Ravens Raver

Agreed. If this D doesn't produce this year, it's on Pees. I too am nervous about the O. Apparently our strategy this year is to hold opponents to low scores, while our offense gets just far enough over the 50 to let Tucker pile up 3-pointers.

I agree with Bisciotti that firing isn't always the answer. You start down that road and you end up being the Cleveland Browns. The constant turnover at OC is part of the reason we are where we are today. Yeah, I'm disappointed with this season, but it was an improvement over last year, we were in the hunt most of the way, and if not for a few key plays/series we'd be in the playoffs now. We just need to keep making progress. Onward and upward.

This is gonna sound like sour grapes, but I seriously think the NFL has to look at that "break the plane" rule. To my mind Brown never got into the end zone, just waved the ball in that direction. Some part of the ball or the player's body should have to touch the ground inside the end zone for a score. Otherwise you only have to play to the 1 or 2 yard line, and stretch. I seem to remember the Steelers doing this to us a couple years ago, with a receiver having both feet in the end zone, but leaning out to catch a short pass at the 1, with the ball never actually crossing the line. Even that was more understandable than that score last night.

As soon as we marched down the field on the first drive, my wife said, "We're gonna KILL these guys!" I said, "Just watch...they'll let it get to one score at the end." But even I didn't think it would get down to one point! This would have been one of our better games this season if not for that stupid, stupid, STUPID pass play & interception. Everything else followed from that.

Article on the Patriots' own site gives advantage to Ravens in 5 of 6 aspects of the game. http://www.patriots.com/news/2016/12/08/scouting-matchup-inconsistent-ravens-present-problems

1) The key to this game was getting the ball out fast. Now that the O line has solidified, Joe doesn't have to be watching out the corner of his eye for an incoming hit and can spend those precious seconds looking for his receiver. I think we ran that 3-steps-back/quickfire-to-Pitta-in-the-middle for half the game. 2) Finally saw Perriman shift into high gear on his score and plain outrun the defender, just like Torrey used to do. Am ready to see more of that. 3) I think the Ravens are one of the few teams who know we can march into Foxboro and beat the Patriots, assuming they don't cheat. And if we beat them, we can run the table from there to the playoffs.

One of the announcers (may have been postgame) made the point that Cox's snaps are so perfect, Koch doesn't even have to rotate the ball's stitches away from Tuck. They really are a precision machine, and with all the ribbing about Tuck's ego, I'm glad to see him give his teammates due credit.

Should change the title of this page from "LFW" to LOL or LMAO.

A 2.5-hour meeting analyzing the game play-by-play? Fans do that every Sunday in front of their TVs, and spend 3 hours or more at it. Rehashing only goes so far. Pretty soon more heads need to roll than just the OC's.

My son went to WVU at the same time as Geno Smith and we saw him in a couple games there. He is not to be underestimated. As I recall, he had a very Tyrod-ish run game. Didn't watch him much as a Jet, though. Of course, since he took that shot in the mouth last year he might be a little shy about taking hits like a running back.

You have to wonder what might have been with Forsett still a Raven, if Trestman had been fired first.

I agree. People want to hype this offense but really what do we have? No Julio Jones, no Mike Evans, no Antonio Brown like WR's. We have a 37 year old WR (SSS who's a beast but he's 37), we have a one trick speedster that's been let go by 3 teams (Wallace), a rookie (Perriman) and a undrafted FA (Aiken). We have a decent TE (Pitta) that has had 2 major hip surgeries. We have a fumble prone RB in West on his 3rd team. Not exactly a top talented offense. This is not Brown, Bell, Ben. It's not Rodgers, Jordy, Cobb, Lacy. It's not Dak, Zeke, Dez. It's not Brady, Blount, Edelman, Gronk. It's not Carr, Murray, Amari, Crabtree. Yes, it's better than what we had last year but don't kid yourself, this is not a 30 point offense. I don't care if Vince Lombardi & Bill Walsh are calling plays. Our WRs (outside of SSS) CAN'T get open against 1 on 1 coverage. Our O-line has been horrible since Stanley went out - can't pass block, can't run block. This offense is pretty easy to scheme against. I play press coverage because the WR can't get open against my CB's (also takes away the runs to the outside and the screen passes). I play safeties back and roll coverage to whoever is going deep (takes away any downfield passes). I keep my LB's in the box to stop the run and to blitz (Stops the run, takes away underneath passes). All that's left is checkdowns to the full back or TE for 5 or 6 yards - Sound familiar? I don't care what play you call, your personnel can't execute because they can't get open. Not saying we can't win because we can. But with this personnel, it's gonna take mistake free football (no turnovers, no dropped passes) and will never put up 30 per game. Not until we get a legit #1 WR and a game-breaking RB. Whew. After all the hype we've being hearing pre-season, this a splash of cold water in the face. Nicely put.

My wife & I have noticed our guys "play to prediction." If they're predicted winners, as they have been in all games so far this season, they start slow and end up in a close game. If they're predicted underdogs, they come out of the box fighting and are a good bet to score an upset over anybody in the league. So the question is, how do we get these guys to start playing right from the kickoff?

"Good enough to compete with pretty much everyone, but not dominant enough to win by a mile." Perfect description of the Ravens since the Super Bowl.

I dunno...Rex was great as our defensive coordinator, but as a head coach he's been more controversial than successful. And it's getting easier to count the teams that Rob Ryan hasn't been fired from. Overrated.