OUravensfan

The one he dropped against Washington I believe, he got wide open and the ball went straight through his hands

Everything seemed so hard this year, every yard. We must fix that for next year, I think if we can run the ball better and we run more we should fair better.

I would agree, or you could always draft a 31 year old like Cleveland did.

I still say Ben is incredibly overrated and has had great talent, either offensive or defensive, around him his whole career. Until last year he never made the playoffs without a top 5 defense.

Good point, Palmer sat a full year behind Kitna is the other one that stands out, also a while ago.

I guess they know more than us, but since Castillo got here we had one good running season and that was with Kubiak.

All those guys are surrounded by significantly more talented offensive weapons, a few mil difference between franchise QB contracts isn't the reason, prioritizing offensive weapons in the draft and FA is. Or just being better at scouting said offensive weapons in the draft and FA. And having competent offensive schemes.

It's actually quite pathetic that Browns fans are more excited about Hue Jackson who won one game than we seemingly are about Harbaugh

Agree. The one unit I bragged about confidently was the D line specifically rush defense. Ever since the Patriot game with some foreshadowing by Dallas that completely disappeared, I hate having this debate about which side was the reason we lost more games the fact that we have the debate yields an answer that both sides need improvement as you say. Both sides need to be more clutch, tired of this BS.

Schedule is the schedule, we really need to sweep the Bengals it's getting ridiculous.

Wilson, if Joe threw 5 INTs in a game this year he'd be crucified. If Joe threw 4 INTs in a championship game and then the game losing INT in the SB the following week he'd be crucified.

Definitely agree there, with a game that involves 22 players on the field at once and many coaches, it's typically always more than one thing.

Maybe we do keep Kamar after all, it fits the continuity theme as well. It seems natural that by subtracting Smith you give Kamar more targets, the plays he missed really stand out to me however. The Pittsburgh blunder really illustrates perfectly what his ceiling is. But he would be a good possession WR to have if we can't find anyone else.

Doesn't mean much now but I really wanted Crabtree a few years ago, and he fell hard to the second wave of FA.

It's a little bit of both, and they both complement each other in terms of always being on the exact opposite page in a given game, it's maddening. In general, save from 2014 (and we did it then too) I'm so tired of debating scheme vs players, execution vs gameplan, offense vs defense, etc as to why we loose (I understand we have to and it's constructive, but you get the point I'm making). Normally, 27 points is enough on the road in Pittsburgh, they did falter as they did so often in the redzone, didn't take advantage of two illegal procedures and only got 3 on defensive INTs....If the offense has a slow start and the defense keeps the game within 2 scores, we usually witness an offensive rally leading to the go-ahead score with < 2-3 minutes left only to watch the defense give up the real game winning drive--I think everyone is tired of this dynamic.

The last 5 weeks is super concerning on defense, our vaunted run defense literally vanished. And sure, maybe no one cared last Sunday, but we let Rex Burkhead run for over 100 yards on us. We let Rex Burkhead run for over 100 yards on us.....Rex Burkhead. Or whatever his name is. I will agree, we have seen it demonstrated timeless times, we need another CB to compliment Jimmy as his health is unreliable. Pass rusher was an obvious need that became crucially clear down the stretch.

If we get better on the O-line and get a solid possession WR we will have a better offense next year, 0 doubts.

Neither is Ben

Fair, we need to improve the O-line drastically, it was awful, among the league worse. That will go miles and miles. When watching other games it's maddening when you see how clean pockets can be and subsequently, how wide open WRs can get. We never seem to do a good job of scheming guys open, did we get anyone as open as Brady had Hogan against us?

I want to be positive and embrace continuity but two bothersome things with both Trestmann and Marty: a.) It seemed like we lacked an identity, couldn't figure out if we should be running or passing, eventually every game devolved into us throwing 35+. Brady, Ben etc all had games where they threw for more TDs with less than 30 attempts which leads me to my second point b.) Everything seemed so, so hard. Super inefficient, I cannot watch another year where we have to throw to run, and can't achieve > 8 YPA, these are serious issues that I think are telling with the underlying offensive philosophy (or lack there of) This decision really puts Harbaugh under the microscope going forward, these are the guys he wants to roll with. On offense, we need to see much greater efficiency, I want bigger plays, I want more effective runs and way, way more PA with actual deep throws. Joe Flacco is not a dink and dunk QB, for gods sake play to his strengths. On defense it's quite simple, can we be clutch? I'm so tired of arguing over is it players or methodology? Idc anymore, we better make the playoffs next year.

Marty and Dean stay, so continuity it is. We need to get better players to make up for the average to below average coordinators.

I hope so too, when's the likely timeframe of when we'll know? He won 2, 2011 and 2012, also went 12-4 in 2010. Not many coaches have 10 playoff wins, Marvin Lewis has more division titles is he better?

Yea this is always a funny dynamic in professional sports, a player has a down year than immediately after that year concludes it comes out that player was actually hurt and hindered way more than previously led on. Doom and Sugggs disappear too much, still need to address it this off season.

From a normal years perspective I can't be too upset that we missed the playoffs because we made too many of the same mistakes all year and couldn't take it consistently to the next level; however, this breakdown really does bring more pain to missing out, very rarely will the road be that easy. And now the overrated Steelers get it, wow.

This game means nothing except that is was a microcosm and brutal demonstration of our season's defining flaws, we knew our needs and weaknesses coming in and this game didn't change any of that. Get better on both lines.