Maybe The Blowout Was A Blessing...

[Radinho84]

[quote name='izvoodoo' timestamp='1324480586' post='917281']
Pats have first seed. Hopefully Pitt takes them out and we can beat Pitt at M&T in the Super Bowl.
[/quote]
what i meant was that you cannot lose something you don´t have....

i have a question: if the season ended today we would have a bye week and after that we would have to play the divisional round. which team would we have to play considering the season ended today? steelers or texans??

[balimore]

What makes a great team is on how they respond to losses and mistakes.

[izvoodoo]

[quote name='Radinho84' timestamp='1324486230' post='917375']
what i meant was that you cannot lose something you don´t have....

i have a question: if the season ended today we would have a bye week and after that we would have to play the divisional round. which team would we have to play considering the season ended today? steelers or texans??
[/quote]

Texans are the easier out. and we had 1st seed before San Diego.

[wayne]

[quote name='BenDufusberger' timestamp='1324438215' post='917035']


That wasn't a fetal flaw in our defense that was exposed against the Chargers , that was a full-sized adult flaw. A Haloti-sized adult flaw.

I just hope it's not still growing.
[/quote]

Actually, that wasn't a flaw, Pagano was just out coached. Too much faith was placed in our CBs wich lead to Pagano playing too much Cover 1 and 0 coverages instead of being smart and using a more Cover 2 base D on the Chargers with occasionaly throwing the Cover 1 and 0 coverages in there. Cover 1 helps your D in a lot of ways but against a team like the Chargers, we got to just deal without the help of what the Cover 1 brings to the table and go to a more, Cover 2, Greg Mattison style defense.

[BenDufusberger]

[quote name='wayne' timestamp='1324503534' post='917709']
Actually, that wasn't a flaw, Pagano was just out coached. Too much faith was placed in our CBs wich lead to Pagano playing too much Cover 1 and 0 coverages instead of being smart and using a more Cover 2 base D on the Chargers with occasionaly throwing the Cover 1 and 0 coverages in there. Cover 1 helps your D in a lot of ways but against a team like the Chargers, we got to just deal without the help of what the Cover 1 brings to the table and go to a more, Cover 2, Greg Mattison style defense.
[/quote]

I agree , I was just taking advantage of a handy spellcheck error to make a bad pun.

The most disappointing thing to me about the Chargers game was the failure to make that simple adjustment of inserting extra DBs. Especially with Webb being out , it should have been expected that Rivers would try to exploit the young CBs. I could have dealt with the loss a lot easier if the D had demonstrated the ability to gameplan and execute against a high-powered passing attack , even if some individual players like Smith had made some errors.. This late in the season , there's really no excuse for not doing so.

At least with Pagano , I know he'll bust butt finding a solution to the problem , and I think they'll do better next time we face a similar situation.

The other thing I worry about is fatigue among some of our star defensive players. Guys like Ngata and Suggs play just about every snap , every game. I'm not sure that's a great idea when you have post-season aspirations. I hope the next two games are locked up early and we can sit some of the vets. This is another reason that playoff bye week is so important.

[BenDufusberger]

[quote name='BenDufusberger' timestamp='1324505295' post='917734']

I agree , I was just taking advantage of a handy spellcheck error to make a bad pun.

The most disappointing thing to me about the Chargers game was the failure to make that simple adjustment of inserting extra DBs , and , as you said , providing more help in deep coverage. Especially with Webb being out , it should have been expected that Rivers would try to exploit the young CBs. I could have dealt with the loss a lot easier if the D had demonstrated the ability to gameplan and execute against a high-powered passing attack , even if some individual players like Smith had made some errors.. This late in the season , there's really no excuse for not doing so.

At least with Pagano , I know he'll bust butt finding a solution to the problem , and I think they'll do better next time we face a similar situation.

The other thing I worry about is fatigue among some of our star defensive players. Guys like Ngata and Suggs play just about every snap , every game. I'm not sure that's a great idea when you have post-season aspirations. I hope the next two games are locked up early and we can sit some of the vets. This is another reason that playoff bye week is so important.
[/quote]

[darklight1216]

I can't say that I think losing is a good thing. "You play to win the game," as the saying goes. Also, the Ravens have demonstrated again and again that they don't really learn from their losses this season.

[wayne]

[quote name='BenDufusberger' timestamp='1324505295' post='917734']


I agree , I was just taking advantage of a handy spellcheck error to make a bad pun.

The most disappointing thing to me about the Chargers game was the failure to make that simple adjustment of inserting extra DBs. Especially with Webb being out , it should have been expected that Rivers would try to exploit the young CBs. I could have dealt with the loss a lot easier if the D had demonstrated the ability to gameplan and execute against a high-powered passing attack , even if some individual players like Smith had made some errors.. This late in the season , there's really no excuse for not doing so.

At least with Pagano , I know he'll bust butt finding a solution to the problem , and I think they'll do better next time we face a similar situation.

The other thing I worry about is fatigue among some of our star defensive players. Guys like Ngata and Suggs play just about every snap , every game. I'm not sure that's a great idea when you have post-season aspirations. I hope the next two games are locked up early and we can sit some of the vets. This is another reason that playoff bye week is so important.
[/quote]

Yea, no doubt that Pagano will learn from this game. I hated Mattison's style of defense but I also knew that it was good to use his style of defense as a base defense vs some of the teams in the league, prefererably the Chargers ( Patroits, Saints, Colts ). Two safeties deep wth the CBs playing close coverage making Rivers take the underneath stuff then occasionally slip the Cover 1 in. Also, in your Cover 2, have Ed occasionally playing the deep middle of the field ( like a hybrid Cover 1/ Cover 2 defense where Pollard stays back in his Cover 2 position and have Ed showing Cover 2 at the snap of the ball then he plays the middle. Also, Pollard could do this with Ed staying in his Cover 2 )for the TE/ WR seam route in the middle. Pagano was a secondary coach so I have strong faith that he will have the boys prepared next time for facing the Chargers or a team like it.

[K-Dog]

[quote name='CalvinSmoke' timestamp='1324445455' post='917104']
haha, he meant fatal, but i'm sure you were just being a jokester as usual, clever lol
[/quote]


he is fine. You really cant take a guy with a screen name like BenDufusberger, too seriously.

[CorvusCorax]

[quote name='PuRock' timestamp='1324402332' post='916290']

If the Ravens win out. They will have won 6 of their final 7 games. That's pretty good momentum. Our only loss [b]cam[/b] in a night game across country.
[/quote]

Haha I see what you did there!

[cursona pirate]

[quote name='CorvusCorax' timestamp='1324518024' post='917867']

Haha I see what you did there!
[/quote]
i didnt even notice that!!! lol!! he is a clever chap!!

[BenDufusberger]

[quote name='wayne' timestamp='1324509239' post='917785']
Yea, no doubt that Pagano will learn from this game. I hated Mattison's style of defense but I also knew that it was good to use his style of defense as a base defense vs some of the teams in the league, prefererably the Chargers ( Patroits, Saints, Colts ). Two safeties deep wth the CBs playing close coverage making Rivers take the underneath stuff then occasionally slip the Cover 1 in. Also, in your Cover 2, have Ed occasionally playing the deep middle of the field ( like a hybrid Cover 1/ Cover 2 defense where Pollard stays back in his Cover 2 position and have Ed showing Cover 2 at the snap of the ball then he plays the middle. Also, Pollard could do this with Ed staying in his Cover 2 )for the TE/ WR seam route in the middle. Pagano was a secondary coach so I have strong faith that he will have the boys prepared next time for facing the Chargers or a team like it.
[/quote]

The defensive breakdown of the Chargers game by Filmstudy is worth a look :

[url="http://www.ravens24x7.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82091"]http://www.ravens24x7.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82091[/url]

There's a lot there , but this quote stood out to me :

" It was interesting to see Pagano stick with the nickel for this game. The Ravens have depth at both corner and safety, they lack an outstanding coverage linebacker, the game was out of reach early in the 2nd half, and they may face teams in the coming weeks with even more extreme passing offenses. Does those sound like conditions where one might want to play more dime? They have still played just 17 dime snaps the entire season."


Gorrer was inactive for the game because he had a death in the family , and Webb was limited by his injury apparently , but Carr , Haruki , and Zibby were available , yet Carr only played 1 snap , Haruki only 1 snap that wasn't in a goal line situation , and Zibby played 11 snaps , mostly nickel.

Only one dime coverage package for the entire game , this while our CBs were being torched throughout. Compare that to when we beat the Saints last year , when we played dime in 22 of 63 snaps overall. That's 5 more dime packages in that one game than we've used this entire year !

[url="http://www.ravens24x7.com/columns/Filmstudy/FILMSTUDY-Defensive-Notes-vs.-Saints"]http://www.ravens24x7.com/columns/Filmstudy/FILMSTUDY-Defensive-Notes-vs.-Saints[/url]

Something's way out of whack here. Either we simply don't have trustworthy talent among our DBs , or we took a drastic - and disastrous - turn in defensive philosophy this year when facing strong passing attacks.

Those CBs shouldn't be thrown to the wolves like that again. With Webb and Gorrer back , we should be able to field reasonably capable dime coverages when needed , even if we've lost confidence in Carr and our two reserve safeties.

[CapoRocky]

Okay, we are ready to move on from this national embarrassment by torching the Browns.

[PuRock]

[quote name='CorvusCorax' timestamp='1324518024' post='917867']

Haha I see what you did there!
[/quote]
[quote name='cursona pirate' timestamp='1324518191' post='917869']
i didnt even notice that!!! lol!! he is a clever chap!!
[/quote]

I would like to take credit for that pun. But alas, it was a mere typo.

[Dfence4champs2052]

[quote name='CalvinSmoke' timestamp='1324402668' post='916298']
It was also really good for us to face an aerial assult during the season, instead of the first time being in the playoffs. It was good for Pagano especially to experience that. Jimmy Smith too
[/quote]
Yeah I can agree with this.

[Ravenslifer]

[quote name='PuRock' timestamp='1324567231' post='918110']

I would like to take credit for that pun. But alas, it was a mere typo.
[/quote]

Think of it as more of a Freudian slip.

[Twistidfunk]

[quote name='BenDufusberger' timestamp='1324537013' post='917987']

The defensive breakdown of the Chargers game by Filmstudy is worth a look :

[url="http://www.ravens24x7.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82091"]http://www.ravens24x...ead.php?t=82091[/url]

There's a lot there , but this quote stood out to me :

" It was interesting to see Pagano stick with the nickel for this game. The Ravens have depth at both corner and safety, they lack an outstanding coverage linebacker, the game was out of reach early in the 2nd half, and they may face teams in the coming weeks with even more extreme passing offenses. Does those sound like conditions where one might want to play more dime? They have still played just 17 dime snaps the entire season."


Gorrer was inactive for the game because he had a death in the family , and Webb was limited by his injury apparently , but Carr , Haruki , and Zibby were available , yet Carr only played 1 snap , Haruki only 1 snap that wasn't in a goal line situation , and Zibby played 11 snaps , mostly nickel.

Only one dime coverage package for the entire game , this while our CBs were being torched throughout. Compare that to when we beat the Saints last year , when we played dime in 22 of 63 snaps overall. That's 5 more dime packages in that one game than we've used this entire year !

[url="http://www.ravens24x7.com/columns/Filmstudy/FILMSTUDY-Defensive-Notes-vs.-Saints"]http://www.ravens24x...otes-vs.-Saints[/url]

Something's way out of whack here. Either we simply don't have trustworthy talent among our DBs , or we took a drastic - and disastrous - turn in defensive philosophy this year when facing strong passing attacks.

Those CBs shouldn't be thrown to the wolves like that again. With Webb and Gorrer back , we should be able to field reasonably capable dime coverages when needed , even if we've lost confidence in Carr and our two reserve safeties.
[/quote]


Thanks for posting that. Very interseting and telling game plans. I remember seeing Reed and Polalrd playing up most of the game. Also, in nickel packages Pagano was trying to bring a DB on the rush, I wouldn't really call it a blitz cause it just didn't work. Our guys were all picked up and the pass rush did nothing. it was pathetic but Rivers did seem to get rid of the ball very quickly.

Like you said, we needed more zone and dime packages. If Rivers wanted to throw underneath, fine. We had guys covered and maybe might have gotten a pick or two.


Either way, our offense sputtered in the second half and Flacco never played that well other than the 1st drive.

Like Ed Reed always says, "it is what it is man". This game is over and while I want to move on from it, I can't because there were some major, glaring, gaping, holes in that game. Mostly concerning was that it was our defense. Something that has not been our achilles heel and it is an uncomfortable experience. I don't know where we go from here even if we do trounce the Browns and the Bengals.