line is going to be back in some form or fashion... Stanley, Yanda and Lewis. That leaves possibly a new center and maybe a new tackle/guard, depending on what happens with Wagner.

At WR, Perriman and Wallace are likely to return, Moore will be here, and retaining Kamar Aiken remains a possibility. The only loss there is Steve Smith. Adding another WR remains possible, but I certainly wouldn't expect it to be early in the draft, and it could be another veteran signing in FA. 

TE is much of the same. Pitta may not be back and neither will Watson, but we have Gillmore, Maxx and Boyle on the roster already. Adding another makes sense, but other than that, probably not huge changes there.

RB is probably locked in... Dixon and West will likely be the primaries next year also, and QB we already know about.

So while the offense is struggling, personnel wise, I don't see a major change coming for next season. In theory, if we think the OL is performing better and we want "consistency" then it makes sense to resign Wagner and retain 80% of our OL, since most fans seem to like our base starting OL sufficiently, short of finding an upgrade on Zuttah.

If I were a betting man, I think you'll see a draft that focuses on pass rushers, secondary players, and maybe finding some more offensive lineman.

With Flacco taking so much of the cap, it is difficult to pay for the O-line as well. I think we use the draft to replenish the O-line and get a comp pick for Wagner. It is really about value; if we can draft a starter in the 3-6 rounds and then get a comp pick for that player after their first deal, that is a winning recipe on how to build a team.

I agree that Pierce is playing well, but Williams is more a known commodity. The only reason why we are still in the race for the AFC North is because of our defence. With a top 10 defence, we always have a chance, so I say go defence for stability and look to improve on offence via the draft and collect some comp picks. If Lewis can make the adjustment to RT, we save 6-7 million in cap space for the next 3 years. We need great players on the cheap, and let other teams overpay for them when their first contract expires.

5 hours ago, usmccharles said:

It just blows my mind, i know we were down but we dixon was picking up 4 per carry.  Without the threat of running there is no reason for them not to drop 7/8 players.  It was obvious what was going on and still no adjustments, ive never udnerstood our lack of adjustments. 

On 12/15/2016 at 5:46 AM, VermontRaven said:

I agree.  Especially with the increase in gap, I think we need to make a competitive offer to both of these guys.  Hopefully, we will not be outbid on BOTH and will at least be able to retain one of them. 

If we had to choose between the 2, I think I would prefer to retain Wagner.  I think Lewis could be a very good guard for us, plus he is an acceptable backup swing tackle. Then, Yanda (hopefully fully recovered) goes back to RG and we are only looking for one starter, Center, and a quality backup or 2.  We really don't have a ton of money invested in our OL and we have Stanley and Lewis on the cheap for a few years....by the time they are ready for their big pay day, Yanda will probably (sadly) be gone. 

I absolutely love Williams and between him and Pierce (and Jernigan, Guy), we have an amazing run defense.  That being said, I think we are much better at finding quality interior Dlinemen (see Pierce) and I think we could "replace" Williams easier than Wagner.  Also, I really hope we can keep Guy as well.  I think he is a majorly underrated part of our defense (hopefully the rest of the league underrates him as well so we will be able to afford him)

 

 

I think we sign Williams and let Wagner go. Move Lewis to RT. I figure we will cut Dumervil to create cap space. Why tinker with a top 10 defence when our offence is not very good. If it is status quo, I would pick the defence. I think Brett Urban takes over for Guy, Dumervil gets cut, Wagner signs elsewhere and we get a comp pick. The Front Office has always kept ascending players but can't pay them all. I like Wagner but he is replaceable. Williams is getting better every year and is a foundational piece on defence.

2 minutes ago, RavensDieHard21 said:

This year's under performing offense is largely due to our OC's lack of creative play calling and diversity along with Flacco coming off a major injury and regressing in the mental aspect of the game--missing wide open guys, failing to audible, still cannot overcome cover 2, etc.  

Perriman and Wallace should be utilized with more deep shots, especially with PA. We haven't used screens or enough jet sweeps or bunch formations. SSS has gotten his attention, but Flacco has missed him a lot this year. Pitta has not been utilized as a security blanket. More of a sack preventer as Flacco tosses him a 2 yard pass right before he gets hit. Our running game whether it is working or not is consistently abandoned. To run less than 20 times a game is unnecessary and Flacco should not be leading the league in attempts. We lack creative plays to get them open. Rarely see screens and more of them have just been a check downs with LBs draped over them. 

-More WR screens w/ Steve Smith, Mike Wallace.

-Wallace/Perriman on drag route in stride and get some easy YAC. Looks like Perriman has a fifth gear, so need to catch him in stride and see if he can make a play.

- Flacco on a bootleg

-Kyle Jus on a 9 route covered by LB.

-Flea flicker to Perriman

-more double moves on aggressive DBs/LB's

We have a lot playmakers but we are failing to get the ball in their hands and in stride.

21 hours ago, Ravensdoordie said:

No... And no matter if the steelers win they are a disgrace to the division as well... 

They really don't beat a team... The teams they play beat themselves...

The afc north is a complete joke... 

Whoever wins is a one a done....

==============================

will marvin  lewis ever be fired as the head coach of the bengals... 

I men how long and why do they put up with him as a head coach... 

That is my fear with Harbaugh... Hopefully we aren't the second coming 

of the bengals...in this type matter.

It's possible that we win the AFC North with a 10-6 record and Pitts finishes 10-6 and captures the last Wild Card spot. Then it would be Pitt @ BAL for the playoffs.

9 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Don't agree with that. Steelers themselves haven't scored 30 in like 5-6 weeks, and our defense matches up pretty well with what they want to do. I could see 20-24 points being enough to win, depending on how the defense plays.

Loss of Jimmy certainly hurts, however.

Joe obviously has to play better. That goes without saying.

Steelers are a different beast at Heinz Field. They have played 4 of their last 5 games on the road (4-0). Bell is playing lights out and the Pittsburgh D is starting to heat up as well. Their LB's are getting healthy, especially Shazier. Remember Ben in the second half of our first meeting? He picked our defence apart. I think we're going to have to put up some big points to have a chance at Heinz field. If we played like we did on Sunday, it will not be close.

Pittsburgh is the 4th best Rushing Defence in the league. Just look at their last 4 games, they are probably the best against the run:

CIN Jeremy Hill 43 yards

BUF Le'shawn McCoy 27 yards

NYG 57 Yards

IND Frank Gore 28 yards

We will not be able to run the ball unless we use a lot of misdirection and gadget plays (like the jet sweep to campanaro). Flacco will have to air it out to win the ball game.

3 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Agree with the 1st and 3rd one for the most part. I'm not really big on bashing QBs for fumbles unless its like a Mark Sanchez-like travesty, because all good QBs fumble seemingly multiple times a year. I mean even Brady, Rodgers etc. are in that 2-4 lost fumbles a season range. This one just hurt because of location on the field, which is largely random in some ways.

Interception was obviously horrible.

The sack at the 35 I went back and watched and I really don't see what Joe really could have done there. Pressure was there very quickly and there wasn't time to scramble or throw it away from what I saw. We've knocked Joe a lot this year for feeling pressure too quickly and not waiting for the play to develop, and now we want him to throw it away quickly here? Can't really have it both ways.

Flacco needs to step it up. I give him credit for bouncing back from a torn ACL and playing decent but if we want to win the AFC and move into the playoffs with a hope of getting to the Super Bowl, he's got to be better from a cerebral standpoint. 

We will have to put up at least 30 points to beat Pittsburgh.

3 hours ago, rmcjacket23 said:

I do find it partially amusing that a lot of the knocking of Flacco is based on what is perceived to be too many interceptions. Yet, if you did your own homework, you would note that his INT/attempt ratio is in-line with basically his entire career. A 2.2% INT/attempt ratio on the season so far. That's far less than last years 2.9%, a gigantic amount better than the dreadful 2013 season when he was at 3.6% (and he will throw it more this year than that year), and pretty consistent with what many fans think were his better seasons... 2014 he was at 2.2%, 2012 1.9%, 2011 2.2%, 2010 2.0%.

Tells us what we already know... that his interceptions are more volume based than anything. Granted, his YPA is near a career low at 6.5 YPA currently, which is disturbing, but its an indication of a league-wide trend towards more of a shorter, more efficient passing attack, which can be seen by his career best completion percentage. I find this somewhat ironic, as completion percentage was a HUGE knock on Flacco for much of his career. We had some good teams in 11-12 and he was completing less than 60% of his passes in a league where supposedly everybody good QB completed over 60%, and I was told that's why Joe wasn't any good. Well, his completion percentage is where you guys want it to be.

You wanted a high completion percentage... he gave it to you. You wanted yards... lots and lots and lots of yards. He's giving it to you (will have well over 4,000 this season). 

So which way shall we move the goal post this year? 

-Flacco got strip sacked on the 7 yard line, which resulted in a TD.

-Flacco got sacked at the Eagle 35 yard line and got knocked out of field go range.

-Flacco threw an absolutely terrible interception at the Eagle 10 yard line. Although his stats look ok, these are ridiculous mistakes

Our secondary is small (with the exception of Jimmy Smith) and slow. This causes a lot of mismatches with big WR's, or fast WR's. Playing against good QBs, they have exploited this. It also doesn't help that the Defence is always on the field because the offence can't sustain drives.

Flacco has not shown any signs of progress since the Super Bowl run. His lack of cerebral development is apparent when you compare him to other QB's in the league. He openly breaks down plays and gives away strategic insights in his interviews with media, not even aware of all the info he is giving to his opponents. Everything is so predictable "we take what the defence gives us blah blah". A truly dominant offence will go out there and do whatever it wants.

This offence is so predictable. Get the ball in the playmaker's hands! i.e. reverses, jet sweeps, wr screens, misdirections. We have Steve Smith, Perriman, Wallace who can make plays after the catch.