reed20fence

Compare this play and Aqib Talib's pick six from last week side-by-side and ask Blandino why one was let go and one was flagged? I bet you'll get a lot of ummms and ahhhs.

Both are contact beyond five yards but in Talib's case he initiates and cuts off the receiver, in Hill's case the TE runs into him and Hill gets position.

Either way, Oakland was already in FG range to tie the game. That flag doesn't explain the Great Gulf in zone coverage between Arrington and Darryl Smith the following play leading to the TD.

I don't get people bashing Pees for going bend-but-don't-break. When we tried to get cute with our safeties early in the game and play man defense with no top help, both Jimmy and Webby got burnt deep on double move routes. BBDB concedes 5-7 yards to the offense, yes, but it (1) nullifies plays of 20 plus yards (2) keeps the game in front of you (3) allows you to bait young, inexperienced QBs who are prone to make a mistake and (4) have proven to take us deep into the playoffs repeatedly even with mediocre talent.

The problem wasn't BBDB. In fact it's what we had to revert to when we started getting gashed for big plays. The problem was a lack of consistency in applying it.

We got stuck in a dillema near the end of the game. There was too much time left on the clock so if we went BBDB, Carr could simply dink-n-dunk his way into field goal range which is not that much yardage given Janikowski's leg. So instead the decision was made to use weird psycho packages and show blitzes to make Carr nervous and force him to make mistakes. But they started going no huddle to nullify any blitzes.

All this bellyaching about the good ole days of throwing the kitchen sink at QBs... those days are gone. Spread offenses and quick release QBs simply find the zones vacated by blitzers and throw behind blitzes for big gains. No, the teams that succeed invest in pass rushers up front so the front 4 can create pressure and allow 7 guys to blanket coverage. That's today's defensive success formula.

No duh we need to regroup. First order of business, tell the docs to shutup, this is the NFL. Perriman's health will be irrelevant if we keep dropping these games early on, particularly to division rivals. Get him out there.

Secondly, Pees either does bend-but-don't break, or we use blitz packages. This man coverage non sense with one corner that's got two fake knees and one coming off a lisfranc fracture is only gonna result in biting on double moves to compensate for their lost speed.

1. Does anyone REALLY think this team can beat the Bengals?

2. Does anyone REALLY think this team can beat the Steelers after what they did today and will have Bell back?

3. Did we just watch a defense that was a little full of itself after playing bend but don't break against noodle arm Manning and thought they had the talent on the outside to play man coverage?

4. Anyone that discounts Suggs role just needs to know that he usually draws double coverage allowing others to create pressure. Without him it's hat on a hat blocking and we suck.

5. All that said, if we can put toghether an offensive perfomance like today's and get Perriman back, and get our humility and focus back on defense, we can still be an amazing team worthy of being inheritors of the black and purple of Lewis, Reed, Suggs and Ngata.

Quick Hits -- this isn't your thuggish, hittem hard and take no prisoners Ravens team of old. I fear those days may be gone now.

In a way, we Eli Manning-ed this game away. Those two boneheaded incompletions coulda been two kneeldowns for 80 secs off the clock and we still coulda gotten the FGs.

Any chance we can have both sides of the ball show up for a game? What is it next week? Anemic offense and stout defense?

Good news is that both games were entirely winnable right to the last seconds.

Watching KC vs Denver I realized those two (Ware and Miller) are going to be a nightmare for every oline as long as they are healthy. Monroe or no Monroe, that game plan that did not include draws, slants, hurry up, would not have worked anyway. Kubiak was a great in-game play caller. I need to see that from Trestman. Raiders will try the blitzing at home with crowd noise. Ravens must be prepared. I think having Jernigan back is a huge boost. Jernigan, Davis, Williams will dominate the line of scrimmage.

Thank you! People need to rewatch that Denver game and realize just how badly our tackles were getting beat all game long off the snap by Ware and Miller. I felt our tackles sucked and then I watched those two do the same to KCs tackles. That Ware/Miller combo is not kidding around. Both are playing extremely well with incredible burst at the L.O.S.

Ours may have been the first oline to be embarrassed, but it definitely won't be the last.

There's an unfortunate phenomenon people will observe by visiting teams to loud stadiums - that of the right guard looking back to get the queue from the QB and then tapping the center to snap the ball. Unfortunately Misters Ware and Miller are also watching that later in the game and jumping the snaps. It's a personal pet peeve of mine and really annoying. They're basically announcing when the ball is going to be snapped.

How is it that the Pittsburgh Steelers are able to draft Speedy WR's not in the first round year after year and also have quality running backs and the Ravens can't buy either one?

It's that old adage about Belichick being the genius who got Brady as the 199th pick. What people forget is that Belichick, like everyone else, also passed over Brady 5 times before picking him.

So great, the Steelers unknowingly struck it rich with a hard working Antonio Brown for instance. But no one wonders why they passed on him 5 times before drafting him themselves. 

At this point I decided I treat him like he's on the season ending IR - and then the only surprise that can happen is that he comes back and that's gonna be a positive surprise...

I like this way of seeing it. I'm gonna see it this way too.

I think ultimately with a few outlier exceptions like Kindle (which btw, I don't think was his fault that he had that freak accident), Elam and Clayton, with Ozzie you do get what you invest in.

Whenever Perriman's knee does cure, we're still looking at a guy with the frame of an Andre Johnson but the straight-line speed of Chris Johnson. If we stay patient we may find later in the season that he was well worth the 1st round investment.

Just sayin', from what they've put out there, Perriman had some type of sprain or bruise like a month and a half ago. Ok. Dez Bryant broke his foot and was given a 4-6 week return time. Broke. Not sprained or bruised. Broke.

Something to think about.

I don't think anyone minds him being back there when the situation dictates a smart, well aware veteran that can quickly decipher the situation, hang time of the ball, approach of the gunners, and the arc of the ball where it'll land. Someone who's mostly back there to determine when to fair catch and when to let it bounce.

But to ipso facto stick our only reliable, consistent threat in the pass game back there is taking a huge, gynormous gamble.

I guess that's where the dilemma is arising.

You think Suggs getting hurt is bad, just imagine Harbs announcing SSS being done for the year. Despair would be an understatement.

Right, what with all the speedy threats we have in our prolific passing game right now, sure, why not stick SSS out there and watch gunners slam into him with full heads of steam?

Am I the only one terrified of the eventual devastating hit he takes on a return?

Change is the only constant.

That and doubt towards the Ravens.

Those two things will never change

Just a hypothetical here for a sec. Imagine if Darryl Smith catches that near interception and takes it to the house as he surely would have; or imagine if the ball doesn't slip SSS grasp in the endzone or if Gillmore pulls down the last pass. Would we then be sitting here talking about how our defense will surely be top 10 even without Suggs for holding Peyton to nothing, or that January Joe is bringing some winter magic to the fall?

That's how flukey and arbitrary pro football, its media and fan group-think can be sometimes.

We're a solid team even without Suggs, and when we unleash the offense, I guarantee you every opponent trembles and loses sleep.

You mean to tell me that a team that last year was the center of a national scandal, lost its starting RB, lost its starting TE, started the season down one starting CB, and lost the other starting CB the moment the first came back, played the final stretch of 4 games in a hotly contested wildcard without its pro bowl defensive tackle and during significant stretches played without its starting LT and LG all in all placing something like 16 guys on season ending IR... THAT team which bit, scratched and clawed its way into the playoffs and beat Pittsburg IN Pittsburg and was 4 points and shady Brady shennanigans away from the AFC Championship...THAT Ravens team can't survive without Suggs?

Cmon Ray! Either you're giving your guys tough love trying to motivate them to step up, or you're doubting the power of what you started here in Baltimore.

John Abraham is 37 years old, Lord have mercy!

He's so old the Bible refers to him as "that other Abraham."

Anyways, lame jokes aside, I think the bigger team need right now is deep threat speed at the wideout position and KR/PR. We need to trust Upshaw and crew to hold down the fort for now and use Suggs' vacated spot on offense.

I'll be honest I kinda rolled my eyes when some guys threw out Cordarell Patterson' s name a week ago, but watching the Vikes tonight, they're struggling on O and special teams and still, Patterson is nowhere to be seen. (I mean I can't even spot the guy on the sideline). He may be a young guy locked in a cheap rookie contract, but clearly they don't value his talents right now. Zimmer is a big "doghouse" guy so it may be the right time to strike a deal for a 4th and/or 5th. Yeah he sucks on the route tree but maybe a change of scenery will be healthy for all sides?

Edit: ofcourse 2 mins after posting that, guess who's on KR duty?

Mark my words, that anemic showing was due to an AFC North Cameron-esque gameplan drawn up to keep the ball away from Manning. Little did we know he'd suck that bad.

So I'm guessing you missed the play where Joe decided he was gonna play catch with Aqib Talib...

Honestly I don't know why we aren't making a fuss about this but being in the stadium watching from the cheap seats, we all thought Talib could easily have been called for either PI or holding on the play. It was an 8 yard in or slant and right up until Joe released the ball Talib was jamming Smith preventing him from breaking his route. Until I heard Smith and Joe talk about it non-chalantly after the game, I thought Joe may have simply thrown it to the spot where SSS was supposed to be simply to get an easy flag cuz he saw the holding.

You go and rewatch that play develop and sure enough, the reason Talib is able to jump the route is cuz he's holding SSS from breaking.

Honestly it fealt like the olden days of Cam Cameron where the central driving force of our scheme is one thing... fear.

We played the percentages like a textbook all game and telegraped our intentions to the defense all game long.

1st down, run the ball and hope to get 7-9 yards so we can take a shot deep.

2nd down, oh that didnt work, let's run again for fear that we miss a pass and get stuck in 3rd and 6

3rd down, ok we got 3rd and 4, let's go shotgun and all routes break within 5-7 yards.

The reason most Ravens fans recognize this psychology so well and are so aggitated by it is because we've seen it before. Playing it safe and by the probabilities all the time just makes it that much easier for rival defensive coordinators.

Sometimes you hafta go out there and coach like a banshee by throwing deep on early downs to throw people off the scent and freak rival safeties out.

Sure, it may not work and you may not connect or draw interference flags, and may go 3 and out the first couple of drives, but stretching like that pays dividends the rest of the game.

You gotta fight that voice in your head that says "but there's only 60 minutes" and doesn't trust your defense to keep you in the game.

Have some spine!

When you lose a potential Hall of Famer in the first game in which you only put up 38 yards of offense in the 1st half, it's hard to find positives, but here is my shot at it:

1) our two safeties are really good. Pees had this scheme where either Hill or Lewis would line up in the box and try to sync their drop back into coverage with Peytons snaps. It worked, but they started moving too soon giving Peyton time to audible runs into the gaps vacated by the safety. The more Lewis gels back there the better this already tough defense will get.

2) It's good to find out right out of the gate that with no deep stretching element like Torrey forcing rival safeties out of the box and helping our run game, you're gonna have flat offense. Even if we get Perriman back, it may be worth getting another 9 route runner.

3) Hopefully in 2015 Upshaw is to Suggs what Jimmy was to Webby in 2012. The door of opportunity just blew wide open in a contract year, time for the big man to walk through. Same can be said of Za'darius. Doom isn't an edge setting container so we need 2 guys.

4) Putting Gilmore, with his massive frame, into these critical clutch situations early this year can only be a good thing. Let him get comfertable being that blanket for Joe on 3rd down and late in close games.

5) Ravens fans, after years of watching clutch games and pushing through devestating injuries and witnessing the perseverence of this team under Harbaugh have wisened up. At this stage we've been through so much that most of us aren't panicking about Suggs' loss, and are still looking forward to a lot of good football.

People ask how we'll ever get justice against Bellichick and his nefarious, dark, evil ways. I say the rate at which the media keeps pounding them for their shadiness and the fact that some 19 franchises have filed complaints against them over the last decade for spying, faulty communications equipment, mysteriously time-sensative failure of communications eqiupment at Gillete, having to lockdown their visitor lockerrooms, employing multiple sideline signal callers, deploying fake play scripts, combing hotels during departure for plays or playbooks and now illegal formations and deflated balls... karma is itching to strike.

Bellichick may well get blackballed by the Hall of Fame voters for his legacy of being an absolute nuisance to the League office, the Competition Committee, Rules Committee, and rest of the league.

The Cleveland delegation has blackballed Modell unjustly from induction for years, I say they use their votes for good and bar Belichick for life. If the last 2 days of articles are any indication, writers from St. Louis, Philly, Carolina, Baltimore, Indy, Pittsburg, New York etc could be onboard for a lifetime ban.

We hate them both and a tie is unlikely. So there really isn't room for our degree of hate to be the deciding factor. All that matters is which scenario makes our road to the playoffs easier. So with that in mind, we don't root, but calculate that the Patriots winning would be best.

And I'm not comfortable rooting for any of these guys to get injured. If we learned anything from destroying Pittsburg in their house and ruining Polamlu and Lebeau's retirement party last year, it's that rival fans will find any way to weasel an excuse (Laveon) out of a loss.

It's more refreshing that they're bucking the trend. Don't get me wrong, giving undrafted guys a shot and developing them into contributors is a major sign of front office competence. But not doing so one year shows that we don't let our collective ego or desire to maintain a reputation as a wise club get in the way of building the best team possible.

reed20fence, on 06 Sept 2015 - 8:45 AM, said:

Texans cut Charles James at the last second to get to 53 and probably give as little time as possible for teams to consider him before bringing him back to the PS.

We've grown accustomed due to Jacoby to see the KR/PR role as a WR, but this guy is a servicable CB, a shifty and speedy RB, and a really good gunner on kick coverage.

May be worth a shot.

Ah, it's well established that 'crusader' is a steelers troll. Only way to weed them out is to starve them of the attention they came here looking for. Dont even bother negging, just ignore him/her.