OUravensfan

Now that's a delayed reaction.   lol

Being there today and watching them lose reminded me of being there last year and watching them lose. That play still makes me mad, it took away a great play from a good rivalry. 

I am so looking forward to Steelers at Bengals. Either way we get some laughs. Either the Bengals will be Bengals or the Steelers will hand the Bengals their first playoff win.

I'm very excited and I'm going to the game to hopefully see some fights between the team and the fans. It should be a very hostile environment on both fronts. 

This season sucks

Billy Cundiff.

Sign Tucker.

The Steve Smith call........

The Flacco vs Mallett talk was 90% nothing, people are just tired of average Regular season Flacco, not seeing the QB mess up and throw a pick was a rarity this season and Flacco certainly didn't help that. And lol at you being upset that our team which is 90% backup and practice squad lost to one of the best teams in the league; we can only dream. Maybe next year my brother.

People are mad that a backup QB didn't beat the bengals...

It's not really that, it's the insinuation that was made by some that he should be our starter going forward and that he offers the same production and capabilities as Flacco, which is a sick joke that is not surprising given some here but still infuriating and embarrassing.

And yes, I'm mad he didn't beat the Bengals realistic expectations aside, try living here, I know our fanbase cares more about the Steeler games but I think our litmus test to see if our team has returned to its previous high level will be beating the Bengals again.

I only want to mention two things...

Firstly, the pass defense was excellent for much of the day to contain AJ Green outside his touchdown reception. Dean Pees and the players should get a lot of credit for stepping up their coverage and pass rush.

Secondly, Ryan Mallett is exactly who I thought he was from the prior week. I said last week that he was erratic and had a grossly excessive amount of underthrows, even when he was completing the pass. People argued with me and said he was so good and so poised simply because he won.

Fact of the matter is that the Steelers RARELY blitzed him and forced him to make throws. He definitely made some good ones, but he also was, again, very erratic. This week, the Bengals decided to make the newcomer uncomfortable and blitzed him a lot. HIs composure completely was lost and he looked like a child with some of his antics. He was receiving more than enough time for most of his throws, but he was so rattled by the few hits he received that almost every blitz led to a hurried decision and an underthrow. I was very wary of this happening this week but this pretty much confirms it for me.

I fail to understand how a quarterback with so much pure arm strength will have so many underthrows. It's shocking to see how bad he can be.

After going from Schaub to Clausen to Mallett, I hope fans see how much worse off the Ravens are without Flacco.

So true, been trying to drill this home and I was confident the bengals were not going to approach Mallet the same way Pittsburgh did, they blitzed him and rattled him and it was easy. He is so inaccurate even with the short stuff, that WR screen was on him. No excuse for that low pass, you knew the blitz was coming and if that was the pass you were gonna make then you should know you'll be able to get it off in time and the pressure shouldn't change anything about your throw.

Miserable game to be at, a hopeless offense and it felt that way too, you could see Mallet was rattled. When he couldn't complete the WR screen to Butler in the face of an all out blitz that's when it became evident we weren't scoring any significant points with our offense today. Butler showed great field vision on that YAC too.

He didn't take any chances downfield and when he did he was horribly off, our receivers don't really get open and dropped passes you have to catch in a close game. Max Williams played well but even he had some big drops that we're gonna have to have if we want to win the division next year.

You do realize Flacco has 3 rushing TDs and rushed for 6 1st downs this season right? And Mallet did not gain any rushing yds at all right?

Imagine if we had a situation like New England where Mallet plays a whole season and wins 11 games and throws 26 TD passes, then imagine what we'd be dealing with.

And that fake 11 TD 0 INT (tied) record

And that fake game @ Pitt to win the division when he led a game winning drive against the #1 defense on prime time where Torrey Smith dropped the 1st game winner.

And that fake AFC Championship game vs Bellicheck and Brady.

first real qb? This love fest is out of Control. He played well but jeez.. But not shocking sadly

I hate that fake qb that won the super bowl for us and all those other games against Pittsburgh

You missed the point- it was just a little comment on some of our fans anointing Mallet as the second coming.

I got it and those over exaggerations have been irritating for sure

And I'm of the opinion of hoping that for one time, we can get Flacco an AJ Green type WR, it makes a huge difference in terms of consistent separation / helping other WRs getting open.

I wonder if there were Bengals fans posting that McCarron is better than Dalton after those first couple of drives?

Actually they're of the opinion of not caring who their QB is, they just want to get over the playoff hump and win a super bowl at this point.

Before Mallet came to Baltimore he won only 1 of his five games that he actually showed up for. His win against the Steelers makes 2. Two wins and goofy Ravens fans think he's in any way on par with Flacco. Some Ravens have a knack for find new ways of embarrassing themselves.

Fire Harbaugh? Kind of like that.....

Of course the Eagles would want him. He's a phenomenal coach and we probably don't realize how lucky we are to have him.

It's not like we have Fire Harbaugh threads or anything. And I agree with what others are saying about the divisive mentality inside the Eagles locker room and I really do think a great, positive motivator like Harbaugh would turn that attitude around. We are very lucky to have him, that thread should be deleted, it's an embarrassment.

Definetely good news, maybe he can have a going out gift like Ray, with his determination and ferocity he definetely is one of those players that deserves a ring. To think that Hines Ward has two and he has none is very agitating and I don't think there's a debate as to whose better. It used to seriously bother me that Troy and Porter had rings over Suggs and Reed but that was taken care of eventually.

and that still isnt saying much....

Yea I agree, the majority and all rational fans take the performance and its implications for what they are. At least the overreactions made for some 'fun' debate here, we never talk about Flacco here so it's a breath of fresh air.

I wouldnt even go so far as to say he played great. 270 yards and a TD with 0 turn overs is a fine outing, but some people on here are acting like he had a 400+ yard 5+ TD game. It's one game....Pretty sure Joe has won more playoff games than Mallet has won regular season games.

I agree, it could be that compared to Schaub and Clausen he looks like an All-Pro and that's everyone's most recent memory.

It isn't close. Since 2011, Brady has a 2.3/1 TD/INT ratio, and Flacco has a 7/1 TD/INT ratio. Flacco is also averaging far more yds/attempt and has a better qb rating. Also, Brady padded his stats last year against injury depleted defenses and has the most dominant pass catcher in the league to throw to. Flacco has played against mostly healthy defenses without ever having a legit #1 target, and his numbers still dwarf Brady's.

And Flacco wasn't using deflated balls or deceptive substituon patterns that were later made illegal.....

Pittsburgh is almost dead last in defense in passing yards allowed...Cincy is 20th and has an injured backup playing...I expect to beat Cincy this week if we can hit AJ McCarron a few times early, but that doesn't give you a real measure of how good Mallett is if he wins against a bad pass D and an injured and less experienced backup

Yea I agree with you, I'm not sure it would stop some people from getting carried away though. I definetely want to win, we're at risk of having the all time series be tied at 20-20 if we lose, I'm still mad we gave up the sweep in 2012 though I totally understand. I know everyone hates Pittsburgh the most and rightfully so but I live here (Cincinnati) and it would be nice to reverse recent history. Still love that we have won 8 of the last 11 vs Pitt though.

Didnt AP tear his ACL in like week 15 or something? I know AP is a physical freak and Joe isnt but, that gives us hope.

Yea he did, and then Terrance Brooks had a late season ACL/MCL tear with us and was back by training camp. Carson Palmer went down late last year with an ACL and is back and is playing well this year. There's hope for sure.

Flacco holds a bazillion records, carried this team to a SB (thank Lee Evans for costing us back to back SB on Flacco's arm), had probably the greatest postseason run in history, has historically been sublime in the postseason, and along with Ryan is the very reason teams now put high expectations on rookie QBs and start them from day one. sounds like "money" to me

After reading this thread I am going to throw a Kylo Ren style temper tantrum. brb

So much foolishness.

First off. "Flacco only had four good games to get his money".

1. Not true. He's been good in the playoffs for awhile and is typically good for big games. Sure, he threw two ints vs the pats in the playoffs but also four TDs with a hobbled Torrey Smith, old man Steve Smith, old man Owen Daniels, going against Darrell Revis, Brandon Browner(who as a #2 CB is very good), and Devin McCourtey.

But RYAN MALLET HAS ONLY HAD ONE GOOD GAME HERE. And that game was one where the Steelers dared him to throw. He played well.

But I'll take Flacco any day of the week over him.

2. You do understand how hard it is to come across franchise QBs right? Flacco has his flaws. He had a bad season for many reasons. Injuries along the oline predating/starting at the season. The offense didn't have as much firepower as expected because that fast WR we drafted in the first round went down with an injury(Which sorry Perriman haters. Defenses would have had to respect his speed. It does change the gameplan). And that stupid throwing off his back foot thing occasionally.

But it's the same logic as firing Harbaugh. Sure, let's get rid of Flacco after a bad season. Brilliant! Let's set our Franchise back at least 5 years! Not like it took us until 2008 to find a competent QB at all right? Guess the Cowboys should have cut Romo several seasons ago? How bout Eli Manning who's had worse seasons than Flacco and kept the job?

Oh wait. Because that's stupid to give up on a QB after one horrible season? And that a QB needy team would jump on that like a starved Panther?

Yes and Yes. Flacco, like Harbs would last 5 seconds on the open market before the Bengals, the niners, Browns, so on and so forth pick him up.

Yeah no thanks. I'll keep Flacco. And he's easily here to stay. Franchise QBs do not grow on trees. Sorry guys

Yea I agree with both of you, let's just hope he comes back healthy week 1 next year.

I try sooooo hard to not get into these conversations, then I see statements like the bolded part. He was money during a 4 game stretch and I'm super thankful for that. He has not been money since he entered the league.

He could probably be more consistent money if he has an AJ Green, Antonio Brown, Gronk or Dez Bryant to throw too. Just trying to stir the pot...

But seriously, he's been good enough to earn the right of franchise QB going forward and not have the prospect of being replaced by Mallet being entertained. I agree with Phil Simms, this is our best player, it took Pittsburgh a while, start building around him going forward. Joe Flacco gives us our best chance to win a Super Bowl, 2012 proved that, last year showed that too, let's not waste his prime.