Next Up: Oakland

[FerrariFan87]

I think we all know what our Week 17 match-up against the Raiders means: We win and we're in the playoffs.

What do you want to see this week from our guys? For me, anything short of a game like against the Bears or Lions will be disappointing.

What say you?

[Ed_Reed20]

I agree. If they don't destroy Oakland, I'll be pretty angry.

[gilgamesh]

I'm fine with any victory as long as everyone is healthy, including Reed and Gaither. We don't need to blow them out, as far as I'm concerned that could tire them out. We need the win and clean bill of health, so that is all I am looking for in this matchup.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='gilgamesh' date='28 December 2009 - 12:41 PM' timestamp='1262022086' post='324801']
I'm fine with any victory as long as everyone is healthy, including Reed and Gaither. We don't need to blow them out, as far as I'm concerned that could tire them out. We need the win and clean bill of health, so that is all I am looking for in this matchup.
[/quote]

How would a blowout tire them out?

[gilgamesh]

[quote name='Ed_Reed20' date='28 December 2009 - 12:45 PM' timestamp='1262022351' post='324807']
How would a blowout tire them out?
[/quote]
By playing them longer than they need to. Of course, if we were to see Troy out there in the third quarter with a 40-0 lead, then that's good. But I don't see that happening because Oakland actually has a good defense, it's just there offense that has been nonexistent. So, a blowout would probably mean that we play the first team offense for the entire game.

[Trilogique]

I don't want to see a blowout. I want to see how the team handles the game when it really counts (2 minute offense etc).

[FerrariFan87]

[quote name='gilgamesh' date='28 December 2009 - 12:41 PM' timestamp='1262022086' post='324801']
I'm fine with any victory as long as everyone is healthy, including Reed and Gaither. We don't need to blow them out, as far as I'm concerned that could tire them out. We need the win and clean bill of health, so that is all I am looking for in this matchup.
[/quote]

Should we be up by 21 or more by halftime or midway through the 3rd, our starters will get some rest, so there is a lot of benefit to getting ahead early and blowing Oakland out of the water.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='gilgamesh' date='28 December 2009 - 12:52 PM' timestamp='1262022751' post='324812']
By playing them longer than they need to. Of course, if we were to see Troy out there in the third quarter with a 40-0 lead, then that's good. But I don't see that happening because Oakland actually has a good defense, it's just there offense that has been nonexistent. So, a blowout would probably mean that we play the first team offense for the entire game.
[/quote]

Who cares if they play the entire game? They're NFL players. Had this team taken care of business yesterday or several weeks ago against Green Bay, they probably could've rested their starters against Oakland.

And Oakland's D is decent but they've been rocked there a couple of times too.

[gilgamesh]

[quote name='Ed_Reed20' date='28 December 2009 - 01:01 PM' timestamp='1262023262' post='324821']
Who cares if they play the entire game? They're NFL players. Had this team taken care of business yesterday or several weeks ago against Green Bay, they probably could've rested their starters against Oakland.

And Oakland's D is decent but they've been rocked there a couple of times too.
[/quote]
I would care if Rice gets injured. It's not as much being tired as leaving them out there to get injured. We don't need to win by a certain amount, we just need a win. We could win by 30 or 3, just as long as they win and stay injury free. I would not like to see Cousins starting in the playoffs.

Also, I'm sure the Eagles thought that Oakland's D was just decent, too.

[Child Of Humanity]

Hope the Ravens do not take this one to lightly! The Raiders have pulled of some pretty impressive upsets this season and you know they have SPOILER on the brain right now. If the Ravens play good sound fundamental football this should all be academic. But it will not be the romp you are hoping for. Good luck Ravens!

[bce086]

Raiders have beaten: Bengals, Eagles, Broncos, and Steelers. This is no walk in the park ladies... we will need to be on the top of our game.

I'm hoping we can get Gaither and Reed back on the field.

No more boneheaded penalties.

Foxworth continuing to make big plays in the back.

Walker on the bench.

Cousins on the bench.

Parmele with some more nice returns.

[Raven07]

lets take this game with a grain of salt here, i mean... barring any type of chaotic finish from the raiders, the ravens should take this game....but looking at it from more than just one aspect, this is the NFL... the place where anything can and will happen, thus we are reminded that we must bring forth our A Game on every given sunday, week in and week out. Each player needs to do their part in order to solidify a solid banking of a win and us going into the playoff race.

As we saw last week, we need to do a better job at ball security, and coming through in the clutch when its needed most. From the key drop by Mason for a sure fire TD, to McGahee's TD run being negated due to pentalty.

The Main issue remains the same. We need to do a better job. Having us on over 100 yards of penalties.... hardly excusable, especially considering how they kept coming and coming, even when it was in dire need of somethiing to happen for us, coaches as well as players need to just get back to basics and the Do's and dont's of the NFL. Hey you cant have a bad game (penalty wise) if players dont commit the mistakes right? im Sure everyone will have that on their minds going into this one against the Radiers.

From our Offense as a whole..... we need to tighten the Screws and bolts, oil the rust and go full steam ahead (as with the Defense) the decision making was good, not great, not excellent.... we were able to move the ball down the length of the field but seemingly had trouble when it came down to the wire and coming out with the go ahead score I.E. the redzone offense. The O-Line, just needs to get back to basics on this one, cousins was getting mauled over on his end, resulting in heavy pressure on flacco and (im sure) more than one situation where Flacco stepped into a sack or two....... bottomline, better blocking upfront, means Flacco stays upright and looking forward downfield, if not... well expect a rough one for flacco.

as for Flacco himself, he did fairly well, finding the open man down field, marching downfield, delivering the ball ontime and this and that, but from what i also saw of him.... he needs to do a better job at his pocket awareness, knowing where people are, and using his instincts to "feel" the pressure naturally and step up, make the right decision and make a play, whether it be with his legs or throguh the air. That constant sight of seeing Flacco hold onto the football for seemingly forever, needs to go..... and be worked on and get better period. Like i said, that falls on the decision making of him and him alone, noone else can think for him, he has his own mind and brain, so he must use it in order to get rid of it quickly, while making the right decision at the same time. i look forward to seeing how his thinking process has changed in this upcoming game.

with all that said...... we just need to tighten the nuts and bolts, and cut down on this and that and, come through in the clutch and we'll be set.

Onward to Oakland shall we?

[FerrariFan87]

[quote name='bce086' date='28 December 2009 - 01:26 PM' timestamp='1262024780' post='324865']
Raiders have beaten: Bengals, Eagles, Broncos, and Steelers. This is no walk in the park ladies... we will need to be on the top of our game.

I'm hoping we can get Gaither and Reed back on the field.

No more boneheaded penalties.

Foxworth continuing to make big plays in the back.

Walker on the bench.

Cousins on the bench.

Parmele with some more nice returns.
[/quote]

Foxworth has been very impressive the second half of the season... we need Gaither badly to keep Cousins on the bench.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='gilgamesh' date='28 December 2009 - 01:07 PM' timestamp='1262023648' post='324827']
I would care if Rice gets injured. It's not as much being tired as leaving them out there to get injured. We don't need to win by a certain amount, we just need a win. We could win by 30 or 3, just as long as they win and stay injury free. I would not like to see Cousins starting in the playoffs.

Also, I'm sure the Eagles thought that Oakland's D was just decent, too.
[/quote]

Of course I would care if Rice got hurt. But you're not making much sense. You don't want the starters to be on the field for a long time and risk getting injured but want to win regardless of the score.

The fact is, if the Ravens puts the Raiders away early, which they can certainly do, they'll be able to start resting in the second half.

Oakland' D is ranked 27th in the NFL and are tied with the Browns in points given up.

[FerrariFan87]

Players are more likely to get injured if they are "playing not to get injured" or playing tentatively. If we play our game with all cylinders in the 1st half, I have no doubts that we'll be able to start resting guys in the 2nd half.

[omar586]

[quote name='bce086' date='28 December 2009 - 01:26 PM' timestamp='1262024780' post='324865']
Raiders have beaten: Bengals, Eagles, Broncos, and Steelers. This is no walk in the park ladies... we will need to be on the top of our game.

I'm hoping we can get Gaither and Reed back on the field.

No more boneheaded penalties.

Foxworth continuing to make big plays in the back.

Walker on the bench.

Cousins on the bench.

Parmele with some more nice returns.
[/quote]
i agree with u 100%, mistakes can knock your a** out the playoffs, we better not lose to the Raiders, don't take any team lightly, because we're playing to make the playoffs but they're playing for their jobs too,

[McBoller]

obviously we have to win to get in the palyoffs, so this game is about one thing, M-O-M-E-N-T-U-M. We need a good bit of it. I think rolling over the lions and bears gave us good momentum for the pitt game. Based on talent and scheme alone we had them outmatched in every facet. What we lacked was character to get the job finished. Now we need to destroy the raiders and stride right into the playoffs. Im hoping its put away at halftime and we can put the 2nd string in like in the lions and bears game.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='McBoller' date='28 December 2009 - 03:28 PM' timestamp='1262032107' post='325016']
obviously we have to win to get in the palyoffs, so this game is about one thing, M-O-M-E-N-T-U-M. We need a good bit of it. I think rolling over the lions and bears gave us good momentum for the pitt game. Based on talent and scheme alone we had them outmatched in every facet. What we lacked was character to get the job finished. Now we need to destroy the raiders and stride right into the playoffs. Im hoping its put away at halftime and we can put the 2nd string in like in the lions and bears game.
[/quote]

Well said.

[BuckWilds]

I just want the Ravens to win by 50... and for it to be 50-0 at the end of the first half. I'm not sure I can take another day of watching the Ravens lose and then begging other teams to win/lose for them to stay in the mix.

[FerrariFan87]

[quote name='Zhamtao' date='28 December 2009 - 03:56 PM' timestamp='1262033786' post='325047']
I just want the Ravens to win by 50... and for it to be 50-0 at the end of the first half. I'm not sure I can take another day of watching the Ravens lose and then begging other teams to win/lose for them to stay in the mix.
[/quote]

If we lose, we aren't getting in... period.

[ravens_4life]

we have the ability to blow these guys out. pitt and cincy are not that good. i dont care what there record is and i dont care if they swept us. we play them 2x a year every year. we beat the chiefs by 2 touchdowns and cincy barely won yesterday. the bears beat pitt we blew the bears out. we are better than our record. we just have to stop the boneheaded penealities. we are playing fine. no team is perfect very team has flaws. we have not got blown out at all this season thats gotta count for something.

[PuRock]

I'll say it again.

Under John Harbaugh this team has never lost to a team with a losing record. The majority of the time we beat them up.

We know whats at stake in this game. The Raiders are ready to prepare for the new year. Let's go into Oakland and take care of business.

The Eagles lost to them because Reid doesn't know how to adapt game plans. They only ran the ball a handful of times. Pitt lost to them because of their fourth quarter melt downs and Gradkowski. He's gone.

[PuRock]

Raiders do well when they can run the ball effectively and not have mistakes from their QB.

We take away the run. We are good at this. Force them to throw.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='ravens_4life' date='28 December 2009 - 04:57 PM' timestamp='1262037431' post='325106']
we have the ability to blow these guys out. pitt and cincy are not that good. i dont care what there record is and i dont care if they swept us. we play them 2x a year every year. we beat the chiefs by 2 touchdowns and cincy barely won yesterday. the bears beat pitt we blew the bears out. we are better than our record. we just have to stop the boneheaded penealities. we are playing fine. no team is perfect very team has flaws. we have not got blown out at all this season thats gotta count for something.
[/quote]

While I agree the Ravens have the ability to and should destroy the Raiders, you can only judge teams one a week-to-week basis in the NFL.

And I really don't think the Ravens are better than their record. I love my Ravens but they haven't deserved to win any of the games they've lost. The Bengals have beat the Ravens legitimately twice and the Packers did the same.People will remember Hauschka's missed kick against the Vikings but the defense embarrassed themselves that game. And had Clayton made the catch against NE, it still wouldn't have guaranteed a win.

[darklight1216]

This is an interesting game for the Ravens.

On one hand we have never lost to a sub .500 team in the Harbaugh/Flacco era.

On the other hand the team has failed under pressure at nearly every chance.

1. We could have gone 4-0 for the first time in franchise history by defeating the Patriots (also would have been a first ever).
2. We could have taken control of the divison early by beating the Bengals at home.
3. We could have stood a chance of regaining the division by winning at Cincy.
4. We could have beaten Indy for the first time in several years and ended their (then) undefeated season, and probably would have jumped into the wildcard spot without any help.
5. We could have swept the Steelers for only the second time in team history and clinched back to back winning seasons and playoff spots for the first time sine the 2000-2001 seasons.

So we have a team that is both consistent in beating lousy teams and consistenly screws themselves out of something good. Which side will win out?

[FerrariFan87]

Who is the Raiders QB anyway?

The only players that worry me on the Raiders are McFadden and Janikowski (he hit a 61 yarder!)

[ravenz_fan]

i want a game with less penalties just a hard played game where we dont beat ourselves like in the pitt game

[darklight1216]

[quote name='FerrariFan87' date='28 December 2009 - 07:57 PM' timestamp='1262048246' post='325259']
Who is the Raiders QB anyway?

The only players that worry me on the Raiders are McFadden and Janikowski (he hit a 61 yarder!)
[/quote]
I think Charlie Frye still has the job, but you never know with them.

The Raiders were flagged 13 times for 126 yards. That's good news; we may have found a team that can out pathetic us if the game gets close.

[Marcus]

One question,

Is Gaither playing?

[BD Ravens]

Playoffs? Don't talk about playoffs! Let's just try and win a game! Pfft playoffs.