RRRRRavens

Back in the early 1970's I was an avid Redskins fan before I moved to Baltimore from Washington. I vividly recall the Sonny Jorgenson / Billy Kilmer battle for who the Redskins QB was going to be each week. Are there any posters on this site that recall that? The reason I mention this is that this situation with Joe and Ryan could develop into the same sort of same-team rivalry. The two Redskins QBs were always gentlemen about it, just as Joe and Ryan are being now but still the rivalry between the Sonny and Billy fans was intense. Who else remembers this?

As long as the O-line (or, in the Ravens' case, the five guys who line up where the O-line has to) doesn't give our QB enough time for deep bombs, Mallett is about just as serviceable as Flacco. He can toss checkdowns and mid-range passes too - and he's less rattled than Flacco at the moment.

And, before anyone gets it wrong: it's not about Flacco... it's about our "O-line". With the one we currently have we could have Time Tebow under center and still be at 3-2.

Mallett has a quicker release than Joe does as shown in last year's two games he played in.

You say you get upset (@Respect the raven), is there a reason? The fact that you don't voice it on the forum doesn't make you more of a fan.
This isn't a Purple kool-aid only forum, its a fan forum and everyone has an opinion and is allowed to voice it. If they're on here making statements, they're most likely a fan, otherwise, they probably wouldn't bother. I'm a fan and have been since the Colts played here and have thousands of dollars of memorabilia on my Purple and gold wall with a 15' ravens logo I painted myself. I've worked concessions at both stadiums, go to many of the fund raisers and I've also mowed a 50' "Go Ravens" in my back yard from training camp till first frost for the last 10 years. I also own about a dozen jerseys. If people are upset, that's their right to mention how they see it. More times than not, the masses predict future moves on this team anyway so "Fans" of all types have valid points too, even if they don't agree with you. Stick to statements about the team. "Constructive criticism is fine....but the downright fan bashing doesn't sit well with me!!"
Saying so doesn't make you "More of a fan" than the rest of us.

I think "respect . . ." was referring to the constant bashers, not the average fan airing his occasional gripes.

  8 hours ago, crazyboutravens said:

Another mysterious injury that is no problem. I guess that means Joe won't play for lord knows how long. Harbs put the whole team on IR and start fresh.

It's a shoulder injury. Get over it and move on please.

Yeah, but it's his passing shoulder.

  9 hours ago, iluvpurple said:

Get better a.s.a.p. Joe, I guess I am the only fan still rooting for you every Sunday ??

I'm with you! Love my team....no matter what!!  Do I get upset sometimes?? Sure I do, but the Ravens are MY home town team. I would never throw any of the team under the bus, like some so called fans do. Boggles my brain!!!  Constructive criticism is fine....but the downright bashing doesn't sit well with me!! I will now just them!!!!

Fine advice, "respect...". I've been doing that for a while now. Some posters (and you know who you are) have nothing positive to say about the players, coaches, front office, etc. When I see their name attached to a post I just pass on by without reading what I know is going to be a waste of my time. My motto = ignore the ignorant.

Beginning to sound like another rebuilding year. If that's the case then don't be so eager to win games. Remember, the fewer the wins the better the draft number we get next year. Sorry to be so cynical, gang, but it is starting to look dismal.

I hate to say it but it's starting to look like our OL is in real trouble.

BTW, do we know which coach's idea it was to call that absolutely, insanely meaningless play with 00:01 in the second quarter to try one more play at our 25 yard line instead of taking a knee, that yielded absolutely nothing (of course...), but got Rick Wagner injured?

Sometimes it seems the play calling just makes no sense as in this example.

  8 hours ago, eze17 said:

  10 hours ago, Shaky End of the Quarter said:

The manner in which we achieved the 3-0 start and taking into consideration the quality opposition we faced and even more so now that we lost back to back home games against garbage teams means the Ravens need to prepare 100% for 2017. 3-2 means nothing at this point. We could easily be 0-5. At the beginning of the season I predicted 7-9 and after the 3-0 start I bulged on my prediction and bumped them up to 8-8. Now 6-10 is the most likely scenario. Even if we would have started 5-0, I still had doubts this team was gonna win more than 8 games. What scares me the most is that this team is relatively healthy in comparison to the past 2 seasons. Wait till the injury bug hits and we are forced to play our dreadful backups. We are already getting a taste of it with the OL patch work, wait till the secondary gets decimated. We will become the All Pro Factory of the NFL once again.

wow, not giving our defense any credit are you? Seems like they can keep us pretty much in any game, and if the offense can somehow get going, we will still be a better than average team. Look around the league, I really don't see any team out there who is really scary-dominant, I see a whole lot of teams floating along at basically .500. Yeah, you can claim Vikes, Pats, Squealers...none of them seem unbeatable from where i'm standing. Good, but not crushingly great like you usually see a few teams by this time of year.

Sounds like you had absolutely no faith in this team before the season even began. I don't see what indication that the Raven's would end up with a losing record, other than pure spite and/or mis-judging the talent level the Raven's possess. Which we do have some very talented players, they simply need to play better than they have so far this season. 6-10? Really? There's plenty to be optimistic about this team, thankfully most Raven's fan's have a more positive opinion and base said opinion in reality and not on doom and gloom fantasies. Haters gonna hate.

To be sincere I didnt have high hopes for the team before the season began like you very well said. I am not hating, I am being realistic. Ever since the SB victory and the departure of the "true leaders" the team hasn't shown much besides that 1 run with Kubes. I understand that injuries have plagued the team as of late but like you said they plague every team and with the so called "talent" we supposedly have we have not achieved much as of late. I am not sure if its the "talent's" fault, the coaching or what not.

I personally have never been a fan of Pees, I was very very excited when we hired Trestman. I thought he was the best we could get after loosing Kubes. How wrong was I. I always supported Harbs blindly because he was a good man, he knew how to keep his guys in order, make them fight until the end even if the season was out of hand and all that.... but he has been making too many boneheaded calls lately. I will never get over the fake FG in the SB even though we won the game. And this doesn't have to do with the horrendous fake FG against WAS, it has been going on for way too long, clock management, TO, when to throw the flag, zero in game adjustments... list goes on and on.

So after all that... I rather keep my expectations low in case we fall it doesn't hurt as much. If we happen to win then all the better.

Not sure if I agree on all of your football conclusions but you hit on a gem of an idea at the end. Management of expectations is one of the principles to follow for a happy life.

I would like to know when this is going to fall on Harbaugh. Yes he has an offensive Coordinator BUT you do NOT Abdicate the task of running the offense to him, you DELEGATE, the difference being, you stay involved helping the OC achieve success. If I am the Head Coach, I am participating in the game plan, the plays we are going to run and if the team is going bad, I will set out exactly what I want from the segment that is under performing.

Harbaugh acts like he stands back and lets something fail and then throws the Coordinator under the BUS. I would not work for someone like that and I do not believe that is solid leadership characteristics....

Hate to point this out, Objective, but I don't think you're being "objective". Unless you are unusually better connected than the rest of us posters you don't know whether Harbs didn't do exactly what you are suggesting he didn't do.

The manner in which we achieved the 3-0 start and taking into consideration the quality opposition we faced and even more so now that we lost back to back home games against garbage teams means the Ravens need to prepare 100% for 2017. 3-2 means nothing at this point. We could easily be 0-5. At the beginning of the season I predicted 7-9 and after the 3-0 start I bulged on my prediction and bumped them up to 8-8. Now 6-10 is the most likely scenario. Even if we would have started 5-0, I still had doubts this team was gonna win more than 8 games. What scares me the most is that this team is relatively healthy in comparison to the past 2 seasons. Wait till the injury bug hits and we are forced to play our dreadful backups. We are already getting a taste of it with the OL patch work, wait till the secondary gets decimated. We will become the All Pro Factory of the NFL once again.

Hey, look on the bright side. We might be in line for another low numbered pick in the next draft in 2017.

I guess there's a lot of things we can blame our poor offense on. But for me some of it looks like we just haven't practiced enough. We look like a ragged team that just got together for the first time. It makes me wonder what they did all summer to get ready for the season. All the drive ending penalties we are suffering seems to point to this. They should be executing like a well trained drill team and instead they are looking like a Saturday afternoon amateur pickup game. Funny how at the start of the season we were so concerned that the defense would fail but had confidence that the offense would carry us through. It has turned out to be just the opposite!

  9 hours ago, AsianRice said:

  10 hours ago, EwholoJeroro said:

How many playoff games has Harbaugh been to since the Superbowl win? The answer is 1. The problem is the Head Coach. I am not calling for his job however. I just want some power taken from him and more given to the offensive and defensive coordinators because he is not an X and O coach. He has no feel for the game. He will make a good team manager but as an NFL football coach, I think we got the wrong Harbaugh. John is a politician. He says the right thing and smiles in the faces of us fans. He has deep ties to the Baltimore community.. and all that is good but we need a football coach.

This article is an insult to the intelligence of us the fans.

Give me examples that he was making his calls on defense and offense??

All of his OC or DC made all the calls on their owns and history speak for itself.

If you are saying John making all the calls, the year when Kubiak was here I guess John did an excellent jobs for making all good play calls and schemes....lol

Also, you are saying that you only count his track record after his SB win? /scroll eyes..

You statement is really insult to football fans' intelligence.....

Kubiak was hired by the front office. That was not a Harbaugh decision and everyone know that.

Camron was a bust, Mattison was a bust, Pees is no genius, Tresman.. well,.. you know.

I count the record after the SB win because he let go of all the leaders on the team after the SB and has only had one winning season since, Player that questioned his decision making like Boldin and Reed were let go.

Settle for mediocre if you want.. others want better for the team.

You mention that the Kubiak hiring was done by the front office. Fair enough. But of course that same front office did the releasing of Boldin, Reed, and all the others we did not retain after the SB, not Harbs.

  10 hours ago, AsianRice said:

  11 hours ago, btfan2 said:

@Sarah Ellison How much did you get paid to bury us in nonsense. The main problem is Harbaugh and has been since he arrived, we'll see won't we. Will you be writing these fluff articles then.

How about...Are you a Ravens fan and been following all the games? How many playoffs games, regular season games Harbs bring us? including championship and Lombard trophy?

The main problem here is fan like you, knee jerk reaction for every single obstacle.....

 

@Sarah Ellison thank you for your LFW article and I am always looking forward into reading it every morning....

How many playoff games has Harbaugh been to since the Superbowl win? The answer is 1. The problem is the Head Coach. I am not calling for his job however. I just want some power taken from him and more given to the offensive and defensive coordinators because he is not an X and O coach. He has no feel for the game. He will make a good team manager but as an NFL football coach, I think we got the wrong Harbaugh. John is a politician. He says the right thing and smiles in the faces of us fans. He has deep ties to the Baltimore community.. and all that is good but we need a football coach.

This article is an insult to the intelligence of us the fans.

I wouldn't worry so much about "fan intelligence" being insulted if I were you. I'm not sure it can be insulted.

I'm still scratching my head over the whole, Justin Tucker lining up to kick a left footed field goal !
I thought Harbs was a special teams specialist before coming to Baltimore... How he could sign off on that play is beyond me.
I actually like trick plays. But the object of them, is to trick the other team !

Bravo! Couldn't have said it better myself.

  11 hours ago, fluffy201 said:

Of course it was Harbaughs decision. He should be extremely worried about his job, and it is only a matter of time before fans start screaming for his replacement. All I know is that losing back to back games at home is extremely uncharacteristic of the Ravens and should be looked at with real concern. I haven't really looked at Harbaugh with great optimism since Ed and Ray left etc. Those were the players that helped save Harbaughs butt many times and since they have left, so has Harbaughs winning record aside from one season.

Nobody cares what fans are screaming for. Fans scream for players to be benched after one bad play.

As Bill Parcells said, if you start listening to fans, you'll be sitting with the fans.

Fans don't determine who gets fired and who doesn't. They are fodder. They don't have that kind of power.

Jacket, you're right. Fans don't have that kind of power. Their power, when the team disappoints, rests in their ability to turn off the TV on Sunday afternoons and go play with their children which they probably should have been doing in the first place.

Lies lies lies. All of it... LIES!

Ya gotta stop watching the debates. They're getting to ya.

  11 hours ago, btfan2 said:

@Sarah Ellison How much did you get paid to bury us in nonsense. The main problem is Harbaugh and has been since he arrived, we'll see won't we. Will you be writing these fluff articles then.

Which obviously explains how bad he is due to, 

-Bringing Baltimore its second Lombardi trophy.

-80 wins to 53 losses. *not counting Playoffs.

- 10 wins 5 losses in playoffs since he got here, (Best playoff record from then to now.)

-After a tough season we are currently having a winning season so far and as far as I'm concerned if we fix our offense, we could be one of the most dangerous teams.

And also Sarah Ellison, keep up the good work. I love reading LFW and will continue to read it.

Ditto, Sarah. Love reading your column. It's the one column on this site I never miss.

If things aren't going well, you'll always have a scapegoat. But Ravens are still a winning team this year, and still, people were frustrated. Therefore, hopefully, an OC change will help. Only thing I'm worried about is, how long it takes for Mornhinweg to change the O performance, and whether it's for the better.

I'm really concerned about the OL injuries, especially on the left side. Stanley, please be good and come back! Also, hope that CJ makes it back alright. Hamstring is a pain in the backside (literally), but he's making progress. Yes, the fumble was horrible, poorly timed, and ultimately cost the Ravens, but I'm sure that one won't happen again! And how many INTs is it this year? Was that a third?

Terrible towel, Big Ben is a friend... are you going to let that go down easy and take it? Let it sink in.

Well, you must admit that Big Ben and The Donald seem to have the same regard for women.

What about Zach Britton? Will he get any touches ?

Unfortunately not till next April.

For more on this issue of artificially manufactured hate between teams and rival players see my post in today's Late For Work article about KO's supposed grudge against Ravens not giving him more money and causing him to leave.

For more on this manufactured hate between players or teams see today's article on Wallace and Webb healing their rift of several years and how it was artificially started by the Steelers head coach telling Wallace to find a Raven to hate.

KO is upset? Sorry gang but I don't buy it. This sounds like the hype visiting teams try to pull to get some friction going between teams that are not natural rivals like we are with the Steelers. Why would a player complain about a team that gave him the chance to shine and when he did shine let him go on to make big money and not franchise him? Nice try trying to stir up some controversy but it seems a little thin to me. Welcome back, KO. But I'm just not falling for your fake pity party.

  5 hours ago, RavenLunatic said:

Baltimore fans aren't stupid. We know the offense is suspect. And there hasn't been any noticeable changes from week to week. I'm confident we are in for that rude awakening.

Sorry I'm not yet.

I think each of the past Sundays have been "rude awakenings" for us and yet we win. I suspect this coming Sunday will be another rude awakening for us as we continue to disappoint all through the season right on into the playoffs and then again disappoint when we only win the SB at the last minute by taking an intentional safety and then kicking off to our opponents only to tackle them as the clock runs out. Oh, wait . . . .

  14 hours ago, PurpleReign3 said:

I wish our offense could be this creative. Why are we always so predictable, no matter who is the OC.

It's kind of funny during the gameday thread I said " I'm beginning to think Harbaugh could be the underlying heart of the offensive woes and creativity,  similar to my belief that Les Miles ultimately held back LSU offensive creativity with the various OCs they've had. " 

maybe 2 hours later it was announced Les Miles was fired. 

Another example would be someone like Rex Ryan that's so defensive minded, he's forced his teams to be run-oriented to a fault at times. 

I mean it's just crazy to think that other than Kubiak year the team's office has been super dull regardless of OC. 

In all fairness I don't think you could say our offense has been "dull". Incompetent at times, yes, but surely not dull. Even Joe is commenting on the offense needlessly contributing to the rise in high blood pressure among Ravens fans this year.