Would The Ravens Have Won Today?

[Irish Girl]

Anytime Pitts walks out with a loss, it's a win for Baltimore! Green Bay was ready, they were prepared. So I'm not sure who would've won, maybe if there weren't stupid official calls made in the Balt. vs. Pitts. game, we would've actually gotten the chance to play in it again! I'm just enjoying annoying as many Steelers fans as I can! Ordering a SB Champions Green Bay shirt soon, too!

[Jillester]

I seriously doubt that the Ravens would win using their usual P2R2 offensive strategy favored by Cam. Green Bay took advantage of the weaker Steelers secondary which depended on the quickness of their receivers. Plus, our OL could never hold back the opposing defense long enough for our receivers to go deep; hence a "Sack-O-Rama" fest on Flacco.

[grape drank]

Man the reason the Packers won is because the steelers don't like to switch up their personnel. They love to keep Harrison, and Woodley on the field to wreak havoc on opposing QB's. Green bay came out in 4 and 5 WR sets, and when Lamarr, and Harrison weren't blitzing they weren't able to match up well with Greg Jennings' speed. When they did blitz, Aaron saw it coming and got the ball out quickly to an uncovered slot receiver.

Basically the way to beat the blitz is to make them pay for blitzing. The Ravens like to bring in 2 and 3 TE sets to add extra blockers, however a TE on HArrison or Woodley is a misfortunate mismatch. THis formation only has 2 receivers running routes, and a possible check down to ray rice, which is easy to cover as there is a 2:1 match up of secondary players to Ravens receivers. Next year we have to put the game in flacco's hands. He needs to see the blitz coming and then make them pay with a quick pass to an uncovered slot receiver, or he needs to find mismatches in coverage (Woodley vs Stalworth for example)

[JEEPercreepermd]

[quote name='grape drank' timestamp='1297141882' post='635441']
Man the reason the Packers won is because the steelers don't like to switch up their personnel. They love to keep Harrison, and Woodley on the field to wreak havoc on opposing QB's. Green bay came out in 4 and 5 WR sets, and when Lamarr, and Harrison weren't blitzing they weren't able to match up well with Greg Jennings' speed. When they did blitz, Aaron saw it coming and got the ball out quickly to an uncovered slot receiver.

Basically the way to beat the blitz is to make them pay for blitzing. The Ravens like to bring in 2 and 3 TE sets to add extra blockers, however a TE on HArrison or Woodley is a misfortunate mismatch. THis formation only has 2 receivers running routes, and a possible check down to ray rice, which is easy to cover as there is a 2:1 match up of secondary players to Ravens receivers. Next year we have to put the game in flacco's hands. He needs to see the blitz coming and then make them pay with a quick pass to an uncovered slot receiver, or he needs to find mismatches in coverage (Woodley vs Stalworth for example)
[/quote]
Thank You very much! Totally agreed. If you go back, Joe has had 3 late game drives to either tie or win a game against the Steelers in his career. If you look at those drives, the offense actually had some tempo, Joe was throwing out of the shotgun and they had more than two WR's on the field.
You have to ATTACK the Steeler's defense. No matter how many blockers we keep in, the pressure is still going to get there because Harrison, Woodley and Farrior are just too good to shut down completely. You have to spread them out and get the ball out quick to neutralize their advantages. That also makes it less likely that they are going to use the dreaded safety blitz that we for some reason can't block.
The Ravens this year had just too much talent to not use. I mean we never saw ONE Mason,Stallworth,Housh,Boldin 4 WR set..at least not one that I remember. It just doesn't make sense. Housh and Boldin have made great careers out of catching passes over the middle and getting YAC. Those two in the Slot with Stallworth deep and Mason on the sideline routes. I don't care what defense is out there, that's going to be hard to cover. Then you can even go 5 wide and throw in Rice or Heap depending on the down and distance/matchups.

[RL52TheGreatest]

It's hard to say if we would have beaten them or not, but we [i]could[/i] have beaten them. I feel like we got a better secondary than Pitt does and I think we could have forced Rodgers to turn the ball over a couple times. Don't think for one second that Ed Reed wouldn't have been around on at least a few of those drops to snag the ball.

The bigger question would be our offense if we got to the big game. I don't think Matthews would wreak as much havoc as people think seeing as how we were able to effectively stop both Harrison and Woodley at times this season. However, Green Bay's secondary is extremely talented and I could see Flacco throwing multiple picks to them. Also, I think our run game would continue to struggle because of the O-line issues.

Honestly, if I was picking then I would say that the Packers would probably win because I think Rodgers would be able to make more plays than Flacco in a close game. Close games are just that though and a few breaks in our favor and we win. Unfortunately, we can only speculate as to how we would have played against them though. Maybe next year...

[AsianRice]

Our defense would have won but our offense are the ones that sink the boat.

Packers: 24
Ravens: 21

Unfortunately...

[grape drank]

[quote name='JEEPercreepermd' timestamp='1297272543' post='636542']
Thank You very much! Totally agreed. If you go back, Joe has had 3 late game drives to either tie or win a game against the Steelers in his career. If you look at those drives, the offense actually had some tempo, Joe was throwing out of the shotgun and they had more than two WR's on the field.
You have to ATTACK the Steeler's defense. No matter how many blockers we keep in, the pressure is still going to get there because Harrison, Woodley and Farrior are just too good to shut down completely. You have to spread them out and get the ball out quick to neutralize their advantages. That also makes it less likely that they are going to use the dreaded safety blitz that we for some reason can't block.
The Ravens this year had just too much talent to not use. I mean we never saw ONE Mason,Stallworth,Housh,Boldin 4 WR set..at least not one that I remember. It just doesn't make sense. Housh and Boldin have made great careers out of catching passes over the middle and getting YAC. Those two in the Slot with Stallworth deep and Mason on the sideline routes. I don't care what defense is out there, that's going to be hard to cover. Then you can even go 5 wide and throw in Rice or Heap depending on the down and distance/matchups.
[/quote]

I try my hardest haha, by no means am I an OC, but if you can make someones strength into a weakness they won't be nearly as hard to deal with.

[drac3000]

The Question should be..."Can we beat the Officials"...When the Ravens get "four Flags" in the first 2 min's of a game,Also "flags" that call back TD"s,while the opposing team (Pitts)only get a couple the whole Game,you can't win playing against the "worst team"...I love the late "Flags"...after Ravens score,the Flag comes out for "holding on the line".We all know that someone is gonna hold on every play,on both sides,"Thats Football".(So please don't say..."Ravens made more Mistakes"...No,they just got "Flagged More" while Pitts "Held/Pass Int. on "every Play"
But you can't just "Flag" one team and not the other.I have been watching F-Ball for 41 yrs,and never seen a more "One sided,Official Calling" Game,like Ravens vs. Pitts playoff Game.(I'll say it,since no one else will)The Ref's are Betting on Teams,and making sure they win.I encourage you to watch this Game again,and see how many "Holding,Pass-Int. Flags,"should have" been called on Pitts,the Ref's took Ravens out of Game Mentally/Physically, As Pitts/Players/Coach also noticed this one sided "Flag throwing",they got even "Bolder" as they started pulling WR's to the Ground,I almost turned the Channel,as this was the worst Officiated Game in History.Ref's have "Too Much Power" when "No one",Owner,Coach/Player Can say anything,or they get Fined" and/or "Ejected" So the Question should be "Can we beat the Ref's" and the answer is "No"...But we can Beat any team out there...in a "Fair Fight" (Note:A lot of people swore "that night",if they see a game like Ravens/Pitts P/Off,they will never watch football Again.) And I agree. Watch this Game again before commenting Please!

[RivenHale]

Just discover quotation marks?

[grape drank]

[quote name='RivenHale' timestamp='1297715398' post='639675']
Just discover quotation marks?
[/quote]
hahaha indeed

[DMT]

The only solace I got out of that game was realizing that I didn't pay ridiculous money to watch my team blow it to the packers like many steelers fans did.