4 Quarters Of Football

[kiwi_raven]

We won awesome. ok now that that is out of the way....

did anyone else feel like we once again took our foot off the throat of the opposition.

the first half was picture perfect, Defense, Special teams and Offense were just going balls to the wall, but then the third quarter started and it was like we were just mailing in the rest of the game, yes we made some plays in the second half but it wasn't the same intensity.

It just wasnt playing 4 quarters.

[The Raven]

Not at all actually. We kept going for it. We were passing the ball deep downfield with 7 minutes left. I think we just slowed down and lost momentum as the game went on, but we still played 4 great quarters of football.

[1/28/01]

[quote name='kiwi_raven' timestamp='1316998277' post='804746']
We won awesome. ok now that that is out of the way....

did anyone else feel like we once again took our foot off the throat of the opposition.

the first half was picture perfect, Defense, Special teams and Offense were just going balls to the wall, but then the third quarter started and it was like we were just mailing in the rest of the game, yes we made some plays in the second half but it wasn't the same intensity.

It just wasnt playing 4 quarters.
[/quote]
Eh, to an extent...but we did keep throwing and still added onto the first quarter lead. Overall thrilled and this will be one of my few responses in a negative type thread (not that this was on overly negative thread).

[Purple Punishment]

We had a commanding lead. We dont need to risk throwing interceptions for turnovers that translates to points. You run the ball and run the clock out! You do not pass when you are up by 20-30 points. No need to.

[RavensAllTheWay]

I did not get that sense at all, ESPECIALLY compared to big leads we've had in the past. I'm actually very surprised that you feel this way. We kept passing throughout the game, hence Joe's career high 389 yards. I was even a little disturbed by how much we were passing with that lead, comsidering Flacco took a ton of hits.

I felt the exact opposite.

[kiwi_raven]

yes ill coincide that the offense continued to move the ball, and dont get me wrong we played a great game on offense, i just felt our defense lost focus in the third quarter, maybe it was just the playcalling becoming more vanilla in the thirds before they picked the pace back up in the forth.

[K-Dog]

I had no problem "running up the score" against Pitts-burgh. I dont [i]completely[/i] feel as if we did that today, but the potential was there.

[The Raven]

[quote name='kiwi_raven' timestamp='1316999173' post='804775']
yes ill coincide that the offense continued to move the ball, and dont get me wrong we played a great game on offense, i just felt our defense lost focus in the third quarter, maybe it was just the playcalling becoming more vanilla in the thirds before they picked the pace back up in the forth.
[/quote]

That's part of it, Pagano had a period where he was calling a lot of soft zone coverages and gave them a lot of underneath stuff, instead of attacking them.

[BKeyser]

Completely agree- at least on defense. This week. I'll give Cam credit, he kept throwing; that seemed to be the game plan and he stuck to it. But there is definitely a lack of killer instinct with this team and I get the feeling it comes from the head coach. I like Harbaugh- I like him a lot. But sometimes I think he's too nice. I get the feeling he pulled Chuck aside at halftime and said, "Okay, we've got this in the bag, don't have our guys hurt that young QB."

We came out in the 3rd quarter and played from our heels on D. All zone. No pass rush. It looked like the Tennessee game all over again. I am no football expert (but I've been a fan since Bert Jones was throwing to Roger Carr, but when the Raves stand still pre-snap on D, they're dropping 7 or 8 in zone. And if I can see it, surely the opposing QB can see it. 1WinningDrive even tweeted it live ([url="http://twitter.com/#%21/search?q=%23Ravens"][s]#[/s][b]Ravens[/b][/url] defense is playing a little looser with such a lead...) When we move around, even if we don't blitz, we seem to confuse the offense and not allow them set their protections as easily. It's not rocket science; you can just about predict every play by watching our pre-snap routine. It's incredibly frustrating.

We come out on D in the 3rd, let them march all the way down field after hardly giving up a first down in the first half, then change it up and go back to pressure and movement in the next series and stop them cold. I'm glad we won, but it worries me when we give the other team life and a reason to keep playing hard. That's how we could end up losing our QB - we give them hope that the game is still in doubt, a reason to play hard, a reason to keep coming after Joe. I don't care if we get called every name in the book for running up the score or sacking the QB in the fourth quarter leading by 30 points; you either have the killer instinct, or you lose to Pittsburgh in the playoffs every year.

A touch guy reputation in the NFL should be a good thing, not something to try to live down.

[Raving_Heathen]

[quote name='Purple Punishment' timestamp='1316998481' post='804753']
We had a commanding lead. We dont need to risk throwing interceptions for turnovers that translates to points. You run the ball and run the clock out! You do not pass when you are up by 20-30 points. No need to.
[/quote]

I kind of agree in the sense that you should be more careful with the ball when you're up big, but I think if the first 3 weeks have shown us anything, it's that an early 20+ point lead doesn't guarantee any sort of victory. The NFL has become so pass-happy where just about any team can put up lots of points in a hurry, that you kind of have to keep your foot on the gas pedal (as Tom Brady said today after their loss to the Bills) even when you're up by several scores.

I agree with everyone else though that I thought the Ravens continued to be very aggressive today, and so that wasn't the reason they stopped scoring in the 2nd half. I think the Rams started to get a lot more pressure on Flacco and his receivers (Dickson, Boldin, and LaQuan in particular) just weren't making the grabs in the 2nd half. I think Flacco could've wound up with like 450 yards and like 5 TDs if his receivers had helped him out a bit.

[neoi78]

I actually felt like Cam never let off the gas pedal today. The Rams defense just adjusted to our plan, thats all. We never slowed down, just got derailed a little bit in 3rd and 4th QTR.

[rlh445]

The Rams get a paycheck too, and they eventually adapted a little bit and so we slowed down. No big deal, it's going to happen in '4 quarters of football'.

[Gtown Purple]

I felt our strategy in the second half was to just shorten the game. Did anyone else notice that we were intentionally letting the clock get to 8 or so before each snap.?