Bat-mite

8 minutes ago, hereweare said:

Last week someone on this board pointed out that it's no coincidence Yanda playing next to Stanley coincides with his raised play... I would like to reiterate... Yanda next to Stanley is huuuuuuge for Stanley!  

And huge for Flacco.  His blind side is getting the protection it needs.

I guess this settles the Stanley vs. Tunsil debate.

I think Castillo's system works when he has the right guys in the right positions, but it took us half the season to figure out what that looks like.

Never heard of "dab" before right now. I guess I miss a lot of pop culture.

For people (like me) who struggle to maintain a grip on the tie-breaking procedures, here is a little breakout of the top six, and where we stand right now.

TO BREAK A TIE WITHIN A DIVISION
If, at the end of the regular season, two or more teams in the same division finish with identical won-lost-tied percentages, the following steps will be taken until a champion is determined.

Two teams
1. Head-to-head (right now we own this over Pitt., but if they beat us 12/25, this goes away).
2. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the division (Ravens own right now, 4-0 to Pitt's 2-1).
3. Best won-lost-tied percentage in common games (right now we're even 5-4 each).
4. Best won-lost-tied percentage in games played within the conference (right now we own, 7-2 vs. 5-3).
5. Strength of victory (right now, Pitt owns by 5 pts.).
6. Strength of schedule (right now, Ravens tied for 19, Pitt tied for 23).

Of course, these are in hierarchical order, and you only move down to the next one if the current one is a tie.  But our having beaten Pittsburgh once, and being perfect so far in the Division are huge.

13 minutes ago, Crusader said:

The most symbolic win in Fox-borrow would be Justine Tucker kicking a long field goal to end the game.

Or, Edelman dropping a pass in the endzone to lose. 

15 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

BTW.... wonder what the experts will say about the Ronnie Stanley / L Tunsil thing after last week. I know it is only one game and I know they don't exactly go head to head but Ronnie has to win round 1

Agreed!  How many penalties did Tunsil get?  It was at least three.

14 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Here I make it simple. How many PRO bowls has Joe been selected too compared to other QB's?

See steelcityraven's longer post above.

13 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

Really happy for both Suggs and Pitta... coming off of what could have been career ending injuries. Keep rolling!

Agreed.  I admit, I never thought Dennis would play again.  And to see how well he is doing is just mind-blowing!  He and Joe really do have something magical.

As for Suggs, he is like a Timex watch.  Nothing keeps him down for long.  I can't imagine what it is like this year, playing with that torn muscle.

14 minutes ago, steelcityraven said:

Who really cares about his "ELITE" status.... I know that we can win with Joe and I know that we can win a super bowl with him bc we have done both under him. With that being said.... I think if he just keeps winning and even adds some more super bowls... The "Elite" debate will take care of itself.

If he can produce another super bowl title -people will start calling him ELITE for sure (he will win some more over)

If he can produce two more super bowls victories in his career... everyone will have to be on board and agree that Joe Flacco was ELITE-

but really... if he is Elite or he is not... the question is this: "Is he a winner" and that is what really matters. I can think of ELITE QBs who could not win a title (Dan Marino, Fran Tarkenton, Jim Kelly, Carson Palmer, etc..).

I can think of avg QBs who have won super bowls (Rich Gannon, Trent Dilfer, Doug Williams, Phil Sims etc.) and even avg QBs who have won multiple super bowls
(Eli Manning) - I really believe that if you ask every owner in the NFL.... they will all gladly trade an ELITE QB for one who wins a couple of super bowls.

The real question is.... can the team be ELITE (or the franchise) be ELITE with the QB at the helm. The answer to that question for the Ravens is yes

We have reached the pinnacle of the sport with Joe and we have no reason to believe that we cannot do it again with him (provided we put the right help in place) Which is what an Elite franchise does.

Is Joe elite? Elite enough for an Elite Franchise like the RAVENS to help him to be a winner. Elite enough to make us an elite franchise and that is what really counts.

Perfect!

Oh, yeah -- and good for Joe for sticking it to Marty. Looks like whatever he said worked.

And Suggs' crawling thing was just ... unpleasant. 

I think we all agree that we need a good run/pass balance, and that Sunday was pass-heavy. HOWEVER -- when the middle of the field is wide open for the entire game, that philosophy goes out the window. The idea behind a string running game is to set up a string passing game. We had the passing without the running, and I don't blame them a bit for sticking with what was working.

We scored 38 points by exploiting the middle of the field. Good work!

Now, that doesn't mean we don't need to get back to a good run game against the Patsies.

We are in a "win, you're in" situation.  If we can manage to keep winning, doesn't matter what anybody else does.  It's a good place to be -- if we can take advantage of it.

Never thought I'd be thinking "playoffs" right after we lost four in a row.

16 minutes ago, objective view said:

Jernigan carries on like that when he barley touches a QB and he is great for piling on after someone else makes the play, at which time he acts like he and only he made the play. Needs to grow up!

So, we criticize Flacco for not showing any emotion, and then we criticize Jernigan for showing too much emotion?  I'd rather see a guy too psyched up than not at all psyched up.

I think if we beat NE, we win out.

If we can pull off a few more Superbowl victories, we'll see more and more fans popping up everywhere. Then we'll have to come up with a song, like "I Was Country when Country Wasn't Cool."

Feel bad for Forsett, but we have definitely improved at running back.

19 minutes ago, budman said:

For real. People getting on Ray for criticizing Flacco but people on here do it all the time. Go figure. The man does have a tad of experience.

It is different when a fan rants on a forum than when a person of the notoriety of Ray Lewis does it in public.  I don't think too many people disagree with what Ray said (some do), but he is not a nameless, faceless fan like we are, frustrated with a mediocre season.  He is a paid professional, and supposedly Joe Flacco's friend.

1 minute ago, fusuymada said:

I am with you with being psyched for this game. Even with our quick start I just didn't seem to have the same fanaticism that I usually show. Comments have been negative and I find myself looking for the bad and not the good. I think I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in several areas. Flacco has never been a warm weather qb. He has always thrived when it gets cold and other teams have trouble throwing into the wind, handling the ball and moving downfield. Never bothered Flacco. Add it that the it is just looking by his movement out of the pocket that he is feeling himself again. That's a good thing. Marty is starting to get a feel for the team, and its clear he has been trying different things to see what works. I know what hasn't been working, timing routes. That was a Trestman leftover where Trestman was trying to get Joe to get the ball out faster with timing routes. Isn't working for whatever reason and time to get Joe back to hitting open receivers. Game after game we just keep getting closer with our offense and I look for us to make this our statement game and go out here and slam Miami. Warm weather team coming into a cold environment, with our run defense, cold weather and wind playing on Tannehill, this is our type of game and the type we have dominated in the past.

I'll buy that!

I am getting stoked for this game!

Sorry to hear about Gronkowski. He's a great player and I hope he heals well. But, of course, I can't help but be thrilled with the improvement of our chances against the Pats.

Justin Tucker is not an alien, but Justin Kicker might be. 

SSS owes Tuck a ride in his Bentley.

34 minutes ago, Minionhunter said:

Umm, I'm all for getting more points from TD, but please enlighten me as to when the Ravens have been known for having a high scoring offensive identity.

I just meant that we ought to focus on improving the offense as opposed to trying to squeeze a few extra points out of long kickoffs.

Hmm, we have a kicker that does what no one else can do, and we want to milk it for a point now and then. Nice idea, but it really isn't football.

Want more points? Tell the offense to play like a Raven!

2 minutes ago, metalraven said:

Why do people keep talking about the Ravens holding and taking the safety? This is not "genius". It's been used many, many times for decades. I've seen this play happen since I was a child. Any coach in his right mind would do this. People are talking like it's something new. It's getting annoying.

I had never seen it before.  Can you site some examples of when it was done in the past?  Be interesting to see how many times.

51 minutes ago, stixfix69 said:

The way some have commented it seems we should just quit now......This is ridiculous we are 6-5 atop our division with 5 games to go....This is what we should want coming down the stretch, we are facing 3 or 4 playoff or potential playoff teams, better to find out now if we are playoff worthy....And the best thing is we are going to face our toughest stretch, when our rookies are rookies no more, and the team getting healthy in certain positions......Embrace the challenge and back our team.....Our do some prefer we be the Browns and to have been out of the playoff hunt 5 weeks ago,,,,ha ha ha....Atleast we have something to play for going into December...

Spoken like a true military man!  What's this quit stuff?