The Raven

Newsflash: olinemen hold when they're out of position. You get out of position when your footwork sucks. Is it that difficult to understand? Well, I guess it is. And, that's a stupid idea with the tape. Olinemen need fingers to grab the shoulder pads, which is legal. It's only holding if you're grabbing, pulling, or hooking the defender. And if you think tape will remind a lineman not to hold, I got some real estate to sell you...

How the hell would taping a lineman's hands keep them from holding? I played the position and I'm not sure how the hell that makes sense. Holding has more to do with footwork and less to do with hands.

Loud noises!

Joe needs to do better. That being said, I haven't seen our offense move the ball like that with a dink-dunk attack since Kubiak. Lets build on it.

Hey, wow, thanks for catching up to the rest of us.

Alright

Clearly, he's freaking missing a lot of passes, and he's struggling to read defenses and anticipate open receivers. You'll chalk this up as an excuse because that's what trolls do, but I think his mistrust in players not named Steve Smith, Dennis Pitta, and Mike Wallace has caused him to lock on to certain players on certain players. For a long time, players have failed him. Now, his lack of trust has simply become mistrust. This, I think, is why we see him routinely throw picks in the direction of Pitta. And obviously, the piss poor offensive line has given Joe pocket paranoia, so he's not stepping into anything. Not to mention, the run game is terrible, so the back seven can sit on the sticks and wait for the pass. He needs to get it together and get his mind past his issues, no doubt about it. His technique has been terrible.

I'm not sure you understand how a 4-3 works.

Wow, way to just come out and say it

I can't believe we wasted that return spot on Matthew "Cleats" Elam. Edit: This was sarcasm, for those that didn't catch it.

I'm also glad the fans don't run this team.

Right, because Correa has clearly shown himself to be competent as an edge setter...

I mumbled some expletives but didn't really react one way or the other because I've just become numb to this team's drain-circling. I'm not even upset anymore when something goes wrong.

We took a chance on him last year. This is this year. Circumstances change.

Same as it's been... Jeremy Zuttah is a complete liability, Alex Lewis isn't ready, and Wagner isn't as good a run blocker as we need him to be. Stanley is overall fine but still has bad moments.

There's no doubt in my mind that he's the next great Raven defender and one of our building blocks for a long time.

We have gone away from the gap since Trestman got canned. You're right that we're running more tight than wide zone but Kubiak did run tight. That's all beside the point, anyway, because it's not Castillo's call.

Like most Flacco haters, you grossly misrepresent the viewpoint of his supporters to make them look dumb. I don't think anyone is excusing that pick.

Castillo is responsible for technique, not schemes, and we're using the same schemes now that Kubiak was. Sooooo.... The issue is talent, point blank. Zuttah is holding us back and Alex Lewis is still not quite ready at LG.

We have a really strong nucleus of young defenders in Judon, Tavon, Mosley, and Jernigan. Not even close to the same level, but it's similar in set up to Suggs, Reed, Ray, and Ngata. I think those four are the building blocks of the next generation, I really do. Let them grow and watch this D take off. ALSO: Just about all of the holding calls against Stanley were crap. But I'm a former lineman so I'm biased against refs to begin with. None of those were glaring holds. I think refs keyed in on him due to his youth.

Yep. It's not necessarily a fault of Harbaugh's, but I too see this as problematic. Hell, even though Belichick has never been an offensive coach in the NFL, you know it's his offense. I would definitely agree that having a head coach with an offensive, or hell, even a defensive background would be preferable, at least for the sake of schematic continuity. It's not that I think Harbaugh is a bad coach, but I've always believed it's better to have a tactician than a motivator at head coach. Helps with player development, stability, chemistry, etc... Harbs is great in the "team manager" role, but I've always preferred having someone with a good football mind.

He's not wrong by saying that, but I'm a firm believer that a strong run game is the key to unlocking an offense. There's not much a defense can do to stop a running game. If you can't stop the running game, you can't stop an offense. You can't really scheme out a good run game, and a good run game keeps the defense from keying in on the pass. And, to have a good run game, you need linemen doing their jobs. Which is why I think the weighting should be more equal.

Uh, yeah. I don't think you'll find anyone arguing against that.

There have been weeks where the evals are substantially different, but without going through every week, I'm inclined to say that many of the differences are due to Filmstudy failing to put an adequate emphasis on the run blocking aspect of the game. I know he has those stupid metrics about differentials and leverages or whatever but the simple fact is that poor run blocking has just as much impact on a game than poor pass blocking. He weighs pass plays more heavily than run plays, and I think that shows an elementary understanding of how offenses work.

I agree. Which is why I realize that Joe Flacco is our quarterback for the foreseeable future, even if he is erratic. His cap penalty would be too much to absorb and the search for a QB would set our franchise back further.