Are the Raven's struggles a blessing in disguise?

[omar586]

after reading this [url="http://russellstreetreport.com/are-the-ravens-a-sleeping-giant/"]article by Odeniran[/url], i felt good about the ravens, who knows they might wake up in playoffs and play some offense, i know what you're thinking and yes i did watch the broncos game, but we're in playoffs, it's a new season , the season that counts, flying under the radar (or bottom of the radar for the ravens), is not bad at all, did u see the giant last year, or the packers when they won their SBs they were 9-7. lets just keep our hope alive , who knows, we might win the SB after all, dont forget the NFL is unpredictable after all.

[SecretAgentMan]

Struggle is never a blessing.. Nice Post though

[bmoredynasty]

this is exactly what im saying maybe we can win out flacco gets hot and we end up in sb think about it ravens will probably play colts in wild card, then texans (who arent as good as record) then we r in afc championship

[Militant X 1]

[quote name='omar586' timestamp='1355794978' post='1268490']
after reading this [url="http://russellstreetreport.com/are-the-ravens-a-sleeping-giant/"]article by Odeniran[/url], i felt good about the ravens, who knows they might wake up in playoffs and play some offense, i know what you're thinking and yes i did watch the broncos game, but we're in playoffs, it's a new season , the season that counts, flying under the radar (or bottom of the radar for the ravens), is not bad at all, did u see the giant last year, or the packers when they won their SBs they were 9-7. lets just keep our hope alive , who knows, we might win the SB after all, dont forget the NFL is unpredictable after all.
[/quote]

these Ravens are not those Giants or Packers teams. but, keep hope alive!

~Mili

[berad]

They're being force-fed humble pie. I'd rather have a team that keeps its head down rather than being cocky but I don't know if it will make too much of a difference.

[SecretAgentMan]

[quote name='berad' timestamp='1355795987' post='1268518']
They're being force-fed humble pie. I'd rather have a team that keeps its head down rather than being cocky but I don't know if it will make too much of a difference.
[/quote]
Confidence Boosters are what we need. But I ran out of my happy for the week.

[Ragin'Raven]

Spurts of good doesn't trump the God awful bad. They need to find something, anything, that can get them out of this funk. Because if they can't, the whole new 'season' of the post-season won't matter much.

[Ravensfan23]

This team is being humbled. I don't ever think anyone was too cocky or big headed, but i think they kind of got complacent with the success over the years.

It's hard to call what's happening a blessing, but i think in the long run it's something that pulls this team even tighter. I still believe this team will win the Super Bowl, so call me foolish. I think the American Game series will highlight this 3is game skid and we'll get some great insight on the character of this team.

The only reason I say it's a good thing is that it might just force the Ravens to change their thinking about the talent on this team.
I think there is a lot of talent on this team, but so major positions need to be upgraded going forward. Much like Cam, hopefully they are seeing that some changes need to be made regardless of the season's outcome.

Obviously with my belief that this team will still win the SB, i don't think major upgrades are needed, just a few key ones.

[dhstandard]

It's a nice kick in the crotch but I think the biggest issue is how we react as fans. We suffer a ton of injuries on defense and instantly call for Pees to be fired. We had an amazing defense since the inception of this team and have managed to have great success despite many different coordinators and a struggling offense.

We bash Pees on his first day because the defense isn't what it was. Rome wasn't built in a day and coaches have to start somewhere. We blame Pees for lack of pass rush but our secondary can't even cover for a short period of time.

I think we really need to look at this year as a turnaround point. Many thought we wouldn't have been where we are right now but at an even worse position. Hell, i've seen Steelers fans complaining about Big Ben and Tomlin forever when anything goes wrong. It's a natural reaction but nobody is perfect. Everyone has struggles and you should respect the grind to get out of it and not find a new person to place the blame whenever something goes wrong.

[Crabcakes&Football]

The Ravens are not the Giants of last year, or the Packers the year before that. Those teams were playing their best football of the season by this time and rode into the playoffs on fire. Theories on what it takes to win a superbowl get tossed around every year: You need an elite Quarterback, you need to get hot at the right time, you need to be lucky. It's simpler than that, whoever wins the remainder of their games in the playoffs are the champions. Sure you can factor in luck; whoever is at their best and if that best is good enough to beat the remaining teams, that is just common sense; and of course an elite Quarterback wouldn't be a bad thing. Right now we don't seem to have any of those things going for us, but that does not matter, because if we could simply compete against the elite teams, the ones who will be remaining in the playoffs then that would give us as good a chance as anybody. But last Sunday was a good opportunity to prove we can compete against the best teams and we proved nothing.

[izvoodoo]

No, objectively speaking those teams just had more talent.

[TonyTone1192]

[quote name='omar586' timestamp='1355794978' post='1268490']
after reading this [url="http://russellstreetreport.com/are-the-ravens-a-sleeping-giant/"]article by Odeniran[/url], i felt good about the ravens, who knows they might wake up in playoffs and play some offense, i know what you're thinking and yes i did watch the broncos game, but we're in playoffs, it's a new season , the season that counts, flying under the radar (or bottom of the radar for the ravens), is not bad at all, did u see the giant last year, or the packers when they won their SBs they were 9-7. lets just keep our hope alive , who knows, we might win the SB after all, dont forget the NFL is unpredictable after all.
[/quote]

I agree with you 100%. You learn more from a loss than you do from a win. I'm hoping that there's no laughing, smiling or joking around at practice now. When you're 9-2 and won 4-games in a row you can afford that, but after these last 3 losses (2 bad losses at home) there should be a sense of urgency now. Our players know that their in the playoffs so they definitely should have motivation. At practice our coaches can now coach up our players, after a win it's hard to correct things that a player did wrong b/c in their mind they're probably thinking "we still won the game, so it's not that big of a deal."

Hopefully our team can view this losing streak as a wake up call.

[mlg207]

[quote name='Crabcakes&Football' timestamp='1355798603' post='1268590']
The Ravens are not the Giants of last year, or the Packers the year before that. [b]Those teams were playing their best football of the season by this time [/b]and rode into the playoffs on fire. Theories on what it takes to win a superbowl get tossed around every year: You need an elite Quarterback, you need to get hot at the right time, you need to be lucky. It's simpler than that, whoever wins the remainder of their games in the playoffs are the champions. Sure you can factor in luck; whoever is at their best and if that best is good enough to beat the remaining teams, that is just common sense; and of course an elite Quarterback wouldn't be a bad thing. Right now we don't seem to have any of those things going for us, but that does not matter, because if we could simply compete against the elite teams, the ones who will be remaining in the playoffs then that would give us as good a chance as anybody. But last Sunday was a good opportunity to prove we can compete against the best teams and we proved nothing.
[/quote]
Not really the Giants lost in week 10,11,12,13, and in week 15 just like us.

[RavensMillz]

Maybe its a blessing. Let's just hope the curse of 15 is behind us.
Won 15 straight home games, lost to steelers. Won 15 straight games after a loss. Week 15, a loss.

[Fang]

They need to rest Ray, Suggs and whoever else needs it for the playoffs starting now. Also, they should take these next two games to mold the offense into whatever vision Jim Caldwell has. It's not a lot of time, but at least they can look a little more like Caldwell put his stamp on it.

[theFRANCHISE]

Even though my optimism has been in short supply, I'll reiterate: it's all about peaking at the right time.

It literally doesn't matter how you play in the regular season once you make the playoffs; the postseason is an entirely different beast, and there's been several instances where we point to teams as being one-and-done and they advance much further than we expect.

[nyc9192]

[quote name='Militant X 1' timestamp='1355795892' post='1268514']
these Ravens are not those Giants or Packers teams. but, keep hope alive!

~Mili
[/quote]
Im not sure about that.Those packers and Giants teams had some low points.They were both injury riddled and at one point people wondered about theyre qbs but look what happened.Though Rodgers never fell off like joe did,look at how people laughed at eli when he said he was elite.

[omar586]

yeah, dont forget those giants were swept by rex grossman.

[raybaby]

It's more than just comparing records. I watched the Giants a lot last year and they had a legitimate bright spot in an Eli lead offense.. he had an incredible season while the run game was putrid and the defense injury filled. The Packers had a top 5 defense and a top 10 offense despite their crazy amount of injuries. What is that one thing you can hang your hat on with our team? Special teams?

Not every team can overcome the type of adversity our team has faced this season and make a legitimate run and there's nothing wrong with that. The disappointing aspect of the season is Joe and the offense and the feeling of uncertainty of what we have there because there really is no excuse when it comes to their peformance. Who knows maybe they will make some surprising noise in the playoffs but I wouldn't hold on to the idea that this team is anything like the Giants or Packers.

[AsianRice]

[quote name='raybaby' timestamp='1355854823' post='1269394']
It's more than just comparing records. I watched the Giants a lot last year and they had a legitimate bright spot in an Eli lead offense.. he had an incredible season while the run game was putrid and the defense injury filled. The Packers had a top 5 defense and a top 10 offense despite their crazy amount of injuries. What is that one thing you can hang your hat on with our team? Special teams?

Not every team can overcome the type of adversity our team has faced this season and make a legitimate run and there's nothing wrong with that. The disappointing aspect of the season is Joe and the offense and the feeling of uncertainty of what we have there because there really is no excuse when it comes to their peformance. Who knows maybe they will make some surprising noise in the playoffs [b]but I wouldn't hold on to the idea that this team is anything like the Giants or Packers[/b].
[/quote]
I did watch the Packers and Giants before they went on and won SBs; they look horrible throughout the season with injury plague on their tails. I would never expect they would win SB, but they seem to pull in together defensively and offensively in the playoff. Remember, ALL NFL players are professional and capable of elevating their abilities to greatness; they just need a spark to light up their turbo engine.
I hope Ravens' turbo engine will be turned on this Sunday and lasted long enough to run all the way to Lombard Trophy......

[nextgen_RavensFan]

It would be a blessing if we have learned and improved but until we get certain players back we lack the talent to improve. Our defense is on the field way to long and are not used to it and tire easily. Our Offense which is driven by Joe is sputtering because of obvious reasons and i just do not see the point where the bad play stops until you make changes. Which Harbs will not do because he lacks the guts to implement and force others to change their playing style (might hurt some feelings).

[Hardbaugh]

[quote name='theFRANCHISE' timestamp='1355806929' post='1268760']
it's all about peaking at the right time.

[/quote]

This is 100% the truth.


The Ravens season is on life support . We'll see what happens the rest of the way but I don't believe I'll be as upset as the past two offseasons.


It's time for this team to hit the reset button on the blueprint. the good thing about all the injuries is young players got a chance and the Ravens staff have a better idea of what they have going forward. I'm particularly excited for Josh Bynes he had a great preseason and has played well when given the chance lately..

[BloodRaven]

We need to learn from these losses and make adjustments accordingly, unfortunately for us that's not Harbaughs strong point.

[Dfence4champs2052]

We don't have the heart of those Giants and Packers teams. We wouldn't have come out from the halftime break already defeated if we did. Brady was down big and watching NFL soundtracks he was firing his team up and brought them back. Again...no heart or desire. Webb was on the radio complaining about being boo'ed. They feel picked on.....where's the fire? It's on the sideline with out first ballot HoF LB....yeah the one everyone wants to run out of town....go figs...

[JEEPercreepermd]

[quote name='bmoredynasty' timestamp='1355795538' post='1268504']
this is exactly what im saying maybe we can win out flacco gets hot and we end up in sb think about it ravens will probably play colts in wild card, then texans (who arent as good as record) then we r in afc championship
[/quote]

Yeah Houston has had a few really close games that they won..but that's what good teams do. Let's not forget that they completely crushed us.

[Militant X 1]

[quote name='nyc9192' timestamp='1355807343' post='1268769']
Im not sure about that.Those packers and Giants teams had some low points.They were both injury riddled and at one point people wondered about theyre qbs but look what happened.[u][b]Though Rodgers never fell off like joe [/b][/u]did,[u][b]look at how people laughed at eli when he said he was elite.[/b][/u]
[/quote]

1. Joe has "fallen off" (your words...not mine) worse than Rodgers did then.
2. Eli backed up his "elite" talk by going on a crazy SB run and winning! and Joe?

~Mili

[ellicottraven]

[quote name='omar586' timestamp='1355794978' post='1268490']
after reading this [url="http://russellstreetreport.com/are-the-ravens-a-sleeping-giant/"]article by Odeniran[/url], i felt good about the ravens, who knows they might wake up in playoffs and play some offense, i know what you're thinking and yes i did watch the broncos game, but we're in playoffs, it's a new season , the season that counts, flying under the radar (or bottom of the radar for the ravens), is not bad at all, did u see the giant last year, or the packers when they won their SBs they were 9-7. lets just keep our hope alive , who knows, we might win the SB after all, dont forget the NFL is unpredictable after all.
[/quote]As much as I love your optimism, I hate to admit to you that both those teams played dominating football right about the time we seem so totally clueless on offense. Again, there is also the fact that Rodgers is a great QB and Eli had the confidence of already having won a SB! Joe Flacco's consistency hasn't lasted more than a game so far this season, and unfortunately we will have to win 3 straight on the road to make it to the SB! Tall order for our QB sadly! So I don't believe it is a fair expectation....

[nyc9192]

[quote name='Militant X 1' timestamp='1356100297' post='1272497']
1. Joe has "fallen off" (your words...not mine) worse than Rodgers did then.
2. Eli backed up his "elite" talk by going on a crazy SB run and winning! and Joe?

~Mili
[/quote]

I feel ya.I just think we should finish out the season and see what he does the next two games and the playoffs.I know it looks bad though lol.My support of Joe isn't done yet,but its on it's last legs.Heres to hopin he balls out from here on.

[IluvmyRavens]

I truly agree.....I believe that our Ravens are gonna get our act together and get things back on track....I agree Flacco pisses me off at times with his play but Flacco is a real good quarterback...I've seen Flacco really put it to teams before....We know whats at stake(the Super Bowl) and I believe that we are gonne give it our best and win these last two games....and use that momentum to carry us through the playoffs....I believe in my Ravens and know that we are gonna pull this this thing out....GO Ravens!!!!!!!!

[Free Agent]

Maybe the struggles and losses are a blessing in disguise...

Cam was fired, and we are this much closer to being able to draft Manti Te'o...