bioLarzen

Extra point for kickoffs between the uprigths would IMHO put dome teams in an unfair advantage. They'd be guaranteed at least half of their games in domes where long kicks are much easier in lack of wind... The Ravens have 1 dome game this season (in Dallas), while there are kickers who can kick in domes 10 out of 16 games... That would be unfair.

I think out present O has much better players than the 2000 team had. Back then they had Jamal Lewis, Sharpe, Ogden, Stover - and then mediocrity all accross the board. So, that they weren't a very good O was kinda natural. This time, on the other hand, we are much better talent-wise on the O - and compared to that the O is a constant blunder. Honestly, if at the start of the season someone said that with no key injuries the O will make 20+ points in 5 out of their 11 games... how many of us would have said you take the deal? If they said we'll only score more on 2 of our 10 opponents (we've played the Browns twice) than their scored-on average (the Raiders and the Steelers, one single point difference in the latter case), would that have sounded OK to any fan? And then we haven't even mentioned that quite a considerable part of the score came from Tucker - and a lot of times after the O failed to come even close the red zone... This is easily the most frustrating O I've ever seen in Baltimore.

I dunno how any Ravnes-fans aren't just sick of two things said aftear just about every single game: - the offense needs to start playing better - the number of penalties must go down... ... and then NOTHING happens in either department. I haven't seen an inch of development from the O throughout the season, ergo I see no sensible reason to expect that all of a sudden they'll start functioning and playing better. ANY game in the remainder of the season where the O scores over 20 points will be a bonus - but frankly, I don't necessarily see that. This is an O which constantly plays mediocre at best, and completely ineffective at times. This season we'll go exactly as far as the D and Tucker take us. Not an inch further. And hopefully, the first day we're out of the race Norv Turner gets a phone call from Ozzie... As for the penalties, it seems to be a constant thing of the Harbaugh-era. I'm sick and tired of Harbaugh stand in front of the mic after every game and declares that the stupid and unnecessary penalties must be eliminated - because I know what is gouing to happen: nothing. The next week we are gonna see the same boneheaded and unnecessary penalties giving second chances for the opponent, or giving away great plays from our team... At this point I see a coaching stuff which is largely incapable - or reluctant - to address issues that have been present for long. One which seems reluctant to make quick in-game adjustments. Sorry, but I still can't see one single game on our remaining schedule I could honestly say we are the favourites of. No, not even the Dolphins game. I don't say we are gonna win no more games - but we won't be the favourites. And this time we cannot even blame it on the injury bug like last season... No, this time it's more than blatantly obvious that something malfunctions on the O big time. Something that probably needs some major intervention, not just minor tweakings. I think a good OC would be a great start.

I know it's wishful thinking, but I sure hope Ozzie has Norv Turner's number on speed dial... A new OC can't come soon enough. One that's actually a good one, and can come up with playes where the strengths of our offense and players come into play - where the plays are drawn up to match the players' abilities, and not vica versa... Oh, and one who actually knows that in the two-minute drives you don't keep passing short-to-mid range passes to the middle of the field, giving the receiver no chance of making it out of bounds... Luckily, we also have a D and a ST...

One game won't be enough for much.

You mean Boyle?

Pitta has almost gotten Flacco killed a couple of times lately.....love me some Dennis Pitta but his blocking has been pitiful. Well... first of all he's never been a bocking TE - second it wasn't that many times really, it's just that those were lavishly shown, making it look like all Pitta's been doing lately is missing tackles.

If you're going for spectacular, just crack out a Tim Burton movie ;)

Weddle was really a great signing - one that you just knew couldn't go wrong (barring an injury) - just like with Steve Smith or Shannon Sharpe back then. I would also mention Mike Wallace. The guy has been doing exactly what the hope was he'd do - what he was brought in for. No doubt it's been money well spent so far. Shame Watson got injured... it could have been the best vet FA-trio acquisition in franchise history. But hey... 2 out of 3 (and the third one not a bust either, just unfortunate) is still pretty good.

He is about the only one we don't "have to" keep - at least not at all costs. With Jernigan and an ascending Pierce at helm Williams is expendable if he gets too expensive on the market - and he is just about guaranteed to be. The Ravens have never gone into bidding wars - even for player in positions where had no real depth. We now have at NT. Sad, but Brandon will in all likelihood, be the next star leaving us via free agency. Grubbs, Ellerbe, McPhee, Torrey Smith, KO - now him. He's gonna be way too expensive. I think we should make retaining Wagner the top priority. That's much more realistic.

Funny (really) - but it's not the player to decide whether he can play, but the docs who must clear them first.

A close win will be perfect. It is withs exactly the same a blowout win does.

Unfortunately the steelers are in a better position right now - and even luck may be on their side: - their remaining schedule definitely looks easier than ours; - they will play us at their place; - they will probably not have to play against Luck next week, giving them a much, much better hopw to win in Indianapolis; - they will likely play in Cincinatti with Green still sidelined, or at best not 100%, giving them a much better chance of sweeping the Bengals than we do, assuming Green is back by Week#17, and fairly healthy, which there is a fair chance of happening. If we only take the most likely outcomes, the steelers may easily finish 9-7 or 10-6, while, even if we assume that we'll win all our 3 "fairly winnable" games left on our schedule (v the Bengals, the Dolphins and the Eagles), we'll still need to win at least one of our road games to go 9-7 - which will only be enough for anything if we win the division. And if we take our present form, I don't see a lot of chance in any of our 3 road games: almost no chance at all in Foxboro, and only a little chance in Cincinatti (assuming Green is ready by then). Therefore, our "Super Bowl" this season will be Week#16 in Pittsburgh. If we can win that, we may end up 9-7, and the steelers have to win out their remaining 5 games to finish ahead of us... and the Bengals will be mathematically eliminated. And we all know and have seen that we always have a chance to beat the steelers in Pittsburgh - assuming we haven't had too many casualties by then - even if we are in poor form (see last season). In fact, I'd go as far as saying, we have a better cahnce to win in Pittsburgh than beating the Eagles in the Bank. All in all, we must concentrate on our remaining 3 home games. If we can win all three (far, far from certainty), we have a fair hope of making the playoffs. If we drop as much as 1 home game, our hopes dwindle. If we drop two, it's almost a certainty that we'll miss the playoffs (assuming the steelers won't go into tailspin mode...) ... and at this point one realizes the level of offense we'vew had this season... and puts away the pen, paper and calculator...

As a SS his prime job isn't pass defense, but tackling. And as such, this last game he had the second most tackles, and is usually among our top tacklers - so, I guess he's been doing a good job. Judging an SS by the number of deflected passes is like judging a RB by his deep pass catching ability: not necessarily fair.

I agree with what the article says: this wasn't a L that changed a lot in my mind about the Ravens. There are W's which despite being W's still leave you angry - tkat the back-to-back W's v the Chiefs and the cowboys in 2012 for example: we won both games, but mainly because the opponent played even worse than we did. On the other hand, there are L's that just won't make you especially angry or sad - because your team didn't lose for playing badly, but simply the opponent was better. If you're not the best team in the league, that can happen. This L was this category. The Ravens O played better than I expected. Note: I'm not saying they played well - just better than I thought they would. And the D was good - just not fantastic. And they would have to be that to avoid the L. So, all in all, I was happy about Sunday - becxause of the news about AJ Green. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about him being injured - I'm happy because his absence will almost surely be YUUUUGE next Sunday... The Bengals have a 5-game winning streakopn us, but if they didn't have Green, they wouldn't have, that's a fact. So, on the balance, an L against the Cowboys (a non-conference team) AND the prospect of Green sidelined is a better Sunday trhan a L and having to face Green next Sunday... There is, however, one thing that maddened me considerably abot this Cowboys game: that "two-minute drill"... I must make it clerar that I've always been a solid member of the pro-Flacco team, and I still am. That, however, won't keep me from saying again that he is having a disastrous season. Right now I'm not even convinced he's a better option than Mallett. NOW, not in general. And the best example was that comedy the O presented as their final drive... Less than 2 minutes and 2 scores to make, he made throw after throw to the middle, with no real chance for the targets to make it out of bounds. And then - and this was the real blood-boiling paert... Flacco just jogs up to the LOS, with no apparent sense of urgency whatsoever, like time was of no concern at all... That gentlemen's tempo alone made it impossiblée to even create the chance of another possiession if they scored... which they didn't, because I'm, quite sure they lostz at least 30 seconds with the constant passes to the middle, and Flacco's apparent unineterest in at least making it look like he was in any kind of hurry... I'm not saying of course that we lost because of that - but that alone took away any chance of a win... So, to sum it up, I still beleive in the guy - but this season he's been just plain bad. It would be time he stepped his game up a notch (or two... or ten...) - but I can see absolutely no sign of that. I know it wopn't happen for multiple reasons, but I do think Mallett would at this point make a more promising option for the O for something promising to happen... NOW. Not in general.

It may be misleading to compare these two teams. Offenses are much, much more protected now than back then. Ergo, O's have become more important. A great D could much easier make up for the shortcomings of the O, because they were allowed miuch more than today. Today, if you have a great WR and a QB who can toss the ball to him deep, it will either be a lot of long completions, or a lot of laundry for DPI. And that will almost invariably keep moving the chains. That's why our D's have regulary been burnt by such tandems - Dalton and Green, Manning and Beckham, Brady and Gronkowsi etc... Now it's Prescott and Dez Bryant... Let's hope the D can contain them like Roethlisberger and Brown.

True - but this won't have any effect on Sunday's game. This Ravens have never played this Cowboys. We have barely left any players on our roster that was on the roster the last time these two teams played each other. And nobody thinks that games a decade or more ago really count. Nice, but totally irrelevant statistics. This is gonna be a game where a hot D will meet a hot O. I'm firmly convicted that the game will be decided by how much our O can contain Elliott, Dez Bryant and Witten. Dallas has an excellent O-wall, so I don't think we'll be able to put an awful lot of pressure on Prescott. Ergo, we will have to contain their primary weapons. As for our O, sorry, but I don't think we'll see much of them with both of our guards out, and nothing like quality backups replacing them. If we can keep it a low-scoring game, we may win. If not, I don't see much chance.

Well... if the D can anything like contain Elliott, they're officially legit. That guy is so hot right now... with a great O-line to open holes for him... LeVeon Bell is a great back, but his O-line is not to be compared with the unit that helps Elliott... Hands down this guy will be the biggest challenge for our run D this season.

Both starting guards will be out for considerable time... maybe for the rest of the season. And the depth behind them is a HUGE step back... All my hopes about the revival of our offense - slim anywway - are about to fade into oblivion. With two replacement guards i don't see the offense improve :(

OK. This is the glass half full view. The glass half empty vireew is that we have no chance top make the playoffs. The in-between view, IMHO, is that it's gonna be dead hard to make the playoffs if the Ravens don't find consistency. On O, we can make enough points to win a game - if the O-line has no key injuries... As for the D... yep, it could be argued that the 2016 Ravens will probably go as far as the D carries them... because ut's by far the better unit. However, it doesn't mean a playoff ticket punched: people are keen to forget that we had not one but two games (Raiders, Giants) where the makeshift O won the game - and then the D found a way to still lose it... The reality, IMHO, is that our D is great against O's that run the ball a lot. But as soon as thjere's a good QB-good deep threat receiver combo with a rapport, our D gets increasingly exposed. That was the caasae with Carr and Crabtree and Manning and Beckham. And we have two games against the Dalton-Green couple which kills us about every time we play them, Big Ben and Brown at their turf, Prescott and Dez Bryant... And we have the Patriots in Foxboro... With due respect, I still don't see this team going anywehere near over 0.500 - we'll have to win 3 more games to get to 0.500... - and that is probably not gonna be enough to win the division - and nowhere near enough to secure a Wild Card spot.

"3) Joe Flacco Started To Look Like Old Joe Flacco, And Maybe This Will Spark Offense Going Forward" C'mon... who are we trying to fool here? Joe Flacco is nowhere near his better form. He's startiong to look OK when he gets the time from the O-line. But as soon as he's in any kind of pressure, he's still panicking. It's something he didn't do before his injury. He was really cool under pressure, level-headed and concentrating until the last moment. Now he throws it away, gets the sack or worse, throws an awful backfoot one which either goes helplessly long/short/astray or ends up as an INT. He wasn't like that.

It's impossible not to see how much the performance of the offense depends on the O-line. That of course is true in general - but seems to be especially true for the 2016 Ravens. Flacco seems rattled by the injury, and seems to have lost some of his cool to wait until the last moment when hurried or pressured, and keep a cool head to make the right decision with pressure in his face. Ergo, at this point he'll only have good games as long as the line gives him enough time. Whenever it happened last night, he was good. Whenever he was pressured, he was bad. And that's very bad news, as it seems that he won't enjoy the benefits of a healthy O-line too much this season. The win was good of course, and it's good that at last it was a "blowout" one - but let's be honest: this was by far the weakest opponent we've had in a while... not at all NFL level... and still, they were up in the halftime... It's good to see some of our rookies go strong. Especially happy with Pierce continuing his good run. It was also good to see ZaDarius Smith doing business - so far he was one of the prime disappointments of the season for me. Let's hope he'll continue much better. I'm a primetime hater of this "color rush" idiocy, the only reason of which is to generate extra profit for Nike. That said, I have to say... this all-purple strip was pretty rad. I definitely liked it. And last for not least: let's start the Cowboys game with 3 checkdowns to Steve Smith. That may mean a 3-and-out - but Steve must make the 1000 catches, and he's at 997 currently. He could get hurt any play (not because he's 37, but because any player can get hurt any play), and sure as hell he wouldn't come back for another season just to get 3 catches...He needs to have those ASAP. He deserves it.

You should be deeply ashamed.

Depth move.

The "Full Unscripted Episode 9 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers" video (posted on 3 Nov) seems to be the wrong ratio (I guess it's 4:3), and thus everything is squeezed horizontally. Tried multiple browser, it's the same.