merryjman

Disappearing pass rush a concern? I wonder if it has something to do with our two starting OLBs both being hurt and our secondary unable to defend quick-throw passes.

Couldn't have put it better myself, so I didn't!!

I disagree. Most of those guys we lost over the last couple years got contracts that they didn't deserve, but received because they were on a SB-winning team (Ellerbe, Kruger, C Williams, and yes, Reed). Do you remember how much the Dolphins paid for Dannell Ellerbe, for example?? Overlapping that were guys who were legitimately good, but got contracts we couldn't afford (Boldin, Ngata, C Graham, T Smith). Ozzie kept some key parts of our offense, signing Flacco to a contract everyone thought he didn't deserve, but which looks pretty good in retrospect, and keeping Pitta and Rice who were both essential parts of our offense at the time. (How much dead money is tied up in those two? About $40 million.) And the Ravens lost irreplaceable experience and leadership in Lewis and Birk when they retired. So throw the blame on Ozzie if you want, but he couldn't have foreseen the insane amounts of injury we've had, or the ludicrous contracts other teams threw at the mediocre players on the depth chart. Or a feature back who beat his wife.

It's weird to me that people haven't made as big a deal of Monroe's absence as they should have. I mean, what are the top 2 positions that get drafted in round 1, year after year? QB and LT. For us to lose Eugene in the first quarter of the first game, and have to put in a former undrafted rookie in James Hurst, is a big deal. Thank god Flacco has been so incredibly reliable.

Why did you have to mention Campanaro in the article?? Now all those Camp supporters have yet another opportunity to promote someone who clearly doesn't deserve it. Sorry, but I prefer my team's receivers to be made out of something a bit more durable than used Kleenex.

We got Jernigan at the end of the 2nd round, where he was considered a "steal" by most of the draft analysts. He could have been first round, except for the consistency issues discussed here, as well as "character" issues from when he failed a drug test at the combine. I can only hope he learns to keep that motor on high at all times, for our sake and for his.

Man, I thought injuries had killed us last year. This is getting ridiculous!

I think I disagree with this. Harbaugh, Flacco, Trestman et al. have said the same thing so many different ways, there is literally nothing else they can report. I think they're getting tired of the same questions over and over, and this is Harbaugh's way of making clear that there isn't anything else to say. I remember a report over the summer from BP's doctor from when he was a kid, saying that this injury is one he'd been dealing with all his life, and that was very difficult to treat or predict healing time for. After I read that I stopped paying attention to Perriman news.

Smith did a pretty good job shutting down AJ Green in the first half of the game, but the Bengals made halftime adjustments to ensure that Jimmy couldn't press him all the time, or sometimes not even be the one to line up opposite him. See e.g. the 80-yard touchdown where AJ was lined up in the slot and had a safety covering him. That wasn't Jimmy's fault (he was outside on Jones and covered him well) - it was Kendrick Lewis who got torched. The missed tackle, on the other hand - that was on 22. And this is a theme I keep seeing with the Ravens, both this year and last - other teams make second-half adjustments, and all of a sudden our defense starts giving up big plays. And Pees doesn't seem to be able to re-adjust. It's times like this we really miss vets like 52 and 20, who could act as assistant defensive coordinators.

I don't think the receiver situation can properly be addressed until the offensive line gets back on track. Going less than 40yds on the ground for the entire game is not going to set up favorable passing situations. If Flacco can't get more than 2.5 seconds for his looks, it doesn't matter whether we have a speedy guy to stretch the field or not because Flacco will underthrow him. KO and Zuttah both had some really awful penalties in the 2nd half that showed just how badly they need Monroe back and healthy. All those drops, though.

The Bengals are a much better team than we are right now, and our defense is sorely lacking in leadership and consistency. From what I've seen so far, Trestman doesn't seem very invested in maintaining GK's run-first offense, as a lot of run plays seem to be HB draws out of the shotgun formation (reminiscent of 2013, where RR was averaging like 3 inches per carry). Either that, or the injuries to Monroe (and to Osemele, Wagner and Zuttah earlier) are causing more problems on the O-line than they're admitting. I certainly hope it's the latter, because it took 1.5 years for Castillo and the O-line to finally get that zone-blocking scheme figured out. I certainly hope we win (especially since I'll be at the game!) but I won't be surprised if we don't. Seems like the Ravens don't really know who they are yet this season, and until they figure it out, it's going to be tough watching.

Still not really sure what I witnessed yesterday.

I really hope Terrence Brooks gets healthy and gets a chance for some reps. Everyone thought he was a steal to go in the end of the 3rd round, and that's saying something in a draft that was all about the OT, QB, CB, OLB and WR positions. I'm also hopeful that Elam grows into a solid player. No doubt he was pretty awful last year, and not great his rookie year. But it partly wasn't his fault - he never got a chance to really grow into a single role, since he got shoved into FS his first year and often into nickel corner this year. And nobody gave him credit for being on the field literally more than any other player his rookie year - every single defensive play, and about a third of the special teams plays.

Torrey was a great teammate, a high-character player, and an essential part of our playoff-heavy seasons and SB-winning season. I like the guy a lot. But he was not all that great a receiver. When you draft a WR in the 2nd round, it's expected that they can eventually do more than run a 9 route, and that's all that he was ever really good at. When we brought in 35-year old Steve Smith, and he immediately replaced Torrey as the #1 guy, that tells you all you need to know. Agree with you on Perriman though. Ed Dickson and Jacoby Jones also had great hands in practice, lol.

Lots of tricky contract stuff upcoming for next year. If we release Pitta after June 1, cap hit splits (I think) between the next 2 seasons. Dead Ray Rice money will be freed up in the cap and that sorta offsets Pitta. Flacco is gonna have to be re-negotiated. KO's rookie contract expires and it will be tough to keep him and Yanda both, which is a shame because they're the best guard tandem in the NFL. I think Dumervil's contract is back-loaded also, so he is a renegotiate-or-cut guy too

The key is Urschel's use of the word "significant" here. He wrote that scoring 0.958 points per 2pt attempt versus 0.928 points per PAT attempt; i.e. a 3 percent difference, is not a significant difference. In statistics, the word "significant" carries a special connotation, tied to the definitions of mean and of standard deviation. And of course those numbers he used are NFL-wide averages, so they would change on a team-by-team basis. In the case of the Ravens, for example, the second number is currently 1.0 points per PAT, since Tucker has never missed a FG below 33 yards. So if our goal line offense is comparable to the NFL average, and if Tucker's future performance is consistent with his past, then it would statistically make sense for us to always take the PAT unless we were in a must-get-2-to-win situation.

Yes, and I think the Ravens did an excellent job of leaving that possibility open. We saw them do similar things recently with e.g. Tommy Streeter, Deonte Thompson, Tandon Doss, etc. - not ruling them out, giving them a chance to prove themselves, but dumping them when the time came. If Camp and Aiken turn out to be good, so much the better!

The Ravens did a good job of making sure that no matter what happens with Pitta, the TE position won't be a glaring position of need. Pretty close to a win-win scenario, seeing as how highly rated Maxx is. Kudos to Ozzie & Co. for that.

I like Marlon, and think this year is his chance to really stand out. Torrey and Jacoby are gone, SSS is getting limited reps to keep him fresh - perfect time to prove he's a solid #2 or #3 receiver, and not just a red zone target. Personally I am not sold on Aiken or Campanaro as starting receivers - there's a reason the former has bounced around, and the latter went in the end of the 7th round. Not saying they're worthless, just probably not starters.

They moved Elam around a lot, and that probably had something to do with that bad season. But he also played really poorly at times. I'll never forget T-Sizzle yelling at him during the Pats playoff game last season: "The sideline ain't never missed a tackle!"

Two things I disagree with. First, neither of Flacco's interceptions were terribly bad passes - they were mostly due to exceptional reads by the Pats defense. In the first, Torrey had previously torched Devin McCourty on a play-action over route; later on, Kubiak flips the exact same play - you think Dmac isn't going to pick up on that? In the second, Duron Harmon waits until he sees Flacco go through his short yardage progressions, and only then does he break perfectly to the corner where he knows Torrey will be. I also don't think that we would have gotten past the Colts the way the Patriots did. Much worse matchup for us, and the proof for that was evident in the 5th week of the season, which was before Jimmy Smith even got hurt and our CB woes began.

Would have liked a safety, but just because Ha-Ha was the best in the draft doesn't necessarily mean he warranted a first round pick. And not to state the obvious, but Ray Lewis was a first round ILB...