Ravenshine

"At the end, there is no easy answer to the Ravens’ offensive troubles." Maybe there's no easy answer, but the main answer is the Oline...it is porous, not holding, not providing protection nor allowing much time for passes to set up. And it hurt mostly in the first half of game, soon after the excellent first drive (which didn't last beyond that), shifted momentum to Skins, and didn't improve all second half until last drive of the game. Losing SSS didn't help. Perriman is a rookie and making rookie mistakes. Wallace had some good plays, as did Pitta, Crockett. West lit up big time, in retro should have utilized more running game since the passing game is in trouble...again mainly I see it as the Oline not letting the plays get enough time to delevop on many of those snaps, pocket just collapsing. CJ almost got us the game...gotta feel for him on that mistake, he did good on interception otherwise and he was trying for the score. One thing I saw, Joe Flacco was not the problem, he was one of the few things working as were the few others trying to make plays... but its just an overall weak execution...Oline, oline, oline. I know they are trying, I can tell they are trying, but they just aren't getting it done.

Am completely happy with Joe Flacco as quarterback and can't see us having anyone else. Not Cousins or anyone. I love his cool and his bionic arm...dananananana (only us old people will understand that reference). Not happy with offense but I wouldn't pin point it on any specific players because it seems more complex an issue and they just need to play better imo, but they'd have to figure out how to do that. Ofc I believe in the run game and that we are not utilizing it to our advantage. And I also worry about our Oline. But I'm not on the fire Trestman bandwagon...jobs are too important to all of us I don't wish anyone to lose their job. I know it happens especially in the NFL but I don't will it on people. I think he has time (to see these Offense issues improve) because after all, we are 3-1... so a bit early to panic on any front imo. But I def feel the O needs to step up, and like...now. So pundits picked us to win, I also feel we come in this the stronger team. But I know it's going to be a challenge. Washington is like Oakland...defense not good but offense is a top 10 team in total offense. However...our defense is very tough so I think we can pull this one off if our D holds them (but not get penalized for holding!!!), and THEN we head into the nitty gritty portion of season (road trips to NY 'start spreading the news' and then playing our divisional teams plus NE 'it's all about the Brady') where we must play better than we have been thus far. Oh yeah...and please beat the Cowboys week 11 I'll never hear end of it from my dad. We almost were going to go see that game live but decided, nah cause one of us would leave that stadium unhappy lol. And would have to put up with the "happy one" lol. But seriously, we are not THAT bad about one team losing. Cowboys are my second team, Ravens are his second team (then we hate all the rest). Ah such a bittersweet game that will be. But truth be told, I don't like watching the Cowboys play all that much I usually fall asleep watching their games LOL, because they run the ball up the middle so often...borrrriiinnng. And the expressionless Garrett lulls me to sleep. Is that guy a zen yoga master or what? He ought to enter poker tournaments no one would ever guess his hand. ~ Ravenshine over and out until next week. Oh yeah...we'll be 4-1 by this time next week ?

?? another good one! Step Brothers/Seinfeld ? Flagland Raidflags ?

Ho-Ho-Ho...you hit that right on the nose...and yet there's a lot of people out there who feel sorry for the millionaire... Good points eze17 (and poescrows) I don't feel sorry for him now, I'm happy for all his good fortune ?

Don't worry, it's not. Stanley's first injury pretty much and he even felt he could play thru it. Knee injuries are tricker to heal. His is a foot injury.

Good news on Bauer! thanks for update on him. LOL @ RL welcoming Brady back. Looking forward to that week 14 MNF.

I wore my Ravens tee to a game in FedEx this year...cool fans. One told me "ah, you are smarter than me you choose the better team." Another fan shook my dad's hand congratulating him when his team beat them in fedex. Nope, I don't have any complains about the fans. Yeah, the song annoys me lol.

Battle of the beltway, don't they call it? Well, it's hard to be serious rivals with a team we rarely play and who's div doesn't affect us until SB. Our real rivals are coming and are pretty stacked come Nov-Dec. Still, not saying the Redskins game will be easy. Just saying they aren't a rival team imo. And we don't know each other's plays all that well. Which can make it tricky for both defenses.

Younger, cheaper, better. Anyway you look at it, those three words summarize the entire process. Not always about keeping somebody around because he's a "nice guy" or a "class act". Its a football team, not a church choir. For what its worth, a half a yard per carry doesn't seem like much, but it depends on usage. For a RB getting 15-20 carries a game, that's 7-10 yards a game. Doesn't seem like much, but then again, 7-10 yards was partially the difference between a W and an L this past Sunday, so hard to say its irrelevant. What's astounding to me is that so many fans complain about the coaching staff's inability to make changes to things that aren't working, they do PRECISELY what you ask them to do (make a personnel decision that they feel benefits the team), and now fans either don't understand it or don't want to understand it. The logic behind that thought process blows my mind... I didn't say anything about Justin being nice or class act as you oddly think my stance is about. It just so happens this article talks about Justin's qualities as such and his team mates saying as such about him. I however have been talking about his ABILITIES. Or have you already forgotten and spun it your way? Either way, I know you need the last word. Lol, you just need it. So go ahead. Reply to this post and say more things that have nothing to do with what I'm saying. I'll grant you the last word by not replying back. Btw, I want the coaches to make changes, that doesn't mean I want players gone or think that's a solution. Where you got that connection, again has nothing to do with what I'VE been talking about.

He didn't get that role this year because other backs like West performed better than him in camp and in the preseason. He technically was the "starter" for three weeks, but had a nearly equal timeshare with West, mostly because West performed incredibly well in camp and earned that role. I mean frankly, fans should have seen this coming as far back as like 5-6 months ago. We had Forsett and Buck Allen as the primaries last season with an injured Taliaferro (who is technically still here), and yet we go out and use a 4th rounder on Dixon AND add West and even Richardson into the mix. Theoretically, we really had like 5-6 guys potentially competing for that job. And out of that mix, we found out Taliaferro was hurt, Richardson sucks, Allen is average, and West and Dixon are really good. The real question is... if Dixon hadn't gotten hurt in the preseason, would Forsett have even been on the roster come week 1? We will never know, but given how quickly we moved on, I'd say its certainly possible. Harbs said he was having an excellent camp. http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/John-Harbaugh-Justin-Forsett-Playing-As-Well-As-His-Pro-Bowl-Year/0a258fdf-6a11-4895-86e4-1318a7930b71 As for preseason: Forsett only played game 3 as he was deemed a starter at the time it looks like?? I have no idea WHAT happened to get to where we are now regarding why he was cut NOW when clearly Harbs liked what he saw from Justin prior to the season. But Maybe Kubiak will grab him now that he's on the market. Camp and live games are two different things. Forsett is an awesome guy but he was terribly slow and couldn't make the first guy miss. Once he was touched he was down and you can't have that in your RB's. Every yard is important. Once West started, first 100 yard rush for the season. Even Allen played pretty well when he ran the ball. Dixon will be the feature back and Justin knew that. He asked to be release so it wasn't the Ravens surprising him. It was a mutually agreement between both parties. Again I think people aren't seeing what infetesimal differences the decision was based on. 3.6 vs 3.2 in 3 game span. And all the sudden it's declared (by some) Justin is no longer good? The whole running offesense wasn't good, we all know that. I didn't see huge differences in the stats between he and West. If it were a case of players talents I'd expect something more like 3.2 vs 4.1 and over a longer span of games (not 3)... you know, let the players gel... Anyway, regardless, it's the teams decision. I can't believe Justin's best years are over tho, cause they are not. He's still got some in him. I think he proved that here.

I recall a recent photo of Pitta and Brown both wearing 88 it said "who is the real Pitta" or something to that effect. I took it to mean they are similar type of player, or good friends, or both.

Well, based on what I've seen the first three weeks, is inability to get separation and looking overall just much slower than in the past had a lot to do with it. Zero elusiveness in space as a pass catcher also doesn't help. Regardless, we've moved on. As did he.

He didn't get that role this year because other backs like West performed better than him in camp and in the preseason. He technically was the "starter" for three weeks, but had a nearly equal timeshare with West, mostly because West performed incredibly well in camp and earned that role. I mean frankly, fans should have seen this coming as far back as like 5-6 months ago. We had Forsett and Buck Allen as the primaries last season with an injured Taliaferro (who is technically still here), and yet we go out and use a 4th rounder on Dixon AND add West and even Richardson into the mix. Theoretically, we really had like 5-6 guys potentially competing for that job. And out of that mix, we found out Taliaferro was hurt, Richardson sucks, Allen is average, and West and Dixon are really good. The real question is... if Dixon hadn't gotten hurt in the preseason, would Forsett have even been on the roster come week 1? We will never know, but given how quickly we moved on, I'd say its certainly possible. Harbs said he was having an excellent camp. http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/John-Harbaugh-Justin-Forsett-Playing-As-Well-As-His-Pro-Bowl-Year/0a258fdf-6a11-4895-86e4-1318a7930b71 As for preseason: Forsett only played game 3 as he was deemed a starter at the time it looks like?? I have no idea WHAT happened to get to where we are now regarding why he was cut NOW when clearly Harbs liked what he saw from Justin prior to the season. But Maybe Kubiak will grab him now that he's on the market.

Through the first four weeks, Forsett had 31 carries for 98 yards, which is 3.2 YPC. West had 33 carries for 119 yards, which is 3.6 YPC. So there's about a half a yard per carry difference that benefits West. The difference between this year and last year is there was no Terrance West on this team last year, nor was there a Kenneth Dixon on the team last year, and he is the key here. When you're run game is struggling, there's virtually no reason whatsoever to give a 30 YO veteran more carries than two young guys who are AT LEAST as effective as him. With Dixon coming back, its a no brainer. I suppose they didn't have to cut him, but he wouldn't be active on gameday very often, so cutting him is more of a courtesy than anything else. I think he can certainly get a backup or change of pace role on a team that suffers an injury, but I think most teams know he has limitations and requires really good blocking and a really good system in order to succeed. On the 3.2 vs 3.6... thought I made it clear in my first post that it's a 3 game sample and West edged him 2/1...here's each game stat I got from old post on it: Buffalo Forsett 10 att 41yds West 12 att 32yds Browns Forsett 14 att 37 yards West 11 att 42 yards Jags Forsett 7 att 20 yards West 10 att 45 yards And saying there was no West last year actually makes my point...Justin was a starter last year, a role he didn't get this year. And didn't even get a chance to start a game as a West got. Once West got to start his percentages went up and that appears to have justified cutting Justin. All WAY too small a sample imo, Justin had bad game with Jags, but not so bad with Buff and Browns, hence the flaw of small sample percentages. Well, I imagine other teams will see how he fares in their lineup and then decide how to use him. I think they'll at least assess how he fits into THEIR system most of all, rather than base it on how his year started with us here. But, we'll see, nothing's happened on that front yet. But...you know how I feel about it all at least ?

Well it doesn't benefit the team or fans to keep sending him out there when he's not producing and others around him are clearly better. So beyond that, who really cares if its "mutual" or not? The only "raw deal" he got was that he didn't play well enough to be better than his peers. 100% on him and nobody else. Well, he had to share snaps with West from get-go. In the Bills game he out performed West. So he had 1 game over West, West had 2 games over him to compare with who's our best starter this year. And then West got to start in a game with the 31st ranked rush defense. Plus Forsett did well as starter last year before breaking his arm, and during a year when everything was going wrong...he still notched up the figures. So...I just don't feel they had all that good a reason here to let him walk. I think for them it came down to his age. But nm what I say...if Justin gets picked up he'll get to 'prove it ultimately' and keep going and I'd like to think retire in style. I just hope the opportunity comes to him, he deserves it. I think it will when other teams take all this into account and consider him.

Dixon the rookie eh? Well he can do it like Ezekiel Elliot is proving it done. Then again, Dallas specializes on the run, which frustrated my dad for years because they stuck with the run even when it wasn't working lol... but it's finally working for them apparently. Here we don't even value the run, so our rookie has a lot on his plate. Hey, if he's that good he's that good. We'll get to find out here soon.

“When the Ravens say it was a mutual parting, it really was a mutual parting,” reported NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo. “Forsett could have stuck around there and waited to see if the younger guys failed and then went back to him. But he said that in the meantime, ‘I’m not going to wait for that. Let me see if I can go find a situation somewhere else.’” Yes it was initially made clear it was a mutual parting. Ravens weren't going to start him, or play him ever again possibly, so he decided to go elsewhere...we'll just call that mutual lol. I have seen lots of fans around the league writing that they hope he lands on their teams...which I find interesting. I hope he does get picked up soon too. And at a place he'd like to play and be valued. Raw deal here for him.

Well, gee. Without Forsett, their YPC went from an average of 3.3 a game to 5.1 this past week. I guess that was improvement! Time has ALREADY told. Well gee, Raiders defense is ranked 31 in stopping the rush...maybe they should have considered this before letting Forsett go so fast.

Well, the run better improve now...otherwise I'm calling it: Justin was made the fall guy for an inept run strategy. If the run improves it means that Dixon and/or West simply had more production to offer than Forsett. If it doesn't improve it means the Ravens brass threw a loyal, committed, dedicated, and classy player under the bus. Guess time will tell.

I agree, so far deep shots have for this team have just wasted a valuable down. With our o-line and the pressure Joe is under, it is going to be pure luck that any deep pass is accurate or a receiver can run behind the coverage. How about just passing up field for an easy completion. That would be a good change of pace. If you are going to dump it off, then use a big man like Juice that will be hard to bring down more then once a game. Yes, and considering the pressure they put Joe under in those plays, interceptions, deflections and flumbles become a concern. So, they should address the Oline protection if deep plays are that important. I personally (vs what maybe Joe Flacco wants) only want to occasionally see the deep pass, and have it be 'a part' of their system not its main go-to play. I just get the feeling Joe and coaches, possibly some of the players see this deep passing approach as a main game winning strategy. It worked in Denver in 2012 and we all loved the glamor of it...and it's worked other times when we play from behind to help us catch up and win. But they should be fixing the mistakes that get us behind in score with our opponents in the first place too. Cause it's a gamble type of play thus not a consistent strategy. So it's about not getting too enamored with a certain style of play and working to be consistent in all levels of playing offense and thus become unpredictable to our opponents. Because I think these other teams have pretty well figured out the Ravens offense is looking for the deep target every set of downs lol.

Best wishes to Justin, I think he has some good football playing in him left, I hope a team recognizes that and he does well wherever he goes. His time here was a great contribution in so many ways.

On the need to have twice as much passing snaps vs rushing to succeed in today's NFL...someone needs to tell New England that so they can become a winning team :D Truth is, it can be done if your offense trains for it...like NE has apparently. But is it right for Ravens? Maybe not, I think Harbs is possibly right in that the amount of passing plays vs running ratio currently being done here is about the right for THIS team as they've rained for it and stacked their roster to support a passing QB. But the 'effectiveness' of run game is still way below and that points to execution of plays then. No matter what, the run game is crucial and run yards gained covers for dropped balls and incompletions in the passing. In other words, we'll keep getting 1st downs if our run game becomes effective...cause guess what, in the NFL you only need 10 yards to get to your next set of downs barring any penalties. You don't need 60 yards all at once all the time every drive. You just need to keep making 1st down. AND, perhaps most importantly of all, until the O can figure out how to operate in the red zone, ANY plays - small or large yardage gains, won't matter. So basically we move the ball but continue to stall in red zone (send in Tucker...again). Again, this is where run plays can and do factor in, in Red Zone where both teams tighten up play, but a solid run can burst open seams and move the ball closer, if not into, endzone. And lack of run yards gained in red zone have cost Ravens many points. Basically it feels, just based on listening to Harbs and some others...that to them, the run in today's league is not very effective even when it's going well. I disagree, I think the run saves games on many occasions because it keeps the drive going. Unless you can catch most of your passes. Thus far Ravens can't SO the run sure would help unless you change this trend. On the "we wish we could play pretty but we can't" mantra...well, quit making this your mantra first of all...because you'll only achieve the results you set for yourself then.

"While the Ravens defense ranks first in the league in yards allowed per game, they are currently seventh in points per game. Baltimore has allowed 18 points per game, so Sunday’s 28 points aren’t up to their standard." On the 28 pts surrendered, it would be 24 pts if we hadn't accepted that penalty when we had them on 4th down. And if Raiders had missed that fg it would be 21 pts. Sure the D didn't get them on that 3rd and 17, but that was one of those pivot moments that could have easily swung the other way because our D did initially stop their drive and hold them to a potential fg.

Yup, no doubt our defense is at cruising altitude...maintain strong. If our offense was doing better we'd be 4-0. Which is what many of us were warning about when we were 3-0 by suggesting offense just isn't there yet and not moving fast enough. So now it's no longer a suggestion, it's a fact. D strong as can be and only small improvements needed. O about as bad as can be in (TD) scores and pass protection anyway, other things also need to get better at, and need major adjustments overall. Special teams is somewhere in the middle of these 2 extremes.

So more talk of passing deep. Thus far it hasn't been successful besides an occasional SS catch or Wallace. But most deep passes have been wasted downs. The worst I saw in game was a couple games back we were 3rd down and 2... what do we do? Throw deep for an incomplete. Yet all we needed was 2 yards?? Wasted down and we had to kick, weren't even in field goal range. SO, the run game proved effective Sunday. Moving the ball into contention for points. Yet no real talk here of amping the run game and still touting that deep pass threat which so far hasn't been anything near a threat and more of a drive killer. Especially due to WHEN the decide to go deep, ex. 3rd and 2. I get that they have the speed and want to utilize that. But what about balance? In RR era there was a balanced run vs pass attack and it most often worked in games and the two assaults supported each other. Also, on short yardage plays just go to TE or short pass to anyone instead of trying to 'trick' the opponent and execute a deep route because our opponents have be predicting we're doing that anyway, and they've been there to break up those plays. And, by comparison, the short pass works (at tricking opponent) because it's a quick execution play they can't always see coming and we have enough weapons out there to serve as decoys while Joe connects with any one of them who gets open. We get those few yards and a 1st down.