ravenstime

I'm very confident that the Ravens are going to be winners Sunday, as they do have a lot more going for them on both sides of the ball. That being said, look for a close game at the end. I've got a feeling Flacco is immune to pressure. In fact, I'll go a step further...I think he relishes pressure and doesn't want to win comfortably.?!?. It seems will take it by 14 points or so, but that's only on paper and not the Raven way, the last few years. Look for a real dogfight!

It looks like the Browns might be reeling in the secondary and with a poor run defense, I can't see any reason whatsoever that we don't have guys step up to roll to a 14 point victory.

I'm keeping the Faith in Marlon, too. This could be a breakout game for him or Aiken, maybe even Givens??? Who knows, but we'll see how it goes.

You might say it's shaping up to be a back-against-the-wall story. Also, a story of redemption, and a story of overcoming all odds. While all of that is true, I do have confidence in this group of receivers. I believe, Flacco will find completions come Sunday and these guys will turn the tide, giving us our second win of the year. Justin Forsett might have a lot to do with that and the Browns have shown that they are dead last in run defense. I have doubts that that will change this week. Although with our luck, they'll be better that that 32nd mark.

That is true, but, as much as I hate to discredit anyone, including the Browns, I won't say much about that, just that I agree, they should be starting Manziel. Now, though, we have a tough task of limiting catches made by these Browns Sunday. If it's anything like last year, they'll be in fine form with a veteran QB. I don't think anything less than our best effort will suffice. We need to dominate on defense, not simply show up!

I have a feeling Flacco is going to step up. It's the receivers, that I'm worried about. They did just enough last week in Pitt. They need to do more. Usually we run well against Cleve. We'll need to do that this week to win, as well. Cleveland can surprise us, they bring their 'A' game to Baltimore!

Hey, M. Brown has done it before. I don't want to discount him yet. I think, as long as we can catch, which is the main thing these receivers work on, that and of course, getting open, we'll be alright. I'd just be thankful, we have Cleve. and S.F. coming along instead of San Diego or Seattle. Hopefully we'll be ready for them when we get to them on the schedule. Maybe we'll have Sr. back in a month...Stay Tuned...until this time next week, we'll have to hope we don't have further bad news on the injury front, especially at WR.

I'm just going to say it, 'I don't think Perriman sees any game action this year!' Also, I wouldn't expect SSS to be back for a month or so. I too, hope we can pick up Alshon Jeffery. He is a reliable receiver and I can see Flacco benefiting from having a reliable receiver. If we did pick him up, I don't know how we'd act! Not discounting Sr., just that he's out for a while, now.

Just like the refs missed that tackle (hold) on Pitt. last Thurs. They love Pitt. and, yes, G.B. is high on the list of darling teams. That made the victory in Pitt. ever sweeter, after seeing the refs bend over backwards for them. I thought the Patriots were referees, all that cheating going on!

Thank You to everyone who made their share of plays, especially Ricky Wagner for saving a score on that interception.

To Purple nd Black... I think Joe is not playing at that very consistent level we all think he is. Don't get me wrong, I love Flacco and don't want any other QB, but he can play better, that is all I'm saying. Also, we need to call more passes, certainly longer passes, deep shots (15 - 20 yards) a few times more each game because Flacco has a great arm and I feel we need to use him like most of the other good teams use their QB. I'd rather lose with him having a bad game throwing than lose because the play caller never used him at all. In other words, I feel we should put the game on Joe's shoulders a bit more, instead of restraining him and thinking we can always run for close to 200 yards to squeak out wins, especially vs. good teams that aren't afraid to pass the ball.

I know the run sets up the pass most times, but I don't know how the Steelers couldn't key on the run and force us to pass? That was what Cincy. did and we couldn't pass our way back into the game or pass effectively to back them off the line so as to set up the running game. I don't know how the steelers botched that up. All they had to do is stuff the line of scrimmage, I would think, especially with SSS and Campanaro out of the game.

We are snake-bitten at drafting WR's. Heck, even A. Boldin didn't have a long tenure here. And Sr. is retiring after 2 years here. Go figure. There's nothing we can do to run the ball, either, because teams know if they shut the run down, we don't have a chance, so that's what they do. I tell you, our wide receivers, TE's too, really need to straighten up and fly right. We need every receiver out there on the field to get open and catch and stretch the field. I hope Trestman let's Flacco loose more and takes 15 to 20 yard shots every so often, we need that to back them off and thus give us some chance to run. We can do it tonight in Pitt.

That's funny Bob.... I first thought, 'How is SSS a distraction?' and 'Just what we need, now!' Then I read the rest. He certainly is showing the whole league just how it is. It's kind of funny that for an organization that is so poor with Wide-Receiver play, we've gotten two of the best years around the league compared to anyone, just about, and it's a receiver. But, then again, it figures that he's at the end of his (brilliant) career and not starting out like Antonio Brown or A.J. Green. Boy, we really suck with developing Wide-Receivers. If we drafted Antonio Brown instead of Pitt., I'd bet you that he would have been a bust, with all of our luck there, or maybe injured for a few years or something like Perriman. I blame his injury on our tough luck with the receivers.

So, let me get this straight. Which is the way things go in the NFL on average? Steve Smith Sr. or Aiken and Brown, etc. Is Smith better than most or are the other guys on our roster below average, or is it both? I mean when we, here, think Baltimore and Wide Receivers, we know that we're the worst team in the NFL and grooming these guys and prob. the worst team, when it comes to receivers in the league for forever (20 years).

We've just got terrible news. It's not enough to be beat 3 games in a row, but now, one of our best receivers (TE) Gillmore is out again. I don't want to jinx anyone, but at least we have a Quarterback that stays healthy. I wonder how that has happened, though, with all of our bad luck. I mean the football gods are definitely not in our favor. And don't tell me that I jinxed Flacco, I don't believe in that cr**. I'm just sayin'.

Other than SSS, I have to wonder whether our WR's are positives playing or not. I read someone below saying to line up 3 TE's as receivers and I have to wonder why not? I really, though, do think that M. Brown can step up. Aiken, I'm not sure about, yet, he has to prove himself more. M. Brown has the height advantage, which should be a plus, esp. near the end-zone. Now, I wish we would call plays better inside the 5 yard line, so we don't have to settle for FG's from the 3 yard line. Simply put, Joe needs to throw the ball IN THE END-ZONE on those plays and not short. That way a catch is a TD and not a 1 yard gain to bring up 4th down and the FG unit, which sucks! And, if we we continue to settle for FG's like every game this year, when our opponents are scoring TD's, there's simply no way to keep up with their scoring that way. It's simple math. Look at every game this year and esp. the last 2, where we lost by 4 points. If we had not SETTLED for FG's and made TD's on those drives, we'd have been in much better shape. Now, I know we still have to convert 4th down into a TD, but FG's spell out a loss, in my book, unless we figure out a way to stop a few more drives with our defense.

That's good work Ravensfansince03. Now get out of there without getting blown up and try not to seduce any of the dark sides women while your're at it 003.

I like what we did in the 2nd half on offense. However, we need to continue to be aggressive right from the start this Thurs. night in Pitt. If we start ultra-conservatively once again, I bet Pitt. will take the win. They're too talented at WR and RB to give them a quarter or 2 head start. I thought Flacco had a great 2nd half and it's up to Trestman to unleash him early and throughout the game with a deep ball (15 - 20 yards or more) every couple series. Running prob. won't work. The Steelers know that Cincy. stacked the box to ensure we'd have no success running. And with our depleted receiving corps. they did the right thing. Why would anyone let us run freely, when we are not a big threat to pass, save SSS.

I agree, we aren't tackling well at all. On a side-note, at least we haven't tried to lateral the ball during a play, like the Jets' Marshall. He said it was the worst play ever in the NFL. In case you didn't see it or read about it, he tried to lateral a ball and it ended up in the other teams hands as a turnover. He was really upset about it and I don't like to gloat (I'm not); it's just that I'm surprised it didn't happen in our game so far. It might be a long year for us, so anything is possible. We're playing at such a poor level, aside from SSS and Flacco for half a game, that it's disgusting! We have to finish strong and win 9 or 10 out of 13. It's do-able, but I'd be surprised for sure.

casprintman - That is the reality of it, but it is kind of bananas that he's out for the whole year. I don't think any other team in the league is as snake-bitten when it comes to us drafting WR's. I mean look at Tampa Bay, they drafted some good receivers (Mike Evans, I think) and other teams have gotten quality WR's. Heck, Pittsburgh is a WR Factory. They can't miss when it comes to those WR's. They could draft randomly and they'd get a bonafide Number 1 Receiver. Thankfully we got SSS, but he's only giving us 2 years, due to retiring, so I mean we got lucky to get him at all, but as he's leaving the game.

I think he's going to start benching players that are penalty-happy and costing us yards and wins in the process. If we only have 6 players to field on defense, so be it. Like someone said here, yesterday, 'If we didn't field a defense, it prob. would have taken the Bengals LONGER to score than with that help from us!' And I thought that was funny and poignant to our situation.

I'm not a big fan of Aiken, I've seen him drop a few balls that he should have caught, but M. Brown has been good in the past, I don't see why we can't give him more targets. I mean, Smith Sr. has put everything into this year and I hope he stays healthy, but especially around the goal line, we need to take adv. of M. Brown's height advantage. And, if we're throwing near the end-zone, we need to try to put it in the end zone and not short of, like yesterday, settling for stupid FG's doesn't help when the other team is getting only TD's, just like in Oak. and yesterday.

I'm going to assume Perriman is a wash for the whole year. I think we need to stop kidding ourselves a little, here. Also, I expect our guys to fight for some wins, this year. I'm expecting and assuming that they want to get rolling along and start winning some games, especially the Pitt. game. We have received a big break, due to Big Ben's injury. Of course, I wish he didn't get hurt, as I'm not one to like anyone to get hurt, but it's a break nonetheless. We need to get rolling along. We lost 3 games during the S.B. run, in Dec., so we can do it this year. Frankly, I just want to see us get to 9 or 10 wins, that would be close to playoffs anyway. So we could try to win 9 or 10 of the next 13 games.

After posting here earlier, I read something that summed up what I was trying to say, with statistics. The Ravens averaged 3.3 yards per pass in the 1st half, while changing their game plan in the 2nd, we averaged double that at 7.0 yards per pass AND Flacco was 4 for 5 for 85 yards when throwing 15 yards or more. We need to open up this passing game and let Flacco use that big arm of his. If we had played that way to start with, we'd have scored a touchdown, maybe, or two in the 1st half and prob. won the game! Playing ultra-conservative doesn't get you points. You have to risk a bad pass or two (INT) and go for the win. We almost beat a good Cincy. team, but you cannot beat a good team playing only half of a game. And our secondary gave them a few scores to be sure.