Ravens Grades In Last Game

[DocMartin]

Here are grades.by Doc Martin
QB Flacco C+
Flacco look good few times in 1st half, but the INTs really hurt his performance. His TE's didn't help him either.
RB Rice B- Pierce C- Leach B+
Rice was trying but besides his TD run, was about average. Pierce didn't look good, is he 100%? Leach had clearly the best performance, TD catch, was blocking and plowing through people, good showing. Too bad we were forced to abandon the running game in 2nd half.
WR's Smith B- Jones N/A Stokley C- M. Brown B
Broncos took away the long ball by doubling Smith. Several questionable No Calls on his defender holding and grabbing. Caught few balls thrown his way. Regardless, we need more production there any way possible. Jones WOW? BONEHEAD PLAY by Trawick. Stokley was not a factor, later made couple good carches, but need to make more and get some 1st downs, average at best. M.Brown was the bright star of the dim night, focused and playing hard, 4 catches and TD, great debut for rookie, his role will increase with Jones out 4-6 weeks, and we need him there.
TE's Dickson F Clark D+ Bajema N/A
Well, Dickson, sorry, caught 1 pass out of 5, awfull night. Clark had a.rought start and dropped sure TD pass to end 1st half. Then he got clobbered on the hit in midfield, but showed a lot of toughness after that. Made 7 catches for 87 yds and that is what is expected. He is a warrior and earned starting spot in my mind. Bajema was there for what, 1 play blocking?
O-LINE with Oher B without Oher D
Good in 1st half, held their own. Still need to create more holes forour running game. GIno needs to stop getting stupid penalties. Once Oher went dewn it snowballed on us. They were coming for QB and majority times it was around Wagner. Need to be fixed soon.
D-LINE 1st half A- 2nd half C
Was very good in 1st half, putting pressure on Manning exactly like doctor ordered. Also clogged up any attempt of their running game. In 2nd half it was not as good, Manning up the tempo and that hurt us in more ways than one. Also their runners started gashing bigger yards.
OLBs Suggs B- Dummerville C
Each had sack and played good in 1st half. I expected them get more success in 2nd half but it was the opposite, not sure if staying longer on the field took the edges off. Also expected little more from Doom, and another unnecesery penalty.
ILB All of them F
Not Good, is understatement. What may seemed good enough at half time turned into Not Good At All after that. While somewhat decent in stopping the run, they had no answer for their TEs. When a ROOKIE TE JULIO scores his 1st TD, shouldn't you regroup and COVER HIM?. Instead JULIO making catches all over the place, knocking our LBs to the ground. Come on, someone gotta cover this guy, hit him or slow him down. Maybe McClelan should of put hit on Julio instead of the guy on ST out of boumds, wwhich was another PENALTY. Once Payton found the weakness in the middle, he kept coming and we never stopped it.
Secondary All of them F
Wow, where do we start? Like I indicated above Payton Manning in 1st half exposed our weakness in the middle. He tossed 2 TD's to TE Julio and realized we.had no answer for it. So coming in 2nd half he started workin on it. We compensated for it and all of sudden Welker is getting open and having a field day. So, we then put Webb on Welker, which shut him down, but opened up Demaryius and it snowballed on us like an avalanche. We may have a debate about this but I see our secondary responsible for 49 points. If I have to pick which safety looked worse, it would be Huff over Dig. When there is a chance to put hit on the TE who is catching the pass on sideline, you hit him there. Don't let him catch the.ball, tuck it, cut inside and around you he goes 25 yds for TD, UNTOUCHED?!!! That might be good for the Raiders, but not good for Ravens. Once we put Elam in, things kind of "stabilized". Next is Jimmy Smith which we knew coming in couldn't play at Nickel spot. Well, he can't even play the corner as we learned in this game. Corey Graham bad game as well, looked decent in the start, but got worse as well. Webb was.so so in coverage and while doing double duty on ST, he got tired.
SPECIAL TEAM ?
While doing good job for most of the night, our ST will be judged by THREE MISTAKES.
1) WHAT A BONEHEAD PLAY BY ROOKIE TRAWICK. I got the feeling this kid will need to make something great in next game or he might be "promoted" to Practice Squad.
2) Blocked Punt, too bad it happened on 10 yard line. Even worse it put the ball in Payton Manning hand. And it turned the game around. Started like a Snowball and turned into Avalanche.
3) McClelan Beautifull Hit - too bad it was out of bounds and cost us 15 yard penalty.
Hey, like Ray Ray once said - THEY MAY BEAT US ON THE SCOREBOARD BUT WE WILL BEAT THEM DOWN ON THE FIELD.
The Biggest Positive from this game? ALL "WANNABE FANS" JUST FELL OFF THE SUPERBOWL BANDWAGON. GO RAVENS!

[jimmypowder]

Flacco -B- Running Backs -C Offensive Line-D Tight Ends-F Receivers-B- Defensive Line -B- Linebackers -F Secondary -F Special Teams-F Coaching Staff-F

[DocMartin]

Why Special Team F - they were LITTLE BETTER than last time when they let in 2 Touchdowns IMO

[jimmypowder]

Blocked punt & running into Jacoby alone warrant an F!

[Bravens292]

Blocked punt & running into Jacoby alone warrant an F!

 

the stupid penalty on McClellan plus no return yardage as well.

[DocMartin]

Yeah. I have to agree, both of our injured players got hurt by our own guys. Pathetic.

[The Raven]

Flacco: B-  

Only so much he could do. He could have made some less risky throws, but all in all he wasn't bad.

 

RBs: C

Didn't do much at all. Leach was crappy. Rice and Pierce didn't have a lot to work with though.

 

Oline: D+

Solid first half, terrible second half.

 

TEs: D

Couldn't block or catch.

 

WRs: B-

For as anemic as the passing game was, the wide receivers did what they could do. I'm happy with their performance.

 

ILBs: C+

Looked great against the run, and Smith was okay in coverage, but Bynes was lost in coverage. 

 

OLBs: A

Great job playing the run, and great job rushing the passer. Lot of pressure. Three sacks against Manning is a good day on defense.

 

DL: B+

Again, great against the run and in the pass rush. No complaints here

 

CB: C

Webb and Jimmy played respectably. Jimmy did let in one touchdown, but otherwise he played well. He went up against a good WR. Webb was dominant. Corey Graham was trash.

 

S: D-

Huff was garbage, and Ihedigbo was only adequate.

[Ravenseconbeast]

You forgot to add Gino/Osemele.   They were great in 1st quarter then completely lost motor and stunk the rest of the game.  

Not sure how many times the middle O-line collapsed on 3 &out

[Puntit]

Tight ends combined dropped as many passes as they caught. F. I don't know how you can spin it any differently -- this is half of the reason we lost the game.
Secondary, specifically Huff and Graham, F. This is the other half of the reason we lost. These guys neither could cover or tackle the very strong Denver WRs. In fairness Webb was shutdown and Smith was much improved but they couldn't compensate for what was going on with the other two.
M. Brown - A. Showed he belongs. Now I'm curious to see what Melette can do.
Leach - A-, showed he could catch and score, unlike some of the position players who get paid to catch and score.
RBs -C-, they didn't move the chains, although a lot of the blame goes to the OL for not opening holes and the OC for calling too many predictable run plays on first down.
T Smith was quietly productive, Jones was good until Trawick took him out, and Stokely was about what we expected from preseason, an experienced warm body, collectively I give them B-.
Offensive line -- McKinnie was solid, Oher and Yanda looked good in terms of maintaining a pocket until Oher went down. The others looked very inexperienced. They didn't create running lanes for rice, so really only did half their job, so B-.

[DocMartin]

CB: C
Webb and Jimmy played respectably. Jimmy did let in one touchdown, but otherwise he played well. He went up against a good WR. Webb was dominant. Corey Graham was trash.

.

I agree on Webb playing somewhat okay, but Jimmy Smith was not good at all. He gave 1 TD and then he almost gave up another one. Receiver had him beat by 2-3 yads in the endzone and ball went off his fingertips, luckily for Jimmy, because he was too far to make a play on that one. Jimmy's strong play is when he jams his receiver on the line and he needs to use it more often.

[The Oakland Cathedral]

I agree on Webb playing somewhat okay, but Jimmy Smith was not good at all. He gave 1 TD and then he almost gave up another one. Receiver had him beat by 2-3 yads in the endzone and ball went off his fingertips, luckily for Jimmy, because he was too far to make a play on that one. Jimmy's strong play is when he jams his receiver on the line and he needs to use it more often.

Those darn almost plays again, they are the worst. Almost as bad as almost INTs.

[SecretAgentMan]

Those darn almost plays again, they are the worst. Almost as bad as almost INTs.

They're worse than actual interceptions I tell you!

[ThePurpleWall]

nope, they are all good.

[Ravenseconbeast]

F on assistant coaches. 13 seconds to check on welkers drop. They got complacent and didnt check

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Joe Flacco: (C-) and I think that's being nice. Put up yards, but also threw the ball 62 times. You have to put up yards when throwing that much. Was hurt by drops which weren't his fault, and the 1 INT was a great defensive play, but still a bad decision. The other INT was a terribly boneheaded play. His demeanor was terrible and did nothing to get the offense going. I think Joe is a top QB and therefore im going to grade him very tough. Needs to be better.

 

O-Line: (C) First half was a B, 2nd half a D. Interior line looked bad other than Yanda. Gino got pushed back often and there was rarely a clean pocket for Joe. Terrible run blocking the entire games.

 

Rice: (C) Didn't do much, but blocking was awful. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Pierce: (D) Looked indecisive at times and I didnt perform well as that change of pace back.

Leach: (A) Great blocking and was effective on his few targets.

 

Torrey: (B ) Made some great catches against tight coverage. Help was always rolled his way and needed other guys to step up.

Marlon: (A) He gets an 'A' bc expectations were not high. He looked poised and confident. Got good separation and ran clean routes. Now my expectations are higher, and he will need to do more.

Stokley: (D) No separation. Looks old.

Clark: (D) Regardless of the yards he gained, he should have had a TD, and another long gain. Hands were TERRIBLE.

Dickson (F) 1 catch on 5 targets. Cannot catch a ball in traffic. Cannot take a hit.

 

D-Line (B+) Did well at creating pressure and stuffing the run, but they cant do it all themselves. Were obviously worn out by the uptempo offense which is the only thing that kept them from an A.

 

OLB's: (C+) Got to Peyton, but not enough. Better than average but I expect a lot from these 2.

ILB's: (D) Not good in coverage at all. Brown should start.

 

Webb: (B )Good to have him back. Clearly not yet in game shape.

Smith: (B+) Much improved. Was physical when he needed to be. Again my expectations were somewhat low going into the game and I now expect consistent improvement from him.

Graham: (D) It's this low bc my expectations were so high. He was a solid guy for us last year and clutch. He got abused.

 

Huff: (F) Couldn't tackle, didnt cover well. Played soft and showed poor technique. Showed no instincts or anticipation. Is not the leader on the back end we need. I expect Elam to take his spot by Week 4.

Ihedigbo (C) Great start. Good in run support, and GREAT tackle to jar the ball loose early in the game. But not very good in coverage and over-pursued his angle on Thomas' first TD.

[Gordo52]

I'd give Joe a solid B for week 1.

[DocMartin]

I expect Elam to start this weekend against Browns. For some reason Huff Does Not look.good at Safety spot. I think we should use him as Nickel back to cover slot receivers.

[TDubbs]

The Biggest Positive from this game? ALL "WANNABE FANS" JUST FELL OFF THE SUPERBOWL BANDWAGON. GO RAVENS!

This some truth right there .. I love not ever being favoured and not being overly popular. Haters will hate and we will go to the post season for the 6th straight year. 

[BenMir]

Am i a bad fan for kinda wanting us to have a bad season so we can finally draft in a good spot?

[baltimoreravensfan4life]

I don't think you can give the inside linebackers an F. Daryl Smith showed to be extremely active against the run and was fairly solid in pass coverage. He was extremely active and is easing the transition from Ray Lewis with his talent on the field, although, admittedly, the knowledge is not the same. The linebacker you should dock is Josh Bynes. He wasn't nearly as active or all over as Smith and he got abused by Ronnie Hillman in coverage.

I think the defensive line was an A all throughout the game. You have to consider that the Broncos run game was non-existant all game long. Even if they started getting some longer runs here and there, the Ravens were gassed while playing up in mile high. The fact that they still held the Broncos to less than three yards per carry is extremely impressive. Ngata looked comfortable in the middle of the defense and Chris Canty had a great game against the run and even registered a nice sack.

I don't know how you can give the outside linebackers anything less than a B, or even an A. Courtney Upshaw continued to show he's an elite run defender, and Suggs and Dumervil were constantly in the backfield. They both registered a sack and were constantly hurrying and hitting Manning. If it were any other quarterback, they'd have two or three sacks a piece, but Manning just knows how to get the ball out. 

I don't think you can hate on the secondary as a whole. Yes, Corey Graham and Michael Huff were abysmal and deserving of an F, but Smith and Webb were pretty solid. The second half started showing holes for the two of them as the thin air caught up, but they were both strong to begin. Smith handled DT and showed much improvement against double moves. He was also extremely physical and active in his presses. I even saw a great pass breakup in the first after the receiver made a sharp in-cut, something Jimmy struggled with before. He only allowed two receptions and forced a fumble. That's a lot more improved than what we've seen in the past. Webb looked pre-injury form. He was shadowing the opposing receiver and completely taking them away. He had a few pass break-ups and only allowed one reception to Ronnie Hillman. He was very impressive. Not sure why he wasn't on Welker to begin the game because Welker was non-existant with Webb on him. I also thought Ihedigbo did okay. Not good, but not bad. Deserving of a C type grade. He wasn't abused in coverage like Huff and he did lay down a couple of big hits. He could have been more active in limiting the damage done by Julius Thomas and Hillman, but then again, so could have Huff.

I think you should breakup the offensive line. Oher was playing really well, Yanda played really well, and Bryant McKinnie played really well. The real concerns were Kelechi Osemele, who I'd give a D, Gino Gradkowski, who I'd give a D(he just didn't seem to set the line up for success and he struggled at times with blocking), and Rick Wagner, who I'd give an F. Half the time, it looked like he just stuck out his right arm and decided that was enough. 

I think you have to give Marlon Brown an A. He was the only receiver to catch a touchdown and he looked very fluid in his routes. For a big guy, he really can run pretty crisp routes. He was covered by some pretty good cornerbacks, but he still put his name on the map. Not to mention if you look at his first catch, he was Boldin-esque as he tried to stiff arm and fight for more yards. I was just impressed with his knack to find the first down, then fight for extra yards. 

I'd give Flacco a B. Look what he was working with- three receivers? They were bound to be gassed like crazy and his offensive line was so bad in the second half. Not to mention that his receivers and tight ends struggled mightily with drops. He had maybe five or six bad throws, the two interceptions included. For the most part, he was making fairly good throws and putting the ball where it needed to be. If his receivers could even catch half of those drops, his completion percentage would have likely been around 60%.

I don't think you can really fault Pierce more than Rice. Neither were getting consistent yardage and both had been stopped at the line of scrimmage multiple times. I did see, though, that Pierce at least had a few nice runs where he broke off for like seven, eight yards. I think it was just a rough night for the offensive line and it negatively impacted how strong the running backs were, especially in the second half with Rick Wagner in there.

[757RavensFan]

It's amusing to see how people grade the same players totally different in this post. It makes me wonder if people were actually watching the same game.
Take for example, Leach. One guys said, "Leach was crappy" while another guy graded Leach with an "A" and said, "Great blocking and was effective on his few targets." Which one is it? LOL If I didn't see the game and trying to read how a certain player performed, this would leave me scratching my head.

For the record, I think Leach played a great game and give him a B. He cleared the way for Rice's TD, caught a TD, and took out LBs like he normally does. I only saw one bad play on Leach and that's when he whiffed on a defender who tackled Pierce for a loss.

[The Raven]

It's amusing to see how people grade the same players totally different in this post. It makes me wonder if people were actually watching the same game.
Take for example, Leach. One guys said, "Leach was crappy" while another guy graded Leach with an "A" and said, "Great blocking and was effective on his few targets." Which one is it? LOL If I didn't see the game and trying to read how a certain player performed, this would leave me scratching my head.

For the record, I think Leach played a great game and give him a B. He cleared the way for Rice's TD, caught a TD, and took out LBs like he normally does. I only saw one bad play on Leach and that's when he whiffed on a defender who tackled Pierce for a loss.

 

I'll give him an A for his first quarter, but after that I have to give him a C-.

 

Definitely an anomaly though. He'll bounce back for sure.

[callahan09]

Flacco played very well in the first 3 quarters, putting a lot of balls on the money that didn't get caught, throwing the ball away to avoid the sack when he could, his interception being a phenomenal play by the DB, and the sacks being all cases of just abysmal blocking.  Wagner, Rice, and Clark were all terrible blockers this game.  Once Oher went down and Wagner came in, the protection for Flacco became legitimately awful for the rest of the game.  In the 4th quarter, there was a lot of desperation due to being down 25 points.  There were some poor plays, some good ones, but I wouldn't use that garbage time to judge his play.  He probably shouldn't even have been out there in the 4th quarter... the game was over when we went down 25 at the beginning of the 4th quarter (I posted in a different thread that going back at least to 2000, no team has ever won a game when down by 25+ at any time in the 4th quarter... that's 512 loses, no wins... this game, the 4th quarter was garbage time and can largely be disregarded in my opinion).

 

Dickson, Clark, Stokley, and Smith were all bad in the 2nd half.  Bad hands, bad routes.  I would hesitate to say that Flacco did very much of anything wrong in the first 3 quarters of this game.  The whole offense around him was playing like crap, so how can you say Flacco was crap when he had no time to throw, no one to throw to, no one catching it when it came to them...

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

It's amusing to see how people grade the same players totally different in this post. It makes me wonder if people were actually watching the same game.
Take for example, Leach. One guys said, "Leach was crappy" while another guy graded Leach with an "A" and said, "Great blocking and was effective on his few targets." Which one is it? LOL If I didn't see the game and trying to read how a certain player performed, this would leave me scratching my head.

For the record, I think Leach played a great game and give him a B. He cleared the way for Rice's TD, caught a TD, and took out LBs like he normally does. I only saw one bad play on Leach and that's when he whiffed on a defender who tackled Pierce for a loss.

 

And by going somewhat in between with yet another different opinion, I guess that means the confusion is lifted??

 

That's just the case with anything. It is difficult for anyone to be completely objective and there are always going to be standards for comparison and bias. Flacco is a perfect example. Some experts think hes top 5, others think hes the most over rated in the NFL. Even among fans of this team that seems to perpetuate - but how is it possible since we all watch the same footage?

[DocMartin]

I agree with 757RavensFan. Leach had a good game and was in No Way 'crappy'. Flacco I say was decent and those 2 INTs hurt his performance. Keep in mind offense scored 27 points, if Clark doesn't drop that TD pass before half it would been 35 points. So if someone told me before the game we score 35 on Broncos I would most likely expect Ravens to win.

[757RavensFan]

I agree with 757RavensFan. Leach had a good game and was in No Way 'crappy'. Flacco I say was decent and those 2 INTs hurt his performance. Keep in mind offense scored 27 points, if Clark doesn't drop that TD pass before half it would been 35 points. So if someone told me before the game we score 35 on Broncos I would most likely expect Ravens to win.

Actually, if Clark catches the TD we would have had 31 pts. Tucker kicked a FG 2 plays after Clark's drop.

[The Raven]

I agree with 757RavensFan. Leach had a good game and was in No Way 'crappy'. Flacco I say was decent and those 2 INTs hurt his performance. Keep in mind offense scored 27 points, if Clark doesn't drop that TD pass before half it would been 35 points. So if someone told me before the game we score 35 on Broncos I would most likely expect Ravens to win.

 

He had a good first quarter. Can't say the same about the rest...

[mgridda]

Whose grades are these?

 

Your grades? What do I care.

[The Raven]

Whose grades are these?

 

Your grades? What do I care.

 

Glad you could share your valuable insight!