reed20fence

Plus, part of the reason CLE and TEN are routinely picking tops is cuz they almost always pick the wrong guys.

I think the best route for Mallet to revive his prospects is to just sit down to an interview and be honest to clear the air. Honesty, even when talking about past failures, is seen as a sign of maturity and growth. This guy didn't have any problems in New England for 3 years. He didn't have problems his first year in Houston. The issues started when O'Brien needlessly dragged out the QB decision in Houston, and then kept flip-flopping Hoyer and Mallett in depending on his own arbitrary perception of which guy "had the hotter hand." The final straw was when Mallett got a little dinged up and came out for a handful of snaps against the Colts to be looked at by the trainers, got cleared, and O'Brien never let him back in. O'Brien's M.O. at the start of the season was to force all of their opponents to prepare for both QBs as if doing so was gaining some sort of advantage. None of this fully excuses Mallett's unprofessional reaction to the dysfunction and stupidity in Houston, but it just goes to explain the crappy way in which he felt used. And it also lets us know that backing up one of the most durable starting QBs in the league isn't the same as the instability of being told you're getting a chance in the NFL and then having it yanked away time and again on a coaches random whim.

All I want for Christmas is for Joe to start wearing a knee brace!

I just gotta get this off my chest. It feels to me like we've created an environment in this organization that likes the players to downplay the legacy of greats like Ray Lewis and Ed Reed. Yesterday in reading the comments from Seahawks players after the game we heard Michael Bennett say he wanted to play in a way that honors the legacy of defense since they were playing in "The Home of Defense," built by Lewis, Reed, Ngata and Suggs. Then last night we saw one of the most dynamic young all-stars and game changers in the NFL score a game-winning TD and what does he do? He pays homage to Ray Lewis by doing his dance. Since the end of that era, I have yet to see a single player on OUR OWN TEAM dare to do Lewis' dance to pay respect to his legacy. I have yet to see any single player invoke the need to uphold our tradition of defense by mentioning Reed or others in a pregame hype or an interview with media. I mean I get that we want to encourage new young players to have their own identities and not just forever be caught in the shadow and be empty shells or knock-offs of legends, but something has to be said about paying proper respect to the legacy of Baltimore Football. It's as if after the "Great Age of Swagger" we've slipped into the "Dark Age of Quiet Below-average good guys." Anyone else feel this way? Forget the cap, or IR, or draft, or anything else. The fundamental, existential question facing this franchise is: where is our swagger?

He may still have that chance but perhaps at the time he indicated interest in us because Dalton was still playing. Maybe he sees McCarron as viable competition? He was with New England for a few years and there wasn't any trouble. Even for the majority of his stay in Houston there wasn't trouble. I think O'Brien just alienated him. Things aren't really that healthy in Houston. None-the-less, it was still Mallet's fault the way things went down. That doesn't mean he can't change. The bottom line with Mallet is his arm strength. This guy re-introduces the deep ball as a viable threat in our offense should Joe not be available next year.

Fans asking to be flexed? People afraid that fans won't show up at the Bank? WHAT has happened to my beloved Ravens Nation? I get that we're bad and dealing with issues right now, but if these are the true colors of our fans we're no better than anyone elses fans. This is just pathetic. I'll be there. Come hell or high water or 4-10 or 5-9 or 1 pm kickoff or prime time. To quote Ray Lew "anybody can show up when they're winning, NOW the best [fans] in football show up!"

I look forward to all the fans providing critical analysis of the secondary moves this offseason. Cuz as far as I can recall the majority of us, just like the front office, saw a decent safety in Kendrick Lewis when we signed him. He was certainly seen as an upgrade over Matt Elam. Just this September Will Hill graded out as the highest ranked safety by PFF. It was a foregone conclusion that Jimmy would pickup where he left off as a probowl calibre cover guy. We thought if Webby could make it past camp healthy, which he did, we'd be gold, and then everyone got excited that we topped it off by signing Arrington to cover the slot. I honestly don't recall a single Ravens fan going against the collective euphoria and saying that Ozzie didn't have a clue what he was doing when he put this secondary toghether. Bad stuff happens sometimes and it's out of your control. No one plans a roster with the assumption that their key roleplayers will have season ending injuries at the start of the season. And if for some weird clairvoyant reason they do want to plan for that contingency, the salary cap prevents them from being too well prepared. You take the heart and soul and a former defensive MVP, 50% of the most prolific pass duo from last year, out of the equation, and you see what we see. The hawks blowout was a statistical anomaly. The real question should be how were these guys so competitive the rest of the season? Yes, other teams have injuries too, but no one this year, NOT A SINGLE ONE, lost as many players of high caliber as we did this year.

Losses aren't bothering me given the insane baggage we're carrying this season, but giving up 5 passing TD's? I'm afraid we've got some quitters masquerading as Ravens.

I get that fans of other teams are intimidated by the Seahawks and their swagger, especially on the defensive side of the ball. But it makes no sense for Ravens Nation to be intimidated. This is the House the Ray built. We can have respect for the Hawks, but let's not forget that there are only two fan bases that found the 43-8 score of Super Bowl 48 beautiful while the rest of the Nation was obsessed with fantasy dink-n-dunk non-sense. Us, and the 12th Man. For more than a decade Baltimore exemplified complete and utter domination on defense. Swagger and attempts at intimidation by our opponents are things we brush off at The Bank.

No one is talking about reviewing every play. That's why it makes sense to link replay-ability to coaches challenges, which by their nature are limited in number. Also, the idea that fans don't want to spend more than 3.5 hours watching football is bunk. If that were the case every single game would be on at the same mid-day time slot with people only tuning in to watch their own team play. The NFL knows that's not how fans watch football. People start at noon eastern and can (and millions do) literally have games on or playing in the background until the final whistle of Sunday Night Football -- thats 10 hours. And then they tune in again for MNF which, aside from the Super Bowl, tends to have some of the year's highest Nielsen ratings. ESPN doesn't spend a billion dollars to secure exclusive rights to a game every week because they expect just the fans of some dinky small market teams to tune in. They know they have a captive national audience every Monday. Also, if it were true that only the fans of the teams involved tune in to watch the games, and they don't watch multiple games a weekend, then the entire concept of "flexing" crappy teams out of prime time slots wouldn't have any logic. I'm sorry but this idea that people only want to be entertained for a couple of hours one day a week just doesn't hold any water. If that were the case the NFL wouldn't be an mutli billion dollar, vastly expanding business.

"League of Denial," the PBS Frontline Special on the topic, would probably be more accurate.

Justin Forsett and LT were discussing this on the wired episode. The Ravens' Franchise record for most receptions in a game is held by Priest Holmes (13) dating back 17 years. Buck put up 12 in just his second game as a starter. Sign of good things to come?

Like the author says, he could have cited more examples from each of those games but he limited himself to one. The interesting thing to note here is that while the non-PI/illegal contact examples vary vastly, 4 out of the 7 examples he provides are essentially PI or defensive holding penalties. Which just further goes to demonstrate that it's these "judgment call" type scenarios by the refs that are causing the most consternation and having the largest impact on swaying outcomes. Ravens fans should be honest and upfront about this issue, for the last few years we all sat back and cheered and lauded the fact that Torrey would lead the league in drawn PI flags... now that we're the victims we're the loudest advocates against ticky-tacky PI flagging. Also if you want to take a more Machiavellian look at whether things could change going forward, consider that the Competition Committee responsible for bringing these rule changes to all the teams to vote on consists of Front Office staff from the Falcons (who have Julio Jones), Giants (ODB), Cowboys (Bryant), Packers (Rodgers and crew), Bengals (AJ Green) and Steelers (Antonio Brown et al) in addition to Ozzie representing us. He is vastly outnumbered by those who have no interest in weakening the position of their marquee playmakers at the WR position. Our best bet is to get Perriman back and pray that he can still run a 4.24 40, and add some more weapons for Joe. That way we can take advantage of the ticky-tacky just like everyone else.

At this stage it's not about increased PI calls in favor of the offense (we also play offense), it's about having some form, any form, of help for the refs to slow things down and get the call right. It's gotten to the point where the last straw that'll break this camels back is Balndino himself saying that PI should be reviewable, regardless of who it favors.Think about it, everyone admits that these players are getting bigger, stronger, and most importantly, FASTER. Everything from protection rules to combine times are evidence to this fact. But what's the one aspect of this game that's stubbornly refusing to evolve and use all the tools available to us to protect the integrity of game outcomes? Officiating. The CFL has evolved. The NCAA has evolved. Why can't the NFL evolve? Make it challengable and put the onus on the coaches to save their challenges.

I totally agree with Dumervil and any fan that feels like this is new news just needs to go back to the week we played the Steelers. Remember that pitch play to Le'Veon Bell? K-Lew had him dead-to-rights with a tackle behind the line of scrimmage -- except that Will Johnson jumped on Kendrick's back and tackled him right in front of Bell. The holding happened right in front of the side judge and the back judge was staring right at the action. NO FLAGS. Bell reversed field and scored a TD. That's the kind of ineptitude Dumervil is referring to. In a typical season you'll have big calls that go against you and ones that help you out that you kind of know should have gone the other way. But this season seems to be a statistical anomaly. Then you combine that with the fact that we're not the only ones complaining about it, and even teams with winning records are complaining about it, and you know that it's not just sour grapes. Something has gone terribly wrong.

I'm of the same thinking as you. I just like Schaub for some reason. Obviously the pick sixes suck, but I honestly believe that it's some very strange fluky voodoo-type coincidence. He's not a terrible QB. He's intelligent, has a functional knowledge of the offense, seems situationally aware at all time, and has the same attitude of 'moving on to the next play' as Joe does. I like watching this guy play.

A wise man once said: "Wins and losses come a dime a dozen. But effort? Nobody can judge effort. Effort is between you and you. Effort aint got nothing to do with nobody else. So that team that think they ready to seen you? They think what they seen on film. They ain’t saw what film shows. Because every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment." "So now you got to go out and show them that you a different creature now than I was five minutes ago. Cause I’m pissed off for greatness. Because you ain’t pissed off for greatness, that mean you OK with being mediocre. Aint no man in here OK with bring just space. So let’s do what we do. Tonight, we ain’t gotta worry about taking no breaks.” This man now has a statue at the entrance to our Coliseum.

There seem to be several factors at work. Suggs' loss early on was incredibly difficult on the defense. I think chemistry in the secondary was also a key factor. There may have been some overlap, but generally speaking we lacked Webby early on last season and almost as soon as he returned, we lost Jimmy to his foot. Will Hill was out the first 6 games and got progressively better, but we still lacked a consistent Safety that could compliment Hill and seamlessly switch Free/Strong duties as the calls dictated. Webby and Arrington seemed to struggle outside of nickel duty so we just found a way to use them effectively in nickel positions and blitz packages. Shareece Wright is getting better and more confident each week as well. It seems that with time and some well overdue roster continuity on the back end the communication and trust is improving between these guys. I seriously believe that if our week 9 to 12 secondary played those better teams at the start of the year, even with the absence of Sizzle, we could have won those games.

I was at the game as well and second everything you just said about Ravens Nation. We easily had 1 Ravens fan for every Dolphins fan in that joint. Never once felt outnumbered, not the tailgate, not the seats, not in chanting, nothing. Practically coulda been the Bank. The other thing that I found interesting is that sitting close to the field, the Daniel Brown reception and phantom PI called initially looked to me like PI until I saw the replay that tons of people emailed me a few minutes after the fact. The funny thing is that a few people around me were getting the same thing on their phones. The moral of the story is that if I as a human being with an elevated vantage point on the players can't see quickly enough to tell what is or isn't a penalty, then it isn't hard to imagine a side judge that's backpedalling trying to keep up with some of the fastest human beings alive doesn't stand a chance. What we both relied on is decades of watching football and developing an instinct. Neither I nor the judge saw Brown actually extend his arm, but when you see a ball arriving and two guys jockeying for position and a gaping chasm form between them at the last second of about 3 or 4 yards, the brain ASSUMES someone has committed interference. The NFL has GOT to make these things challengeable. Human beings are too limited to get it accurate 100% and having been through that experience 2 days ago I kinda sympathize with the zebras because I see it now. But that doesn't mean that an entire Franchises chances should be ruined because the League is too backwards to find meaningful ways to incorporate technological advances to call a more accurate game.

First time in almost a decade where I find myself thinking "ugh, why can't it be the offseason already!" I guess all we can do is take consolation in the fact that the remaining 4 are playoff contenders, so we've got some Decembers to ruin. Let's go spoils someone's Holidays!

The weird thing about this rookie class is that this kid is what we thought Darren Waller should be, and Boyle is what we thought Maxx Williams should be. All 4 of these kids are only going to get better.

It's gotten to the point that anything you put in your body that's not food should be cleared by a League Pharmacy and signed-off on. That way they put the onus on the League and not the players to monitor the random junk that's considered banned.

[to quote Terrell Owens] That's our Quarterback, man :'( Seriously tho, G-d speed your recovery Joe!

It's not that the refs are any worse than they've ever been towards us, it's just that we've got too much injury baggage to overcome the refs AND our opponents this season. We're not talented enough this year to win in spite of the refs -- we usually are.

Tucker was missing them beyond fifty going towards that goalpost during the halftime warmups. The people at the game knew it was gonna be a tough kick. He was nailing it in the other direction.