frozen joe flacco fan

The Good: Hestor, Moseley, Wallace, Steve Smith, Sr., Perriman, Tucker, Pees' adjustments, Clarence Brooks. Oh yeah, then there's Pitta & The Elite Guy. The Bad: Defense giving up 20 points in the 1st quarter. The Ugly: John Harbaugh's panicked decision to go for it on 4th and 2 at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. Head coaches should never set their team up for failure OR send a message to the team that they are in a panic situation. In that situation, he should have kicked a FG and made the score 20 -5. Instead, John panicked. Fortunately, his team did not. His atrocious call was eclipsed only by Jason Garrett's decision to do an on-side kick against the Redskins early in that game. In both situations, the HCs were bailed out by their teams on the road, where it is very difficult to win.

If you will remember, the game in Pittsburgh was an absolute gift. Our record this year will be about 9-7 as things stand right now. The best case scenario would be 11-5 and the worst case scenario would be 7-9 as I see it. There are a lot of unanswered questions about injury rehabs and the health of some of the key starters, including Perriman, Smith, Flacco, Gilmore, Suggs, Pitta and Dummerville just to name a few and some new untested faces on the O-line. We should be able to go 3-3 in our division, 2-2 against the NFL Least Division and 3-1 versus the AFC East teams. That means we will split the two games against the Jags and the Raiders. I think we spoil KO's return to Baltimore with a win over the Raiders and we get upset by an upstart team of Jags in Jacksonville. We do not usually play well against teams who have former Ravens coaches on their sidelines. Then there is the NFL parity thing. Yeah, 9-7 sounds about right but, to get there, we will have to have an 8-4 record going into the final three games. Like, who ever heard of games on Christmas Day and New Years Day. That's truly absurd scheduling by the NFL.

This is an interesting observation but I must respectfully disagree. If Ben wasn't brought in for his blocking and pass catching abilities, it was a wasted investment even before his Achilles injury. However, in view of the uncertainty we had at the TE position before we signed him, Ben's signing was a great FA pickup. Of the available active TEs, he would have been more than adequate as a blocker and a big reliable receiver target for Joe. He was the wide-bodied TE we needed to replace the void created by Dennis. I doubt seriously the organization spent the money to sign him for his great locker room presence and general intelligence. To be honest, they desperately needed to sign a bona fide TE as an insurance policy in case Pitta either retired or did not make a successful comeback. It was a no brainer. As it is, we have to hope the young guys can step up and take advantage of the opportunities they've been given. That's what makes the PED violation by Boyle so dumb and Waller's suspension equally dumb. Due to their selfish behavior, we're no longer deep at a position which looked to be a strength during the off-season. Of course, Dennis is the wild card. If he is able to make a successful comeback, our depth chart at TE would be OK w/o Ben. I wish him the best but I have serious doubts about his ability to take some of the vicious hits any TE has to endure during the course of the season. I think he will used sparingly and mainly in passing situations on 3rd downs to sustain a drive. I wish Ben a speedy recovery from his surgery and hope to see his locker room presence before this season's end.

Good - The play of Houston & Josh Johnson on offense; the play of Judon, Pierce & Brooks on defense Bad - The return game, Davis' ankle injury and the referee's call on Henry for roughing the passer. Ugly - Michael Campanaro's double fumble on a kickoff return

That's so wrong! You're saying you wouldn't want Bosa, Ezekial Elliott or Braxton Miller? Oh, yeah! Noah Spence played for OSU before transferring. Do your homework! Our FO just screwed the pooch to coin an aeronautical term.

Truer words were never spoken. I get the 1st pick. I 've been one of the most outspoken critics of Eugene Monroe's game. The injury to Flacco last year occurred because our backup left tackle was pushed back and he fell on Joe's leg. We need a reliable LT to protect Joe's blindside and Eugene Monroe is not reliable. So, I get the Stanley pick. IMO, it was predictable when the questions about Tunsil started swirling. We need to draft character; not characters. The 2nd pick was feckless and defies all logic. What happened to the Wizard's philosophy about drafting the BAP? With all due respect to the Boise State LB we drafted, was he the BAP? What a disappointing and terrible draft this has been with so much at stake! If this is the best the Wizard of Oz can do, maybe he should get in a hot air balloon and fly back to Kansas. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or a football fanatic to figure out that something is wrong in the front office. What good does it do to hoard a lot of middle and late round picks when most of them will not be impact players next year. I've gone from being hopeful to disappointed to disillusioned in two days. Last I heard there are still a lot of holes we need to plug. At a minimum, we need another CB, ILB, DE, WR and perhaps another safety to spell Weddle and Webb. Oh yeah! We also still need a dependable punt returner to replace Jacoby Jones. Not to worry, The Wizard will hoard enough picks to have another "deep" draft in 2017.

I think we all have mixed feelings about this because we all want what's best for Dennis. Of course, the decision to compete for a roster spot or retire is up to him but he should rely heavily on his doctor's advice. I can't believe his doctor would give him his medical consent unless he thought Dennis was fully recovered this time. Obviously, there are no guarantees that he won't go down again but it's his choice if the FO is confident he can make a healthy comeback and play at a high level. That being said, I think he would wind up being a role player who would be more of a hybrid WR/TE than a blocking TE. Realistically, I would expect him to be a #3 TE on the depth chart at the start of the season at best behind Watson and Gillmore. Good luck, Dennis, and stay healthy!!

May God's love comfort Tray's family in their time of sorrow! Words alone cannot express our sorrow but we share it with his family. Death can end a life but it does not end a relationship. From all I have read and heard about Tray, he was a great young man who put the needs of others before his own. His earthly life ended way too soon but he is with our Lord in a better place now. As a Ravens fan. my relationship to Tray is that I am one of his many fans. We all know that Tray is a Raven and Ravens are warriors. He played like a Raven. I know that Tray embodied that spirit and brought even more meaning to the Ravens' motto. Thank you, Tray! We will not forget you!!

That's an excellent point but I still think Michael played like a Raven. I would have kept him. As for all the FA acquisitions that went bust, what can you say. Its just poor judgment IMO. The FO has real problems that need to be addressed. Our talent is not even close to most of the other contending teams, notwithstanding the injury-riddled season we just endured. I echo the sentiment about the re-signings of Monroe, Pitta and Webb. It seems like they were based more on emotion than logic.

Excuses, excuses, excuses! The thing about excuses is that everybody has one. Ozzie, his son and his protégé Eric are the group who are primarily responsible for selecting & evaluating our players. Nobody has the right to rest on his laurels, not even the Great Wizard of Oz! Our most obvious failure was not in who we drafted but rather when we drafted some of them. A case in point is C.J. Moseley. He was a great pick but we needed to draft a replacement for Ray Lewis while Ray was still here so he could help groom his replacement. Fans who are looking at Oz's track record since 2012 are missing the point. By drafting reactively instead of proactively , we have waited too long to find replacements for key players. That was true in the case of Ray, Ed Reed, Anquan Boldin and others. Oz's & John's philosophy of agreeing to agree isn't serving the organization well because John is not a great evaluator of talent and its not his job to do so. To properly evaluate Oz's recent performance record, one must start looking well before 2012, the last year we had Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. Now ,we are in the unfortunate position of having waited too late to groom replacements for Sizzle and Doom. Our laundry list of needs is growing, not diminishing. BTW, who made the brilliant decision to release Michael Oher? It has worked out fairly well for Michael who will be seeking another SB ring. It hasn't worked out that well to resolve our LT problem. I have heard the owner say that he has two GMs - Oz & Eric DeCosta. If that's true, it may be time to start grooming replacements for both of them 'cause what they've done lately is apparently not working. I.e., if Eric is a clone of Oz, all we can expect is more of the same.

I agree but even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. I'm on the right side of this argument. BTW, its not his defense --- its the Ravens' defense. Coach Pees had to play Texas Holdem with the cards he was dealt and he did so adeptly. We wound up the season with a Top 10 defense with all the issues the team had. The issues are numerous: we have two aging pass-rushers, we converted an aging CB to a safety because he's lost a step or two, Jimmy Smith didn't return to his pre-injury form until late in the year, the Kendrick Lewis acquisition hasn't panned out, the Matt Elam draft pick was a bust, et cetera, et cetera. Your disdain for Coach Pees is a joke. He's not going anywhere; nor should he. If anything, he deserves a raise or, at least, a meritorious service award.

To suggest Ryan Mallett is anything like Tom Brady is a little bit, well, let's just say way out there! The only thing they have in common is that they were both drafted by NE I think. I'm glad you like him but just as one bad game does not define a career one good game doesn't either. He played OK in the two games he started and showed enough moxy to make me believe he could be a competent backup for Joe next year. But, if he was as good as you think he is, he would have been the Houston Texans' starter goin down the stretch. He wasn't even good enough to beat out T.J. Yates.

I think we wound up eighth in total defense. That's a credit to Coach Pees. Instead of mailing it in in the second half of the season, our defense improved. Misstating what I've said won't help you convince anyone though. I think I've made it clear that I'm not a big fan of our coaching staff. I've never said I think Harbaugh, Pees or Trestman are great coaches but all three are good coaches. Your unrelenting dislike of Dean Pees won't change my opinion.

Have you ever heard the expression about "beating a dead horse"? We've got it! You don't like Dean Pees and wish someone else was our DC. Well, its time for you to build a bridge and get over it. Coach Pees did a superb job coaching a defense that lost its premier player in the first game and had no (as in zero) shutdown corners for the first eight games. In all but two of our 16 games we were competitive despite having backup QBs in the last six games. My two biggest concerns about Coach Pees are: 1. I like DCs & OCs on the field instead of in the booth and 2. His defenders are way too undisciplined, resulting in far too many silly and costly penalties. That being said, my first concern gets down to a preference and is within the Head Coach's purview to change where his DC is during the games. My second concern could be easily resolved by the Head Coach. So, maybe we should just hire Greg Manusky who was fired by the Indianapolis Bolts after they finished 8-8? Frankly, I'm glad the Bolts took our LB coach. With the possible exception of Moseley, our linebacker play was not that stellar this year after losing T-Sizzle. Our longstanding record of consecutive games holding the opposition to less than 100 yards rushing ended this year. Once he became convinced that we lacked the team speed to play man defense and started to play more zone defense in the second half, our defense improved with the exception of two games. That's a personnel problem, not a coaching problem. One of our top two offseason challenges was to fix our secondary. The FO didn't.

Somebody on the coaching staff needs to take responsibility for the mistakes that keep happening. I hate to remind you but Elvis Dummervil was guilty of the same infraction more than once this season. How long has he played? That's poor coaching, dude! As an ole 'Bama coach, named Paul "Bear" Bryant, was fond of saying, "When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it, 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it." This team made more mistakes than any previous Ravens team in our brief but storied 20 year history. That's about the coaching & that's not playing like a Raven! For any coach who's worth his or her salt, it comes under the category of "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Contrary to your simplistic way of looking at things, there is a way for coaches to take disciplinary measures to ensure that the same types of mistakes are minimized, if not eliminated.

I think you're missing the point. Obviously, most penalties are not the fault of the coaches. However, the coaches can and must hold the players accountable for them as you have also stated. The number of times we had players lined up in the neutral zone this year was inexcusable. If they were held accountable, we would not have set a franchise record for penalties. Whether the number of penalties was directly correlated to the young players we had and/or bad officiating, the root cause of most of the penalties was a lack of discipline and that is something that the coaches must accept responsibility for. Stupid penalties like lining up in the neutral zone & false starts are inexcusable and preventable when coaches instill discipline in their players. We had a lot of stupid penalties this year on both sides of the ball. This was one of the most undisciplined teams we've had in our twenty years and that is primarily the fault of the coaches unless the players are just stupid, which I do not believe is the case.

Amen.

I think it took Marc Trestman awhile to get used to running Gary Kubiak's offense and he might have been uncomfortable with the ZBS in the running game. Of course, the offense needs to be more balanced between running and passing plays, even in the pass-first trending NFL. Under the circumstances, I think he did an outstanding job with the ineffective weapons with which he had to work and should be re-hired. The most effective game he coached IMO was the one in which Javorius Allen was involved in 47% of the offense. In the next game, he practically disappeared. Its way too early to compare Javorius Allen with Marcus Allen but I do see some similarities. He is very smooth and quick without being in too much of a hurry. As for Trestman, I can see where he gets the reputation as the QB Whisperer. I think our offense could have been even better if the head coach had not called so many bone-headed calls.

Well, I'd say you're welcome but I'm not sure what "condescension" means so I'll just have to defer to your good nature. I didn't see the game but I understand we led at half-time 9-7 and we had a chance to tie the game in the final minute against the mighty Bungles. That's not too bad for a 4th string QB IMO but yer the expert. BTW, I thought Schaub, Claussen and my man Crab Mallett only played in the last six games of the season. You said they played for half of the season in your earlier response to my non-intelligent (by your lofty standards) post. Well, 6/16 = 3/8 = .375 or 37.5% by my arithmetic is not half the games. Just sayin???? You ought to try not taking things so personally and getting so defensive when someone offers a different point of view. Not a sermon; just a thought!!!!

I really admire your exuberant feelings abut Ryan Mallett and agree with the premise of your original post to this extent. Ryan Mallett is the most confident QB that has ever lined up for the Ravens since Joe Flacco got hurt! You obviously never saw Vince Testaverde or Steve McNair line up.

You can malign Marc Trestman all you want but the fact of the matter is that his offense wound up only 90 yards behind Kubiak's franchise record setting offense. That's pretty amazing when you consider Schaub, Clausen and Mallett were his QBs for the last six games. Facts are stubborn for you, aren't they?

There is nothing I would love more than to knock the Steelers out of the playoffs but the probability of that happening is slim and dim with either Clausen or Schaub under center. Neither knows what its like to be in a Ravens - Steelers game. It will be a rather rude awakening for either of them. With Joe throwing to a group of total novice receivers, we at least had a chance to win. Without Joe, we have a snowball's chance in a furnace to win. However, there are three ways we can possibly win. First, we wear the black jerseys and gold pants to make ourselves look like the Steelers; this will confuse the helmetless motorcycle riding Steelers QB and he will throw the balls into the waiting hands of our marvelous secondary. Secondly, if we hit Big Ben over the head with Ryan's Mallett and force him into concussion protocol, the Steelers' backup QB will make it a level playing field. Finally, we need to deflate Pittsburgh's footballs. Apparently, there is no penalty in the NFL for doing so. I know this strategy sounds extreme but its a better game plan than faking a punt from your own 17 yard line on a 4th down and 9 yards to go in the first half when you're trailing by only 14-7. Seriously though, I have a feeling this one will get real ugly very quickly.

You seem to be an authority on PEDs! Its cheatin, Mack!!!

You finally nailed it! The defense is playing better despite the lack of an over-abundance of talent in the defensive backfield and a lack of depth at some of the key positions. They are executing better than they were earlier in the season even if the teams we've played better against are not that good. They are more disciplined than they were and they are looking better in press coverage and blitz situations. On the negative side of the ledger, we still are not getting enough turnovers. I'm sure you will be the first one to give Dean Pees his props when the defense keeps us in the remaining four games. After all, Pees' system allowed one TD last week in the opponent's house. That's pretty sound defense. If we hadn't been jobbed by the officials in the Jags game at home and if Tucker could have kicked a long FG in the clutch against the Fins, our record would be 6-6 right now instead of 4-8 and we'd still be in the hunt for a wild card berth. I know its a stretch but I think we can win two of our remaining four games thanks to Dean Pees' defensive schemes and his players' improved play in the second half of the season.

This is a no brainer. The NFL has been burying its head in the artificial turf for years and the chicken's come home to roost. They have been treating the symptom rather than the disease, that is, the cause and effect of so many concussions, not to mention the joint injuries. Having your head slam onto a solid concrete slab cushioned by 2 inches of artificial turf & carpet padding is a prescription for a bad headache. I applaud the Ravens for once again being proactive on an issue that affects the players' well-being.