RavensBaltimore

Why don't the Raven just get rid of Jimi Smith. He is always hurt and not a good cornerback anyway. All of the Anylist admits that he is just a so so cornerback and really should not be 1st string! I totally agree!

There literally is not a single professional analyst who thinks Jimmy shouldn't be 1st string. He is by far our top corner, and there is a major drop off without him. Did you read the LWF article today? Our defense ranks #1 in the NFL when he's on the field, and #27 without him. Our pass defense is dead last without him.

If SSS is right, and if Flacco is missing passes, checking down too early, too lackadaisical, then what do we do? Flacco's not going anywhere. How do we get him to produce?

Monday night, when Brady chewed out Edelman, I wondered what Flacco would have done in the same situation with Pitta. They would have gone over to the sideline and laughed about it.

I feel bad for Smith. He wants to go out with a bang, and this team is not giving him that.

Smith has said in the past, without being asked about it, that he prefers "calm", and that he loves playing with a qb with Joe's demeanor. He referenced a play in his first game here, where he dropped a pass, and came back to the huddle expecting to get chewed out, and Flacco simply called the next play. He also mentioned a time in his first training camp where he was yelling at Joe for not getting the ball, and Flacco simply responded, "get your depth." He raved about Flacco's leadership style and calm confidence, and again, he wasn't asked about it. He completely brought that up on his own.

Sometimes an emotional outburst is just that - an emotional outburst. It doesn't mean Steve Smith has any issues with Flacco.

The importance of running the ball more has been mentioned all along - nothiong's happened. The importance of cutting down on penalties was made clear - nothing's happened. The need to speed up the O's game has been made clear time and again - nothing's happened.

At this point it seems painfully obvious that the Dolphins game was an aberration, and much more the product pf the Dolphion's impotent game than our success - every other game we saw a dishearteningly inefficient O apparently unable to make any improvements as the season's been developing.

The question is kinda automatic: what are we hoping for? What hasn't worked for 12 out of 13 games will suddenly and miraculously start working in game #14? That all the obvious mistakes the offense's coaching has been doing all along, will suddenly disappear? That Joe Flacco will, after well more than a year, suddenly have a sensible game against a good opponent - like he used to in ye olden days, when he apparently still cared about winning? That the O which seems to be unable to mut up more than 16-18 points on any, slightly decent D will somehow figure out how to score more, 3 months into the season?

I say winning 1 out of the remaining game should be regarded as the normal expectation. anything more is a plus, losing out would be less surprising than winning out.
But hey, it's the NFL, every week is a new story. So, we'll see...

I don't think the Dolphins game was an aberration. You're overlooking a lot of factors. Since the bye, our line has been better and healthier, SSS is healthier, Perriman is starting to develop into a weapon, and Dixon is making plays. On Monday, we just got outschemed and failed to make adjustments. The offense hasn't scored consistently, but they have been moving the ball much more consistently. We have had very few 3-and-outs recently, which is a major improvement from the beginning of the season. With a healthier, more aggressive offense, I think the offense is capable of playing well against anyone. The biggest question is if our coaches can make adjustments faster than they did in NE. Remember, the Dolphins game was the first one where it looked like our offense had an identity, so the coaching staff is still getting used to the adjustments other teams are going to make against us, and the pats are the best in the league at scheming for teams.

  3 hours ago, RavensBaltimore said:

You're arguing semantics. The fact is that, almost every year, including this year, we beat the Steelers and lose to a sub .500 team the week before or after. Some of those wins against pits were on the road. You're acting like where the game is played is the end all, be all. It isn't. The Jets are a horrible team no matter where you play them. And the 2012 example is legit despite there being 4 weeks between games, because we have often seen a drastic difference from one week to the next with this team. The specific details you picked out don't change the overall point that this team can look horrible one week and great the next, and vice versa, and the same is true for Pitts.

I'm not acting like anything. I'm saying, with almost undeniable factual evidence, that the location of the game is an absolute gigantic factor into whether we have a realistic chance to win. The home/road splits in the Harbaugh era lean drastically in one direction. If it was semantics that the location of the game doesn't matter, then said home/road split differential wouldn't exist, because there isn't a particular lean in the direction of quality of opponents in home vs road games... that's relatively flat over time.

And for the record, when you say "The fact is that, almost every year, including this year, we beat the Steelers and lose to a sub .500 team the week before or after", you clearly didn't bother to fact check this, because its not accurate even a little bit. 

It happened this year and last year, and there's obviously some added context to both of those situations.

This year, we beat Pittsburgh at home. That was coming off a bye week, and we dominated Cleveland the following week. We lost to the Jets on the road two weeks prior (which I'm sure you will somehow attempt to argue is semantics, though its clearly not, since it again fits the mold of exactly what I've been saying). 

In 2015, we beat Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, sandwiched between home losses to the Bengals and Browns. That's great, except for the added context that it was an OT win against a Pittsburgh team led by Michael Vick, which is kind of a big difference. When we beat them at home later in the year, it was sandwiched between losses to two playoff teams.

What you said happens "almost every year"  didn't happen in 2014, 2013, 2012 or 2011... and then I stopped looking for obvious reasons.

This team hasn't been the kind of team that plays bad at home and then plays well on the road week-to-week. That's the major difference here. One of the key reasons why a team like Baltimore or Pittsburgh looks different week-to-week is a ton based on whether they are playing at home or on the road. Pittsburgh is an unbelievably different team at home than on the road, and frankly, so are the Ravens.

Since 2011, our record against the Steelers at home and on the road is about the same. If we can dominate them at home(it was 21-0 before we played prevent defense) after losing to the Jets, regardless of where it was, it's not "unrealistic" to think we could lose to phi and beat Pitts at their place, where we have won our last 2, and most of our losses have been extremely close.

I never said Home/Road games don't matter. I said they aren't the end all/be all. And yes, you are arguing semantics. Overall, we are a better home team than road team, but most of the games against Pitts and Cin have been so close that we had a REALISTIC chance to win or lose the vast majority of them, home or road, no matter how well or poorly we played the week before. You can look that up, and you'll see that it's true.

  1 hour ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well I mean its definitely not ALL on Joe. I mean you've got film of receivers not gaining any separation whatsoever and not making any effort to make a play on the ball on numerous occasions. Those issues aren't a QB issue.

He's probably the primary reason at this point, but he's certainly not alone.

In the NFL there's no such thing as separation, only separation you get is from a busted coverage. How many times Thursday night did you see Brady throw the ball with the corner or safety all over them? The touchdown pass when he zipped between 2 defenders come to mind, with about 20 more passes along with that. You throw your WR open, it's the NFL not college. 

Brady completed a lot more passes to open receivers than he did to well covered ones. The 2 biggest plays, the 79 yd TD, and the 61 yard catch and run, where they had a RB one on one with Mosely, were easy throws to WIDE OPEN receivers. The pats use their scheme to get receivers wide open all the time. There's a reason their backups are so successful when Brady goes down. Their receivers get consistent separation.

  30 minutes ago, RavensBaltimore said:

In regards to your first paragraph, that's not how it works. We lost to the Jets, and we beat the Steelers in our very next game. In years past, we have beaten a very good Steelers team, then lost to a sub .500 team the next week. In 2012, we got blown out by Den at home, in Dec, and we beat them at their place in Jan. So, if we lost to phi, that doesn't mean we can't turn around and beat pits the next week. I think it's a moot point though, because i think we'll beat the Eagles.

You just described losing a ROAD game to a bad team and then winning a HOME game against a good team the next week.

In this case, we would be losing a HOME game to a bad team and then winning a ROAD game against a good team.

2012 isn't a very good example of this, because there's like 4-5 weeks between those two games. We don't have 4-5 weeks to right the ship from a home loss to an inferior team... we have 7 days.

I looked back a few years and don't really see any instances where we lost a home game to a team viewed as inferior, and then subsequently went on to beat a better road team the next week. 

You're arguing semantics. The fact is that, almost every year, including this year, we beat the Steelers and lose to a sub .500 team the week before or after. Some of those wins against pits were on the road. You're acting like where the game is played is the end all, be all. It isn't. The Jets are a horrible team no matter where you play them. And the 2012 example is legit despite there being 4 weeks between games, because we have often seen a drastic difference from one week to the next with this team. The specific details you picked out don't change the overall point that this team can look horrible one week and great the next, and vice versa, and the same is true for Pitts.

  2 hours ago, VermontRaven said:

Mostly true, but not completely.  If the Bengals beat the Steelers and we lose to the Eagles, we could still win the division by beating Pitt and Cincy. 

I guess what I'm saying is that I get the narrative from a media standpoint, but it still makes me nervous as a fan when the next game for the Ravens is almost completely overlooked.

I mean technically yes. The issue is that if you can't beat Philly at home, there's really no rational reason to think you're going to beat Pittsburgh and Cincinnati on the road. 

I'm not saying we will technically be eliminated from playoff contention, because I don't believe we can be eliminated even if we lose and Pittsburgh wins. Its more of a "realistic elimination" in the form of we're not a good enough team to do what we need to do to make up the ground.

In regards to your first paragraph, that's not how it works. We lost to the Jets, and we beat the Steelers in our very next game. In years past, we have beaten a very good Steelers team, then lost to a sub .500 team the next week. In 2012, we got blown out by Den at home, in Dec, and we beat them at their place in Jan. So, if we lost to phi, that doesn't mean we can't turn around and beat pits the next week. I think it's a moot point though, because i think we'll beat the Eagles.

So, all we have to do is win our last 3 games! No sweat because we're capable of winning them all according to JH! I wonder if they'll let us into the playoffs on "Potential"? Oh well, maybe we'll still get a trophy for participation :-)

Are you aware that our only 2 losses since the bye were to the top 2 teams in the league, on the road, by 10 and 7 points? A couple of our wins since then were against 8-5 teams. Yet you act like it's so irrational to think this team is capable of beating the Eagles, Steelers, and Bengals. Fans are seriously overreacting to a loss.

  4 hours ago, eze17 said:

  5 hours ago, Crusader said:

Great, Joe can show internationally how bad he is and his "CHECK DOWN" offense. At least England can have a good laugh.

Wow...pretty harsh about someone who won a Superbowl.

That was Then, This is Now. Joe looks like he could give a crap when he plays now. Besides so did Trent and what happen to him?

Fans were saying the same things then. In December of 2012, fans were bashing Flacco, saying he's terrible, should be benched, can't win a SB, etc. I bet you were one of them.

  4 hours ago, eze17 said:

  5 hours ago, Crusader said:

Great, Joe can show internationally how bad he is and his "CHECK DOWN" offense. At least England can have a good laugh.

Wow...pretty harsh about someone who won a Superbowl.

he was elite for 4 games and that was 4 years ago. since the big $$ he has been a tad better than kyle boller and with that money you need to carry a team on your back like brady and the other top dogs do. i still believe we should see what we can get for him in a trade and free ourselves from that contract. brady showed fire and passion last night and the team responded. joe and the offense play with no fire or passion until it is too late.

Flacco didn't get his contract because he was elite for 4 games. He was offered a big contract before that SB run, and he was once again the best qb in the postseason in 2014, and he would have been in consecutive SBs if Lee Evans would have held on to a perfect pass. Flacco has been elite the whole time. You can give Brady credit for carrying a team on his back, but his team wins without him. They went 11-5 without him and had one of the best offense's in the league in 2008, and they were 3-1 without him this year. The Ravens were 5-11 in their last full season without Flacco, and last yer, we were 2-4, and we averaged just over 12 points/game without Joe, which was easily dead last in the league.
Flacco does carry the offense. We have no run game, wrs who struggle to get separation and drop too many passes, horrible pass protection, and an OC who doesn't make adjustments very well. Without Flacco, we would struggle to win any games, even with a great defense. Before Joe got here, Baltimore was a place where a qb's career came to die. We hadn't won a playoff game in 7 years. Flacco and the team as a whole have had a ton of success since then. Saying he was elite for 4 games is nonsense.

I see a lot of criticism of Flacco for his cadence and the snap count. A few years ago, he was one of the best in the league with this cadence and snap count. He drew the defense offsides A LOT. Lately, we have a lot of inexperienced players, rook linemen, and a total lack of chemistry on the offensive side of the ball due to a revolving door of talent and coaching staff. It is a built-in feature of the system that his snap count and cadence are simplified and routine right now. The complexity of adding nuance in that area requires team chemistry and a disciplined team of players with experience. We don't have that. Therefore we don't have the luxury of acting like we have it. We are already one of the worst teams in the league in pre-snap penalties and offensive holding and that's WITHOUT the complexity of a nuanced snap count/cadence and with pre-snap adjustments at the line. The fact is, the offense and Flacco are absolutely handcuffed and handicapped by the lack of investment, depth, and coaching on the offensive side of the football. We don't have experienced players on the line, we don't have disciplined players, we don't have chemistry because of all the turnover, and I'm convinced we don't have quality and consistent coaching to make up for any of these deficiencies and get these guys ready to play. The offensive side of the football is a shambles. Flacco is one of the few bright spots.

But it's so much easier to just blame the qb.

  54 minutes ago, TheConquerorWorm said:

  1 hour ago, fusuymada said:

1 coaching
a. Penalties, 8 years now we have been told its on the coach. We continue to implode when driving with stupid penalties. How long, how long?
b. urgency, for 8 years we have been saying that someone needs to light a fire under Flacco, he needs to show he is in a hurry,
c. Field smarts, for 8 years we have said that Flacco is not a field manager. He barely has a hand full of plays he can check to, he can't even see the front line fill the hole he is getting ready to give the back the ball to run into. he cant even step back and call a timeout when in doubt
d. run-pass efficiency for 8 years we have been saying that for Flacco to be successful that there has to be some sort of equality in runs and passes, yet here we go again with a Flacco throwfest that just wants to make us throw up.

I am stopping here because I think you get the picture. Flacco has many imperfections but if nobody is going to tell him to fix it, he is the proverbial lazy boy who leaves his socks in the middle of the floor until mommy tells him to pick them up. For 8 years we have been waiting for someone to tell Flacco to pick up his socks along.

Same with everything else that just keeps occurring. Someone needs to coach and it looks like the inmates are running the asylum.

And for 6 of those 8 years, you watched Flacco lead the Ravens in the play-offs including winning a SB.

SMH....Some people are just miserable pessimists

... and others still see the playoff Flacco of years ago when he utterly obviously isn't the same player now...

Do you think that's closer to reality?

I don't. Flacco looks the same to me. Neither his arm strength nor his accuracy have diminished. People like to bash the qb when the offense struggles, but the reality is that the there are too many drops and penalties, no run game, and we have never had an OC that makes good adjustments. Despite that, we still have a chance to make the playoffs. Our only 2 losses in the last 6 games have been to the 2 best teams in the league, on the road, by 10 and 7 points.

  10 hours ago, RavensBaltimore said:

The interception literally went right through Wallace's arms. Wallace also had another deep pass go through his arms and bounce off his chest. We had way too many check downs in this game, but when we did throw it down the field, plays were there to be made. We just had too many drops. I think we should throw deep to Wallace less and Perriman more. Perriman goes up and gets the ball with his hands. Wallace does not.

Is it possible they're throwing to Perriman less to avoid having to pay him?   Giving Osemele the opportunity to thrive last year proved to be a major loss for us. 

No, it isn't. Perriman is not in a contract year. If you try to limit your players' production to avoid paying them, you're not going to have any good players.

  40 minutes ago, Raveforlife19 said:

  1 hour ago, krnraven said:

Lethargic Joe Succo. How many 1 yard passes are you going to attempt? It is really sad that the entire staff could not make adjustments to deal with 3 and 4 man rushes with zone behind it. Outclassed badly.

Where is the Flacco meter at today? Garbage.

I totally get your frustration and feel it too but that has everything to do with receivers not gaining separation, and not Flacco sucking... It's QB 101 -- if no one is open down field and the pass rush is in your face, hit the check down, scramble, or throw away. The problem is you cant get a first down with three check down passes in a row -_- and that's on the OC because it's an offensive design flaw or it's on the WR coach b/c the receivers are not running routes well. Also, here was Flacco's stat line, given there was no run game and the Pats were dropping 6-8 guys into coverage, he actually did pretty well. 37/52 (71%), 324 yds, 2TD, 1INT (laziness by Wallace and questionable no PI call), 92.1 QBR.

Oh Joe was sucking despite what the misleading stat line says. Had it not been for the gifted TOs he would not have had the 2 tds. Offense could not stay on the field for more than 4 minutes.

There were receivers open on some plays. Plus with a zone you can hang in the pocket and wait for the soft spots. Remember Mattison???? Joe is too anxious and is hurting us.
There was no running game because coach hardhead neglects to run. And have you seen a two minute offense from Joe? It's like watching grass grow. My frustration is that the same problems occur and that we are not getting better even 14 weeks later.

Pats have less skilled players than we do yet they contend every year due to exceptional coaching.

You say the statline is misleading because of the TOs, but you completely ignore the fact that the int was a pass that should have been caught for a 1st down in NE territory, and Wallace dropped another deep pass after that. Had the receivers not dropped so many passes, we would have had scoring opportunities without those TOs, and Joe wouldn't have had any ints. I agree we had too many dump off passes, but that's better than forcing it into coverage when no one is open, and when Joe did throw down field, he was accurate.

Also, NE has a good redzone D, so converting those TOs into TDs shouldn't be taken for granted. The offense was given great field position, but nobody let them in the end zone.

When we convert our turnovers into TDs, we were given a "gift" that we didn't earn. When the Patriots turn a blown coverage into an easy, uncontested TD, with a guy running down the middle of the field without anyone near him, then Brady is "carving up the league's best defense."

The Patriots helped us out with mistakes, but we gave them a lot of help as well. Hester killed our offense multiple times by not fielding a punt, which resulted in a safety. The int went right through Wallace's arms, and we had several uncontested drops. We had a bunch of pre-snap penalties.

The interception literally went right through Wallace's arms. Wallace also had another deep pass go through his arms and bounce off his chest. We had way too many check downs in this game, but when we did throw it down the field, plays were there to be made. We just had too many drops. I think we should throw deep to Wallace less and Perriman more. Perriman goes up and gets the ball with his hands. Wallace does not.

I'm very skeptical of Harbaugh's claim that Hogan wasn't Elam's responsibility in coverage. Elam was lined up directly across from him. What else would his responsibility have been on that play if he wasn't supposed to cover Hogan?

The way things are going it looks like we could be in for a Steelers Vs Ravens round 3 this year in the wildcard round.

That looks like the most likely scenario. Hopefully we can get them at our place in the postseason for once.

My view is that ALL of this means absolutely NOTHING if the Ravens don't take care of their "own business" against the Patriots tomorrow night in primetime. Beating them...furthers their cause....PERIOD!! Get out there and make it happen boys!

GO RAVENS!!!

The opposite is true. All this means absolutely nothing if the Ravens DO take care of their own business. The only way any of this will matter is if the Ravens don't take care of their own business.

  2 hours ago, hen826957 said:

Man, l'm now worried about winning the division now. Pittsburgh on Christmas; we gonna have to win that. I don't want the Ravens to play as a wild card because that would be more difficult to go the Super Bowl. 

A wildcard seems unlikely since the Ravens are still 2/3 games behind the 3 AFC West teams. Gotta beat Pittsburgh or they're done. Unless Rex makes something happen today. 

The Ravens are only 1 game behind Denver, who's final 3 games are against teams that are all 9-3 or better, so while I'd strongly prefer to win the division, we'd have a great chance to get a wild card spot if we lose to Pitts and go 10-6, and possibly even 9-7.

As many accolades as he's received, I still think Suggs is underrated. Not many pass rushers get to 100 sacks. Sizzle not only did that, but he is great at stopping the run as well. Plus, we've seen him jump into passing lanes and make plays. Look at how much the entire defense drops off when Suggs isn't on the field(last year), or when he didn't have his explosiveness in 2012.

Every game matters at this point. I'm sure the Ravens want the Pats very much. One game at a time. If we can come out like against the Fins we won't have a problem. My concern is the weather. Will be have to rely on the run game? Will our RBs be good enough? Guess we'll find out. Go Ravens!

I think a wet field can actually favor the pass game. It's easier for a receiver to keep his footing because he knows where he's going. A defender doesn't know the route and has to quickly react, which makes him more likely to slip. Plus, Joe has the arm to zip passes through any weather conditions.

I don't think we'll have to rely on the run, but if we did, I have no doubt that our RBs are good enough. They have both showed good burst and power. It's the run blocking that I'd be concerned with. The O-line has shown recently that they can pass protect for an entire game, at least when we speed up the tempo and get rid of the ball quickly, but they haven't been able to consistently open up holes in the run game all year.

In the postseason matchups, Joe has 9 TDs and 3 ints, and Brady has 6 TDs and 8 ints.

  On 12/4/2016 at 2:53 PM, RavensBaltimore said:

  On 12/4/2016 at 2:07 PM, BigUgly said:

Wow! Joe's footwork was good, getting rid of the ball quickly, and amazingly taking advantage of the middle of the field. Would like to have seen more of a commitment to the run, but you obviously can't argue with the results! A great statement win in December. Let's keep the momentum rolling all the way to the playoffs!

Amazing. Even when we score 38, Ravens fans still want to run the ball more. Other then a few drives, running the ball has been holding this offense back and killing drives all year. I said before the game that we need to stop trying to run the ball and put Flacco in a hurry up offense out of the shotgun, and I was obviously right. During the game, the announcer said our offense was among the league's best in the last 2 mins of halves this year. I wonder why? Now that the pass protection has improved and the receivers are healthy, the offense could be very good if they continue being aggressive and avoid getting conservative.

Are you serious? Running the ball would keep Brady on the bench and wear down their defense. Whats killing the offense is bad blocking and penalties. Nobody in their right mind wants to get in a shoot out with Brady the best QB this generation has seen.

Did you watch the last game we won in NE? We tried running on every 1st down in the first half, and we were down 13-7 at halftime. In the 2nd half, we stopped running, put the game in Joe's hands, and we blew them out. We got into a shootout with Brady and dominated.

Also, we have not kept other QBs on the bench by running the ball. Running the ball has kept OUR offense on the bench. Passing it has kept us on the field recently.

  12 hours ago, ibleedpurpleandblack said:

Castillo didn't implement his own system and it's the same guys we've had all season.  This is the 2nd or 3rd week behind this particular group at offensive line which gives it a little bit more continuity which should only get better with more time.  It's called EXECUTION - the Offensive Line blocked, which allowed Flacco time in the pocket to find the open receiver, the open receiver caught the ball and made a gain. 

Like I said before, defenses know our tendencies and that's why Miami left the middle of the field open - Since day one Flacco has ALWAYS thrown the out route at the 10-15-20 yard marks and Miami was playing outside-in coverage, meaning they were not going to let Joe throw that pass.  Defenses also know that with Wallace and Perriman that we just throw it deep and hope they come down with it.  Instead, like I've been saying, we needed to use more of our receivers on the intermediate routes and let them make a play - which is exactly what they did against Miami.  This game has and will give opposing defenses problems in the future because now they know Flacco can and will attack all areas of the field - IF GIVEN THE TIME BY THE OFFENSIVE LINE

What I don't understand is... why did Miami not adjust!? Curious to see what BB does this week, can't imagine he will just allow the middle of the field to get gashed like that. Why not force Wallace and Perriman to make the downfield sideline catches, no?? challenge them that way rather than running free across the field

I think the first half against Miami was similar to the second half of the 2012 AFC Championship game. After Flacco had completed 3 deep TD passes down the sideline in Den, NE had their safeties playing back and Flacco carved them up with intermediate passes to Boldin and Pitta.

As far as not making adjustments, in both scenarios, we scored 3 quick TDs, so by the time they started thinking about adjustments, we were already way ahead. Just my guess.