Merged: Observations From Last Night?

[Tyler]

I was one of the people at the game, so I had the chance to see the whole field on every play. Here are some things that I noticed.

1. Lee Evans is fast. He makes fast people look not fast. Welcome to Baltimore.

2. Cary Williams absolutely wowed me at some points while he was playing.

3. Jimmy Smith played solid, tight coverage, but just got unlucky by having the ball placement by Cassel and Catch by Bowe on some plays. Should be okay when he learns to finish plays better.

4. Mcclain and Ellerbe really impressed me. I've always liked Ellerbe and it's time for him to come out of Harbaugh's dog house. Really a solid showing from both guys.

5. Jah Reid will get better with more game experience. Didn't play bad at all.

6. Our young defensive lineman continue to impress. Mcphee, Jones are all making a case for themselves to contribute to this team sooner rather than later.

7. Anthony Allen should be our 3rd running back when the final roster is decided. Like I said before, you either have it or you don't as a Running back. Parmele doesn't. We have enough kick returners to replace him.

8. Webb continues to excel against the blitz, but has struggled mightily in coverage.

9. Tyrod Taylor showed great elusiveness, but we need a true backup quarterback IMO.

10. That punt by Koch was an absolute bomb. too bad it wasn't able to be downed.


What are your thoughts?

[Guest RBates]

Was spot on, until you got to number seven. Joe Flacco needs a ton of work, he just can't seem to find any rhythm, not even against the chiefs second string.

[Thepurplehaze]

-O-line is still shaky but much better this week.
-Flacco looked very uncomfortable, perhaps due to shoddy protection
-Defense on all levels looked extremely solid..corners are certainly developing
-Running-game looks to be beast this year with Leach and Rice

[hawkprey]

Why are we worrying about Flacco?

Receivers he's had for 1 year: Boldin, Reed, Pitta, Dickson
Receivers he's had for 1 offseason: T.Smith, Doss
Receivers he's had for 1 week: Evans

At least give him more than a few weeks.


Also, Kruger is looking too good for 2nd string.

[Mount-Cody]

Hey guys, I'm back with another after game thought topic. So the ravens came back in a late game run to beat the chiefs 31-13. Here's what I saw in the game that impressed me.

Offense
1:Passing game is really getting into the rhythm with the deep passes. David Reed, Lee Evans and Laquan Williams are gonna be great for us along the way.

2:Running game was very good as usual, I'm liking this power run game we're trying to bring back.

3:O-Line held up a little more, I was really impressed by Jah Reid though, I think he played thorough the whole game, correct me if I'm wrong, he did good in pass protection and run protection. Oniel Cousins at RG is a perfect fit for him, he can use his good strength to good use, instead of chasing pass rushers, which I never wanna see again.[img]http://content.boards.baltimoreravens.com//public/style_emoticons/default/bitenails.gif[/img]

Defense
1:Pass rush was excellent once again getting some big sacks, especially Pernell McPhee, I mean what can I say the man's a beast, I don't know how many sacks he got but he rushed the QB almost every snap he was in on. Arther Jones another beast in the pass rush and run game, he helped out McPhee, which I love because, I hate to see only one guy doing work in the rush. Also I think we are going to have another good pass rusher opposite Suggs.

2: Pass Defense was pretty good, Jimmy Smith really got pushed around by Dwayne Bowe, but what do you expect from a rookie's first start. Now Cary Williams did really well in coverage, other than that long pass he gave up.

Well that was all I could think of that really impressed me, so let know your after-game thoughts.

[Npane171]

[quote name='hawkprey' timestamp='1313852516' post='757796']
Why are we worrying about Flacco?

Receivers he's had for 1 year: Boldin, Reed, Pitta, Dickson
Receivers he's had for 1 offseason: T.Smith, Doss
Receivers he's had for 1 week: Evans

At least give him more than a few weeks.


Also, Kruger is looking too good for 2nd string.
[/quote]

I agree about Kruger but, I think him being on the 1st team depends on him solidifying those tackles. He misses a couple or so every game. He's GOT to make those!

[callahan09]

Positives:

1. Carey Williams pass protection was better than expected, I think if he keeps it up in the pre-season he deserves to start.

2. Lee Evans has great hands and athleticism.

3. Sergio Kindle & Paul Kruger still getting good pressure, and Pagano's schemes in general seem to be doing a great job with getting pressure.

4. Flacco's mobility and ability to extend the play

5. Ricky Williams pounding the ball.

6. Dennis Pitta seems to have good hands and his blocking is better than expected.

7. Ed Reed seemed to be quick and smart during most of the plays he was in on, getting some pressure as well as great pass protection.

Negatives:

1. Flacco's aim seemed off all night. Not too worried about this, though, because he's usually got pretty good aim and I think he can get his aim back.

2. Boldin didn't really get separation and he seems slow to me.

3. Jimmy Smith is looking pretty unimposing in his pass protection right now. I think he seems pretty capable of keeping up with the receiver, but he might have a lacking of football intelligence preventing him from completing the play.

[Mount-Cody]

[quote name='callahan09' timestamp='1313853109' post='757810']
Positives:

1. Carey Williams pass protection was better than expected, I think if he keeps it up in the pre-season he deserves to start.

2. Lee Evans has great hands and athleticism.

3. Sergio Kindle & Paul Kruger still getting good pressure, and Pagano's schemes in general seem to be doing a great job with getting pressure.

4. Flacco's mobility and ability to extend the play

5. Ricky Williams pounding the ball.

6. Dennis Pitta seems to have good hands and his blocking is better than expected.

7. Ed Reed seemed to be quick and smart during most of the plays he was in on, getting some pressure as well as great pass protection.

Negatives:

1. Flacco's aim seemed off all night. Not too worried about this, though, because he's usually got pretty good aim and I think he can get his aim back.

2. [u][b]Boldin didn't really get separation and he seems slow to me.[/b][/u]

3. Jimmy Smith is looking pretty unimposing in his pass protection right now. I think he seems pretty capable of keeping up with the receiver, but he might have a lacking of football intelligence preventing him from completing the play.
[/quote]

I don't agree with that, cause I think it was like you said before was Flacco's aim. He didn't put the ball where it suppose to be at times for Boldin, like that high deep lob he threw was suppose to be a jump ball opportunity for Boldin but he over threw him, plus Cam Cameron was calling streak play's for Boldin.......he should know that's not Boldin's game by now SMH.

[Militant X 1]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1313851774' post='757783']
Was spot on, until you got to number seven. [u][b]Joe Flacco needs a ton of work[/b][/u], [b]he just can't seem to find any rhythm, not even against the chiefs second string.[/b]
[/quote]

i agree!

~Mili

[arnie_uk]

this is going to be a wee bit long, ive only seen the game once and was trying to watch everyone at one go, so may have missed one or two things.. my analysis, more of the team than this game..

1. QBS - Joe has off with his timing and accuracy tonight, but i dont think we have to worry, i believe it was a bad game, and it will be corrected for next week, however if not, then it may be a prob. More importantly what we all noticed was he had great chemistry with lee in the firs game, they have obviouxly been working alot together in practice, maybe joe likes that extra bit of speed, which will bode well for smith. Also his awareness has greatly improved, this was his major flaw last season, pocket prescence, but last night on 3 or 4 occasions he stepped up and avoided the sack, he got out of the pocket and instead of maybe holding on to the ball too long, take a sack, run out of bounds or force the ball into coverage he thre it away.. that was a sign of maturity for joe, he didnt do that last year. he also had two fumbles/tuck rules. now although that looked messy, i think again its a isgn of maturirty, hew seen a pass, then last min for whatever reason the pass wasnt on, rather than risk a int he pulled out of the pass. Something he hasnt done before.

If this wasnt a one off, well see a more mature joe, and when he gets back to form on his throwing accuracy wise, he has what it take to join the top teir of QBS, hes not there yet, but with this added prescence and maturity in the pocket he could get there this year.

Tyrod finished very strong, but started week, it looked like i was watching the game against philly, almost a mirror preformance. im confindent given snaps in practice through the next few season, maybe bring him in in blowouts to get real nfl game time this kid will emerge as a great talent to call on for trick plays and could be a quality no.2 for us... possibly some team in years to come will trade for him to be a starter (49ers for example). BUT right now he is not there, hes too raw, sometimes he doesnt see the field quick enough, others he looks like mike vick. I think we need a no2 QB with experience for this season at least, maybe next, but by tyrods 2/3 year hell be there as our back up. he has talent, he just needs time to develop into that back up/possible starter for a weaker team.

2. Run game - It imroved, we had some nice blocking up front in the run, i think no matter our line, the run blocking will always be there. vonta leach had a few good blocks, rice looked quick and agile, williams had one or two good runs, and AA realyy stepped up, hes a brusier with decent speed. i hope he makes the squad or else someone will pick him up. Ricky is one a 2yr deal then retirement, keep AA as no.3 then after rickys deal is up hell automatically move into the no.2 role and can play in more than just a goal line package. hell be able to keep rice fresh and split carries, ultimatley extending RR career as a top RB.
All in all, i think our blocking willl be stroong and RR will step it up again, teams wqill have to respect both or run and pass game.

3. Oline - a wee bit off an improvement but not much, Reid played better than cousins at RT, cousins played better than ever at RG (although still not great overall, just better than his ususal self) hell probably turn into a decent back up there, better than chester hopefully. Reid will be a good RT at some stage this year, if not next season. I think we need a stop gap RT like anderson and couple of season ago, stinchomb (sp) will probably get a multi year deal elsewhere which i dont think we need to match, youll see us sign a vet that will be cut in the incoming weeks. Mattison has played solid, you always know when you dont here a OLs name, hes doing well. hell grow into a good backup, possibly could be a longterm answer to birk, but id feel more comfortable with a vet prescence at both RT and C this year to begin with at least, maybe yield to Reid and Mattision as the season goes on. Birk will defiently be gone at the end of this year, so id go and get ohara, we could get 2/3 season out of him, giving time for mattison to grow or give us time to draft a centre, i dont think we can afford to draft one high this year aas weell nedd them picks for MLB and SS, you have to look at the whole picture not just this coming season. To me the jury is still out on oher at LT, false starts may be a probelm ,although it seems half of them is him ust have a great start, hes very quick in that first step, but the ref throws the flag. Hali didnt get a sack against him, but some of that can be credited to joe. He is a great RT, avearge LT atm, i dont think hell ever be joe thomas esk at LT, but with one or two adjustments, he can hold that spot down.

4. WRs/TE - first off lee evans looked, good, quick, good hands, ran multiple different roots not just the streak up the sideline, i dont think he is a !one trick pony" as people have said. Dickson and boldin got open a few times, flacco just didnt hit them. i think we have a promising situation at TE with Pitta and Dickson, one has big play ability, ala gates the other is a great possesion TE in pitta. two different weapons for different situation the opposition has to gameplan for. i think there may be one or two teething problems, but as the season goes on, everyone will see the FO made the right decision regarding heap.

now to the young wideouts, David reed had one awful drop, then showed his true colours. 2/3 good grabs and good gains. Hes definately going to see some playing time this year if he can stay healthy. his a mix of a posession guy, but more speed than a q or mase. Hell be able to run a long, short, slants curls, he could grow into an every down guy, not just situational, potential to start in years to come. Doss like reid looks very promising. a definate go to guy on third downs, you know he wont drop it, runs crisp routes, isnt afraid of being hit over the middle, if used correct i can see him being a favourite target for flacco, with most attention being on evans and boldin. smith got open a few times, has great speed flacoo just couldnt hit him. Needs to improve in a number of areas, but could be a threat against teams with weaker dime and nickel corners. Wasnt ready to be a number 2 reciever, could grow into that role, but could also bust. Finailly i think laquan Williams has to make the team, hes explosive, made a few grabs, hes just doing everything right atm, whereas Marcus is not.

All in all, a good mixture of experince and youth, possession and speed, with big play capabilitys and great 3rd down guys. if everyone lives up to potential we could have the best corps in the league, with great variety each bringing something different to the table, but right now we only have two accomplished WRs so we cant get to carried away, but there is great potential here.

5. Pass Rush - Last season will never happen again. Pagano is more agrresive, you never know whos coming, webb spent most of his time in the backfield last night. Mcphee Jones and kruger again had solid games, Divens and redding were also in their. kindle i didnt see much from in pass rush, but damn he is fast, almost 2 blocked punts. hell definately be a threat on third downs. We should have more than just suggs rushing this year, each man can play in different positions along the line, kruger and suggs can have thier hand down or stand up, we have an abundance of talent here, but all we need is one or two to step and help out suggs. i dont think any will have a stand out year, but all will contribute for the team, get a few sacks each, pressures etc. Not great stats indivudally, but as a team well see our sack number and pressures greatly rise, hopefully leaduing to more three and outs, or TOs. Kruger looked ok in pass defence, hopefully he shows his worth this year.

6- Pass Defence - Well what can i say, two big physical corners with potential. For jimmy we know he can be shutdown, he has great tight coverage, got beat by great pass and great catches by bowe. probably as a rookie thought his tight coverage was enough, but as experience comes hell learn to watch the QB and CB, look for the ball and never give up on a play thinking he has blanket coverage (which he pretty much did). He will get targeted early on, but if he makes a few big plays, jumo a route or not allow completions, hell be targeted less and less. his ceiling is endless.. he could be great. i want to see him against a stalloworth or moss next week at skins, quicker smaller guys see how he gets on.

Williams has potential to be a starter for us, very similar to smith, great size, physical and fast. had a good couple of breaks ups, his problem is consistency, i duno if he had a laspse of concentration on KCs TD drive, or was he just beat by a good route and pass, could jimmy have done better? maybe someone could clear this up as i would need to watch it again.

Carr sat this game, but i think hes our best nickel back, webb just seems to have regressed a bit, i didnt watch him that much, was he biting on double moves being to agressive, has he lost a step or what? he always seemed to be running behind his man. Fox needs to see a few reps in these next to games to get back to game sharpness.

Great depth at CB, williams and smith are different players to the rest, so we could see pagano being situautional this year until we see true starters emerge from the pack, which i think could be jimmy and cary. thses two being physical on the outside gives our pass rush that extra second or two to hit the QB. With that and hopefully added pressure from our young ones, and ngata hoping to develop has pass rush, watch out for suggs going to back to back Probowls for the first time.

7 - Safeties - great competition, to me i think pollard has to start. with the new added bltizing and less defenders in the back field, quick slants and hb draws could hurt us, i think we need a sure fire tackler back there because tehre could be alot onf one v ones in openfield this year and pollard is the man i back to make that hit. He also can blitz, if he starts, i could see him getting 100 tackle on the year. But like cb i could see pagano going situational, obvious pass zibby, obvious run, pollard, and throw in naka who has only made plays so far this preseason, i think were in a great postion of strength here. i havent even mentioned ed reed. the name says it all.

8 - play calling. i know some people were upset at cam sending boldin deep and not evans. now this man is a paid nfl offense co ord on a superbowl contender. im a nobody fan and i even knwo lee evans is our deep threat. i believe he wasnt showing his hand, possibly playing dumb, other teams might be like some of us fans thinking is he really that stupid. No he cant be. He just doesnt want to show lees true threat to the steelers i believe. i have too. he knows his job is on the line here this year, watch for lee to be the deep threat in the reg season. We seen slants for the first time ever under cam, hes going to mix it up this year, be less predectable. he will still get it run on occasions but all in all i think well be happier with him this year.

already mentioned pagano being more agressive, just maybe sometimes its ok not to all out blitz, we may get burned once or twice, but you have to accept that will happen when you diall up the pressure.

All in all i think we have a good young team with a mix of experienced vets, He ahve great variety in key posiitons offering different threats, Joe seems to have matured, we have got him more weapons, the pass rush seems to be better, tackling improved, that was just a one of i think, we have talent at cb. our only needs is a stop gap RT for half a season to reid is ready, a C who can replace birk for a season or two, a back up QB for this year and maybe next and the rest will come togetehr as the year goes on. a great opportunity this year.

[PuRock]

[quote name='Npane171' timestamp='1313852883' post='757806']


I agree about Kruger but, I think him being on the 1st team depends on him solidifying those tackles. He misses a couple or so every game. He's GOT to make those!
[/quote]

I just love the fact that the qb felt Kruger's presence on every passing down. And on top of that, he pulled a great play on coverage duty.

He looks faster and stronger.

[bmore187]

I mean wasnt that Rex Ryan calling all those corner and safety blitzes ?!?! Its so refreshing to have an aggresive play calling D Cooridnator again in Pagano ! It felt like Rex was back lol.... I mean Pagano had Webb flying in off the corner, Pollard running up from to the line of scrimmage from 20 yds back and timing the snap count perfectly, Nakamura blitzing the A gap perfectly and sacking the Qb before he could even finish his 5 step drop! This is Ravens football right here and our CBs were playing press coverage none of that 15yd cushion ( see Chris Carr ) crap! LETS GO Pagano , good riddance to that Mattison vanilla based no thinking outside the box 3 man rush 8 dropping back soft defense!

[Militant X 1]

i like him but pleeeease...leave Rex out of this. LOL!

seriously, Pagano brought the pain and it felt great!

~Mili

[Tyler]

[quote name='callahan09' timestamp='1313853109' post='757810']
Positives:

1. Carey Williams pass protection was better than expected, I think if he keeps it up in the pre-season he deserves to start.

2. Lee Evans has great hands and athleticism.

3. Sergio Kindle & Paul Kruger still getting good pressure, and Pagano's schemes in general seem to be doing a great job with getting pressure.

4. Flacco's mobility and ability to extend the play

5. Ricky Williams pounding the ball.

6. Dennis Pitta seems to have good hands and his blocking is better than expected.

7. Ed Reed seemed to be quick and smart during most of the plays he was in on, getting some pressure as well as great pass protection.

Negatives:

1. Flacco's aim seemed off all night. Not too worried about this, though, because he's usually got pretty good aim and I think he can get his aim back.

2. Boldin didn't really get separation and he seems slow to me.

3. Jimmy Smith is looking pretty unimposing in his pass protection right now. I think he seems pretty capable of keeping up with the receiver, but he might have a lacking of football intelligence preventing him from completing the play.
[/quote]

I have to disagree with your statements on Boldin and Jimmy Smith. Boldin got behind his coverage a lot last night and Joe failed to put the ball in his hands. Sure, If it were Evans it might have been a completion, but to say Q is "Slow" is a little much. As for Smith, dudes a rookie with next to no off season at all. He played basically in his first game considering he didn't play much in the first pre season game. His tight coverage ability was crisp and physical. Finishing the play is coachable and comes with experience. Give him some time.

[callahan09]

[quote name='Tyler' timestamp='1313854746' post='757840']

I have to disagree with your statements on Boldin and Jimmy Smith. Boldin got behind his coverage a lot last night and Joe failed to put the ball in his hands. [b][u]Sure, If it were Evans it might have been a completion, but to say Q is "Slow" is a little much. As for Smith, dudes a rookie with next to no off season at all.[/u][/b] He played basically in his first game considering he didn't play much in the first pre season game. His tight coverage ability was crisp and physical. Finishing the play is coachable and comes with experience. Give him some time.
[/quote]

I strongly agree with you on both accounts. Maybe I could have put my comments a different way. The point is that I don't think Boldin is the right player for those deep pass plays, and Cam shouldn't even try to utilize him as such. And for Smith, I think the problem with him can easily be chalked up to his inexperience. I don't mean to criticize his football intelligence as a means of saying that he's not going to cut it, it's just his inexperience. His ability to keep coverage close to the receiver was impressive, as I said, but he needs more experience in reading the play to complete the pass block because right now I think most veterans that would have been that close to the receiver and the ball after keeping coverage down the field that tight would indeed have completed the pass block where Smith failed.

[callahan09]

I just re-watched the game. I have a new comment: I've got a lot more confidence in this team now than I had at the beginning of the pre-season. I think what we've seen right now is that this team has a TON of good depth at many positions: linebackers, corners, safeties, receivers, running backs... I'm very happy with our depth pretty much across the board.

[Jabara]

Does anyone know if this game is being replayed, maybe on nfln?

[True]

Justin Houston was awesome (If you were in the draft section you know how much I wanted him...)

[Runnin Raven]

Just a small thing but it was a joy to see our cornerbacks up by the line of scrimmage ready to bump and run.

[tctony]

I thought Jimmy Smith did okay. He had some very tight coverage on Bowe on the first play and Bowe made a heck of a catch. Williams on the other side looked great.

Flacco had great elusiveness, but his accuracy was a little off. That play were he evaded the sack and got it to Rice for the first time was awesome.

McPhee looked great on D line. Defense looked pretty good. Goalline stand after the Webb fumble was good to see.

Koch and Cundiff are beasts.

[MKdave]

I think the best part of last night was the play of Pernell McPhee. Probably my favourite pick of our draft so far. Really liked Sergio Kindle getting after the punter a couple of times too. I'm confident that will translate into him getting after the QB before long. And you've gotta love the return of pressure from Pagano. I don't even care that it left some holes in the back end. It was good to see us make a QB actually have to make quick decisions as opposed to letting them sit back and throw it whenever and wherever they wanted. I doubt he'll rush that many that often once the season gets underway, but it's comforting to know he's willing to send the house to make lives difficult for QBs when he needs to.

[Yatagarasu]

1) I love the fact that we have tall, physical cover cornerbacks.

2) We shouldn't worry about the pass rush because our young guns are definitely dialing up the heat and taking charge. If Pagano can't utilize these pressure makers Paul Kruger, Sergio Kindle, and Pernell McPhee, shame on him.

3) O-line is taking responsibility for their idle showing, but I think people are criticizing them too much for the given situation. in a lockout-shorten offseason, everyone is bound to make mistakes, some more than others. I have full trust that Ozzie and company will make sure the best front 5 will be protecting Flacco against the Steelers on week 1, whether he brings in a veteran guard or RT.

4) Torrey Smith is probably going to be this year's David Reed because he seems to be a one trick pony at this point. Good thing he can return kicks because David Reed is up for a promotion.

5) We're loaded on RBs. I know that Ricky Williams is a veteran RB who can do little of everything, but I think it's going to be a one year gap for him because our young players Parmele and Anthony can definitely pass the eye test and initiate test as quality back-ups.

6) Ozzie is still with the ministry of magic because he's getting late round gems, low-priced FAs, and quality players to reload this team for another shot for the Super Bowl. Building through the draft and bringing in right priced FAs is always better than putting all your eggs in one basket like the Eagles.

[lowrider]

I think Chuck Pagano needs a shout out here. Our defense is fast and aggressive, and it looks like our defense is back to be a force. I think Pagano has a lot to do with that.

Offense is getting there. I definitely see a lot of potential but it will take a little bit of time to get in rhythm together. And Jah Reid seemed to be taking the steps we need him to take. GREAT block for Rice on that 27 td run. Still had some false starts on the O line though....

I wanted to make a shout out to Cam to. I think we used Boldin wrong last year and I like the crossing patterns we are doing and plays so he can run after the catch. That is what we need to do for our team to be successful.

Flacco also isn't just dumping the ball to the rb's anymore. BIg maturity step. Also, think it's because our receivers are more of a deep threat this year.

[Milton145]

I feel kinda sorry for Torrey Smith. There HAS been plenty of plays where he has clearly been open but the balls just aren't coming to him. Hopefully it gets worked out soon.

[lowrider]

[quote name='Milton145' timestamp='1313861710' post='758009']
I feel kinda sorry for Torrey Smith. There HAS been plenty of plays where he has clearly been open but the balls just aren't coming to him. Hopefully it gets worked out soon.
[/quote]
But that is encouraging to see. He is close. Him and Flacco are just off, whether it is the pattern be ran wrong in a little way or the timing with Flacco isn't there yet. But they are close. This game definitely made me feel better about Smith overall

[Milton145]

[quote name='lowrider' timestamp='1313861836' post='758014']
But that is encouraging to see. He is close. Him and Flacco are just off, whether it is the pattern be ran wrong in a little way or the timing with Flacco isn't there yet. But they are close. This game definitely made me feel better about Smith overall
[/quote]

Yea I'm definitely happy Smith is showing he can get clear separation from NFL CBs. That's really good. Once it all comes together with the game-time chemistry with Flacco he'll be the big play threat we all want him to be.

[Hjulmann]

Definitely impressed about our team. Im so psyched to see when the game REALLY starts for us. I feel something good, something I didn't feel last year or the year before. Ladies and gentleman, I feel we are going to go all the way.

[Runnin Raven]

It doesn't happen nearly as often as it should but it was nice to see Joe rear back and heave that deep ball to Boldin. Just missed it.

[Ravensfan23]

So after re-watching the game, I've come up with this.

The starting Oline played great imo. I see people saying how they weren't any better or slightly better then last week, but after re-watching the game, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Before I start with the positives because it's a lot of them, I'll go with the 1 big negative I saw. Micheal Oher just seems to struggle with that blitz coming from his left. He almost got Flacco killed again, and he didn't even touch anyone on that play.

Other then that, the oline was not a concern at all last night. They did a really strong job of run blocking, as I've said before, Cousins, Reid and Mattison worked really well together.

Don't look at the amount of times Flacco had to scramble and just automatically blame the Oline. If you go back and watch the game, Flacco left the pocket sooner then he needed to at times. Imo, it just looked like Flacco wasn't comfortable with his Oline, and that's to be expected with Cousins and Reid starting together for the first time.

The oline gave Flacco enough time to get the ball down field, it was just an off night by Joe and it made it overall performance of the offense look worse then it was.

Pitta and Wilson did a good job in run blocking, Ricky ran hard, Vonta was physical and Ray was patient, really strong showing by in the running game.

We saw a lot of single WR power formations, but when we did pass, I really liked the bunch formations. I liked the timing and spacing in the passing game, and despite Flacco being off the mark, every pass he missed the WR was open. So that's definitely a good sign.

On the defensive side of the ball, man Cody just looked down right dominant at times. I really can't see anyone having much success running the ball on us this year. Last week I though Cody didn't let it all hang out(no pun intended), and maybe it was just a case of him getting his feet under him with Camp just starting. But this week, Cody was flying to the ball and displayed really good quickness at the NT position. I was really impressed.

We've done a lot of talking about if Art Jones could take the starting DE job. Well from what I saw, he'll have to earn it and take it, because Redding isn't giving it up easily. He looked so much more comfortable, stronger, quicker, and just better this year. I don't know if it's his hard work, or just Chuck's defense, but Redding was getting pressure almost every passing play. He held up strong in the run game, and was just stout all around.

This is no knock on the Goat, but man, did anyone even notice that Ray wasn't on the field last night? Ellerbe and McClain played so well together and overall the entire front 7 did a great job. LeRon McClain did a lot of offseason work, and looked in good shape, but the Ravens made him look like he didn't have any pop behind his blocks. He would just hit someone and slide off while they made the tackle.

McClain played with so much more control in this game. I think maybe going back home to Philly might have gotten to him last week, because this week he showed why coaches are so high on him. He stepped into Ray's role, called the defenses and didn't seem to have anyone out of place the entire night. Great Job.

Ellerbe was his usual fast, physical hardcore shelf. I think I was him miss one tackle all night. He was filling in the run game, violently attacking the LOS on blitzes, and stayed under control in pass coverage.

BA also did a really great job of the 1st unit.

Webb needs to be inside on defense. I think he's found a knack for blitzing and I'm sure Chuck will continue to use him that way. It's only been 2 games of preseason ball, but it seems like that Long pass by Brown in the playoffs, might have effected Webb much more then it should have. He just doesn't look like the same strong cover corner as we've seen before. Hopefully he gets his swag back. But Webb, Nakamura and Pollard will be getting after the QB a lot this year and it should be fun.

McPhee is another one of those guys that allows Ozzie to sit back in his Sky Box and say, silly fans. To think that I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to drafting talent. That guy is just unblockable at times and when he gets to the QB he gets there hard. 2 forced fumbles in 2 games, I don't care if they count or not, that's impressive.

On the backup front, Tyrod looked much more comfortable in game 2 then he did in game one. He looked more like a backup QB, then a rookie QB. The missed big play to the TE was the only issue I had with Tyrod. He ran when he needed to run, he got the ball out of his hands quickly to Doss a could times. Had great touch on his passes to David Reed, and he might have had the play of the Year and it's only preseason. In fact I think Justin Houston is still wondering if Tyrod knows magic.

Harewood and Boren play really well together on the left side, while Mattison, Cousins and Reid, continued to hold down the right side. I really like Boren. Bartholomew and Barnes didn't get to play until the last drive, but they both imposed their will during the Allen runs. Again just a really good job by the oline as a whole.

Speaking of Allen, that guy doesn't play around when he has the ball in his hands. He's explosive and powerful. We might be looking at our #2 RB of the not so distant future.

I think LaQuan is firmly placed in that #6 WR spot right now. Not only is he out performing Marcus Smith at the WR position, he's doing it on Special Teams as well. Williams might just take the place of David Reed on KO team, when Reed becomes more involved in the Offense. How great would it be to actually have a WR make the team as a undrafted Free Agent and going into a key peiece of our team?

McCellean had a couple of bad plays, but overall he played really well. Much as I expected he'll be a guy who rushes the passer much more then plays the run or pass. Maybe he'll develop into a top backup, but right now in his 2nd year, I see him as a pass rush specialist. With Kindle already holding that role, plus the amount of pressure we've been able to get with other guys, McClellean might be headed back to the PS.

I know I'm missing something, but this post is already long enough, so I'll just cut it off now.