MERGED: Loss To The Titans - General Observations

[Raving_Heathen]

[quote name='ratedr' timestamp='1316378049' post='796536']
Exactly. I would've rather lost last week and won this week.
[/quote]

I don't. I think losing to the Steelers could've been potentially disastrous for the team's morale. I think the combination of that win over the Steelers and this loss to the Titans will set the Ravens up really well in the long run. They got the monkey off their backs in beating the Steelers with Roethlisberger and lost to a team today they were expected to beat easily. So it's a nice mix of extreme confidence boost with extreme anger at this point. I feel very sorry for Bradford and the Rams.

BTW look at whom the SB teams from the last several years lost to or struggled with during the regular season. I'm not going to bother listing the who's-who, but look it up. The kind of loss the Ravens had today means absolutely nothing in the long run.

[GrimCoconut]

[quote name='Deep6again' timestamp='1316390306' post='797212']
I agree with the fans who say Cam made several mistakes today. One big one is that Gurode should have played left guard and not LeVoir. Gurode is a pro bowler who has played LG before and should not have sat on the bench. The regular season is not the time to see how an untested player like Levoir would perform. Ozzie did a great job of filling many positions and we should use our assets. We will be back and this team will click.
[/quote]

Maybe I can help bring some clarity into the coach's reason for not using Gurode. While driving to a frozen yogurt place to forget my woes from the game, I had 98 Rock playing. I heard John Harbaugh say something to the effect that they felt Gurode was a better center, but LeVoir was a better guard, and that is why they played him. He further went on to say that LeVoir played most of his career as guard, while Gurode mostly played center.

I hope that helps.

[ratedr]

[quote name='RavensAllTheWay' timestamp='1316390468' post='797219']
Do you think Flacco plays like he did today more often than he plays well? He most certainly doesn't. This was an exception. Do you see him trying to force the ball into tight windows every week? Do you see it often? No because Joe typically doesn't do that. This game was an EXCEPTION. Almost anyone who's watched Flacco since he took over here in Bmore will tell you the same thing. That's not an opinion. That's a fact. Anyone who's watched Flacco over the years will tel you that he almost always comes back [i]very[/i] strong after a bad game. That's a fact. Would you rather him have a game like this NOW or later in the season?

70 TDs, 36 INTs in his career in the regular season. 25 TDs, 10 INTs last season. The yardage has gone up every season. The TDs have also gone up every season, and the INTs have dropped (12 in 08, 12 in 09, 10 last year.) Those are not opinions. Those are facts.

Some people out there think Joe is an average QB. They either don't have their facts straight or they like to hate.
[/quote]
Well said. I'm no Flacco apologist, but I've said it before: QBs get too much credit when the team wins, and too much blame when the team loses.

[RavensAllTheWay]

[quote name='Militant X 1' timestamp='1316388999' post='797147']
ok, sure, the Ravens made bad plays and not enough plays to win the game and got the loss. BUT...to keep it real....after rewatching the game (yep..i recorded it...lol) i know exactly why the Ravens loss to the Titans today. nope, it's not Cam's, Joe's or the WR's and even the D's fault. it had something to do with the Titans as well. what was it?

bottomline....they showed [b]NO FEAR [/b]of the Ravens!! like us with the steelers last week...they wanted to beat us badly because of 2008. they had been holding that in for a few years now and here is how it manifested today:

1. on one particular deep ball that Hasselbeck threw in the 3rd qrtr to Washington the play was designed to bring Ed Reed up closer to pick up the WR running the crossing route while the actual target ran deep up field in the zone that was vacated by Ed. awesome play design!

2. Hasselbeck threw a TD to Britt who was one on one with Foxworth. what is so special about that? Britt was the target and no one else. Hasselbeck eyed Britt the entire time. wow!

3. they ran the ball regularly on our defense. and even though we focused heavily on not allowing CJ to beat us, we forgot about Ringer who ran for a TD off of a pitch untouched.....on a 4th &1

4. their CBs were hitting and talking smack the entire game! i love that!

5. their pass rush was relentless

6. they attacked the Ravens offensively....especially with their passing attack. pass after pass after pass!

just my take!

~Mili
[/quote]
Even their D coordinator, Jerry Gray, talked some smack this week. He said something like "if the Ravens get chippy, were gonna hurt them." Yeah, they were ready for this game. I kind of thought the writing was on the wall. Seeing how a lot of what was being posted on the website this week was related to last week, I really thought we let our heads slip a little. And the Titans? Yeah, they were ready, and I'm glad you pointed that out. They made it happen.

Also, people can be shocked by the fact that a J. Harbaugh-led team had such a letdown this week. I definitely think Harbs is a part of this loss. However, it happened to Tomlin's team last week, didn't it? They were in complete shambles last week too, weren't they?

It just goes to show that nobody's perfect.

[1/28/01]

[quote name='wizard1' timestamp='1316384307' post='796996']
Well I'm sorry I just don't agree. Flaccos hot and cold play makes me think he might be bi-polar. Whatever the issues may be when you talk about the NFLs elite quarterbacks you never seriously hear Flaccos name mentioned and in order for us to ever be serious SB considerations we have to have a consistently good quarterback. and don't throw Trent Dilfers name out there he had that amazing defense that won 6 games for him by themselves.. Now look at Stafford, Bradford and Cam Newton even they are playing consistently better than Flacco. We are going into St. Louis next week and I'm pretty sure Bradford will outplay Flacco. How long do we keep trying to make excuses for Flacco? Is there a time limit or is going to play out like Boller where one day he is just gone?
[/quote]
Flacco and Boller should even be in the same sentence, but coming from you, I am not surprised by the clueless posting!

[heapitup247]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1316389723' post='797188']
Flacco haters or truth tellers. If every fan insists on defending Flacco then please do so with facts. The fact is you give the kid all these weapons and he still stinks it up when rattled, forcing the ball in tight windows, starring down receivers, and just being an overall bad game manager, When the defense is playing bad, and we need Flacco to win a game. it doesn't happen. Just not sold on him. or Harbaugh for that matter, Really not hating on Flacco, im hating on Zibby though please get this guy off the field.
[/quote]

3 playoff appearances in 3 years for the Flacco/Harbs era. There's alot of fans in this league who would kill for making the playoffs one out of every 3 years. I'm sold. Competing consistently is something that shouldn't be overlooked.

[EricV703]

I'm over it already. Now all we can do is see how this coaching staff gets our guys ready for next week.

I just hope they actually show the game on TV next week! I hate watching it on the laptop

[Kwothdaraven]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1316389723' post='797188']
Flacco haters or truth tellers. If every fan insists on defending Flacco then please do so with facts. The fact is you give the kid all these weapons and he still stinks it up when rattled, forcing the ball in tight windows, starring down receivers, and just being an overall bad game manager, When the defense is playing bad, and we need Flacco to win a game. it doesn't happen. Just not sold on him. or Harbaugh for that matter, Really not hating on Flacco, im hating on Zibby though please get this guy off the field.
[/quote]


i cant even count how many times flacco pulled this team out when the defense failed us last year. just to name a few, texans, falcons (flacco brought us back from 3 tds down and the defense blew it with a minute left)

[Raving_Heathen]

[quote name='K-Dog' timestamp='1316381175' post='796855']
Hasselbeck and Britt was the majority of our undoing today. No one was able to stick Britt well enough.
[/quote]

A lot of us knew Britt was a bad matchup just because of his size and physicality. I actually thought Cary Williams did an OK job considering Hasselbeck looked like Tom Brady today and the Ravens got virtually no pressure on him. I would've LOOOOOOVED to have seen a certain 6'2" 220 lb corner out of Colorado that the Ravens drafted in the 1st round this year on Britt. I doubt Britt would've had the success he did.

[Guest RBates]

[quote name='Kwothdaraven' timestamp='1316391945' post='797292']


i cant even count how many times flacco pulled this team out when the defense failed us last year. just to name a few, texans, falcons (flacco brought us back from 3 tds down and the defense blew it with a minute left)
[/quote]
Texans game ended pn Josh Wilson's pick six. Atlanta we lost. Still waiting for a great game. smh

[ravensdfan]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1316392391' post='797306']
Texans game ended pn Josh Wilson's pick six. Atlanta we lost. Still waiting for a great game. smh
[/quote]

Just because the D couldn't stop Buffalo, how does that negate that being a great game for Flacco? Take him out of the equation and plug in let's say, Boller, and we lose that game.

[Raving_Heathen]

[quote name='Npane171' timestamp='1316381980' post='796895']
Q dropped a TD pass?
[/quote]

The defender had him in an arm bar. lol. No way Q drops that pass if he got 2 hands on it.

[Guest RBates]

[quote name='heapitup247' timestamp='1316391268' post='797260']

3 playoff appearances in 3 years for the Flacco/Harbs era. There's alot of fans in this league who would kill for making the playoffs one out of every 3 years. I'm sold. Competing consistently is something that shouldn't be overlooked.
[/quote]
Great defense but still getting out coached in games doesn't account for anything. We should compete i expect that. We are just falling short every year under this regime, and it gets old. Harbaugh said: he would be more involved in the offense this year. You go to Tennessee and stink it up. wow Joe is good but needs to take a more active approach in trying to win games instead of manage them. He gets rattled way to much.

[ratedr]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1316392682' post='797316']
Great defense but still getting out coached in games doesn't account for anything. We should compete i expect that. We are just falling short every year under this regime, and it gets old. Harbaugh said: he would be more involved in the offense this year. You go to Tennessee and stink it up. wow Joe is good but needs to take a more active approach in trying to win games instead of manage them. He gets rattled way to much.
[/quote]
You see, now you're being reasonable. I can agree with this. Aside from the great defense part, anyway. Everything looked bad today.

Joe is just a part of a larger problem.

[EricV703]

Man after seeing how well Julio Jones and AJ Green have been playing at WR there is no reason for Torrey to STILL be a non factor on this offense, he's had enough time to learn the offense. Evans can't be the ONLY quick guy on this team. Put in Laquan and I bet he makes more receptions and is a bigger impact that Torrey has been thus far. Doss even.

[hawkprey]

First allow me to say this is not Cam Cameron's fault, nor is it Harbaugh's, nor is it Foxworth's or Webb's or whoever else your fan-based bipolar disorder wants to give the blame to.

The reason the Ravens lost is because the Titans had a great gameplan against the Ravens. They knew what routes to call and what routes to defend. Even though the Ravens prevented any success in the Titan's run game, Tennessee had the right gameplan through the air.

Why didn't the Ravens do the same? Simple. In week 1, the Ravens didn't have failure. They didn't know what wouldn't work, because everything worked. The Titans had all week to learn from their mistakes, and the Ravens had no time at all.

It's not because any personnel of the Ravens stinks. They just didn't have the benefit of knowing what they can't do, or how they can be exposed.

Give credit to our CB's for making difficult plays. The WRs of the Titans just made great plays in tight spaces. Give credit to our offense for making adjustments to get some drives at the ends of the half. The Titans were just a few steps ahead.

So what Raven team do we expect to see the rest of the year? The one we always expected. One that can dominate, but has limitations that every team does. The secondary will take this game as a learning experience, and the offense will adjust to the type of defense the Titans ran successfully against this team.

[Raving_Heathen]

[quote name='EricV703' timestamp='1316392880' post='797326']
Put in Laquan and I bet he makes more receptions and is a bigger impact that Torrey has been thus far. Doss even.
[/quote]

+1 for Doss and LaQuan. Even if TS gets wide open, I don't trust his hands yet (nor his route running). I still like him, but no way should he be ahead of Doss.

[The Raven]

I don't think it was a lack of preparation mentally, it was a lack of emotional preparation. The offense looked sluggish with a passive mentality. Last week, we were a pack of crazed dogs. This week, not so much. It was emotional. We looked stagnant.

[Kwothdaraven]

[quote name='RBates' timestamp='1316392391' post='797306']
Texans game ended pn Josh Wilson's pick six. Atlanta we lost. Still waiting for a great game. smh
[/quote]

that doesent disprove my point. the texans were scoring on us at will and flacco kept us in the game, otherwise wilsons pick 6 is meaningless. and it wasnt flaccos fault that the defense let matt ryan march 80 yards in a minute to win the game. i remember josh wilson doing a face plant

[ravensdfan]

[quote name='hawkprey' timestamp='1316393184' post='797340']
First allow me to say this is not Cam Cameron's fault, nor is it Harbaugh's, nor is it Foxworth's or Webb's or whoever else your fan-based bipolar disorder wants to give the blame to.

[b]The reason the Ravens lost is because the Titans had a great gameplan against the Ravens.[/b] They knew what routes to call and what routes to defend. Even though the Ravens prevented any success in the Titan's run game, Tennessee had the right gameplan through the air.

Why didn't the Ravens do the same? Simple. In week 1, the Ravens didn't have failure. They didn't know what wouldn't work, because everything worked. The Titans had all week to learn from their mistakes, and the Ravens had no time at all.

It's not because any personnel of the Ravens stinks. They just didn't have the benefit of knowing what they can't do, or how they can be exposed.

Give credit to our CB's for making difficult plays. The WRs of the Titans just made great plays in tight spaces. Give credit to our offense for making adjustments to get some drives at the ends of the half. The Titans were just a few steps ahead.

So what Raven team do we expect to see the rest of the year? The one we always expected. One that can dominate, but has limitations that every team does. The secondary will take this game as a learning experience, and the offense will adjust to the type of defense the Titans ran successfully against this team.
[/quote]

This is why you make halftime adjustments. Something we did not do. Something that is the OC's job. Hey, I can take a loss. I didn't expect us to have a perfect season. I am ticked that it is the same old crap from last season. No creative play calling. No half time adjustments when our butts are getting kicked and misuse of personnel. Or no use of personnel. Not to mention having that one CB that can't cover my grandma. Always we have that one CB . This year it is Foxy. And we never, ever, ever just sit them. If we had sat Foxy and put in Brown and still lost, well, at least we tried something. Not us though. No. Same with T. Smith. Why was he in there instead of D. Reed or Doss? Both have outperformed him in camp and preseason. It is absurd. Now I know only some of the personnel issues are on Cam but c'mon man. Pull Levoir when you see he can't get it done. Why just sit there and watch the tragedy? Do something for crying out loud. At least go down fighting.

[big hits and ball hawks]

I've moved on from this game hours ago, but I need to put my 2 cents in.

It seemed the first problem was game planning. From the looks of it, it seemed as though we were too concerned with CJ and forgot about the rest of the offense. We also seemed to be playing pretty soft. There was definitely a drop off of aggressiveness on both sides. Then there was just poor execution. We had shots and opportunities to swing momentum, but unfortunately we didn't capitalize on them.

I'm not going to bash anyone. It was one game and it's early in the season. Last week still happened and we still have that potential. I still believe we're a 14-2 team. Onto the next.

[Alexir]

Their Secondary was better than our secondary and our pass rush couldnt get to Matt.

Ben Grubbs made his case for his contract next year....

[Kwothdaraven]

[quote name='big hits and ball hawks' timestamp='1316394215' post='797384']
I've moved on from this game hours ago, but I need to put my 2 cents in.

It seemed the first problem was game planning. From the looks of it, it seemed as though we were too concerned with CJ and forgot about the rest of the offense. We also seemed to be playing pretty soft. There was definitely a drop off of aggressiveness on both sides. Then there was just poor execution. We had shots and opportunities to swing momentum, but unfortunately we didn't capitalize on them.

I'm not going to bash anyone. It was one game and it's early in the season. Last week still happened and we still have that potential. I still believe we're a 14-2 team. Onto the next.
[/quote]
our problem last year were our subpar corners who cant cover a top 15 wr to save their jobs. jimmy smith is a guy that can do that, and losing him killed us today. im sure he would have held britt to under 100 yards, which makes this game a world different.

i also look back to last year at week 2 when flacco threw 4 picks and we lost to the bengals in the saem fashion. after that game flacco played at probowl levels and the ravens never played a game that bad again. im hoping that will be the case this year.

i would love to have jimmy back for the jets, but we will need him badly for the texans and andre johnson

[ravensdfan]

Alright so, I'm just going to call it a jinx from that OP who started the Patriots vs Ravens in the AFCC game thread after the first game. Yep. Makes me feel better lol

[EricV703]

What really ticked me off the most was not beating against Finnegan. After I saw him talking [i]<trash>[/i] to dickson in the first quarter we HAD to win this.

He's not good, he just talks [i]<trash>[/i]

[Haloti Hell]

lesson learned.. when you win, say little. When you lose, say less.

[The Raven]

[quote name='EricV703' timestamp='1316396720' post='797470']
What really ticked me off the most was not beating against Finnegan. After I saw him talking [i]<trash>[/i] to dickson in the first quarter we HAD to win this.

He's not good, he just talks [i]<trash>[/i]
[/quote]

Yeah, he's not good man. He helped [i]completely shut down[/i] our passing game, but he's not good...........

[big hits and ball hawks]

[quote name='Kwothdaraven' timestamp='1316396264' post='797459']
our problem last year were our subpar corners who cant cover a top 15 wr to save their jobs. jimmy smith is a guy that can do that, and losing him killed us today. im sure he would have held britt to under 100 yards, which makes this game a world different.

[b]i also look back to last year at week 2 when flacco threw 4 picks and we lost to the bengals in the saem fashion. after that game flacco played at probowl levels and the ravens never played a game that bad again. im hoping that will be the case this year.[/b]

i would love to have jimmy back for the jets, but we will need him badly for the texans and andre johnson
[/quote]

Was the Jimmy Smith comment directed toward me or were you just saying? I can't say whether or not JSmith would have made Britt less of a factor, but his return should be a definite boost to the secondary. I hope he can have a full recovery before we really need him. Your point I put in bold, I have been thinking that ever since I calmed myself and really thought about it. Plus, I personally believe that game was a whole lot worse than today.

[Kingcgol]

I think the no pass rush killed us. Cary Williams played well he did give up a 35yard catch. But I noticed that the moved Brittle away from Cary a lot. He firm't give up a rd. He had a pt but he was being aggressive.

[wizard1]

[quote name='1/28/01' timestamp='1316391116' post='797253']
Flacco and Boller should even be in the same sentence, but coming from you, I am not surprised by the clueless posting!
[/quote]
We will see next week in St. Louis. As much as I love my Ravens-we stunk up the joint. It was a total embarrassment. My guess is we are finally beginning to see the unraveling. For three years we have been making excuses for Flacco-saying he has nobody to throw to-that he has to mature, it's a this and it's a that. Well I for one am just tired of excuses. This team has been middle of the road since Flacco and Harbaugh came on board. Oh sure we get into the playoffs but last time I checked it's the other teams winning the Super Bowls. I am no longer content with these lackluster performances and hoping we somehow survive into the playoffs. I want a super bowl winner in Baltimore and I'm not going to get it with Flacco and this tumbleweed offense. JOE MUST GO!!!!