Ravens2343

I really hope Taliaferro and Monroe will be able to play this game. Both look very questionable with their injuries right now. Mosley and Canty both said they should be fine so hopefully they are just getting a little extra rest. Perriman returned today though!

Perriman returned to practice today. He may have a good shot at returning for the Steelers game

The cap will rise also so that does help. I am operating under the assumption that Osemele will not be retained, if he is not then I think we have a decent amount of money to go out and sign a wideout and/or pass rusher. A deal for Tucker should get done and if I were the front office I would offer him the exact same deal as Gostkowski got. Upshaw should be a cheap re-sign as an edge setter and nothing more. I believe Rice and Ngata's dead money totaled about 17 million or so (which is second in the NFL). That money alone could be used to resign Yanda, Tucker and Upshaw IMO. But we will see how it plays out, I don't want to think about the offseason to much right now!

I for one think we have a really good chance of winning Sunday. Apart from Perriman we are pretty healthy (Melvin coming back will be big for our defense) and it seems like our players know this is a big game. Playing at home will help, I plan on going so I am hoping the crowd is really into it. I will keep believing this team can make the playoffs until we are mathematically eliminated, plus we are the only franchise to never start 0-3! I believe we will still be able to say that come Monday Morning!

The good thing is that Rice's and Ngata's dead money come off the books after the season I believe. Couple that with the expected extension of Flacco and we should have a decent amount of cap space. Yanda will be the biggest cost we will have and I expect Tucker to get the franchise tag. Expect a guy like Zuttah to be cut or restructured as well as Webb. We should have a decent amount of cap space for the first time in a few years.

One area I do put blame on Trestman is in the red zone, where we should have run the ball more instead of trying to throw fade passes to Steve Smith. I have never seen such a drastic change of play-calling once we get into the red zone compared to the rest of the drive. In the red zone against Oakland we should have ran the ball more and used play action passing, which is a strength of Flacco's and this offense. 7 redzone trips and only 3 touchdowns tells the whole story about Trestman and this offense so far

Thankfully for us Flacco usually plays his best when his/team's back is against the wall

From a standpoint of where we were last year he has so far. Last year we were a very balanced offensive team and it won us games, at times in the first two games Trestman had us passing on all 3 downs several times. I don't think we will win many games where Flacco throws the ball 40+ times. He threw it 45 times against the Raiders and we lost, but I will credit that to the poor defense all game

We have to win 2/3 games against the AFC North teams in order to have any shot at winning the division. If we beat Cincy and Cleveland but lose to Pittsburgh I think we are still in decent shape moving forward. Remember 2013 the Panthers started 0-3 and went on to finish 12-4. Obviously that is rare but we have the type of team to go on a roll like that. Keep the faith!

I think that is part of our success and our current problem. Harbaugh lets his coaches do their thing and trusts them to make the right calls. I think Harbaugh has input certainly, but if he starts stepping on the coordinators toes then that will probably create more problems and tension. I for one thinks Pees should get more time to turn it around, but if he doesn't then a change should and probably will be made. Harbaugh is not afraid to make a drastic change as we have seen before. How great would it be if we could somehow get Pagano back here to coach our defense? Wishful thinking I know

I agree with you. He needs to bring more pressure from everywhere possible. The gameplan he had against Denver worked great, those same concepts and blitzes could work for almost every team. If we allow Green and Eifert room to run free off the line every play this week while dropping 7-8 guys into coverage, the same results are going to happen like in Oakland. Hopefully Babin can come in and create pressure with his relentless style of play and motivate some of these guys.

Id have to see a replay on that because I do not recall Jimmy getting much of an opportunity to jam receivers. If he did then that is mistake and I apologize, but nonetheless we need more of that. Smith will not get beat many times this year so one negative play cannot have us change our strategy

I disagree about it not being on coaching or scheme. Yes there was some mental lapses by the defense on several occasions but those are going to happen every game. The things I saw that we could have done differently is jam Amari Cooper off the line more. He is a very polished route runner for a young player and he made Jimmy look bad on numerous occasions, mainly because he had a free release and had 5-8 yards of free space to make a move. If we would have blitzed 4 or 5 people more often and had our corners in press man, then Carr would have been forced to get the ball out faster. This strategy works well most of the time if your rushers are hitting home and yours corners are physical like ours are. The Jets did this last night to Andrew Luck and he is a smarter and more talented QB then Carr. Granted the Jets defense is probably more talented, the same concepts could still be used for our team

It has been a major issue and I think a lot of teams would have issues asking all their defensive backs to tackle receivers when they are that wide open. Nonetheless Pees needs to change up his strategy and I would be very surprised if he didn't. People may knock Harbaugh for clock management or other issues, but one thing he does well is he usually gets the best out of his coaches and players. He will demand adjustments and do not be surprised if we come out Sunday with a whole new defensive swagger and physical style play.

Easton played well but we did not have room for him. Sometimes players need a change of scenery and they play better or up to their potential (Daryl Smith comes to mind). Not saying Davis will be a good player for us, but having corner depth with experience is important and is needed. Who knows maybe he will make some plays for us then everyone will be excited saying this was a great move

Anyone can see what we need to do, jamming receivers and having your defense play aggressive brings success. What other team in the league plays a "bend but don't break" defense? The Bills, Seahawks, Rams and Patriots amongst others play aggressive by blitzing and letting their defensive backs make plays. Id rather see Jimmy Smith get beat because the receiver made a great play or the QB threw a great pass over having our defensive backs play 10 yards off and have a QB shred us with passes you and I could both complete (sarcasm but you get my point).

You can never have to many corners, as we found out last year. Melvin should be back this week against Cincy, but if an injury occurs I would rather have Davis out there then converting a safety to nickel corner or having Tray Walker thrust into a prominent role. We basically traded Nick Easton for Will Davis if thats how you want to look at it

If our defense does not get better this week we will be looking at a 0-4 start, then Pees might not be the only person in this organization with a hot seat. I expect them to make adjustments this week and come out Sunday looking like a completely different defense in front of the home crowd.

I don't think a star running back is the answer, because Trestman has abandoned the run in his first two games. I would like to see us run the ball atleast 25-30 times vs Cincy. I know if it is not successful you must go in another direction, but they need to run Forsett and Taliaferro more. Both of those guys ran well against the Raiders but we failed to use them down the stretch to close out the game

Some things we could do defensively... 1.) Jam receivers and play physical on the outside. Allow Jimmy to press Green and jam him at the line. Hopefully Melvin plays and he can jam Jones. Kick Webb into the slot and allow him to blitz off the edge from time to time. 2.) Dial up blitzes from different spots like we did against Denver. Bring linebackers up the middle where the Bengals have a young center starting. Babin should help on the outside and Jernigan/Davis need to step it up. 3.) Play more aggressively overall and allow our players to make plays! Put them in man situations and allow Hill to cover Eifert like he did Graham last year. Overall we just cannot sit back and let Dalton throw on soft zones, I wouldn't mind seeing Brooks get some snaps this week deep and move Hill or Lewis into a coverage linebacker spot when going to nickel and dime situations

They could play together in some scenarios. Gilmore lines up on the line and can run routes from there. Williams could be used like we used Pitta where he is split out wide or in the slot. I would just like to see variation with our personnel and attempt to get more of our skill position players involved

I am left wondering where Campanaro and Maxx Williams have been the first two games? Brown was running as the third wideout both games and he and Aiken both struggled (until late for Aiken). Campanaro In the slot would give Flacco someone to throw quick passes to and help keep the chains moving. Williams was given a few snaps and caught one pass I believe, but why not spread him out and have him in the slot. We cannot keep relying on Smith Sr. to get open and catch everything. We need other options and to keep the defense off balance

Winning 3/4 is very doable for this team. It all starts this Sunday at home vs the Bengals. I expect Pees to dial up pressure and have our corners jam Green and Jones at the line more. Saw Mosley injured his knee in the Raiders game, hope he is good to go because him and Hill will be tasked with covering Eifert. I think we win this game because our backs are against the wall, but I may be optimistic

Yeah it seems a lot of people want to blame Flacco, but this game is on the defense and playcalling. After 7 full seasons we know what we have with Flacco so missing a few throws is what we will get, but this defense needs to play better or we are in for a season similar to 2013

If he is like that then maybe that is the type of spark we need. Our defense looked disinterested and flat yesterday. Suggs brought the edge and motivated this defense, maybe Brooks can be that guy who gets in players faces and fires them up