25 replies to this topic

[CptJesus]

So this game was insane. Like really insane. I thought it was over several times. I literally had no idea who was going to win. It was amazing, and glorious, and we smashed all expectations. It was also the best game I've ever watched. Problem being, it was long. So unfortunately, this post is also long. I'm going to split it into several separate replies. I went back and rewatched the game, looking for anything that was interesting or bore notice.

Quarter 1 - A touchdown for you, a touchdown for you, and one more for you too!

• 15:00 - First play of the game. KO pushes right into the secondary, taking out a blocker and a half giving him the nice run
• 14:35 - Slant route to Q. More and more inside plays
• 13:12 - Q drops this one. Right in the hands.
• 12:30 - First punt return. Koch out-kicks everyone on the Ravens by a huge margin. No one was even close to Holliday when he makes the catch. Ravens are leaning right, and Koch punts to the middle of the field instead. This was mainly on Koch, since everyone was out of position for this
• 12:15 - Jacoby Butterfingers. Almost turns a kickoff return into a fumble.
• 11:30 - Flacco to Dickson. No idea where Dickson was even looking. He pretty much stopped running and let the ball fall in front of him. Definitely looked catchable to me with a bit of effort.
• 11:20 - Flacco under pressure throws to Q in the middle of two defenders. I have no [profanity deleted] clue how this ball went through. SUPER risky, but well done. Flacco looks much better under pressure.
• 10:40 - First deep bomb to Torrey. Broncos bring 4, and McKinnie takes his man completely out. Von Miller gets double teamed by Oher and Yanda, leaving Birk and Osemele 1 on 1. Birk gets backup from Rice. Not even close to getting any pressure. Flacco loads up and throws deep to Torrey who cut the inside route on Champ Bailey. Fantastic speed displayed and an amazingly placed throw. A crossing pattern set up by Q drew the safety inside. This play was beautifully executed.
• 9:53 - First turnover of the game with Graham. He DEFINITELY got away with illegal contact, although his receiver wasn't looking for the ball, so this probably affected the call. Chykie Brown actually hit Decker at the perfect time to NOT draw a flag.
• 8:22 - I don't know what it is about our defense on third down. We are simply fantastic on first and second, and then just drop it on third. Great throw by manning into double coverage, and a fantastic catch.
• 7:52 - Peyton hard counts and the ravens show blitz from the outside. Peyton audibles to a run straight up the middle, but gets like 2 yards.
• 6:45 - Deep ball from Manning to Thomas. Thomas actually shoves Cary down on the way up, and Cary trips up Thomas completely by accident. This absolutely should have been offensive pass interference if Cary had just turned his head around.
• 6:30 - Apparently cold makes microphones break. Cause science?
• 6:14 - Ray cuts straight into the path of the run and just slams Moreno down. Technically, his knee never did go down though. However, in the middle of the pile pretty much impossible to see
• 4:53 - BP with one of the few plays we heard his name. Jars the ball loose creating an incomplete.
• 4:34 - Ngata just straight up throws his defender down and makes the tackle on Moreno. He can still make plays
• 4:05 - What a great play by Brandon Stokely. Catches at the absolute edge of the end zone and twinkle toes for the touchdown. You can blame Graham, but I wouldn't. I would call this an indefensible throw short of ripping the receiver's heart out and eating it in front of him. Not sure if this was a designed route, but it looked like Stokely turned his curl into a different route when Manning didn't find anyone open.
• 3:26 - Flacco and the O-Line do a fantastic job selling a run to the outside left. Flacco instead rolls right and finds Dickson in the center of the field in soft coverage for an easy completion. Loving these roll-outs.
• 2:45 - The famous end-around. Completely ineffective. They didn't bother trying it again.
• 2:12 - Completely empty backfield, Denver jumps offsides. Short dump off to rice that netted nothing. Easy 5 yards, but they should have tried deep.
• 1:54 - Pitta sells the streak, but instead makes quick inside move for an easy catch. Flacco placed this perfectly. Pitta is far and away our best route runner.
• 0:37 - Broncos bring a huge blitz, but it's a sort of WR screen. Flacco finds Dickson on the inside right behind the wall of Broncos for an easy short gain. These are more plays that are new and exciting for this team.

Edited by CptJesus, 13 January 2013 - 05:11 PM.

[CptJesus]

Quarter 2 - Who needs offense?

• 15:00 - Flacco goes deep on 3rd and 2 and Torrey comes down with Champ Bailey all over him. Out of bounds, but very daring. O-Line stonewalls the rush completely.
• 14:40 - The most incidental facemask I've ever seen. Makes sense that they called it, but it had like no impact on the play. Ray Lewis runs from the middle of the field to the sideline, beating Moreno to the edge. Pretty impressive all things considered.
• 14:20 - Ray Ray plays a perfect zone and tells Stokely to sit down.
• 13:05 - Ray Lewis takes Suggs right out of a play. Pretty funny to watch.
• 12:51 - Josh Bynes snaps from lack of play time and just straight up blows up Jacoby Jones, mistaking orange for purple somehow.
• 11:30 - Flacco with literally the worst play action I've ever seen. Doesn't even really pretend to hand it off, since he turned it the opposite direction of Rice. Overthrows Torrey for an easy touchdown, but its tough shooting down the field like that. On the ensuing punt, Jimmy Smith is completely down the field and prevents any sort of return. He blew past his defender, and downs the ball at the 14.
• 10:00 - We start seeing some actual pressure here, with Suggs coming off the outside. Takes a full quarter and a third.
• 8:23 - Manning sits on the pocket for, I kid you not, 4 and a half seconds with no pressure. Delivers an easy pass to Decker who is completely open. Chykie Brown goes down, but doesn't wrap up, and Decker predictably bounces off. Same thing we've seen repeatedly.
• 7:32 - Danelle Ellerbe is back in coverage, and has to follow Moreno into the endzone, but is clearly overmatched. Bites on a double move, for a touchdown in the end zone. Can't fault Ellerbe for this one, he just drew the short straw, and it was a really well delivered pass as well to the corner of the endzone. Ed Reed does his best to break up the play, but he's coming from the opposite quarter of the field across to the other side. He correctly diagnoses the play...just late.
• 7:20 - Flacco is under a bit of pressure, but the O-line picks it up. No one open downfield? Dump off to Ray Rice! Problem being Ray Rice stops for no reason, and Flacco throws what looks like a throw from an elementary schooler. It lazily arcs in the air for like 3 seconds. Huge miscommunication that could have EASILY been an interception if anyone was closer.
• 6:40 - Flacco rolls right. Chris Harris commits BLATANT pass interference with no call. The refs sucked today for both sides.
• 6:33 - Koch punts from the 12 to the 18. Dear lord.
• 3:00 - Another hard count shows a huge blitz. The Broncos run anyways, despite there being almost no one back in coverage. Very confusing.
• 2:00 - I really wish Dierdorf would just shut the [profanity deleted] up.
• 1:30 - Cary Williams bites on a curl. Manning is under pressure, and makes a bad throw.
• 1:23 - Suggs BURIES Hester. Pretty funny because Hester immediately looks for a flag. It was a good pass defense.
• 1:17 - Shanked field goal. Bad angle on the kick, and his foot drags on the ground completely losing all power behind it. Ravens get the ball back on their own 42.
• 1:05 - Flacco is REALLY under pressure. Von Miller beats Oher hard, but Flacco takes it in stride. He pushes him away, moves a bit and then delivers a great pass to Q. for a first down. Ever since Caldwell came out, Flacco has looked infinitely better moving around in the pocket. Don't ask me why, cause I have no clue.
• 0:38 - Torrey beats Champ Bailey deep again. One of the most perfectly underthrown-but-not-really balls I've seen yet. Allows Torrey to pull up for the catch. Dumervil was actually coming around the outside for the sack, and McKinney absolutely stonewalled him. If the ball wasn't underthrown, would have most likely either been intercepted or broken up.
• 0:30 - Broncos make the weirdest decision ever and just let the clock run out. 30 seconds left with 3 timeouts. *boggle* We go into the half tied at 21

Edited by Ravensfan23, 13 January 2013 - 07:43 PM.
profanity

[CptJesus]

Quarter 3 - Who is Torrey Smith?

• 15:00 - Kick return for a TD straight out of the half. Coverage breaks down down the field, and there is a MASSIVE hole up the middle. Fantastic blocking by the Broncos downfield, and Trendon Holliday simply beats everyone else through pure speed.
• 13:28 - Pocket COMPLETELY collapses on Flacco and he takes a sack. Broncos were DEFINITELY offsides though, which is why Dumervil beats McKinney so soundly. McKinney has looked amazing since the playoffs started.
• 13:15 - Rice finally breaks out a big run off a toss. Oher does a great job blocking, and Pitta actually prevents Von Miller from taking down Rice behind the line.
• 12:40 - Another offsides on Denver. Crowd is booing like crazy. Its a pity we couldn't take advantage of any of these by throwing down the field.
• 12:36 - Snap goes wrong. It just bounces off Flacco's hands at a bad angle. Considering Flacco's hands don't even close, I honestly think the snap was mistimed.
• 11:56 - Manning under pressure, throws short to Stokely, and Lewis gets called on PI. Its a good call, because Lewis is ridiculously early.
• 11:27 - Kruger bats down a ball. Finally a bit of pressure again. It's few and far between up to this point. This is followed immediately by Suggs coming in and demolishing Manning. Too bad theres like 70 illegal hands to the face calls on this single play, negating a strip sack recovery. Yay.
• 10:50 - I think the Ravens are getting really tired of audibles. Ellerbe makes a grea tplay on Decker and breaks up a first down pass. Correctly diagnoses the pass and breaks off from the receiver he was covering. He was the only one in the area to make the tackle too. Ellerbe doesn't always look great in coverage, but he has his moments.
• 9:56 - Doss back to receive. Just straight up lets the ball go, and it bounces way back to the 3 yard line. Stupid decision, lucky bounce.
• 8:33 - Champ Bailey is terrified of Torrey Smith. Torrey takes advantage of this since Champ is like 10 yards downfield. Makes a cut right in front of the marker, almost making Bailey fall over. Great job taking advantage of soft coverage.
• 6:50 - Flacco senses pressure from his blindside, and scrambles right. Completely dodges one tackle, and throws the ball away before the second one creates a sack. Literally 0 open receivers. Anyone who says Flacco has no pocket presence needs to watch this game and the last.
• 5:22 - Cary Williams hits Decker perfectly, and then wheelbarrows him into the ground just for good measure. The second part seemed excessive, but funny. No harm, no foul. On the next play, Ngata comes straight through the line and lays a hit on Manning who JUST gets the ball away.
• 5:12 - Ravens bring a HUGE blitz, sending 6 up the middle. Great pickup by the Broncos, and a good throw to the outside, rendering the blitz useless. Dierdorf continues to dangle on Manning's balls.
• 3:25 - Manning has a ridiculous hard count, and the Ravens fall for it every time. Holding call negates a Broncos first down on the most blatant holding I've seen in a while.
• 2:53 - Ravens bring pressure with McPhee, Kruger, Suggs, and Ngata and they completely collapse the pocket. Manning doesn't even move. McPhee creates the fumble, and Kruger recovers it. Almost gets overturned by the Tuck Rule, but it was the right call. Manning successfully gained control of the ball back after deciding not to throw, despite losing control early. He puts both hands on it, and then drops it. Dierdorf is a complete idiot and has no idea what he's talking about. Also, the Tuck Rule is [profanity deleted] stupid.
• 2:10 - Rice breaks a huge run. Yanda opens a HUGE hole with an assist from Osemele and McKinney. Amusingly, the hole was created because the defender literally tripped over Yanda, who looks like he fell down too.
• 0:23 - Oh man, I want to take a second to highlight this really underappreciated play right here. Osemele and McKinney completely demolish the first wave of blockers with a perfect push at the snap, taking the inside of the hole. Bajema takes the block on the outside perfectly. On the outside of Bajema, Pitta is taking another defender so far out of the play, he might as well have been a mile high. Leach then proceeds to re-engage the player who shed McKinney, who is now cutting further inside to open the hole further. In the meantime, Yanda has come COMPLETELY around from the right side of the play, and helps Vonta Leach double team the ONLY defender left to make a play, leading to a Rice touchdown. Offensive blocking is a really under-appreciated part of this game, and I just wanted to highlight what is probably one of the best examples of it. Tied back at 28 All.

Edited by Ravensfan23, 13 January 2013 - 07:49 PM.
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[CptJesus]

Quarter 4 - I don't even know what's going on anymore. Also, who is that dude with Smith on his jersey?

• 14:25 - Terrell Suggs completely beats his lineman and jumps on top of Manning, coming in from the blindside. Manning just barely manages to secure the ball.
• 12:26 - Ravens line up with 3 receivers on the right and Torrey Smith on the left. Q drops a ball that he would usually grab. I think the cold is affecting people more than they want to admit. Leads to a punt.
• 10:45 - Ravens blitz 5, and Corey Graham comes straight up the middle untouched. Takes Manning down, but Manning gets rid of the ball first. After getting stopped for the entire beginning of the game, the Ravens really bring pressure hard.
• 8:45 - Cary Williams gets called on a stupid hold. However, I give the refs credit because they stayed consistent and called a similar play on the Broncos later in the game.
• 8:41 - I swear Manning is just yelling random [profanity deleted], because the Ravens don't really show anything here. The defense is starting to look a bit tired, but they still play well. Manning uses the same snap count for a few plays, yelling HURRY HURRY and getting the snap. Surprised the Ravens didn't pick up on it.
• 7:30 - Demaryius Thomas picks up some great blocks downfield, and lays a great stiff arm on Ed Reed, knocking him flat on his back. 3 missed tackles on this play, and theres nothing new there. Good run by Thomas for a TD.
• 6:58 - Camera pans to the defense, who look like they're half dead. Cam Cameron somehow sneaks his way into the coaches booth, murders Caldwell, and then starts calling plays, because from this point on, the only thing we see is two runs up the middle, and then a pass. Starts really pissing me off, and my blood pressure goes through the roof.
• 5:50 - Q is left WIDE open in the middle of the field in some massive dropped coverage. The two linebackers playing zone seemed to expect Q to run further downfield, but the safety wasn't in any position yet.
• 5:07 - Broncos bring a delayed blitz, but Flacco throws to Boldin who makes a money catch with a huge jump reminiscent of the Broncos at the beginning of the game.
• 4:43 - The Ravens have a really hard time running from this point on. Without Pierce to back him up, Rice has more trouble especially with the super predictable 2:1 Run to Pass ratio. The O-Line isn't getting nearly as much push, probably due to fatigue and thin air. This is a very very long game.
• 3:16 - Jacoby with an inexplicable drop. Once again, Flacco does a fantastic job sensing Von Miller coming in from his blindside and scrambles away extending the play quite a bit. Flacco then erases all my awe with a stupid delay of game forcing Harbaugh to burn a timeout. On the next play, Pitta drops the ball, but Mike Adams makes one of the best defensive plays of the game, reaching around Pitta and knocking the ball out. Turnover on downs. Not a bad offensive play. Just a fantastic defensive play.
• 2:23 - Perhaps the defense goes and drinks a bunch of Bully Bling, courtesy of Bernard Pollard, because they suddenly just play ridiculous defense after letting the run game eat them up. They absolutely stuff the line of scrimmage, burning their last timeout at 2:17.
• 2:00 - 3rd and 7, Broncos decide to run it. I have no clue what happened here, since Peyton has been eating us alive on the short throws.
• 1:05 - This play proves once again that Flacco has far better pocket presence than most think. Miller definitely beats Oher, and Flacco knows it so he takes off. Miller is a freak of nature though.
• 0:38 - Hail Mary to Jacoby that saves the day. Let me highlight a few things on this play. First, the Broncos bring a 3 man rush. Despite just bringing 3, Dumervil and Ayers both get huge penetration on the line, completely collapsing the pocket from both the right and the back. Flacco senses this, and runs to the left, loads up and fires downfield. Rahim Moore for some inexplicable reason goes for the big play here, trying to secure an interception. Carter expects help from Moore deep downfield. Moore misjudges the length of the throw and falls backwards while it lands directly in Jones's hands.
• 0:30 - No idea why the Broncos decided to just go into OT. 2 Timeouts, 30 seconds and Manning, I would have taken the shot. I was actually screaming at the screen for them to kick it out of the endzone, so happy they did. Trendon Holliday terrifies me.

Edited by CptJesus, 13 January 2013 - 05:12 PM.

[CptJesus]

OT 1 - My heart explodes from stress

• 15:00 - They make a Tebow reference here for no reason whatsoever. Offense takes the ball, and Cam Cameron still hasn't been noticed in the coaches booth.
• 14:25 - Torrey goes up for a catch, and it goes right through his hands. Another dropped ball. Almost intercepted.
• 14:10 - I don't think I've ever been so contested about a call. I can see both sides. We got the call in our favor, but still, it was really really close. I'm not going to make a judgment either way here.
• 12:31 - PI called against Champ Bailey. This is the same call as the one earlier on Cary Williams, with a hand on the shoulder the whole way. Consistency is nice from refs.
• 11:52 - Nice short pass to Jacoby. These short passes are really helping sustained drives, and the deep threat of the Ravens has forced the Broncos to play off instead of in press. Flacco exploits this for short passes.
• 11:05 - Flacco sits in the pocket for 5 seconds, but the receivers are completely smothered. Flacco does the right thing and eats the sack while wrapping up the ball firmly. I like it.
• 10:22 - Kruger comes straight up the middle bringing pressure. Manning throws a terrible throw that I'm surprised wasn't picked off, but lucky positioning saves him.
• 9:37 - Brandon Stokely makes an amazing catch, diving and securing the ball perfectly. He was also wide open on a comeback route.
• 6:48 - Another run on first down. SOMEONE CATCH CAM ALREADY!
• 6:11 - Flacco rolls out to the left and throws to Boldin, who is completely undercut by Adams. Underthrown ball that was very very very close to being picked except Adams came down out of bounds. This is followed by a boneheaded delay of game. I don't know whats happening, because we haven't seen this crap all year.
• 6:00 - Pitta makes one of the best catches in the seam ever. Flacco takes a 3 step drop and immediately releases, which is great because the blitz was coming. This play was actually the play that saved the game for the Ravens, and I'll explain why in a bit, even though the Ravens get nothing done on the next few downs.
• 4:03 - Flacco makes an incredibly risky pass dropped by Chris Harris. Was targeting Anquan Boldin, but Harris had the inside route. There was no hope of Boldin getting this one, since Harris blocked the path completely.
• 4:00 - Now, that at 6:00. This is why it's important. The field position from this play gives the Ravens punt less field to cover, therefore coming down at the 14 yard line. Holliday once again goes for the big play here, looking for running room, which he sees to the left. Jimmy Smith completely fools Holliday here and puts on a MASSIVE burst of speed as Holliday attempts to come back up field, tackling him back at the 6, effectively setting up a massive punt and giving the Broncos terrible field position. No one is comfortable backed up against their end zone.
• 3:40 - Poor tackle + awesome move lets Hillman get a few extra yards on what should have been a loss, moving the Broncos up a bit.
• 1:02 - Kruger brings pressure, forcing Manning into a horrible throw. Brandon Stokely comes back, and Corey Graham comes up with a beautiful play, since shadowing Stokely gives him the inside edge.
• 0:50 - The Ravens finally go to the air for no reason whatsoever on first down. Immediately batted down and almost intercepted.
• 0:40 - Yanda makes a massive play here. A draw play breaks down coverage, and Rice goes up the field. Yanda actually follows the play and Rice gets stuffed almost at the marker. Yanda decides that he doesn't like the look of this and just pushes Rice over the line, giving the Ravens a first down. Was funny and exciting to watch.

OT 2 - Clutch.
Ravens just run the ball a few times to pick up a few extra yards. They already have good enough field position to attempt a FG with Tuckers ridiculous leg. They just want to make it easier.

• 13:24 - Tucker barely gets off the FG, almost blocked, but it sails through the goal posts, ending the game.

Overall Thoughts
Von Miller - I don't care what anyone says. This dude is a freak of nature. No one should be this athletic. Watching him play, even on the opposing team is awesome. He's just a force of nature.

Flacco's Pocket Presence/Scrambling - I mentioned this a few times during the writeup, but Flacco is showing more and more that he can scramble. In this game and the last, we've seen rollouts. We've seen a moving pocket. We've seen Flacco evade sacks and buy time. Anyone who continues this argument is silly. He's clearly had the ability, I just have a feeling he was told not to do it for whatever reason. You don't go from no ability to scrambling like a boss in a week.

Dropped Passes - There were a lot of dropped passes today. On both sides. But more on the Ravens. We saw drops from Boldin, Smith, Jones, Pitta, and Dickson. None from Doss, because he was barely targeted at all, probably after his performance last week.

Offensive Line - For another week, our offensive line dominates. Despite not having the best day in the run game, the offensive line allowed a single sack today against Dumervil and Miller, arguably the best pass rush in the NFL right now. Even Oher looked pretty good out there. However, McKinney should get Comeback Player of the Playoffs, because out of nowhere, he's essentially fixed all our line problems. Osemele continues to play Guard at an extremely high level and Yanda is Yanda. Lost in all of this is that Birk is also playing exceptionally well despite the issues he's been having.

Flacco - Flacco really put the game on his shoulders today. He may not be elite, but in the playoffs, he is exceptional. Only a few really silly mental errors, but no one is perfect. He is also the first QB this entire season to throw for over 300 yards against the Broncos.

Jim Caldwell (A.K.A. Two Face) - Brilliant playcalling in the first half, What the heck? playcalling in OT.

Defense - Corey Graham and Chykie Brown are also underappreciated. They stepped up and made some great plays, and Graham essentially won us the game. Ellerbe rocks. Upshaw did a great job setting the edge from what I saw. Ray Lewis is showing flashes of greatness and speed, but I don't think he had the best day despite leading the team in tackles. Ngata is getting some great pressure up the middle. Suggs is showing flashes of greatness as well. Kruger continues to be awesome, despite less of a presence today. However, that offensive line is STOUT.

Ed Reed/Bernard Pollard - I reserved a special section for these two. We heard almost nothing about them all day, and I'm actually really happy about this. Reed and BP did such a good job covering downfield, that Manning had to take a bunch of short underneath throws. This is why we were nickled and dimed to death all night. Ed Reed, for once, wasn't gambling, and that's exactly where he needed to be. I would therefore argue this is one of his best games of the season, despite not hearing his name at all.

Special Teams - We definitely had some issues here. However, what this should really highlight is the volatility of kick returns. It took a single mistake to set up both the return touchdowns in today's game. Jones didn't have a great day in the return game, and none of the other people we tried did either. However, this is kind of the wrong way to look at it. We've just gotten so accustomed to huge returns that it looks bad when we get average returns.

Torrey Smith - After having an amazing start to the game, Torrey completely vanished for the second half. I'm fairly sure the Broncos brought safety help over the top, but it's hard to tell for sure. Still, all around amazing performance, especially against the legend Champ Bailey

Things to improve for the next game
Tackling. This is my only real complaint.
Special Teams - I don't think things are as bad as I originally thought, but they definitely need to get their stuff together.

Edited by Moderator 6, 13 January 2013 - 05:37 PM.
removed profanity

[Ravens<3]

TLDR, Sorry. lol.

But I agree, amazing game! +1 for your dedication

[K-Dog]

I like what Slim does better.

[CptJesus]

TLDR, Sorry. lol.

But I agree, amazing game! +1 for your dedication

Can't really blame you. It's a lot of stuff, but its mainly just stuff I noticed on individual plays.

I like what Slim does better.

What he does is different from what I'm doing here. He picks some plays and breaks them down in depth with cool pictures. I just go through the game and try to pick out what I think is significant.

Edited by CptJesus, 13 January 2013 - 05:40 PM.

[Moderator 6]

Jim Caldwell (A.K.A. Two Face) - Brilliant playcalling in the first half, What the heck? playcalling in OT.

...

Things to improve for the next game
Tackling. This is my only real complaint.
Special Teams - I don't think things are as bad as I originally thought, but they definitely need to get their stuff together.

I agree with these two points in particular. Firing Cameron is the best thing that happened to this team. Tackling was also terrible but we're nit-picking at this point.

Great write up!

[CosmicRedPanda]

I went through an entire bottle of Bolthouse Farms while reading this. My eyes sting and my head hurts.... but I have to agree with the majority of what was written here.

Good job... just do a better job of summarizing next time.

[blitzking33]

I couldn't handle reading this entire thing.. but look what I found jhahahhaha



He's Flaccoing lmao

Edited by blitzking33, 13 January 2013 - 05:58 PM.

[hawkprey]

I couldn't handle reading this entire thing.. but look what I found jhahahhaha



He's Flaccoing lmao

"They can still miss the extra point..."


Never watch the game with your girlfriend.


But as for the OP, good stuff. Too much to read all at once but I'll look it over more.

[AsianRice]

OT 1 - My heart explodes from stress

• 15:00 - They make a Tebow reference here for no reason whatsoever. Offense takes the ball, and Cam Cameron still hasn't been noticed in the coaches booth.
• 14:25 - Torrey goes up for a catch, and it goes right through his hands. Another dropped ball. Almost intercepted.
• 14:10 - I don't think I've ever been so contested about a call. I can see both sides. We got the call in our favor, but still, it was really really close. I'm not going to make a judgment either way here.
• 12:31 - PI called against Champ Bailey. This is the same call as the one earlier on Cary Williams, with a hand on the shoulder the whole way. Consistency is nice from refs.
• 11:52 - Nice short pass to Jacoby. These short passes are really helping sustained drives, and the deep threat of the Ravens has forced the Broncos to play off instead of in press. Flacco exploits this for short passes.
• 11:05 - Flacco sits in the pocket for 5 seconds, but the receivers are completely smothered. Flacco does the right thing and eats the sack while wrapping up the ball firmly. I like it.
• 10:22 - Kruger comes straight up the middle bringing pressure. Manning throws a terrible throw that I'm surprised wasn't picked off, but lucky positioning saves him.
• 9:37 - Brandon Stokely makes an amazing catch, diving and securing the ball perfectly. He was also wide open on a comeback route.
• 6:48 - Another run on first down. SOMEONE CATCH CAM ALREADY!
• 6:11 - Flacco rolls out to the left and throws to Boldin, who is completely undercut by Adams. Underthrown ball that was very very very close to being picked except Adams came down out of bounds. This is followed by a boneheaded delay of game. I don't know whats happening, because we haven't seen this crap all year.
• 6:00 - Pitta makes one of the best catches in the seam ever. Flacco takes a 3 step drop and immediately releases, which is great because the blitz was coming. This play was actually the play that saved the game for the Ravens, and I'll explain why in a bit, even though the Ravens get nothing done on the next few downs.
• 4:03 - Flacco makes an incredibly risky pass dropped by Chris Harris. Was targeting Anquan Boldin, but Harris had the inside route. There was no hope of Boldin getting this one, since Harris blocked the path completely.
• 4:00 - Now, that at 6:00. This is why it's important. The field position from this play gives the Ravens punt less field to cover, therefore coming down at the 14 yard line. Holliday once again goes for the big play here, looking for running room, which he sees to the left. Jimmy Smith completely fools Holliday here and puts on a MASSIVE burst of speed as Holliday attempts to come back up field, tackling him back at the 6, effectively setting up a massive punt and giving the Broncos terrible field position. No one is comfortable backed up against their end zone.
• 3:40 - Poor tackle + awesome move lets Hillman get a few extra yards on what should have been a loss, moving the Broncos up a bit.
• 1:02 - Kruger brings pressure, forcing Manning into a horrible throw. Brandon Stokely comes back, and Corey Graham comes up with a beautiful play, since shadowing Stokely gives him the inside edge.
• 0:50 - The Ravens finally go to the air for no reason whatsoever on first down. Immediately batted down and almost intercepted.
• 0:40 - Yanda makes a massive play here. A draw play breaks down coverage, and Rice goes up the field. Yanda actually follows the play and Rice gets stuffed almost at the marker. Yanda decides that he doesn't like the look of this and just pushes Rice over the line, giving the Ravens a first down. Was funny and exciting to watch.

OT 2 - Clutch.
Ravens just run the ball a few times to pick up a few extra yards. They already have good enough field position to attempt a FG with Tuckers ridiculous leg. They just want to make it easier.

• 13:24 - Tucker barely gets off the FG, almost blocked, but it sails through the goal posts, ending the game.

Overall Thoughts
Von Miller - I don't care what anyone says. This dude is a freak of nature. No one should be this athletic. Watching him play, even on the opposing team is awesome. He's just a force of nature.

Flacco's Pocket Presence/Scrambling - I mentioned this a few times during the writeup, but Flacco is showing more and more that he can scramble. In this game and the last, we've seen rollouts. We've seen a moving pocket. We've seen Flacco evade sacks and buy time. Anyone who continues this argument is silly. He's clearly had the ability, I just have a feeling he was told not to do it for whatever reason. You don't go from no ability to scrambling like a boss in a week.

Dropped Passes - There were a lot of dropped passes today. On both sides. But more on the Ravens. We saw drops from Boldin, Smith, Jones, Pitta, and Dickson. None from Doss, because he was barely targeted at all, probably after his performance last week.

Offensive Line - For another week, our offensive line dominates. Despite not having the best day in the run game, the offensive line allowed a single sack today against Dumervil and Miller, arguably the best pass rush in the NFL right now. Even Oher looked pretty good out there. However, McKinney should get Comeback Player of the Playoffs, because out of nowhere, he's essentially fixed all our line problems. Osemele continues to play Guard at an extremely high level and Yanda is Yanda. Lost in all of this is that Birk is also playing exceptionally well despite the issues he's been having.

Flacco - Flacco really put the game on his shoulders today. He may not be elite, but in the playoffs, he is exceptional. Only a few really silly mental errors, but no one is perfect. He is also the first QB this entire season to throw for over 300 yards against the Broncos.

Jim Caldwell (A.K.A. Two Face) - Brilliant playcalling in the first half, What the heck? playcalling in OT.

Defense - Corey Graham and Chykie Brown are also underappreciated. They stepped up and made some great plays, and Graham essentially won us the game. Ellerbe rocks. Upshaw did a great job setting the edge from what I saw. Ray Lewis is showing flashes of greatness and speed, but I don't think he had the best day despite leading the team in tackles. Ngata is getting some great pressure up the middle. Suggs is showing flashes of greatness as well. Kruger continues to be awesome, despite less of a presence today. However, that offensive line is STOUT.

Ed Reed/Bernard Pollard - I reserved a special section for these two. We heard almost nothing about them all day, and I'm actually really happy about this. Reed and BP did such a good job covering downfield, that Manning had to take a bunch of short underneath throws. This is why we were nickled and dimed to death all night. Ed Reed, for once, wasn't gambling, and that's exactly where he needed to be. I would therefore argue this is one of his best games of the season, despite not hearing his name at all.

Special Teams - We definitely had some issues here. However, what this should really highlight is the volatility of kick returns. It took a single mistake to set up both the return touchdowns in today's game. Jones didn't have a great day in the return game, and none of the other people we tried did either. However, this is kind of the wrong way to look at it. We've just gotten so accustomed to huge returns that it looks bad when we get average returns.

Torrey Smith - After having an amazing start to the game, Torrey completely vanished for the second half. I'm fairly sure the Broncos brought safety help over the top, but it's hard to tell for sure. Still, all around amazing performance, especially against the legend Champ Bailey

Things to improve for the next game
Tackling. This is my only real complaint.
Special Teams - I don't think things are as bad as I originally thought, but they definitely need to get their stuff together.

great job....I think the reason Caldwell called a lot running game on the second half and OT was that the Broncos were playing a lot zone and coverage with safeties in the back; with a Pro-Bowl playmaker RB on the team, why not using him in this situation? Great calls from Caldwell and he adjusted to the Denver defense throughout the game.....Big help for Joe too...

[CptJesus]

I went through an entire bottle of Bolthouse Farms while reading this. My eyes sting and my head hurts.... but I have to agree with the majority of what was written here.

Good job... just do a better job of summarizing next time.

Only so much you can summarize =) . I already boiled most of the plays down a lot, but there were a lot of really interesting things happening in this game.

great job....I think the reason Caldwell called a lot running game on the second half and OT was that the Broncos were playing a lot zone and coverage with safeties in the back; with a Pro-Bowl playmaker RB on the team, why not using him in this situation? Great calls from Caldwell and he adjusted to the Denver defense throughout the game.....Big help for Joe too...

Rice actually had a pretty pedestrian day, with stats inflated by a couple of big runs. His stats are 30/130 for 4.4 YPC. However, if you remove his longest run of 32 yards, it drops to 29/98 or 3.3 YPC. Not bad, but not fantastic. A large portion of the runs were for 1-3 yards, which definitely leaves you in second and long situations.

Flacco on the other hand had the game of his life with a ridiculous 9.7 YPA, and 18.4 YPC. Obviously, these too are inflated by long passes. But he was having good success throwing short on routes over the middle of the field. I think they should have given him more chances instead of leaving him with 3rd and 6-7 to convert over and over.

[ravensfan2424]

I couldn't handle reading this entire thing.. but look what I found jhahahhaha



He's Flaccoing lmao

This one is my favorite:

[Moderator 6]

Verbal warning only; stay on topic!

[AsianRice]

Only so much you can summarize =) . I already boiled most of the plays down a lot, but there were a lot of really interesting things happening in this game.



Rice actually had a pretty pedestrian day, with stats inflated by a couple of big runs. His stats are 30/130 for 4.4 YPC. However, if you remove his longest run of 32 yards, it drops to 29/98 or 3.3 YPC. Not bad, but not fantastic. A large portion of the runs were for 1-3 yards, which definitely leaves you in second and long situations.

Flacco on the other hand had the game of his life with a ridiculous 9.7 YPA, and 18.4 YPC. Obviously, these too are inflated by long passes. But he was having good success throwing short on routes over the middle of the field. I think they should have given him more chances instead of leaving him with 3rd and 6-7 to convert over and over.

Joe has the power to audible if he wanted to, but I think what he saw was what Caldwell expected was going to happen. Joe saw safeties far back on which they can jump route, so he stayed with the running game. However, if you play 1 dimensional offense all the time like let Joe passing more; I think soon or late he will make mistake. He has Rice to relieve his pressure on passing down although Rice didn't do great damage on the running game; I think part of it is Pierce was hurt. We lost a playmaker RB...

[CptJesus]

Joe has the power to audible if he wanted to, but I think what he saw was what Caldwell expected was going to happen. Joe saw safeties far back on which they can jump route, so he stayed with the running game. However, if you play 1 dimensional offense all the time like let Joe passing more; I think soon or late he will make mistake. He has Rice to relieve his pressure on passing down although Rice didn't do great damage on the running game; I think part of it is Pierce was hurt. We lost a playmaker RB...

Absolutely. Losing Pierce was a huge blow,and it forced Rice to shoulder a really large load. And he stepped up to it as best as he could. However, we were looking unbelievably predictable in OT, and we finally broke the predictability at the worst possible time. However, we've shown that Joe works much better when he has momentum, and the super predictable plays were giving the Broncos an easy time keying in on what needed to be done. When Joe finally passed on first down, it wasn't even off of Play Action, which is confusing since they had spent the last 6 drives running on first, giving you the best set up possible.

It was just a bizarre play call. The fact that everyone was playing far back should have let Flacco do exactly what Manning did: carve up the defense on short patterns over the middle of the field and the outside.

[VabchRavens]

Lol at no one spotting Cam in the booth yet.

[CptJesus]

Lol at no one spotting Cam in the booth yet.

It certainly felt like it for a while. At least we broke up the monotony with some short passes.