[News] Eugene Monroe Breaks Down First Start

[budman]

Heavy is the head that wears the crown! GO RAVENS!

[steelcityraven]

1. monroe is only going to get better. Decent first game - I am expecting big things from EM!

2. Good to see Dallas Clark looking more like DallasCLark... hope that trend continues.

3. Still not Ed Dickson sighting... disappointing for sure!

4. Still need more of a push from the middle of our DL. (Ngata-BWilliams, Cody, Spears, etc) we need more from these guys. We are killing it with the outside prssure... need more up the middle!

5. It is time for Arthur Brown to take the position from Bynes (unless McClain steps in) but Brown has looked solid... bynes has missed a lot of tackels this season. I also really like Upshaw in that spot! He has been impressive there!

6. I have to say that Jimmy Smith has shown some consstent growth... I am liking the way he is playing right now!

[Mystigo_Dragon]

Monroe is a good acquisition,... but, Gino Gradkowski's still the same undersized, first year Center that teams have been feasting on up the middle!

When you run the ball, the Center's first movements should be laterally, not backwards! We need a guy with attitude, and beef!

Do the Jaguars happen to have one of those???

[steelcityraven]

Can Shipley do worse then Geno??? Is Jensen ready to take over?
We need to do something and do it quickly!

[budman]

It will be interesting to see if Gino grades out with the worst negative again.

[GO_Ravens]

I just read that someone wants to fire Harbaugh........LOL!!!! That's ridiculous we're 3-3 and we just won the Super Bowl C-Mon man some people are just ungrateful. People we lost 10 starters from last year and our oline has 2 new starters it will take time to get in sync as a team. We're 3-3 and one game from leading the division calm down please.

[budman]

Can Shipley do worse then Geno??? Is Jensen ready to take over?
We need to do something and do it quickly!

I am pretty sure he is the guy Harbs wants in there, but he is still sidelined with that bad foot (I think)

[steelcityraven]

budman.... I thought that Jensen practiced last week???? I know he will need some time to get the system down... but should take as long as someone coming in fresh. He has been around our system for 2 months now and studying our play book ...so it should make for a smoother transition?

Hope he is healthy real soon!

[budman]

budman.... I thought that Jensen practiced last week???? I know he will need some time to get the system down... but should take as long as someone coming in fresh. He has been around our system for 2 months now and studying our play book ...so it should make for a smoother transition?

Hope he is healthy real soon!

You might be right IDK if he practiced or not. I do think that he is who Harbs is waiting for.

[baltimoreravensfan4life]

 

This is your friendly reminder that Juan Castillo was run game coordinator during the playoffs and Super Bowl last year. The problem will not be resolved if we just "fire Juan."

sheesh

He was actually a consultant at that point, not an actual coordinator.

[sami]

Why does everyone keep saying Gino is undersized. Hes the same size as Jensen -4 lbs and taller than Shipley but -9 lbs. A good steak dinner would take care of that.
With that being said, I'm sure Jensen will be the starting center as soon as he's healed. Why else would we keep a rookie center on the roster when we have two other ones on there?

[rmcjacket23]

I just read that someone wants to fire Harbaugh........LOL!!!! That's ridiculous we're 3-3 and we just won the Super Bowl C-Mon man some people are just ungrateful. People we lost 10 starters from last year and our oline has 2 new starters it will take time to get in sync as a team. We're 3-3 and one game from leading the division calm down please.

Fire Harbaugh? No.

 

But I'll be the first to say... he's probably given too much credit. I could rattle off a long list of what I deem to be poor coaching decisions over several years, some of which are mind boggling to me.

 

What I don't think anybody would debate is this... with the possible exception of the Texans game, I think we've been out-coached in every single game we've played this season. Whether its game management, gameplan, in-game decisions, in-game adjustments, etc., I think we have lost that battle in just about every single game this season.

 

The losing starters thing is clearly important, particularly on the offensive end. My issue is there doesn't appear to be a ton of growth. Keep in mind... you are almost 40% through the season at this point. If we are going to wait until week 14-15 to start coming together offensively, it very well could be too late.

 

And the offensive line brought back 4 of 5 starters in every week going into this one. Almost every single team in this league would kill to be able to start 4 or 5 starters consistently on the offensive line.

 

Its certainly no time to panic, but its fair to question certain aspects, and questioning both the offense and Harbaugh is certainly warranted at this level.

[budman]

Why does everyone keep saying Gino is undersized. Hes the same size as Jensen -4 lbs and taller than Shipley but -9 lbs. A good steak dinner would take care of that.
With that being said, I'm sure Jensen will be the starting center as soon as he's healed. Why else would we keep a rookie center on the roster when we have two other ones on there?

The Neg was a mistake. It's a LIKE.

[baltimoreravensfan4life]

Monroe actually played pretty well. When the Ravens ran behind him, they averaged over 4 yards per carry. He also consistently blocked out his man in pass protection, with the exception of that last play in the second half, and gave Flacco some really nice time to work with. I think a lot of it had to do with the receivers not gaining good separation in the first half, which could be do in part to the fact that the offensive play call was too predictable. I remember one play(the third down before the field goal) where Flacco was given like five seconds in the pocket to make a throw and Monroe had his man at least two, three yards out. Flacco then began to role out and Monroe noticed and went and re-engaged in his man to give Flacco more time. The receivers just didn't gain separation on the play, but Monroe was a really great addition and he helped the offensive line in pass protection, for the most part. Inside pass protection between Yanda and Gino is still a major issue. On one of Hawk's sacks I literally saw Gino just stick out his arm as if to say, "Run through my arm if you can," and didn't even try to get in his way. How does that even happen in the NFL? It's like he wants to be the worst center in the NFL. And for all of those saying young centers take time to adjust, I understand that, but both Pouncey brothers were stellar as rookies and Travis Frederick is actually the ninth best center in the league right now. I just wish we had a better option than Gino.

[balfan23]

This was the only bad play - really? Look, don't get me wrong ... I'm not calling him out by saying that issues went beyond one play and that getting Monroe was a bad move - but that the Oline play - to a man - is weak and is getting worse. Heck - I was even seeing Leech missing blocks. And Yanda is a clear pro-bowl player and is looking like anything but his usual dominant self.

There is a systemic issue here. We can't pin this on Gino's inexperience or KO taking a step back in year 2 or whatever issues people like to pin on Oher ... it is a system wide failure.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to call out blocking schemes as the culprit, but it doesn't take a seasoned analyst to know something is wrong when you have the caliber of players we have up front and are seeing these types of performances.

[Postapocalypse Raven]

We won't run for 100 yards this year until he is gone...

We ran for 133 yards last week against Miami.

[runcontrol]

Why does everyone keep saying Gino is undersized. Hes the same size as Jensen -4 lbs and taller than Shipley but -9 lbs. A good steak dinner would take care of that.
With that being said, I'm sure Jensen will be the starting center as soon as he's healed. Why else would we keep a rookie center on the roster when we have two other ones on there?

 

Exactly what I was thinking earlier when I looked up Jensen's name to see if I was spelling it right.   Jensen, Shipley and Gino all seem to be a similar size.  I just looked up Birk and he was 6'4"  310lbs.   That doesn't seem like a huge difference.   

[baltravens]

The play was all not Monroe's fault. Harbs should have got his head out of his rear and played conservatively running the ball with seconds left going into the half. I HOPE THAT WE LAID IT ON HIM DURING ANY PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY, which I have yet to see!!!!

[tay0789]

I know that the offensive line is struggling, but Flacco needs to work on his accuracy, some throws he is making are just awful.

[tay0789]

Also we need to get a new offensive line coach, because our run game has been getting worst every year.

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

The play was all not Monroe's fault. Harbs should have got his head out of his rear and played conservatively running the ball with seconds left going into the half. I HOPE THAT WE LAID IT ON HIM DURING ANY PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY, which I have yet to see!!!!

 

"play conservative" - that's a first time calling on this board - every other person wants the Ravens to be more aggressive, put 100 points on the board and chop other teams heads off - at this point if I were the coach and I was reading this board I would think we had a bunch of fans that have no clue what they really want our team do or how they want them to do it...

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

This was the only bad play - really? Look, don't get me wrong ... I'm not calling him out by saying that issues went beyond one play and that getting Monroe was a bad move - but that the Oline play - to a man - is weak and is getting worse. Heck - I was even seeing Leech missing blocks. And Yanda is a clear pro-bowl player and is looking like anything but his usual dominant self.

There is a systemic issue here. We can't pin this on Gino's inexperience or KO taking a step back in year 2 or whatever issues people like to pin on Oher ... it is a system wide failure.

I'm not knowledgeable enough to call out blocking schemes as the culprit, but it doesn't take a seasoned analyst to know something is wrong when you have the caliber of players we have up front and are seeing these types of performances.

 

Gotta agree with you 100% balfan23 - something is not working and they need to get it corrected quickly!! 

[ravenwildman]

A couple of my friends and I re-watched the game in slow motion (funny without commercials and watching most but not all plays it was not much longer than the game was on TV, lol).

We did this to play coach just for fun, now....we know we are just three fan idiotic couch coaches so nobody is trying to figure anything out, just slow it down enough to see what each player does, or doesn't do well.

With the one exception we all know about at the end of the first half, Monroe did some awesome blocking, he is super fast and hits like Leech does! Very impressive.

GO RAVENS!

[BajanRaven]

Can Shipley do worse then Geno??? Is Jensen ready to take over?We need to do something and do it quickly!

Shipley CAN do worse than Gino. He already did, in the pre-season!

[outkast1]

Juan Castillo is our new problem?

[steelraven]

People can't scapegoat McKinnie anymore so now Juan Castillo is the problem.

[ravensuperbowlbound11]

He had one mistake, which should not have happened. Overall good start.

[omar586]

i agree here, you can see if one player is struggling, but this is the whole Oline is struggling bad, i mean on every play no matter what it is there was always 2-3 packers in backfield, so its not one player thing its a scheme thing it seems to me, because all sudden everybody can't block or struggling at the same time, that's crazy, heck even Yanda and leach are struggling, if we go back to what ever blocking scheme we we're doing in playoffs last year, i think it would b better than this.

[jimgiampaoli]

When we see Yanda being penalized, it's unbelievable. The entire O line is out of sync. Castillo has to be fired now. He is well on his way to destroying our chances of winning any games. Why was he ever hired? Must be somebody's friend. Same old story.

[Willbacker]

That one play really stuck out like a sore thumb. Other than that I'd still rather have Monroe starting over McKinnie.