BillyD

1) Right. The coaches told you how to play the game. And if you failed at that, i.e., made stupid penalties and stupid mistakes, there were consequences for those actions. That's the point here. Repeated penalties are a result of bad technique ( coaches job to teach good technique) and, if repeated consistently, the inability of the player to perform, possibly resulting in removing that player from the field of play (again, a coach's JOB to identify and correct, whether that be through TEACHING initially, and possibly further consequences if the issue continues). These items are not mutually exclusive. Like anything else in life, there is a process. If you want to react to individual incidents on a one off basis, you're missing the point. 2) I concede on this point that sloppy or undisciplined play is a better way to put it as opposed to "dirty players". That's a misstatement on my part and you're right. Dirty players tend to stay just that, dirty players, i.e. Haynesworth, Suh, ol' Bill Romanowski. But sloppy, undisciplined play can and has been corrected. 3) I disagree. They are not mutually exclusive in my opinion. Part of coaching is discipline. Period. Unless you want the inmates running the asylum. 4) Again, that is part of coaching. Benching a player is part of coaching. Part of coaching is doing what you can to put your best players, i.e. team, on the field that will give you the best opportunity to win. If a player's repeated stupidity costs the team, as Jernigan's stupidity has done at least 2 of the 3 times he has been flagged for personal fouls this season (the one in the Raiders game kept their game winning drive alive, and the one last week kept the KC drive alive and put them up 7 when we could have gotten a jump on them and at least kept it a game). I guess with your approach Jernigan, who has shown no recognition that what he did was a boneheaded play, is supposed to police himself? Say, "Gee coach, that was stupid of me, I'm taking myself out of the game now". I guess in your world he is, and the coach is just supposed to throw up his hands and say, "Oh well, nothing I can do". I disagree with your view of this topic. Except for your second point. My bad, there. Good talk, though.

It has EVERYTHING to do with coaching! When you hear people talk about discipline, about how few or how many penalties a team receives, it's a reflection of the coach. Did you ever play sports? Did a coach ever teach you the rules and how to play within the rules, or did he just teach you "technique" and tell you to figure out the rest? You hear all the time about players who have a certain reputation, maybe they're considered a "dirty" player, or maybe just undisciplined or "bone headed", or whatever you want to call it, all of a sudden they go to a team with a guy that can coach and he's a superstar. Mistakes are going to happen, yes. But when they happen repeatedly there is a coaching/discipline issue, and it's up to the coaching staff to figure out how to correct it. Why the heck do you think they do film study and review game tape? Just to work on "technique"? Tell the players they have to cover or tackle better? They also review all the penalties and correct where the player went wrong, if they did commit a penalty. That's also why the league sends out rule changes, etc each season, so the coaches can go over them with the team. I mean, come on man.

Apples and oranges. There have been some VERY questionable calls that have gone against the Ravens this season, no doubt. This was not one of them. Unless Alex Smith can change direction in mid flight as he's already 3 yards out of bounds, there is no way he was continuing down the sidelines. Jernigan was coming full speed and launched himself out of bounds and nailed Smith...AFTER Smith had landed out of bounds. It was just a boneheaded play, plain and simple. Aggression is good, in a controlled fashion. Stupidity is not.

Obviously, you're not a coach. Or you'd know the answer to your question. Also, Jernigan had a personal foul in the Raiders game that kept their game winning drive alive. That's at least 3 this season, 2 in the past 2 weeks that have been quite costly. Let me pose it to you this way - If you're running a business and an employee makes a mistake, what do you do? Maybe counsel the employee? Provide training? If the mistake continues, what do you do? Maybe some more training, remedial or otherwise? If it continues, depending on the severity of the mistake, you might consider demoting or firing the person. To suggest that a manager (which is what a coach is) has no role in correcting employee mistakes (which is what a player is) is pretty ridiculous. But hey, you have your opinion, I have mine.

Dumb play. Goes to coaching, once again. I realize some on the boards have said you can only coach players so much, they are ultimately responsible for their actions on the field, such as lining up in the neutral zone on multiple plays. The fact of the matter is that is precisely the job of the coaches. To review film, to correct mistakes, and if they happen again, to review and correct again, and if they continue to happen, to remove that person from the line up. This was not, by far, Jerniagan's first personal foul. And he had been benched previously for stupid plays. Ray Lewis used to say it perfectly. You play between the lines and between the whistles. That's it. If you can't figure that out, Timmy, you're in the wrong business.

With a unit that may be totally different next season? We don't even know who will be coming back in 2016, who we will draft, who we may pick up in free agency, etc. For that matter, if we're lucky, we may even have a new DC with an entirely different scheme next season. Not sure I buy this argument.

In the words of Herman Edwards: YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME! I like the aggressive approach that Harbs has in general. But that play call was just a head scratcher. We were in the game at that point. I get your point, what's the difference if we lose another game? I totally agree on that. I'm just saying that in any circumstance, that play was, in my opinion, dumb. That's all.

In that down and distance, it's a stupid call, IMHO. A QB sneak on 4th and 1 on your own 25 is a far cry from a fake punt run by the punter on 4th and 9 from your own 25. A QB lining up under center and trying to pick up 1 yard is an entirely different scenario from a punter lining up 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage and having to run like 19 yards to pick up the 1st down. The risk/reward just doesn't make any sense.

My 5 Takeaways: 1) Ditch the yellow mustard pants. The equipment manager should go on the list of people on the hot seat rolling those uniforms out this week. 2) Kamar Aiken deserves a spot on this team moving forward. Not as a number one, but he has earned a role on this squad. 3) While I realize desperate times call for desperate measures, the fake punt from deep in our own territory on 4th and 9 was one of the dumbest play calls I have ever seen. 4) Watching Schaub and now Clausen just makes me appreciate Flacco even more than I did previously over the past 8 seasons. 5) This season cannot end soon enough.

Good call. We will, but it will be a heck of a lot less than the 24 or 25 mil it is at now. Looking forward to being out of that hole. And locking up some impact players both in the draft and free agency.

See these injuries all the time. I think the playing surfaces have something to do with it, as well as the lack of contact and the focus on strength solely as opposed to strength and flexibility. It has hit our Ravens hard this season, so I'm glad they're going to a natural surface at the Bank next season, as well as glad they're doing a review of their methods.

I've learned a lot, too. Don't let all your talent walk out the door. Almost 25 mil in dead money this year does not help. Luckily next year that drops to around 200K. Hopefully we'll be able to lock up some young talent and maybe bring in an impact vet or two.

Well, all I can say is that this is what the bottom of the barrel feels and look like.

As a coach you put your players in a position to succeed. We have J .Smith and Webby as our corners, Each have excelled in the past. This season they are being burnt on a continual basis. Will Hill is a decent SS, and I think Lewis has improved at FS. The pass rush has been non-existent, and our LBs have not done a good job of covering underneath routes. At the end of the day we have heard all season long about technique, have to play the technique, communication, guys are out of position...At this point these guys have been coaching this bunch since July. If the players are still making the same mistakes sounds to me like the coaches aren't doing their jobs, and I believe that is a huge part of our problems. On offense as well. We have not committed to the run at all this season, we seem to run a swing pass on every play regardless of down and distance, even when Joe and SSS were healthy. How can Jimmy Claussen (Jimmy Claussen, for Pete's sake!) hit Aiken on back to back plays for like 60 yards to end the 1st half last week, but during regular in-game scenarios we rarely, if ever, push the ball down the field? To me, this team is lost, and it starts at the top. I'm not taking the excuse that the talent isn't there. I've seen far too many teams with less than stellar talent overall have big time success. I've also seen plenty of teams stacked with talent "drop a deuce in the bed" so to speak. And speaking of talent, I've seen Brown play very well over the past couple of weeks, and a couple of other guys, such as Clay (the punt returner) play well. Why weren't these guys seeing the field before? We pick up Givens and he's done next to nothing, yet Brownie has caught some big time passes. Leads me to question the coaches' ability to evaluate players and talent. At the end of the day, great coaches find a way to win, and they certainly don't deflect blame. Either you can, or you can't. And if you can't, then go away.

It was bad. Gee, John. Really? Thanks Captain Obvious. We lack shut down talent, so we can't man up. Webby, as much as I love him, got burned in one-on-one situations continually, and the DC just continually leaves him on an island. Let's not forget against Miami it was Webby that got beat to the inside on the sole TD pass, no help over the top. It's pretty frustrating that we have a lack of playmakers and, IMHO, a lack of coaching ability. I kept saying over the past several weeks when everyone was lauding the D, look who we are playing...not exactly the upper echelon of the NFL. And with that said, we went 2-2 in our last 4...losing to Miami and Jacksonville. It's been an ugly season folks. Not sure what the silver lining is, or if there even is one. Time will tell, I suppose.