Derrel

Weddle may not be a loser but our secondary without Jimmy Smith is helpless. The best they can do is stop the deep pass and force the opponent to try and score from the red zone where our front seven can exert their dominance and there is less field to cover for the secondary. On a positive note however, it is clear we have probably the best front seven in the NFL and this group rotates at least 10 without a drop in quality.
So I think we now have the Ravens formula for winning a football game....a smash mouth defense and the best field goal kicker in the NFL.
This seems to work well until the 4th quarter when we have built a narrow lead and then abandon tough defense for a prevent defense which "prevents" us from playing our best football and gives the opponent hope. I think everyone that plays us rightfully waits for the 4th quarter to try and steal a game that they clearly couldn't win unless we ease up on defense. The Raiders and the Giants beat us exactly this way. The losses of these games which we should and could have won hurts even more now that these 2 teams are clearly among the best in the NFL. It shows how close we are to being one of the best teams in the league.
But I'm not complaining. All great defensive teams play and win tight games with everybody. It is a shame that our backs are to the wall and we are even close to a weak, paper tiger team like Pittsburgh. At least we control our own destiny. We should beat Miami, Philly, Pitts and Cincy which will win the North and get us in the playoffs. If Smith comes back healthy we should be a tough out for anybody come December and January. Even if we lose one of these games we will just need to punish the Steelers on Christmas day to win the division. We have physically dominated this team every time we have played them for the last 3 years.
The emergence of Dixon and our run game against Dallas and Cincy could be all we need to make a deep playoff run. West and Dixon are turning into legitimate NFL running backs. I think Waller and Boyle will also make big contributions. We have so many good receivers I can't understand why the offense is so ineffective. This offense should be impossible to stop but they continue to perform poorly. I really have to question if we would do better with Mallett instead of Joe.....and it pains me to even think this may be the case. Once Lewis gets back hopefully it will make a difference.
I'm grateful we have a team that is in contention after last year's fiasco. The addition of Judon, Stanley, Dixon, Pierce, Lewis, West and Weddle have made a huge difference. The emergence of Urban, Perriman, Orr and Pitta has also been a pleasant surprise. That's 11 players who are making an impact this year that were not here last year. God is good. The full recovery of both Smiths, Suggs, Wagner and all of the others that went on IR last year was a blessing.
If we don't make the playoffs with this team it falls firmly in Harbaugh's lap. He made some bonehead decisions that probably cost us one or two games this year. I hope he learned his lesson from these mistakes and takes every point he can get when it is available. I'm hopeful and optimistic that the Ravens can do just what they did in 2012.....fly under the radar due to subpar performances and then step up and show the world how good they can be.

wow...IMO the reason we lost those games to the Raiders and Giants is the defense was tired.....and no pass rush. They had the same problem against the Cowboys. Not sure if it's conditioning or they lose focus on defense after competing 2 1/2 quarters.

  11 hours ago, PersianRaven said:

Truth be told, Doom was greatly missed! We got no dang pass rush without him and Sizzle. And frankly, I really believe we needs to BLITZ a whole a lot more! Look at what TB did to Russell Wilson. They had 5-6 players rushing on every 3rd down. Seattle finally got their first 3rd down conversion with 3 mins left in the game! Go figure!

NEED*

thought 57 was supposed to be an edge rusher. He may be still developing but so far an ok player but can't cover a receiver....always trailing the receivers.

  22 hours ago, stixfix69 said:

I just love the Yanda move to LG, it brings stability to that side of the line, and is a great help for Stanley, it's these subtle moves that don't get a ton of press that have really worked out for us......3 weeks with the same line, and i expect to see continued improvement in the run blocking and pass protection.....very exciting time for this team IMO.....

very good point about Yanda being beside Stanley!

zutta seemed to play better last weekend but need more from him.

Get more play makers. The Baltimore Sun reporter said it best. Until the Ravens get a couple play makers on each side of the ball, we will always be a mediocre football team and it will show up big time when we play good football teams like we did in Dallas. Hopefully next year our rookies will emerge and we can nail a couple come draft day

not confident about Ozzie Newsome's ability to get talented players. He had a good run but it's time to get some impact players in the draft.

  2 hours ago, Rav'n Maniac said:

A better pass wouldn't have put him in this situation. Having to dive outstretched, making an insane grab (which he did) and the ground popping the ball out with the way he was forced to land shouldn't have happened. If he had been hit in stride, it would have been an easy score. No one should beat him up on the effort he displayed on that pass.

I agree, the ball should have been dropped in over the DB and not further out, Perriman had open field to the pylon...

thinking the same thing. Flacco needs to put that ball up and over his head so he can run under it. Hopefully, it's going to improve as they play more games together. IMO Flacco has adequate receivers to move this offense. The running game is improving with the OL starting to settle down. Aiken, Smith, Wallace, Perriman and several tight ends should be enough.....and include two RB's that catch the ball. He needs to be more accurate.

If we can get Jimmy Smith back on the field, and get the offense going.
We will have a good chance at the Super Bowl.. Go Ravens!

Jimmy Smith can't stay on the field. How many games has he missed in the last two years?

M. Huff!!

the DB's are not a good unit with or without Jimmy Smith. Need to dial up some pass rush to cover them.

also, not sure the LB's can cover the short receivers either.

the DB's are not a good unit with or without Jimmy Smith. Need to dial up some pass rush to cover them.

Well, the game went the way I expected, of course, not the way I hoped. We looked the best we have this year, I thought.

Officiating was horrible. My wife, who is usually very even-keeled, said to me, the "the officials seem really biased." Well, I guess it's like boxing: if you are the underdog, you have to win by a knockout.

Ravens dominated the first half, but Dallas figured us out and had the tools in the second half. Sign of a great team if they can assess what's wrong at half-time and make adjustments.

Still, we were outclassed. Not much defense in the backfield, and their O-line is the best in the game.

From here on out, we just need to match Pittsburgh. If they win, we have to win. If they lose, we can afford to lose.

if they make the playoffs, one and done...like the Os.

one other observation. The Ravens defense wore down again in the second half. Mediocre performance and couldn't get off the field allowing Dallas to have the ball for 20 minutes to collect an easy win for them. Line play seems to be good but pass defense and pass rush non existent again this year. Nearly every Dallas offensive play was successful to let them pull away. Disappointing.

Flacco needs to step up. Bad OL, sketching running and receivers that don't get open consistently.....even loud mouth Smith Sr. I will admit Joe is having his worst year and throws to0 many inaccurate balls when his guys are open.

  28 minutes ago, Bat-mite said:

So, let me ask everyone for his/her honest opinion, not just a fanboy/girl opinion :)

Was the Perriman touchdown legit?

Yes because of the rules regarding replay and determination of a catch. If it was called incomplete on the field it would have also been ruled incomplete by replay. It is currently very difficult to overturn the field call on catches/non-catches by replay with the rules put in place this past off season.

maybe so but it looked like the ball hit the ground and wasn't controlled

just turned on the game 1+ minutes left in half. Ravens choking against poor Browns team. Take Flacco out and move on from him. He's got nothing at all.

  1 hour ago, 20306cab said:

Far Below Average Joe will have his greatest game of the year. Two TD's, one pick, and an astronomical rating (for FBAJ) of 84%. STs and D bail out FBAJ and SRJ for the fifth time this year. OFFENSE is offensive.

Haha, so true! FBAJ is about to have one solid game, after which all our ignorant fans will be like "Flacco is Elite, where are all the Flacco haters now" yadayadayada. Only to have Flacco come out the week after and throw for 71 yards and 4 INTs. Would be classic Flacco. Could not play consistently well even if his life depended on it. I would be fired long ago, if I were performing so inconsistently at my job.

if Joe has a two pick game and puts the ball on the field I wouldn't be surprised to see him benched. How many points has the Ravens offense scored under the new OC? Good move.

  14 hours ago, Crusader said:

No one should be shocked if the Ravens lose tomorrow. Its going to be this week or Steeler next week the Browns win a game. Also, Should start calling Flacco. Check down Joe

We should definitely put all the blame on Joe - especially when receivers can't get open or better yet when they drop passes. 

Flacco looks to be in decline. He throws more off target passes now than completions.

We have chris mccalister (jimmy smith) & tavon young (duane starks) manning down the db spot.Joe is playing like trent dilfer and mike Wallace is Quadry ismail. I have a feeling we are looking at a 2000 raven type team just my opinion.justb trying to make sense of this season.

in spite of all the talk about the defense they have lost 2 (3?) games when the opposition scored during their last possession. The Steelers put together 2 TD drives late in the game. This group is nowhere close to the 2000 defense. They appear to run out of gas at the end of the game.

not impressed after half a season. Decent games against poor teams, missed several to injury and then the fiasco against a 38 year old lineman. Not impressed!

Stanley had a horrible game against a used up Harrison. Late in the game I saw Harrison bull rush Stanley and push him back 5 yards. Coming off an injury???, so what, lousy game.

  1 hour ago, sizzlingdoom said:

  2 hours ago, fusuymada said:

Flacco is not right. I tweeted many times during the game yesterday that Flacco is not right both mentally and physically. On the Aiken catch for a first down where he bobbled it, Joe called an audible at the line, the players switched formation and 3 guys to the right were still moving out to their spots when Joe snapped the ball (illegal shift penalty). He knew he wasn't going over there with the pass so he never even bothered to look. No rush on the play clock, still had 10 seconds on it. He didn't even care enough to look to his right to see if his players were set. Then the following play he inexcusably just chucks the ball up in the air, across his body, to the middle of the field where there was one Dennis Pitta and 4 defenders in the area. Joe either will not or can not focus on the things that are important and make good decisions for whatever reason.

The Ravens have a huge 120 million dollar problem. Out of 32 starting QB's, Flacco ranks in the bottom 4. You can't pay 120 million dollars to a player that plays like Joe is playing because you need that extra money for pieces around him to be successful. The FO has a very hard decision to make. Perhaps Joe will come around before the end of the year but I doubt it. Word is out on Flacco now. He can't operate under pressure and the knee injury just makes him that much more scared in the pocket. He just chucks the ball up in the air. Every team knows he is so slow in reaction time that even when blitzed he can't pick up the open guy and get the ball out, he just falls down. We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend these issues will go away and Joe will become a superstar somehow, or we can do something to fix it. Certainly next year there has to be a contract modification where a lot of his money is tied to incentives. Just like the play with Aiken, he is not paying attention, he is not focused and he is lackadaisical in his approach and that happened after the paycheck and after the injury. I would sit him down and ask him, does he want to play football, if so, then no more of this stupid stuff or Mallett is coming in.

As much as I hate to agree. I agree. He has been TERRIBLE. We'd be 0-7 if we didn't have the best D in the league right now. Hopefully it's confidence that he lost after the injury and it will slwoly come back. A lot does look like focus and preperation though. Hopefully this big win instilled confidence in everyone today. If Joe starts playing well, we are close to unbeatable. Random side note, I really hope Young permately just took Wright's spot. Wright is playing as bad as Flacco this year

You really have to wonder about Joe's focus now. He seems like he is not in the game and is just going through the motions every Sunday afternoon. I almost feel that he would rather be home with his family now instead of playing for his outrageous paycheck. Time to look at the QB crop in the upcoming draft. There are some good prospects out there this season.

best D in the league, hmm? The Steelers ran out of time or it was headed to another late game loss. I recall they have lost at least two games on the opponents last possession....Raiders and NYG. The defense may (?) have been in prevent but looked gassed again. Not one pressure on that last touchdown drive. The D line had nothing left. Good defenses can finish games. One kudo to the DL player (forgot who) that dragged Ben down by the jersey. How many times have we seen Ben get out of that and throw a TD....? Great play,

1. Our defense could potentially take us far this year if our offense can put up at least 20 points a game.

2. Finally we did not give up on the run. It was nice to see that we stuck to it even tho we struggled to make holes throughout the game.

3. I wouldn't put to much thought into how the offensive line played yesterday. Stanley was getting manhandled by Harrison all day but this is a Rookie who has not played in a month. He was playing at a high level the first 3 weeks, so i expected him to struggle coming off injury. The offensive line as a whole will improve esp with Stanley and Yanda back.

4. Flacco unfortunately is holding this team back. At first i gave him the benefit of the doubt by blaming the offensive line but even with time he was making bad plays. The illegal shift penalty that waived off Aiken's first down catch was all on Flacco.

5. What about those ROOKIES!!! Im so happy with this years draft class. Young is slowly becoming a solid CB next to Smith. Judon, Pierce, Stanley, Moore, are all good players in the making. They all have bright futures.

agree about Flacco, he was inaccurate all day. The one pass to Wallace was nearly the same. Fortunately, Wallace grabbed it. Flacco has re-gressed this year. We've seen his best.

with or without Ben, I really don't have confidence in this team. Only wins against bad teams. Flacco looks to have lost his desire. We'll see if getting OL starters back make any difference. Harrison will love playing against our rookie (injured already) RT.

Found this interesting article.... 

"So let's deal with the Flacco conversation by basing it in fact instead of opinion, shall we? A small piece of advice to those who simply bash Flacco or attempt to place the Ravens' ills on his shoulders: you're wasting your breath -- or your Twitter characters. Whatever. "

 

"The reality for the Ravens and their quarterback is that, outside of owner Steve Bisciotti, nobody in the organization's job is safer than Flacco's. Not head coach John Harbaugh, not general manager Ozzie Newsome. No one's job is safer than the quarterback's. Based on the new contract the team and player agreed to this offseason, the earliest the Ravens would even be able to discuss the possibility of moving on from Flacco is 2019."

 https://www.pressboxonline.com/2016/10/18/glenn-clark-says-ravens-fans-wasting-time-with-joe-flacco-complaints

Joe is not going anywhere! I for one, have seen what Flacco can do when he has a line that can protect him. I hope we can get that back. I want Joe to succeed, and for him to do that the LINE NEEDS TO PROTECT HIM!!!   

......and now they have lost the last 4 and this was Flacco's worse performance this season IMO. The OL is not protecting him and it shows. I hate to think about the next one against Pittsburgh.

I think we need to start Mallett after the bye just to see what he's capable of with this team. Nothing bad against Flacco but he looks extremely uncomfortable. Whether this has something to do with last year's injury, this year's injury, or the team itself, don't know, but it's hurting the team. I've never seen him throw this many inaccurate passes to wide open receivers before. He also seems to have last whatever pocket presence he had left.

Just for the team's sake, start Mallett. He can't be any worse than the way Flacco is playing at the moment. If it doesn't work, great, now we know it isn't on the quarterback. If it does work, great, now we know how we can win games.

changing QB may help may not. Overall, the team is bad and the injures are not helping. Counting on guys like Suggs, Dumerville, Smith, Sr., Pitta, and Wallace....maybe add Joe to that group...you get what you get. Most of them are hurt and the young guys need to step up.

Flacco's 'WE'?? He lost the game period. I know he's not getting as much time to throw as in the past but the best QB's get the ball out quickly and move down the field.