Is no one scared to death about our secondary?

[mgridda]

facepalm.jpg

We didn't let Boldin go for a 6th round pick. We let Boldin go for $6 million dollars of 2013 cap room. And I'm sorry to break it to you guys, but Anquan Boldin wouldn't have done much different in OUR SCHEME against the Denver Broncos Defense than Marlon Brown did. Our defense would have looked MUCH worse without Elvis Dumervil, Chris Canty and Daryl Smith.

Maybe then Peyton would have put 75 points up on the board. It's Dennis Pitta who we're missing. Marlon Brown basically did everything that Anquan would do and more.

 

Boldin matched up well against the Packers and in the 9ers scheme. 

[ThePurpleWall]

your the only one

[runamuk]

I think we will bounce back this week . I would like to see Elam get a chance to play he has allot of upside .The secondary was  gassed most/all of the second half  and that allowed manning to shred them .

[H8R]

No, I'm not scared at all. Jimmy didnt play that horribly and Webb is coming back from the knee and he'll get better as the year goes on. Graham got picked on a little but it was Peyton Manning.. with one of the best WR cores in the league. Huff and Digz didnt do very well but I feel like that was a lot of assignment stuff. Not that its an excuse but we do have a lot of moving pieces. Dont discount the presence of Art Jones up front. Hes one of our best DL guys and with him out, the penetration up the gut wasnt as good... leading to Manning having a decent amount of time to throw, and when he has that you know what comes next. RAINING TOUCHDOWNS

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

Looking back at it, I think the issues had more to do with conditioning than actual poor play. First thing that goes when youre tired is mental sharpness.

 

Those guys were sucking wind. Preseason is not what it used to be, they wont be in game shape til week 3 or 4. Im reserving judgment until then.

[izvoodoo]

I don't worry about anything after 1 game.  Except for Huff, he is a concern to me.

[Cville-Raven]

Not really. Once we get Art Jones back and put Elam in; our secondary should be better off. 

[Juviebest]

Looking back at it, I think the issues had more to do with conditioning than actual poor play. First thing that goes when youre tired is mental sharpness.

Those guys were sucking wind. Preseason is not what it used to be, they wont be in game shape til week 3 or 4. Im reserving judgment until then.

Exactly. This was the first full game the defense has played together. Conditioning in a hot weather high altitude Denver in Week One is brutal! Not to mention the offense/ST not doing the defense any favors with field position and Manning running that amped up no huddle...just wasn't meant to be for our guys. Once the defense gets more in synch and we get some depth back (Asa, Art, Williams) we will be really really good. It's only week one! Chill!

[flynismo]

Because most of them were piled on to an exhausted unit that was getting no help on the other side of the ball.  Did you see the close ups of people gasping for air in the third quarter?  Our D did contain Manning for quite some time.  They got no help from the offense and got overwhelmed.  What happened was the equivalent of running up the score.

I know that is the common thought around here; I guess we say this to feel better about that performance we saw.

But I don't buy it. Not even a little. Truth is, we killed them in time of possession, by nearly eight minutes. If any defense should have been exhausted to the point of being an afterthought, it should have been Denver's.
And after both teams got rested up at the half, Denver came out and just slaughtered this defense. It was bad enough in the first half when we saw sloppy tackling and guys getting burned, but then in the second half we started blowing coverages on top of it.
The reality is it was Denver's fast paced no huddle that wore the defense out. Even Welker commented after the game that the pace they played at was exhausting the teams on both sides of the ball.

[krrock10]

This is going to sound crazy, but our defense played pretty good Thursday.  At the half manning only had 14 points and 7 were off a short field INT.

 

What happened at the end of the game was a pile on.  No defense would hold up against and offense that good when they are getting shoved out there on a couple minutes rest because your offense does nothing but go three and out.  It got out of control and spiraled, I don't think the D is that bad.

I wouldn't say good, but I am on the same page with you.  They were pretty decent from the get go and we just got exhausted in the end.

[Sami84]

if we getto week 8 with a decent record things will be on the look up. pitta will be training and jones will be back along with asa. these next 7 gameswill be grinders.

[flynismo]

Which of these comments are more likely to have come out of Harbaugh's mouth after the game:

1. It's okay guys, you were just tired

Or

2. Make a play and maybe Peyton wouldn't have worn you out

[The Raven]

Which of these comments are more likely to have come out of Harbaugh's mouth after the game:

1. It's okay guys, you were just tired

Or

2. Make a play and maybe Peyton wouldn't have worn you out

Oooh! Ooh! Pick me! Is it # 2 Fly?!

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

I know that is the common thought around here; I guess we say this to feel better about that performance we saw.

But I don't buy it. Not even a little. Truth is, we killed them in time of possession, by nearly eight minutes. If any defense should have been exhausted to the point of being an afterthought, it should have been Denver's.
And after both teams got rested up at the half, Denver came out and just slaughtered this defense. It was bad enough in the first half when we saw sloppy tackling and guys getting burned, but then in the second half we started blowing coverages on top of it.
The reality is it was Denver's fast paced no huddle that wore the defense out. Even Welker commented after the game that the pace they played at was exhausting the teams on both sides of the ball.

I don't entirely disagree, but the time of possession argument is very misleading. That just measures elapsed time on the game clock, not time actually playing football.

Ravens took on average almost 22 seconds to snap the ball and their average play lasted under 10 seconds, while the Broncos took around 13 to snap the ball and avg play lasted just about 10 seconds.

So for every minute of possession for the ravens about 40 seconds was rest or down time while 20 seconds were actual play. For the ravens defense, for every minute on the field 30 seconds was rest, 30 seconds were actually spent playing.

So if it was 8 minutes possession difference the broncos D only played for about 11 minutes with double the amount of rest in between moments of activity. The Ravens D played about 13 minutes with half as much rest in between.

So in actuality the ravens defense played about 2 minutes more with far less time to recover.

And that's the key. Time of possession is a misleading indicator. What counts is actual time with the ball in play and how much time you give the defense to recover.

We were spent and that shows why. It's not an excuse, but actual practice time has been cut back so much in the new CBA plus they rarely practice in pads so these guys are not ready come preseason. They are not in football shape yet, and combine that with the actuality of time played with altitude and you can make a case for why they were spent.

And being tired physically means less oxygen to muscles and the brain (especially at altitude where oxygen is sparse to begin with) and the first things to go are concentration, complex muscular coordination, and precision of movement.

But still, injury and poor execution is the reason for the loss. Conditioning issues just exploited these miscues and mistakes late in the game.
These issue will be rectified by week 4.

[GrimCoconut]

I can't wait until Asa Jackson returns. I think he'll beat out a few guys and be a starter by year's end.

[PolishRifle]

I can't wait until Asa Jackson returns. I think he'll beat out a few guys and be a starter by year's end.

He's suspended for 8 games, isn't he? 7 games to go, that's a long time. I'm rooting for him, though. He really vindicated himself in preseason.

[scrock]

I think they are going to be fine, the defense is working in many new pieces, the secondary got burned in Denver...they played well in the 1st half other than missing a couple tackles and giving up those two TDs to the big TE...but the offense didnt do them any favors in the 2nd half and the entire defense was gassed so Peyton took advantage

 

Im not terrified of anything

 

The Ravens BEAT THEMSELVES

[HoldingCall]

I remember the Houston game of last season and how it made the Ravens appear to be done for the season but they bounced back. That's the way I take the Denver game for now. Only until they look bad against Cleveland then Houston will I worry.

[Brandon22]

Sure. Its a young secondary with a lot of new pieces. But I honestly believe the talent is there to be successful.

It can only get better. They need to start working together as a team. Communication and chemistry takes time.

[Brandon22]

We could excel more if we started Matt Elam and put James IHexigbo on special teams

[RobFuseRaven]

We could excel more if we started Matt Elam and put James IHexigbo on special teams

 

Tbh, I like Ihedigbo. I think he will play better with Elam next to him and the rest of the defense in sync.

[Bltravens]

I can't wait until Asa Jackson returns. I think he'll beat out a few guys and be a starter by year's end.

One of the few corners outside of Webb we have who actually turns his head on the ball while covering a guy.  I was astounded watching Smith and Graham play Thursday and having no idea where the ball was.

[Bltravens]

Which of these comments are more likely to have come out of Harbaugh's mouth after the game:

1. It's okay guys, you were just tired

Or

2. Make a play and maybe Peyton wouldn't have worn you out

Why I love Harbaugh.

[flynismo]

Why I love Harbaugh.

 

Yep, he isn't a whiner who makes excuses --

unlike certain other HC in the west whose name rhymes with Gym Harbaugh

[Bltravens]

Yep, he isn't a whiner who makes excuses --

unlike certain other HC in the west whose name rhymes with Gym Harbaugh

Unbelievable right?  That whole Clay Matthews thing, just change your diaper already Jim.  Every pass rusher since the dawn of time has said you need to hit the QB to win a game.  Like Jim didn't play the position himself professionally or something...oh wait

[omar586]

I can't wait until Asa Jackson returns. I think he'll beat out a few guys and be a starter by year's end.

i agree

[A Fish Called Yanda]

I'm not really worried about our defense - yet.

 

If you rewatch the Broncos game, you will see exactly why the defense got blown up - they were on the field for a VAST majority of the 3rd quarter.  Our offense was anemic - and for the drives in the 3rd quarter they were only on the field for a few minutes at a time.  Our defense had no time to rest.  That combined with the fact that it was the first game of the season, and being played at Mile High, they literally had no chance.

 

You could have taken the best defense in the league and they would have struggled in that situation.  Taking our defense and putting it against arguably the best offense in the league in that situation was a disaster waiting to happen.

[Tank 92]

Put Elam in, move Huff to corner, communicate, get the pass rush cranked up.  Fixed.

[Ravenseconbeast]

Read an article somewhere and something stood out: Ravens gave up 12 passing TD in all of regular season last year. This year, Ravens gave up 7 passing TD in season opener in week 1.

Yeah, its a little alarming.

[flynismo]

Read an article somewhere and something stood out: Ravens gave up 12 passing TD in all of regular season last year. This year, Ravens gave up 7 passing TD in season opener in week 1.

Yeah, its a little alarming.

 

Not alarming at all. Our guys were just pooped out and not physically ready to do their jobs as professional athletes.

Lol....