MERGED: After The Game Impressions, Opinions

[cobrajet]

1. No huddle works. Joe made adjustments when he had to and looked real sharp.

2. Ray made the most of his touches. I think he will be OK with this new offense.

3. Our secondary played OK. I was worried, but Webb looked good and Reed made a great pick and return for TD and as suspected Pollard making the big hits. Williams was a little spotty.

4. Pass rush was non existent in the first half but they made ajustments and got things going in the second half. May still need a little work but better than preseaon by far.

5. Run defense scares me the most. The law firm was getting yardage at will until they got far behind and started passing more.

6. Pitta and Dickson showed no real signs of rust after the time off and Pitta was money.


All in all a really good night.

[RavensWin09]

Oher was surprisingly comfortable at LT tonight albeit not against demarcus ware but showed me something

we can't go 15 more weeks playing the way our defense did in the 1st half. the d stepped up in the 2nd half though. nice job by them.

This is Joe's year. "Can't wait!"

[hawkprey]

1. Receivers needed more separation. Most of Joe's incompletions were batted passes. But the Bengals do have veteran corners. Still, Joe's come a long way from struggling to throw on the Bengals.

2. Wasn't sure if Art Jones was playing in the first half, but he made some nice plays in the second and contributed to the clamping down of our run D.

3. I'm pretty sure Kemo got the start in the middle. I didn't pay attention to NT much.

4. Upshaw.

5. Cary was targeted a lot but he held his own and got a few deflections.

6. We need to stop #1 receivers better. Maybe the answer is to have Webb spy them the entire game.

7. Dickson gets knocked in the helmet every game. I feel for the guy.

8. O-line had early struggles (looking at you, Birk) but impressed overall. Our tackles had great games and Harewood is finally paying off. He should be the entrenched starter and Williams the backup.

[PolishRifle]

Is Ed Reed okay? Heard he has a hamstring injury.

[Crabcakes&Football]

This is the Joe Flacco show.

O-line was real good run blocking, could be better in pass blocking.

Who said Pollard can't cover?

We really need to work on run defense.

[TreTheRaven]

Flacco was beasting tonight. Holy cow.

That's all.

[reediddy]

OL looked very good for the most part, save a few plays here and there. Flacco enjoyed a clean pocket for most of the night, and a lot of those run lanes for RR were simply beautiful.

Defense, against the run most notably, needs some work. Hopefully we can shore up some things there.

Side note: Pees called a GREAT game

[Alexir]

I'll comment on our offense and defense when I have a larger sample to pull from. One game against a familiar rival isn't enough. Let's see how we do against Philly and Patsies

[redlobster]

[quote name='reediddy' timestamp='1347332237' post='1147187']
OL looked very good for the most part, save a few plays here and there. Flacco enjoyed a clean pocket for most of the night, and a lot of those run lanes for RR were simply beautiful.

Defense, against the run most notably, needs some work. Hopefully we can shore up some things there.

Side note: Pees called a GREAT game
[/quote]

I would say Pees called a good game definetly not a great game, the defense looked good but nothing special in the first half, they shined when the ravens were far ahead and knew the bengals had to throw to catch up.

[reediddy]

[quote name='redlobster' timestamp='1347332440' post='1147208']
I would say Pees called a good game definetly not a great game, the defense looked good but nothing special in the first half, they shined when the ravens were far ahead and knew the bengals had to throw to catch up.
[/quote]

I'm not so sure; his calls were great, but our lack of execution was what hurt us. It's hard to differentiate but I'm going with that defense haha

[RavensWin09]

a couple more things:

jacoby is proving to be the common "oz pickup" get him after a release and gives good contributions.

we are getting so much more seperation from our wrs in this offense.

our run blocking couldn't have gotten any better.

[rmw10]

Replacement refs suck

[GrimCoconut]

1. Ray Lewis' weight loss has not affected him poorly; it has made him better.
2. The OL impressed me. I was very satisfied. Oher looked good. Harewood played surprisingly well. Birk was a little spotty but Harewood missed a few where he could have helped Birk. Yanda played great. KO was silent which is a good thing.
3. Rice had a very good game despite decreased touches.
4. Our WRs are as advertised.
5. We can now rush 3 and get pressure.
6. I liked Jones better than McPhee.
7. Upshaw will come into his own with time. He is looking good.
8. The CBs disappointed me besides Webb, who is outstanding.
9. Reed needs an extension.
10. Flacco needs an extension.
11. Jacoby looked pretty darn good.
12. Bringing back Allen was a good thing.
13. Tucker was the right decision.

[GTRavens]

Thought we'd have a general thread for it at least. Feel free to offer your own as well.

- Where do we begin with Joe Flacco? I didn't necessarily post a whole lot last year, but I was skeptical of Cam's offense being the reason for our inconsistency. I...I think I was wrong. This was different from Flacco's great performances in the past. There was a rhythm to him that I've never quite seen before.

- If anyone tells you arm strength is overrated, they're wrong. When a QB like Flacco is not only in control of the offense, but can put the throw the ball anywhere deep or to the sidelines [i]without any danger of the ball being picked off[/i], you know you have something special.

- The two near interceptions are something you never want to see happening, but at least with Rice's you know it's the product of a rare miscommunication that shouldn't be as much fo a worry going forward. There's always going to be the occasional hiccup moment - I remember the Monday Night opener two years ago when Flacco and Boldin couldn't get going with each other. That resolved itself as the year went on, and I feel like this will too.

- Ray Rice is Ray Rice. He's exceedingly fundamental, exceedingly consistent and exceedingly durable. You can't ask for much more than that. He's a perfect fit for what we're trying to do in this offense. He'll have his big games going forward.

- Torrey Smith had one of those games where his impact won't show up in the numbers. He had hios one big play tonight - which was an insanely difficult play to make - but he's the kind of guy whose presence really does things up for everyone else.

- We really spread the ball around tonight. Everyone got in on the action, and if there's any mark of a truly elite offense it's that.

- Dennis Pitta is quickly going to become a fan favorite. The lob into the end zone was jaw dropping in regard to both Flacco and Pitta.

- Noticed how everyone suddenly got open tonight? Maybe it wasn't the receivers' fault after all. Thanks Cam.

- I wasn't as impressed by the o-line as others were. I think it's a classic case of the QB making his o-line better than it actually was through making everything faster. We've seen this with Brady and Manning and the subsequent regression of their o-lines following injury. There were a few sacks that just looked flat out ugly. There was no room to scramble, Flacco just had to settle for the sack. The tackles did fine, but Birk and Harewood really struggled there.

- I still was pleasantly surprised by the run blocking. Rice made up for it when they didn't get push, but there was a stunning lack of our backs getting stuffed at any point in the game. This is another part of the game where Flacco undoubtedly helped, but they really did a fine job on their own.

- I think Harewood did alright, at least in the running game. The outside was outstanding, though. Good discipline and good pass protection. Oher and Osemele are good fits for our offense right now and I'm glad they are where they are.

- Dean Pees did well tonight. He called some creative and effective blitzes and, we can all agree, made some phenomenal adjustments entering the second half. I did not expect Andy Dalton to be rattled that quickly.

- I am concerned about the pass rush and I think the second half surge downplayed what's still a pretty big issue. They had their moments and I think Kruger and Upshaw showed signs of life, so it'll get better. But there will be shootouts this year.

- The run defense is an issue for sure. That's where we're truly missing Suggs. Our linebackers just aren't built to handle a run heavy attack and it's going to kill us in the TOP battle this year with our offense the way it is.

- There's undoubtedly a Green Bay effect, where a great offense makes things harder on the defense. We saw this in flashes in 2009 and we saw it tonight, where the defense shut everything down only after the offense faced less pressure to score. So if there's a single most reassuring thing about our defense's struggle tonight, it's that the offense is both making up for it and indirectly causing some of those issues to begin with. When a team takes a big lead, the opponent either passes - which will lead to turnovers but also better numbers, or they'll throw things off and run efficiently because the defense wasn't expecting it. It's just not natural to assume a defense can always play just as well when they have a lead, because circumstances are just different.

- Haloti may not have seemed to have shown up all night, but there's only so much you can do when you have weaknesses elsewhere. I was personally impressed by him, even outside of his flashier plays toward the end.

- Ray Lewis' weight loss is serving him incredibly well. He looked, dare I say it, a bit like the Ray of old tonight. He was all over the place.

- The secondary was pretty darn close to being outstanding tonight. Look, there's only so much they can do against a pass heavy offense when the rush isn't there. Even the best defenses will have drives where they look incapable - that's the nature of today's NFL. But we did a great job of shutting them down deep for the most part and forced them to do their work on intermediate routes. Best of all, they're talented enough across the board to force mistakes - and if we're not going to be elite, we'll darn well be opportunistic. By limiting the deep ball as well as we always have, the offense is relying on avoiding mistakes for a lot of consectutive plays - make one mistake out of ten and a whole drive's work is wasted. That's our bread and butter and nothing we showed tonight says we can't play that way.

- Justin Tucker is legit. That is all. Those were some [i]straight[/i] kicks.

Overall, I'm cautiously ecstatic. The Ravens look completely different this year, and I'll try not to be premature. We're not sure how good the Bengals D is, but Flacco made fools out of them tonight. As long as he keeps that up, we're an elite football team even if our defense has question marks. If he doesn't keep that up, we still have a lot going for us. But when a team wins by 31 points and does it with such pose, you can't help but get the occasional goosebump.

I'll be totally honest, too: as crazy as this may sound, I wasn't as excited for the NFL this year. I still vowed to watch as much as I could, but the fire wasn't there. I blame the Patriots game first and foremost - that was the first legitimately soul crushing loss to the point where I sort of lost interest in what was going on. Then the Suggs injury dampened my hopes to the point where I thought we had already peaked - and in terms of optimism for the future, the best times being behind you is the single most hope crushing thing you can have. Then the Orioles came in and stole away much of the enthusiasm I normally would have had for the NFL in September. But you know what? It's all back, baby. The Broncos game last night revived me, and tonight's game sent me back over the edge. With Joe Flacco, we're not going away for a [i]long[/i] time. Nothing will ever top last year's season opener, but this one is easily in second. I couldn't be more excited.

[ghost1986]

Torrey had an excellent block on a run to the left at one point. I'm not even kidding when I say he pancaked the guy. Just shoved him to the ground. Also agree on run defense. We need to improve. And Osemele was amazing. The whole O-Line was great for the most part. Rice hit the whole. Leach literally paved the way. Pitta's injury hasn't changed that he still has the best hands on the team. And I think the best pass was the one to Boldin. Pressure in his face and he stepped up and by the grace of Flacco just managed to get it on target. And that ball never hit the ground. It was tough to see, but I was barely able to make out that Anquan So Strong Boldin's hand was under it. Just simply amazing. We definitely need to do our hw for the Eagles. That is going to be a tough game.

[CharmCityBullets]

i agree with nearly everything you wrote, but i never saw any signs of life from Kruger. he was embarrassing. he got stuffed by Gresham all night, and was slipping and sliding all over the place. i know he'll see less time when Suggs gets back, but i would rather give Kindle a chance at this point. there is no way he could be worse. he played nearly the entire game and got 1 tackle!!! and that tackle was from behind unblocked. give Kindle a chance, sign Adalius Thomas. do something, but Kruger gives us absolutely nothing. he looks like the Kyle Boller of linebackers the way he falls all over the place. one play, Dalton faked him out from 5 yards away and he almost fell over again. sorry, had to vent.

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Not worried about the run D too much. Green-Ellis ran all over us in the afccg too. I just think he has our number

[BloodRaven]

[color=#222222][font='Helvetica Neue', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif][size=4][background=rgb(255, 255, 255)]

Just a few notes on the lines after re-watching game 1:

[b]Michael Oher [/b]Didn't give up a lot of pressure and gets a lot of movement run blocking. Still reaches on blocks and has an inconsistent anchor.

[b]Bryant McKinnie [/b]His footwork is quicker than last season but he's rusty. Can't adjust to second inside move.

[b]Ramon Harewood[/b] Looked good, generated a good push and didn't give up ground. Seems hesitant and doesn't play hard.

[b]Matt Birk[/b] Overmatched. He's a smart player but his anchor is gone and his age is showing. Needs guard help.

[b]Gino Gradkowski[/b] Looks sharp but gets knocked around easily.

[b]Marshall Yanda[/b] Great game, sprung Rice a few times and did well in all areas.

[b]Bobbie Williams [/b]Horrible start, got pushed around and gave up a sack.

[b]Keleche Osemele [/b]Very strong, can't be bullrushed. Needs to work on positioning at RT.



[b]Art Jones[/b] Looks and plays like a nose tackle, very strong but can't pass rush. Has a powerful bullrush 1 on 1.

[b]Pernell McPhee [/b]Hot and cold, generated good pressure as the game went on. Struggled early in run defense.

[b]Haloti Ngata [/b]Awesome game, looked explosive and strong. Doesn't always play square when trying to make plays.

[b]Terrence Cody[/b] Solid game, good positioning and gap integrity. Slow, even when bullrushing.

[b]Maake Kemoeatu[/b] Similar to Ngata, quick and powerful. He's making a case to start, possible DE?

[b]Paul Kruger[/b] Strong hands, good hustle and motor. Comes off the snap too high and lost his balance a few times, also missed gap assignments.

[b]Albert McClellan [/b]Solid game, VERY similar to JJ.

[b]Courtney Upshaw[/b] Back from injury he is finally looking like his Bama highlight tape, good hustle. Not sure but it seemed like he wore down.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[Militant X 1]

we won!

~Mili

[UMDan]

Don't want to get ahead of myself, but here are my takeaways:

-Whatever adjustments were made to the defense (the pass rushing especially) were effective. The second half our defense really stepped it up and as someone else said, Pees did a great job calling the game.
-I agree that we could use more separation from receivers. Pitta had a terrific game but part of that was due to the size mismatch with Leon Hall.
-Tucker was the right call. (I'm hoping I don't regret saying that.)
-Bigger Haloti Ngata and smaller Ray Lewis both seem to be as good as ever.
-Ed Reed's still got it. Hope he stays healthy this season because we need him.
-I loved the offensive playcalling, from start to finish. Some of the fancy (failed double reverse, endarounds, etc) stuff we were seeing early was really exciting, but I'm hoping and thinking we still held back on some things. Cam does have some tricks up his sleeves.
-Offensive line looked pretty good, at least better than expected.
-Jacoby Jones did much more than I thought he would. Glad we got him.
-Ray Rice could use more touches, still. But glad to see we can win when he doesn't.
-This is Flacco's year. He's comfortable in the no huddle, in the gun, audibling if he has to. I hope he finally gets some well-deserved respect around the league.
-We need to remain humble. Let's not echo last season and let the Eagles do to us what the Titans did week two last year.

Good game, everyone!

[The Raven]

[quote name='cobrajet' timestamp='1347330622' post='1147039']
1. No huddle works. Joe made adjustments when he had to and looked real sharp.

2. Ray made the most of his touches. I think he will be OK with this new offense.

3. Our secondary played OK. I was worried, but Webb looked good and Reed made a great pick and return for TD and as suspected Pollard making the big hits. Williams was a little spotty.

4. Pass rush was non existent in the first half but they made ajustments and got things going in the second half. May still need a little work but better than preseaon by far.

5. Run defense scares me the most. The law firm was getting yardage at will until they got far behind and started passing more.

6. Pitta and Dickson showed no real signs of rust after the time off and Pitta was money.


All in all a really good night.
[/quote]

1. Love the offense. Love it love it love it

2. I want Ray to get more carries, but I will sacrifice runs for efficiency. Ray had like 7 yards a pop. That's fantastic.

3. I thought the secondary played very well. Cary played the way I would expect a solid number two CB to play. The zone coverage doesn't help them look much better too. I liked the secondary last night.

4. Pass rush got kicking once they pinned their ears back. They'll get it going soon!

5. Run D scared me a bit, but we'll get it straightened out. We have a young defense. McClain and Ellerbe need to fill holes better. When McPhee and Jones make their presence known, they'll get doubled more which will help out Ngata too. Ngata was doubled every play.

6. Pitta and Dickson were just great. Except, had Dickson caught that one TD, I would have won my fantasy game. Other than that, great game.


Oline played well, except Birk. Harewood's start was surprising, but boy he played well!

[Tank 92]

I think we won decisively without playing our best. That is a good thing.

On a random note; I love me some Dennis Pitta, but why can't he stay on his feet when he catches the ball? Just sayin'.

[redlobster]

The one thing I noticed and appears to be a reoccuring theme, Ed Dickson takes helment to helment shots nearly every game (or so it seems). I feel bad for the guy, he gets blown up by illegal hits all the time.

[ckgeisl]

I am a 56 yo man that lives and dies with my Black and Gold. I have posted hear last year with a little bit of an attitude, but always wanted to let the fans of the RAVENS to know how much I respect your organization and players. NICE GAME...WOW Hope younze have a down week when we meet...heheh lol just a thought, I like your team very much, but LOVE MY STILLERS. Hope we can make it through the next 16 weeks so we might have some healthy players to put up a good game against you. Anyway, just wanted to post how impressive your team looked on Monday Night...you deserve the "attitude" that is sooo rightly EARNED.

[callahan09]

Loving the younger O-Line. By replacing McKinnie and Williams with Osemele and Harewood, we reduced the average age of the line by 4 YEARS! I'd even be in favor or replacing Birk with Gradkowski, which would lower the average age by another 3 years! Simply incredible how young of a line we can have after all off-season the media was pounding it down our throats that our over-the-hill line is going to be a major liability.

[Alexir]

Offensive line looked promising, I think Oher played well. Real test is this week against Jason Babin and Trent Cole. I feel like the coaching staff is praying that Gino start's progressing faster, I just don't see Birk as being an effective center for this year.

Overall impressed though.

Defense looked pretty good, run defense was suspect but like I've said before, I need a bigger sample size before worrying about anything. One game doesn't define a team. Let's see how we hold up against the Iggles at their home opener.

[Alexir]

[quote name='ckgeisl' timestamp='1347370056' post='1147791']
I am a 56 yo man that lives and dies with my Black and Gold. I have posted hear last year with a little bit of an attitude, but always wanted to let the fans of the RAVENS to know how much I respect your organization and players. NICE GAME...WOW Hope[u][b] younze[/b][/u] have a down week when we meet...heheh lol just a thought, I like your team very much, but LOVE MY STILLERS. Hope we can make it through the next 16 weeks so we might have some healthy players to put up a good game against you. Anyway, just wanted to post how impressive your team looked on Monday Night...you deserve the "attitude" that is sooo rightly EARNED.
[/quote]

[Corvus]

My only real criticism was our run defense. I figured with fresh off selling insurance, Faine as well as Boling would struggle to open up running lanes and with Green-Ellis' sub 4 yard per carry average, I wasn't worried. Those guys did a great job at the point of attack all 2nd and 3rd qtr, our d-line and our OLBs really need to step it up next week for McCoy who is 10x better than Green-Ellis. Otherwise, there's not much else to say that hasn't already, though I do want to give props again to Osemele and Harewood. They weren't perfect tonight, but they were much better than I expected in their first real games against a very tough Bengals' d-line.

[reediddy]

The biggest takeaway for me is: take this with a grain of salt.

We saw this same offensive success in the first game last year against an arguably better defense, and then proceeded to wet the bed the following week.

I am encouraged by the fact that Joe is calling audibles, and that we injected some youth into our OL. They should only get better as the season rolls on.

[reediddy]

[quote name='redlobster' timestamp='1347369763' post='1147783']
The one thing I noticed and appears to be a reoccuring theme, Ed Dickson takes helment to helment shots nearly every game (or so it seems). I feel bad for the guy, he gets blown up by illegal hits all the time.
[/quote]

I feel for him, then his counterpart Pitta gets all the glory..

Have you guys ever noticed that 90% of Pitta's catches result in him just falling to the ground. It's kinda funny. That one pass when he did get some YAC he still looked like he was stumbling and wanting to fall. Maybe he sees what is happening to Dickson and says heck nah!