Maryland

The secondary actually wasn't terrible today. Really Jimmy was the one who seemed to struggle most covering Garcon. If our edge rush wasn't so pedestrian, this could be a pretty good defense, I think (despite the #1 ranking, we're just a good, not great defense).

I'm really not looking forward to Wright covering DJax. Going to be quick and easy underneath completions all day, and safety help isn't going to prevent that. At least we can probably count on Jimmy erasing Garcon and Tavon Young holding his own on Crowder.

I actually thought Bortles looked pretty bad vs us. His play was a big reason they lost.

If the Redskins move the ball like they did vs the Giants, then they have a better shot of winning. Cousins seems like a mixed bag at QB, either really hot or pretty cold.

The penalties on the OL are the absolute worst. This offense isn't talented enough to overcome 1st and 20 or 2nd and 15 and expect to get a first down. Really kills the drive, and that's a big reason why we start slow.

What an amazing bust he's been lol. He was supposed to be such a safe, boring pick too. Warmack is kind of a disappointment too from that same first round, both top-10 picks.

I was thinking this myself. Compared to the Chargers and Bears, we're pretty good on injuries. Really the only big season-ending loss we've incurred so far is when Watson went down in preseason (no offense to Maxx or Carl Davis, but we didn't really need them). There's been little injuries here and there, but nothing that derails an entire season like last year.

They need to coach Wright to just get his feet tangled up with the receiver. That way, you can avoid pass-interference without the burden of having to cover, since it's not PI if your feet just got tangled up /w the runner.

Good thing careers aren't based on the first four games alone

So you're saying we're underachieving at 3-1 and should be 4-0

It's funny: at the time of the draft, trading-up for Maxx was viewed as a masterstroke by our FO, since it sniped the Steelers, who desperately wanted Maxx as a successor for Heath Miller. It's not a total failure that we did this, though, since it then caused the Steelers to draft undersized slot-corner Senquez Golson, who is shaping up to be a bust for them. So even if Maxx ends up a disappointment, at least the trade-up caused the Steelers to draft a bust lol.

There are plenty of QBs out there who are good about getting rid of the ball and avoiding sacks. Eli Manning is probably the best one I can think of right now at avoiding sacks by just throwing it away. I think being more cognizant of pressure or more careful about taking sacks could improve Flacco's game.

They should have Hester wear one shoe that is 10 yards long, that way he can have a foot out of bounds to field kicks that are just in front of the endzone for a touchback.

I'm wondering if Doom being active is going to cause Judon to be inactive most weeks now. Judon is probably our best pass-rusher until Doom gets healthy, but activating Judon means you're probably deactivating a special teams contributor.

He has held the ball too long on certain plays where he should have simply thrown it away. He should have sensed the pressure on the strip-sack vs Oakland, and he has taken a couple of sacks that he could have easily avoided (though there was one sack I think he took on purpose vs the Bills (?) to use clock before kicking a FG to end the half).

I find it hard to believe that, when February rolls around and the time comes to reflect on the entirety of our season, we're going to look back to a game played in week 5 against an average Redskins team and say "yep, this game defined our season."

Seems like they don't see Young as being an outside corner though, so it'd have to be Davis wrestling snaps away from him. Young is a pretty good tackler though, I think most would agree with that. I think the only time I saw him whiff a tackle was in the Jags game on a punt return.

I'm honestly shocked our ST is so bad at covering. Harbaugh is a ST guy, we have had the same ST coordinator since forever, and Harbaugh specifically keeps guys on the roster for the sole purpose of playing ST at the expense of cutting better prospects during roster cut-downs. How is this unit so bad? lol. Penalties and missed tackles kill us. Aiken had one of the worst ST coverage games I've ever seen vs OAK with that whiffed tackle and fair-catch interference. Maybe Waller improves this by taking his spot on ST?

I'm starting to notice the criticisms that others raise about Wright, namely that he uses the sideline very well, but seems to struggle once receivers go inside the numbers.

If PFF judges an interception on a 2-pt conversation as being equal in value to an interception during regulation, then it only further proves how gimmicky their stats are. A turnover on a 2-pt conversion doesn't end a drive and give the other team field position, and it only leads to points if the other team returns it. It's a play where, if there's no one open, throwing the ball into a tight crowd and getting picked-off is actually not the worst idea--it's the equivalent of an incompletion as far as the outcome is concerned. Those INTs don't go on the stat sheet for a reason. Nevertheless, that's more a response to PFF's gimmicky grading system and not a critique of their overall point, which is that Flacco had a sub-standard game.

The Ravens defense really did play well until soft coverage gave them the lead just before the 2-min warning. A punt return to the 6 and a fumble at the 30 (coupled with a coaching blunder) led to 14 pretty easy points. Only on their second TD drive did they actually march the whole length of the field against our standard mid-game defense (as opposed to the soft coverage we give when trying to hold a lead with a few min left).

Identity on offense: start slow, pass just a bit too much Identity on defense: bend but don't break (until late in the 4th)

I just assumed you mangled the spelling of his name in the title, but there it is lol

It might depend on if they lose someone of greater importance between now and then, since the earliest he can return is week 9, and you never know who gets injured between now and then. On the other hand, if Weddle or Webb get IR'd for some reason, you can almost guarantee he makes the active roster. I think it's safe to think he wouldn't be any worse than Kendrick Lewis.

Trestman should have had someone chipping on Mack and Irvin. It seemed like poor game-planning to think Hurst would hold-up against either one without help. Ironically, it was Wagner who gave up the sack to Mack, however.