callahan09

Yeah we only ran it four times so makes sense

Well, yeah, but 4 carries for 3 yards is atrocious.  Averaging less than 1 yard per carry.  You'd like to average about 4 yards per carry.

Now every other game that Gilmore has been effective early on he hasn't been used in the 2nd half due to whatever reason. Let's see him continue to be used.

Injuries.  He's been off the field due to nagging little injuries in the 2nd half in multiple games this year.  Hopefully he's feeling good right now and comes back out after half-time.  I think he's doing good right now, but in the other games he was missing from the field we didn't know about it until after we took notice he wasn't out there taking snaps, so who knows.  It's odd how he keeps getting banged up in the middle of games though, but at least he seems to bounce back for the kickoff the following week each time.

Our running backs had 3 (THREE) yards on the ground in the first half haha.  We need a more successful run game in the 2nd half.

There is probably a 1% chance (at best) of Trestman being fired. There is a 0% chance that Harbaugh takes over as OC if Trestman is gone.

28 yards seems doable lol.

Torrey Smith was a full participant in all off-season activities, training camp, practices, etc. his rookie year, and was active during the first 2 games of his career, but had 0 catches in those first 2 games.  So even if Perriman starts practicing this coming week, at this point it's impossible for him to get as much training and chemistry with the playbook and Joe as Torrey got in his rookie year, and even Torrey couldn't get going until his 3rd game.  If Perriman comes back, it is actually, honestly possible that he will contribute as much as Torrey did during his first games: none (or perhaps very, very little... in Torrey's 4th game he was held to 1 catch for 1 yard... so in 3 out of Torrey's first 4 games he had a combined 1 catch for 1 yard).  So personally, I think it's possible that even if Perriman does get on the field at some point later this year he may not actually catch anything at all, unless it's some behind the line of scrimmage stuff just to get the ball in his hands, but going for no significant yardage.  It is possible, is all I'm saying.

"Breshad Perriman has been ruled out as expected"

From this websites injury report this week

How bad is it that its gotten to the point that we just expect him to be out now for an injury that should have healed weeks ago

Hell, it SHOULD'VE been healed months ago.

How do you know when it should have been healed?  What is his exact injury?  A sprained PCL?  What grade?  What is the injury recovery timeline for the specific grade of injury that he has?  From what I've been reading all these months, we as fans are just simply in the dark.  COACHES (and no-one else) indicates that he didn't have a severe injury.  The truth is obvious: They were wrong (or lying).  But they never told us what the exact injury is, or the severity.  I highly doubt we're dealing with a grade 1 PCL sprain here, or yes he would have been back on the field weeks (or months) ago.  If it's as bad as, say, a grade 3 sprain, a full year recovery is not out of the ordinary.  Even a grade 2 can take months.

depends on how you look at it.

 

a simple look at how we are spending our cap gives a clear picture that the FO is doing what many has been wishing for.

 

this season is the first season i can remember we are spending more on offense then on defense and for the future it seems the gap is only getting bigger.

 

chances are that the cap flacco will create with a new contract will be spend on a veteran WR and/or will be used to try and keep osemele.

Is this a response to my post with the stats on how our defense has been this year?  I don't understand what you're getting at.  I was pointing out that this defense isn't playing well enough and they've been getting worse each year under Dean Pees.  Not talking about roster or salary cap or where we're using our resources... just the facts about performance and that it frankly isn't good enough. But if your response was in regards to my post, could you please explain what you mean?  Sorry about my confusion.

I never thought I'd see an uglier uniform than the Steelers' bumble-bee / prison uniforms... But those Jags uniforms. YIKES!

And just to tidy things up here, Joe is 7-1 in his career against that division with 2,111 yards, 19 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. So yes, it is reasonable to conclude his numbers would be much better in a division like that for his career.

I'm still ticked off that the refs let Roddy White get away with that obvious PI for the game-winning TD  Haha

doubt it.

 

45 games where he had  35 pass attempts or more he has only won 19 games.

24 games where he had  40 pass attempts or more he has only won 7 games.

16 games where he had  45 pass attempts or more he has only won 6 games.

10 games where he had  50 pass attempts or more he has only won 3 games

 

he is actually at his best in a balanced offense.

 

also we all know divisional games are different then regular games.

no guaranteed that if we played in a weaker division we would do better.

 

its not like we steamroll the jags and texans everytime we play them lol

This post doesn't make a whole lot sense to me.  What does it prove what the team's winning percentage is in games where we throw the ball a lot?  Considering that this has been a team that has a philosophy of run first to set up the pass, and then run the ball even more if we have a lead, you could deduce that we only throw the ball a lot when we are playing from behind.  And playing from behind tends to correlate with losing games. Other than that, I see no conclusions that can be made about Joe's ability to put up good passing numbers in an offense that might be tailored to his skills and passing the ball first, and doing so in a division that has weaker defenses than the AFC North has had over the years.

ESPN also does what they call a Football Power Index ranking, which is apparently based on some more advanced stats. The Ravens actually rank 15th in that, ahead of a handful of teams at or above .500, and it's mostly due to the fact that we have the highest rated special teams according to those numbers.

As much as it's been getting lost in the negatives this season, our special teams have been amazing this year.

Hypothetically, what would our offense do in a full game against our defense? The defense should think about that and then step up and fight for pride and respect in the locker room. The positive results will follow.

I think the reason we went into this season with a such lofty overconfidence in our clearly misevaluated receiving corps was because the offense gets to go up against this sad pass defense that we've got.  In training camp & practice against the Ravens' secondary, even our squad of previously undrafted (and 6th/7th round) players looked really, really competent.

Update on defensive rankings through week 9:

Points: 26.8 per game (25th)
Yards: 383.7 per game (24th)
Passing: 283.9 per game (29th)
QB Rating: 106.9 (30th)
3rd Down: 47.9% (32nd)
Takeaways Per Drive: 4.3% (32nd)
Scoring Drives: 45.2% (31st)
Time of Possession (Per Drive): 2:45 (25th)
Points Per Drive: 2.26 (28th)

We have a good rushing defense and a good red zone defense. Everything else is trash. We aren't getting off the field. Defense isn't getting turnovers, isn't making third down stops, and is allowing the opponent to possess the ball for way too much time and score on way too many of their drives when they have the ball.

The QB Rating one really ticks me off, actually. There was a time when opposing QBs feared to face the Ravens. We made QBs like Peyton Manning & Tom Brady have career worst performances. We made the average (or worse, and especially rookie) QBs look like high schoolers who had no business being on an NFL team. Now we make opposing QBs salivate. They look at us and see it as an opportunity to prove that they can indeed play at an NFL level, they pad their stats, and they make themselves look not only competent, but amazing. This defense doesn't strike fear in ANYBODY anymore.

Here's our defensive opposing QB Rating allowed over the years:

2015: 106.9 (30th) [Dean Pees]
2014: 90.6 (19th) [Dean Pees]
2013: 82.2 (11th) [Dean Pees]
2012: 80.6 (11th) [Dean Pees]
2011: 68.8 (1st) [Chuck Pagano]
2010: 76.4 (5th) [Greg Mattison]
2009: 71.9 (6th) [Greg Mattison]
2008: 60.6 (1st) [Rex Ryan]

Clearly we are going in the wrong direction.

Actually, I took some time to do a little research on this field position subject on my own in order to procrastinate from what I should be doing. Here's what I found:

 

Totals: 6 drives started in opponent territories this season, 15 drives started in our territory at the 35 or better (five of which were in one of our wins), 6 drives started in our own territory at 40 or better (three of which were in that same win)

 

Only one of these positive drives were the result of a turnover, and many of them were the result of special teams errors by the other team

 

Week by week breakdown:

Week 1 - We started two drives at our own 35 and one at our own 40 (none in Denver territory). Those starting positions were the result of a short punt, a squib kickoff, and a good punt return by Senior. We converted two of those starts into our only two scoring drives, and the third was with only seconds to go at the end of the first half (one play, half ended).

 

Week 2 - We had only one positive starting field position drive. It was in Oakland territory at their 37. It was the result of a Will Hill interception. It led to one of our seven scoring drives, meaning six scoring drives from poor field position.

 

Week 3 - We started one drive at our own 36 and one at our own 37 (none in Cincy territory). They were both set up by decent punt returns by Camp. We scored on one of them (one of our three scoring drives) and punted on the other.

 

Week 4 - ***I'll get back to this later.***

 

Week 5 - We started one drive from our own 39 and two in Cleveland territory (their 44, their 43). Those starts were the result of a Brown penalty on a punt return by us, a good kickoff return by Ross aided by another Brown penalty, and a stop by our defense forcing a punt from deep in their own territory. These starts led to two of our five total scoring drives and one missed field goal.

 

Week 6 - We started one drive on our own 39 and one on our own 44 (none in SF territory). They were set up by a good kickoff return by Ross and a short punt. These drives ended in one of our four scoring drives and a missed field goal.

 

Week 7 - We started one drive on our own 45 and one in Arizona territory on their 1. They were set up by a missed field goal and a blocked punt. They were both converted into scores (two of our three scoring drives).

 

So in our losses, we've started four drives in opponent's territories, nine in our own territory at the 35 or better (three at our own 40 or better). We have scored on 9 of these 13 drives, one ended the half, punted once, and missed two field goals. Throw away the one at the end of the half at Denver that only lasted one play with seconds left, and that's scoring chances (including the two missed field goals) on 11 of 12 good starting opportunities with one punt and no turnovers. Only two of these good starting positions have come as a result of our defense either making a turnover or forcing a punt from deep in the territory. Our offense scored on 15 other drives that started from poor field position, as well.

 

Week 8 - We started one drive at our own 39 and one drive in SD territory at their 38. They were the result of a stop by our defense forcing a punt from deep in their territory and a good punt return by Ross. They led to two of our seven scoring drives. This was another weak field position game, but the offense capitalized on the chances and created many more scoring drives on their own. It obviously resulted in a win.

 

Adding this game to our losses, we converted 13/14 positive starting position drives into points or missed field goals in seven of our eight games, combined. It'd be nice to have more than two per game, right?

 

***Let me get back to the Week 4 win at Pittsburgh. This is a clear illustration of how field position can help a team win even when they aren't clicking well, especially on offense. This was our best field position game, by far. We started 5 drives in our own territory at the 35 or better (40,41,40,39,39) and one drive in Pittsburgh territory (28). Those starts came as a result of two short punts, a good punt return by Camp aided by a Steeler penalty, a defensive stop forcing a punt from deep in their territory, a missed field goal, and a turnover on downs (so most of these were the result of special teams blunders by Pitt). This was also the worst game for the offense in terms of converting those opportunities into points. We turned the drive from Steeler territory over on downs after a failed fake field goal, and we only converted one of the positive starting field positions into points. This was the only game where we turned the ball over after a good starting drive position (interception), and we also turned it over on downs after the missed field goal and punted twice on other positive starting drives. We did score four other times with poorer field position, but this was certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, games by our offense when it came to capitalizing. And yet, we won. FIELD POSITION MATTERS.***

Aha, great stuff, I looked at a couple of the same things.  Thanks for your efforts!

Stat man, do you have the opportunity to look up how many drives of ours have started in good field position compared to the rest of the NFL? If not, cool, but I thought if anyone could it would be you.

I wasn't sure what criteria you wanted for looking this up, but just a few:

Average starting field position: Own 26 Yard Line (Only 7 teams are worse)

Drives started in opponent territory: 6 (NFL average is 9)

Drives started in red zone: 1 (NFL average is 1.5)

-- We DID score a TD on that drive (NFL average is 65% of drives beginning in the red zone end in a TD)

Stat man, do you have the opportunity to look up how many drives of ours have started in good field position compared to the rest of the NFL? If not, cool, but I thought if anyone could it would be you.

I can help you out with that, but what do you want me to use as a definition of "good field position"?

A forced turnover or two at some point may help with that. Our last one was week 3, and it was returned for a TD. We haven't had great field position to start any offensive drive for as long as I can remember. Maybe once or twice this whole season. You're right that this gets overlooked.

Indeed.

There is still 1 more game left to play this week, but as it stands right now, since the last time our defense had a takeaway, the rest of the NFL has averaged about 8 takeaways per team.  There are a lot of teams with a double-digit number of takeaways since the last time we had one.

I think we have personnel problems in terms of a lack of turnovers. We have close to no playmakers on this defense. In reality we don't have any outside of Will Hill. We need a guy who will say, "We need a turnover right here" and create one. We only have one guy who does that right now. 

I think you're probably right.  Over this 5 game streak with no takeaways, we've actually had a fairly significant number of opportunities to get interceptions, but our guys just aren't completing the play.  Lots of "dropped" interceptions.  Missed chances.  Not sure why I watch defenders the league over making great catches to intercept the ball, when our guys have stone hands.  I thought all defenders were stereotyped as having stone hands, that's why they play D and not offense... but that stereotype seems to be falling to the wayside in the NFL, except seemingly for our team.  I see a lot of impressive catches from defenders this year, unfortunately not from the Ravens.

I really want to see us win out. I think we have a slim chance to beat the Bengals. For whatever reason that team has given us the most fits, we just seem to have problems beating them, don't know why. It is the game I MOST want to win the rest of the way, though! I'm sick of our losing streak to that franchise. But I'm not confident we'll pull it off, honestly.

I also really want us to beat the Seahawks, we haven't beaten them in the Harbaugh/Flacco era yet, either (the only other team we haven't beaten in this era is the Packers... so I'm really hoping we can finally score some wins against these two teams the next time we face them!)

The officials have been garbage all season long, but especially these last 2 games. They have been blatantly unfair to the Ravens these past 2 games. I don't think they're doing it on purpose, but the calls have been so one-sided. They aren't calling a lot of penalties on the other guys, and they're calling penalties that REALLY shouldn't be on us, plus stupid calls like the Chris Johnson run where they didn't whistle him down for forward progress, or the John Urschell eligible passer penalty. Just ridiculous how bad the refs have been screwing us over lately. Thankfully we got that pass interference call at the end of the game against the Chargers, though. That's how I know they aren't doing it on purpose to hose us, because if they were, they could have easily swallowed that flag. It's just a lot of bad luck going against us this year, with injuries, refs getting calls wrong, ball bouncing the wrong way (Gary Barnidge freaking butt catch), etc.

In no universe is Kamar a #1 WR. Anywhere.

Well he is in the Ravens' universe.

Kubiac's scheme didn't allow for that imo. He(Joe) had his moments when he did and kubiac changed the play call accordingly. I don't even think the coaching staff recognizes that tendency. I've never heard a post game interview that suggest he needs to utilize the whole receiving corp and effectively. I'd go to sleep too, if you refuse to throw me the ball. A couple of plays a game (if not more) the receivers must cursing Flacco on the way back to the huddle. Somebody buy Flacco some contacts/near-far sighted. Near sighted cause I saw it (why didn't he) Far sighted because he needs to be consistent going forward.

It's just that when you have 1 receiver who is so much more dominant and good than all the others, he is just about always going to be the #1 read on any passing play that is called.  The deeper into the progressions that a receiver is on a particular play, the lesser the chance that they are found in the progressions, thus a lower chance that the ball will be thrown to them.  Even if they're open.  With the offensive line troubles we've had this year and with Steve Smith being so good at getting open, the first read just happens to most often be the place the ball is going to go, and that's why Steve Smith gets the ball so often.  Usually the open receiver that people are complaining about Flacco not finding is the 3rd or 4th read, and he's got a pass rush bearing down on him, so he never gets to them before he's already had to make a decision.  When Steve Smith isn't on the field, the play calls are different and/or who is plugged in as the #1, #2, #3, #4 read on the play gets shuffled around more, so the ball gets distributed to more receivers.  That's just because nobody else is clearly better than the rest the way Steve Smith is, so the progressions get shuffled around and the play calls get drawn up to get the ball to those other guys.  It's not that Joe chooses to lock onto Smith and ignores or can't see the other receivers, it's just a function of the play calls and progressions when he's on the field that means he's going to see the ball a lot more often.  It's a symptom of having 1 great receiver and a bunch of average to bad ones.

More former undrafted WRs. That seems to be our MO The only healthy drafted WR on the team (including practice squad) was 4th rounder Chris Givens (who has been impressive to me so far for a guy who couldn't get snaps in St Louis the last 2 years!). Oh well, we'll take what we can get (and *afford*) I suppose.

Our current roster only includes 2 WRs who weren't undrafted as rookies. One of them was a one-time 4th rounder who couldn't even get playing time on the Rams, and the other is injured and hasn't seen the field yet (not even a single full practice in his career). That's a lot of low-end talent that we're actually doing some pretty OK things with. And they say Flacco doesn't elevate his receivers' play... who else is working with 4 undrafted guys and a 4th rounder as their entire WR group, and actually running an above average offense to boot?

James Hurst is atrocious. He is a liability on every single play. He's going to get Joe killed out there. He has already and will continue to cause sacks and turnovers in key situations by being a complete turnstile "protecting" Flacco's blind side. IF Monroe isn't healthy enough to play, I think we need to seriously consider bringing in a LT instead of a WR. Our WRs aren't a good group, but with protection Joe can get the ball to them and they can make some plays. But if Hurtst is going to be our LT, it won't matter which washed up (or practice squad) WR we bring in, it won't do any good. I doubt there is anybody any good out there at LT right now that we can afford to acquire, but I have to think that just about ANYBODY would be better than Hurst has been.