The Question On Everyone's Mind

[UMDan]

Going into the bye week I think it is the good time to evaluate where the team is at and the question I think a lot of us are wondering is... is this a superbowl bound team? Are we championship caliber?

well one thing working in our favor is such a wide over year in terms of no dominant team in either the AFC or NFC

Now, there's still a lot of football today and the bye can provide us with an amount of time to revise some plays, make new plans and allow our players to relax and regroup, but based on where we're at now its very questionable...

On one hand we've struggled at home against the Browns and the Bills for some reason. Are we not playing hard enough against them? Is our secondary not as strong as they are against better opponents? I dunno... Whereas we've beaten the Jets and Steelers on the road which are both quite good accomplishments

While we've had our struggled I've seem some moments of brilliance from the Ravens (Flacco's game-saving TD throw to Housh in Pittsburgh, that flea-flicker today, etc.) but are those moments promising enough to get us to the superbowl?

I for one think we have a shot... our defense needs work, our offense needs work, our special teams needs work. There's always room for improvement and there's quite a bit of things we need to work on but I think if we use this bye week correctly and improve some of our weakenesses we have a shot this year. Maybe I'm just being optimistic.

What does everyone else think ?

[rlh445]

[quote name='UMDan' timestamp='1287980345' post='520096']
Going into the bye week I think it is the good time to evaluate where the team is at and the question I think a lot of us are wondering is... is this a superbowl bound team? Are we championship caliber?

well one thing working in our favor is such a wide over year in terms of no dominant team in either the AFC or NFC

Now, there's still a lot of football today and the bye can provide us with an amount of time to revise some plays, make new plans and allow our players to relax and regroup, but based on where we're at now its very questionable...

On one hand we've struggled at home against the Browns and the Bills for some reason. Are we not playing hard enough against them? Is our secondary not as strong as they are against better opponents? I dunno... Whereas we've beaten the Jets and Steelers on the road which are both quite good accomplishments

While we've had our struggled I've seem some moments of brilliance from the Ravens (Flacco's game-saving TD throw to Housh in Pittsburgh, that flea-flicker today, etc.) but are those moments promising enough to get us to the superbowl?

I for one think we have a shot... our defense needs work, our offense needs work, our special teams needs work. There's always room for improvement and there's quite a bit of things we need to work on but I think if we use this bye week correctly and improve some of our weakenesses we have a shot this year. Maybe I'm just being optimistic.

What does everyone else think ?
[/quote]

I dunno. I mean it's an up in the air question that can only really be answered once playoff time is here. No one, not even the Ravens can answer this question. I would say that obviously we all hope the Ravens are the team we want them to be and it's for sure they have (on paper) the talent, but it's really up to them. I just don't think this is a fair question to ask anyone.

[UMDan]

i know we don't know the answer and won't until the post-season but it's just a matter of assessing where we are now and what we're capable of

[rlh445]

Hmm. Okay. I think that we're an above average team that has a great chance to make it to the playoffs and an average chance to make it to the Super Bowl. I don't think we're worse then any other team in the running (at least in our conference) and I don't think that we will automatically lay down against any of the NFC teams. I do think that we have so much to work on, and so much planning ahead of us that I just can't say one way or the other how we'll do down the stretch. We definitely have the talent, and we even have the experience. It's just not a sure bet with me. I'm sorry if I haven't answered your question as you may have wanted me to.

[JohnJohnson]

The Saints almost lost to the Redskins last season, the Redskins basically blew it. The Saints also lost to Tampa Bay at the end of the season. They pulled it together for the playoffs. As long as your offense can keep up, anything is possible. Our defense needs to step it up after the bye, just like last year.

[Thepurplehaze]

For me, I just don't see this team pulling itself fully together to be a championship-caliber team.

Passing-Flacco has shown signs of brilliance but seems to completely stall at crucial moments in certain games (Pats, Bills, etc.)

Running-has been pretty underwhelming this year, but still solid. Rice doesn't seem to have that 'jolt' that allowed him to break loose so many times last year.

Blocking-overall, pretty solid thus far. Oher has struggled with penalties and fast pass rushers at times.

Secondary-Obviously looked terrible today. Webb and Washington have looked pretty solid all season, but seemed to get beat left and right today. With time, communication with Reed should improve. Landry has looked pretty awful this season.

Rush D- Improved the past couple weeks, though against bad rushing teams. Has been shockingly underwhelming for a typical Ravens front seven.

Pass Rush-Mediocre thus far. Ngata has been a beast getting to the qb, Suggs,Johnson, etc.., not so much. We need more explosiveness out of this supposed "organized chaos".

Special Teams-Cundiff was certainly clutch today, but still randomly misses sure-shot FG's (Bengals game). Kick returns are a joke with Parmele in the back. He's too slow and provides 0 spark. PR's are average.

Coaching- With a tough schedule, we're 5-2 as of now. Can't ask much more from our staff right now (maybe 6-1?). Cam seems to be using our new weapons appropriately, though at times clearly not enough (New England). Minus the Bills, Mattison has organized a pretty solid secondary plagued by injuries and maintained a top 3 defense. As HC, Harbaugh has minimized our penalties (remember last year?), and overall, has made good decisions.

I'll give the Ravens a B+ right now

[Ravensdiciple96]

I have said it numerous times today and I don't think we are that bad of a team. The defense has a bad day and the offense picks them up. We are use to seeing the defense always pick the offense up, so is this why the Bills game is such a hard pill for alot to swallow? So Fabe had a really bad game as well, he had a not so good game against Pittsburgh and played great against Denver. Yeah he should stay consistent on a weekly basis, but in those three games I just mentioned, WE WON! Now this is the first time since 2007 that a team has scored 4 TDs and put up over 500 yards of offense on our defense. So once in three years is nothing to go postal about, at least it don't happen on a weekly basis. In this second week of OT football for the Ravens in which alot think this one should of been over in regulation with the Ravens on top, I am actually thrilled that this game happened the way it did. I mean for the defense to give up those scores and Joe and the offense staring at a big hole to climb out of, it's great that they were able to do what they had to do and com from behind to get the win. This should show the entire team alot about each other, and when one side falls the other side is there now. I recall for years in Baltimore that the defense ALWAYS had to pick up the offense, it's nice to see the offense finally show they can do the same. I feel good and they should as well, this bye couldn't of come at a better time. They got alot to work on but I think there is alot of better to come starting with Miami in a couple of weeks.

[UMDan]

in Ray Rice's defense the reason he hasn't been able to break loose as much is because teams are studying & covering him due to what they saw from him last season - today I think there were chances when he could have but we didn't utilize Rice much

[Thepurplehaze]

[quote name='UMDan' timestamp='1287985485' post='520158']
in Ray Rice's defense the reason he hasn't been able to break loose as much is because teams are studying & covering him due to what they saw from him last season - today I think there were chances when he could have but we didn't utilize Rice much
[/quote]
Yeah I agree. I think it's similar to Chris Johnson this year. Teams have just figured out how to stop him from hitting open gaps and breaking loose. It's good we have Willis making solid runs though. Now if he could only hang on to the dang ball more!

[Rav'n Maniac]

[quote name='UMDan' timestamp='1287985485' post='520158']
in Ray Rice's defense the reason he hasn't been able to break loose as much is because teams are studying & covering him due to what they saw from him last season - today I think there were chances when he could have but we didn't utilize Rice much
[/quote]
I agree but, the one thing we forget is last year our o-line was able to open holes and move on to the linebackers with blocks, allowing Rice to break it outside where he is most dangerous. This year we struggle to just open holes and for the most part, he is being met at the LOS.

The line has done extremely well with it's pass blocking though, which I am happy to see!

The important thing with our RB's is we get them outside. Today, Cam did call 1 quick pitch to Rice that went for a 1st down. He also called one screen to Rice that also went for a 1st. Maybe that's where we need to put more effort when we come back from the bye.

[Guest Mr. Nobody]

Are we Championship caliber?
Yes we are. We just need to improve a little bit and stay healthy.

[theFRANCHISE]

Championship caliber teams know how to win close games in more ways than one. They don't have to be the best team in the league or have the best players or put up the biggest numbers, they just have to know how to win, period. Execution is more important than any other factor, and you can make plays look as pretty as you want, but prettiness doesn't always put up points.

The team is 5-2 with road victories over the Jets in primetime and the Steelers. They bottled up a Broncos passing attack that was ranked 1st in the league at the time. They have lost two games on the road by a combined 8 points, which amounts to only one possession. Those two losses were to a division rival and a perennial contender in overtime.

This team could easily be 7-0 if they had finished the job in two of their losses, or they could also be 3-4 if they hadn't came back against the Steelers and Bills. It wasn't pretty, but they're 5-2. That's good enough for me.

[Clutch Ravens]

The real question on my mind is: What's up with Cameron?

Why does he make so many poor play-calls and tend to adjust so poorly when he was able to show in a 10 minute period how good he can be?

If Cam calls plays like he did when we tore up the Bills then I believe we're a Championship team.

[blitzking33]

"We bend but we don't break".. as long as we come out with a win, that's all that matters.. That's what seperates good teams from great teams.. That's what Baltimore is about...

But.. The question that's on my mind is...

Could Ray Lewis III go to Miami, get drafted by us, and play next to his daddy in a few years????!?!?! haha

[I AM LEGEND]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' timestamp='1288009262' post='520279']
Championship caliber teams know how to win close games in more ways than one. They don't have to be the best team in the league or have the best players or put up the biggest numbers, they just have to know how to win, period. Execution is more important than any other factor, and you can make plays look as pretty as you want, but prettiness doesn't always put up points.

The team is 5-2 with road victories over the Jets in primetime and the Steelers. They bottled up a Broncos passing attack that was ranked 1st in the league at the time. They have lost two games on the road by a combined 8 points, which amounts to only one possession. Those two losses were to a division rival and a perennial contender in overtime.

This team could easily be 7-0 if they had finished the job in two of their losses, or they could also be 3-4 if they hadn't came back against the Steelers and Bills. It wasn't pretty, but they're 5-2. That's good enough for me.
[/quote]

If you wanna look at it that way this team could really be 1-6...

There really wasn't one definitive win besides the Broncos victory...all the other games had a play or two that could've made things go either way.

Really scary once you think about it....

But we're 5-2 and thats all that matters

[UMDan]

I have to generally agree with franchise.. it's not always the most talented teams that win it all - it's about who can win and we've done that a few times. If we can work on our issues and put ourselves in better shape to win games, we have a shot. I think only a handfull of teams can be completely ruled out this year, it's much more exciting than last year where it was so clear cut.

[RedFire]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' timestamp='1288009262' post='520279']
Championship caliber teams know how to win close games in more ways than one. They don't have to be the best team in the league or have the best players or put up the biggest numbers, they just have to know how to win, period. Execution is more important than any other factor, and you can make plays look as pretty as you want, but prettiness doesn't always put up points.

The team is 5-2 with road victories over the Jets in primetime and the Steelers. They bottled up a Broncos passing attack that was ranked 1st in the league at the time. They have lost two games on the road by a combined 8 points, which amounts to only one possession. Those two losses were to a division rival and a perennial contender in overtime.

This team could easily be 7-0 if they had finished the job in two of their losses, or they could also be 3-4 if they hadn't came back against the Steelers and Bills. It wasn't pretty, but they're 5-2. That's good enough for me.
[/quote]


bronocs tend to be good before they come to b-more...then they colapse, haha.
Raiders put up college football numbers on the broncos...BCS style points were in effect, lol.

NFL is a game of matchups....we just have to be good enuff to get to the playoffs and beat the teams in the dance. I'm sure there has been plenty of teams in the playoffs that could have easily lost to a team not in da dance. There is still some luck of the draw in the matchups. You just have to be good enuff to beat most teams on ya schedule....not the entire NFL.

[Ravenslifer]

Just remember the 2007 Giants. Nobody thought they would even make the playoffs, then they went on a tear and won the whole thing. The next year, the Arizona Cardinals came out of nowhere ahd were a Roethlisberger miracle away from hoisting the Lombardi Trophy. Will this team make the playoffs? I think so. What happens after that is anybody's guess. In my mind, I've seen all phases of our team, the pass offense and defense, the run offense and defense, and special teams, excel at times and sputter at times. If we can be firing on all cyninders in January (provided we clinch a playoff spot), then yes, we can win the superbowl this season.

[Thepurplehaze]

[quote name='Clutch Ravens' timestamp='1288010042' post='520288']
The real question on my mind is: What's up with Cameron?

Why does he make so many poor play-calls and tend to adjust so poorly when he was able to show in a 10 minute period how good he can be?

If Cam calls plays like he did when we tore up the Bills then I believe we're a Championship team.
[/quote]
Yeah, except the Bill's defense is horrible. It's easy to say we tore up the Bill's(Hallelujah! Praise Cameron!), and struggled against the Bengals (FIRE CAMERON). I think our play-calling has been generally solid this year minus a few plays you could easily blame on Flacco.

[UMDan]

that's a fair point... there are people jumping to the conclusion that our offense is now better than our defense. hmmmm? i think it's too early to say that. our offense has had a couple of great games (denver, buffalo) and a few not so great ones. they saved us in buffalo, but their defense isn't exactly amazing.