Joshuahill2@aol.com

1 hour ago, EdTheMythicalOne said:

I see Yanda made some comments here and out of anyone on the team on offense, people should be listening to him. It may not be his job to do or say certain things, but it is also not Joe's or Dennis'. I also seem to recall years ago when the team was in an offensive muck and tried to go too cute and pass all the time and on a third consecutive quick three and out on failed passes Jonathan Ogden of all people jumped up and down on the field, clearly ticked off, took his helmet off before he got to the sideline and started yelling at the coaches. The team started running the ball again.

I certainly hope to heck that this team gets a competent OC at the very least. The team prior to Kubiak being here was a strong power run team and it worked. Then Kubiak came in with a zone running scheme that worked for what we had then at running back (Forsett). The NFL changed the rules on the cut block and now you can't do it...and that's what the zone run really needs. Then we tried to turn into this West Coast team...I dunno what we were this season other than a mess. There was no real change between Trestman and Marty that I saw. Same stupid cutesy plays as if to show off how smart you are in making up a play rather than actually sticking with a play that actually works. How many formation and illegal procedure penalties do you need to keep getting on offense before you realize you can't pull off a four man shift very well?

We don't have a zone run o-line. We don't have a west coast QB or WR's..because you know, they actually need to work free on short routes. We have a power run line for the most part with a play action deep shot QB. It is nice to say you have a system, but if your parts don't fit it, it isn't going to work. Being a good OC isn't just bringing in your system, it is making the parts you have work to the best of your ability and scheming a game plan based on that. I saw zero evidence of this this year.

Wholesale changes to the offensive coaching staff at a minimum.

I totally agree. We don't have the pieces to run this version of the West Coast offense. Joe Flacco is definitely not a West Coast QB, and really Camp is the only West Coast receiver. This was a disaster.

Also the difference between Aaron Donald and Geno Atkins is that they have good defensive coordinators who can scheme better than Pees and can get them one on one matchups.

The Cardinals have been using 3 Safety's for awhile now. They even dropped Deone Bucannon down to LB because they understand that the league has evolved into a pass happy league. We need to find Hybrid LB's that can run and cover. Mosley should be asked to play zone or blitz more often than he is put into man coverage cause TE's and RB's picked on him in almost every game this year. Daryl Smith has had one heck of a career, but he will be 34 this year and we could use more speed at the position.

I think that is a good idea. We could move Terrance Brooks into that role. He did a great job shadowing Wilson in the Seahawks game. I think he would excel in that position. The other option is to get a 3 down linebacker like Jaylon Smith from Norte Dame. He can cover TEs and backs out of the backfield. 

This reminds me of when Cameron was the offensive coordinator and we wanted Harbaugh to get rid of Cameron at the end of the season. Biscotti said at the end of the year press conference much the same things that were said today. Things like our offense has been the best in the history of the franchise under Cameron(which wouldn't take much). Look at the numbers...we're ranked this and that. Then reality sets in the next year and he is fired after the Redskins game. That time will come for Pees. Just wait.

So, you would gladly give away a proven, 26-year old guy who is clearly on the rise and almost had a 1000-yard season, for a 3rd round pick?

 

I wouldn't.

I assume you use "proven" loosely. Personally, I would give him up for a 3 round pick.

If we could only forget that awful timeout v. the Pats in 2007...

That was actually Rex who called the timeout and the players though it was Billick.

You gotta love guys who have this kind of charisma. This dude is a true warrior. Guys like him and Ray Lewis are true leaders. Some guys lead with their mouth, other guys lead with their play and a rare few lead with their mouth and play. With all due respect to the young guys we have on this team, this is a great form of leadership they don't have. Sometimes you needs guys who have so much character they can pull you out of your shell and make you raise your play and enthusiasm to another level. For example after listening to Ray, SSS or Sizzle don't you feel like you are ready to buckle the chinstrap and go into battle? We need to draft younger guys who can provide this to the team.

On a side note, this made me think of Joey Porter(yes the Porter who used to play for the Squeelers and now linebackers coach)when the Steelers had their media day at Superbowl XL against the Seahawks. Joey Porter and Jeremy Stevens were exchanging words in the media. Porter told the reporter that Stevens was soft and asked the reporter if he was going to walk through a dark alley who would he take, me(Porter) or Stevens. The reporter said Stevens. Porter called him a liar and said you both are going to get beat up. Lol!

I hope Upshaw stays he is a very good player at stopping the run. Like Pees said he's a tough guy. You need some guys on the team to bring the attitude and the hits, he's one of them. He works hard and doesn't get a lot of shine, I don't think people realize how valuable that is. You can look at teams with good defenses and compare him to KJ Wright of the Seahawks. A guy who does his job and comes relatively cheap(compared to the other players on the team).

I think all the players listed above should be cap causalities. We have to get younger, faster and more physical on defense. We need to upgrade the skill positions on offense. With that said, I think we need to look in another direction in terms of defensive philosophy.

Last year we said the defense didn't play well because we were injured in the secondary. This year we weren't playing well because we couldn't cover on the back end. and there was no pressure up front. Next year it will be something else. It seems to me that there will always be an excuse as to why we aren't playing better defense. The problem is we don't have linebackers who can cover tight ends and running backs. I thought we would see more Arthur Brown because of that, but the team used Orr instead. I just can't believe a 2nd round pick can't get on the field. The zone coverages are too soft. Lewis can't cover or tackle. Will Hill can't cover. Wright can't cover. Arrington can't cover. Webby can't cover. It's a disaster. We have to move in a different direction.

I am not a Trestman fan. Maybe I'm the only one old enough to remember the great play calling from Kubiak last year. The concepts are the same west coast concepts, but Trestman doesn't have an variety in his schemes. He is predictable. Trestman may be a good offensive coordinator, but he is a poor play caller. I think Marty Mornhinwig would be a better playcaller of Trestman's offense. I also think he could provide more imagination to the offense as he is a west coast guy himself. Trestman reminds me of Cameron and sometimes you need an outside perspective to improve upon your work.

This article sums up the my issue with the Ravens the last few years. They don't draft as well as they did and they bring in WAY too many free agents. There is nothing wrong with bringing in a free agent like Boldin and Birk when your offense drafted Ray Rice, Flacco, Torrey Smith, Oher, Grubbs...etc. High draft picks (rounds 1 and 2) with production. The offense was homegrown and well put together and just needed a veteran or two. Now we don't have any young products offensively at the skill positions. Forsett is a decent back, but not a playmaker like Ray Rice. Perriman is nowhere to be found, Aiken just showed up outta nowhere and he is a 4th receiver at best. The offensive line is in rebuild mode, so are the receivers and the tight end position. We need to draft better at the skill positions.

On defense, it's the same thing. We have so many free agents, I don't know who was drafted on defense. What's worse is that we take free agents from bad teams as if they can be better here. If bad teams don't think they are good, why would we want them. Will Hill can't cover, Kendrick Lewis can't cover or tackle, Arrington and Wright can't cover. Darryl Smith is finished. We should let Elam, Brooks, Arthur Brown and Tray Walker play. I think they can get beat just as much as the others.

My point is to draft the players and let them play. It's okay if they get beat or miss an assignment, that's how you learn, especially this year. We usually wait to play them 1 year before their contract expires and they have a good year and we can't retain them.

I don't think the benching made much sense. We invested a 4th round pick in this guy and he seems to be the best back on the team including Forsett. You have to stick with the rookie and give him confidence going into next season.

Many fans here have said it and I've said it, and I'm hoping now that it was re-affirmed over and over by the national commentators on a national broadcast more and more of us get comfortable admitting the God's-honest reality of the situation.

1. When massive chunks of your salary cap (your playmakers) are either on IR (Suggs 4mm 2.8% , Pitta 6.2mm 4.4%) or are chronically injured and missing games (Canty 1.7mm 1.25%, Webby 9.2mm 6.6%, Perriman 1.58mm 1.15%) it's hard to compete.

2. Then you add in those three massive chunks of dead money we're suffering because of Rice 9.5mm 6.8% (really it should be 12mm cuz it costs us 3mm in Forsett to replace Rice) and the unavoidable parting with Ngata 7.5mm 5.35% and Jacoby 2.6mm 1.9%, and you've got another hand tied behind your back.

That's more than 30% of our cap that won't suit up for us this year or struggles to suit up consistently for us this year. That's before you dive into the strategic importance of those guys in our gameplans on either side of the ball. Go ahead and take away 30% of any other team's salary cap and see how they perform.

3. Then you add to that the phenomenon that we went literally 3 years ago from being one of the oldest rosters in the league to one of the youngest now, and it's another incredible challenge for teams to overcome immediately. As Gruden pointed out, we have the youngest TE corp in the entire league and a starting WR corps consisting of career journeyman Aiken and an undrafted player in Marlon. Credit Joe Flacco for keeping us relevant.

Any one of those things in isolation would be sufficient as an explanation (dare I say 'excuse') to explain why a team isn't winning.

But consider that we, unlike any other team in the league, are cursed with all 3 of those things simultaneously. And yet these coaches (yes, Dean Pees included) keep trying to make the best with what they have and compete game in and game out in close contests.

Not a single coach or player on this team will state these things during the season. Self-pity is not in the Raven organization's DNA.

It's our job as fans to be fair and honest though. In 2015 we were dealt a crappy hand and we're trying to make the best of it we can.

This may be the best 1-6 team in NFL history.

Well let's examine truthfully this statement. I thought I read in another post that we were in the middle of the pack in the league as far as our injuries go. Our injuries are average for a football team. So we don't get a pass there.

Secondly, just because a lot of our cap space is being taken up by players that are injured and not on the team is really no excuse. Take a look at the 49ers. They have had a very similar purge and they beat us. We made their average looking quaterback look like an MVP candidate.

Which brings me to my third point. We got beat by receivers who were in our building (Torrey Smith and Boldin). We haven't done a good job of drafting or replacing players that left. I mentioned in another post, Harbaugh hasn't actually drafted any Pro Bowl players on tjis team except Mosely and Tucker and Tucker will probably be gone too

We haven't drafted well...we let players leave without replacing them and we take players from bad teams (Kendrick Lewis, Will Hill, Shareese Wright, Eugene Monroe) that happily let them go.

The coaching staff has been mediocre. Dean Pees even when we won the Superbowl was not a Ravens defensive coordinator. He is a Patriot coordinator to his heart. He doesn't come with the exotic blitzes. He needs to be gone. As far as OC, the only good OC we had that was worth mentioning was Kubiak. He was brilliant. I can't believe we followed him up with Trestman. I can't believe Trestman is even employed in this league. Someone tell him this is the NFL and not highschool. He made Cam look like Sean Payton. He has to go.

So as far as us Ravens complaining about our misfortune, we can't. We caused this debacle as much as injuries and limited cap space.

Who cares...another terrible practice squad players the Ravens are keeping for some reason.

The Ravens and Harbaugh have been drafting mediocre players and for some weird reason they take players from terrible teams. If these players get cut from bad teams...they're not good. Kendrick Lewis, Will Hill, Shareese Wright they aren't good. The only players that have been good that Harbaugh has drafted and have been good is CJ Mosley and Brandon Williams.

Dean Pees has to go and please, please, please get rid of Trestman. He makes Cam Cameron look like Sean Payton.