jsberryman

  7 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.

Since when is a 4-1 team leading their division a "garbage team". The Raiders were the sexy pick to make a run at the Super Bowl this year. And the Skins were division winners and a play-off team last year before adding Josh Norman. Those were 2 close losses to very good football teams.

They got smoked by the Steelers, not a close game at all. Dallas and Philly look better than the Skins.

A lot needs to change for this team to make the playoffs, these two home losses are bad giveaways. The NFL is heartless, when you only get 16 chances, you look at the schedule and mark down needed wins. We just let two of them slip by. Now you have to make them up elsewhere, given the schedule, the task is hard. We are at the point in the season where some top teams appear. The Steelers look much more talented plus Ben is playing like an "elite" QB. You start looking for signature wins now, I see the Dallas win over Cincy as one of those. New England is head and shoulders better than the Ravens. The Ravens it seems have gone ages since a signature win. I like Joe Flacco, however, he has never reached that QB level where the QB can pull out a win on a down or flat day by the team. To me he is very frustrating to watch especially when things are not going as planned on the field. This year's team is not doing anything "extremely" well. That bodes badly and would seem to lead to a 9-7, 8-8 or 7-9 season.

I assume they would have taken Bosa in the first round, he was not there. You can bet they tried to trade down, did not happen so they took their best option from the board. Personally, I would be a little hesitant on a guy who says himself he might only have a three year career with possible micro fracture knee surgery! I believe Ozzie will try to find some teams with no fourth round picks and offer a pick or two for possibly third round picks next year. Using all these picks this year seems a bit much, I mean will 11 draftees ever make the final roster? Look for at least one trade today, possibly two depending on who is left on the board.

With parity, injuries, officiating and only 16 games to work with, every NFL season is a crap shoot. Other than New England, (because of their stinky division) does anyone really feel comfortable picking division winners before the regular season is kicked off. The Ravens lost a game to Jacksonville because of the officials, fortunately we did not miss the playoffs by one game. With only 16 games, you lose a couple of close ones and your whole season ends up in jeopardy. One would have to believe that the Ravens will not have all the critical injuries and pray that Flacco is ready for action. Bengals, Steelers and Ravens could all compete for the division, you just cannot predict the NFL very easily.

I will take a win over the Steelers anytime, all you need to do is look at the post game articles in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and the Steelers fans posts to realize it was totally worth it. The Steelers fans were incensed, firing Tomlin and the GM, this loss stung big time. As for the Ravens, this division is wide open next year, Cinncinati has a bunch of important free agents, they do not like to spend. Pittsburgh is not elite by any means and Cleveland, well enough said. The Ravens unknowns to me include how critical were the injuries? Where do we stand as far as the salary cap? How do we get better skill players on the field? I looked at this year's team prior to game 1 and wondered who was going to make the plays? It is a playmaker's league now, we desperately need some on both sides of the ball.

The Ravens were remarkably short on skill players even before the injuries. I think they put so many eggs in the Perriman basket and it has scrambled badly. The best case scenario is for all three running backs to make a lot of hay behind what is perceived to be a top 5 offensive line.