[News] The Breakdown: Eisenberg's Five Thoughts At Bengals

[caw710]

I thought I had a lot to say, but after reading this article and most of your posts, I find that you all have said everything I would have. After the game I was speechless, nothing left to say except everything we have all talked about through out the season was on display, front and center. No O Line, No running game, Joe constantly under pressure. The D couldn't get off the field, getting burned on 3rd and longs, not getting any pressure on the QB. This is the same stuff we have been saying all season. With the talent we have on the field, I believe that Coaching changes are definitely needed. I'm not saying we don't need some player changes, that's a given, but the play calling and game prep has been awful all year. I'm glad the team stayed in it to the end though, It kept it interesting for sure. A lot more fun than if we bombed out early in the season. We'll get um' next year !! Go RAVENS !!

[heatuptonyd]

There is nothing wrong with Osemelle he was injured. I had same injury he will be back fine. We need center and Right tackle possibly through draft. Center through free agency or draft. Just hope Joe puts in work and wants to prove something. It happens all the time player signs big contract gets lazy plus 2 kids super bowl mvp and all the time with endorsements commercials NO TIME FOR Football that`s why he looked like he did. Add to that terrible O Line, key players injured = mediocre season. Maybe missing playoffs is a good thing more time to think reflect and get healthy mentally as well as physically. Let`s draft some good players and make some moves in FA and sign important players on team already. It`s over till next year so let`s hope for some luck in the draft. Let`s Go Ravens 2014!!!

[rmcjacket23]

Let me preface this one final time.....I understand the Ravens were not going to extend Boldin's contract, however, they should have tried a little harder to have him play out the final year of his deal as a Raven. I know, I know, we got Dumerville, and Canty with that money. We also used it for Spears(Released), Huff(Released), and Vonta Leach who played 5 snaps a game.Boldin "only" had 85 receptions for over 1,000 yards. Ask Joe how much he missed him. Love the Ravens, but at times the way to get better is that you have to hear what you DON'T want to hear.

Yes but the intention was to use Boldin's money to get players who were actually going to be here for longer than a season. It worked out for some (Canty and Dumervil) and not so much for others.

But at the end of the day, nobody realistically thinks that Boldin turns this team into a SB team. He doesn't make the offensive line play better and he doesn't make our running game better.

The most amusing thing to me is... we got rid of like 5-6 "core" guys that a lot of the fans on these boards really wanted us to keep, and Boldin is the only single player that anybody cares about now. Why aren't more fans upset that we lost Ellerbe, Kruger, Pollard, Reed, etc? I know the answer to this... because none of those guys played particularly well. I supposed you could argue Ellerbe had a good season, but certainly not for the price he was paid. Its easy for fans to pick the one player out of six players that would have benefited us, yet nobody points out how great the organization looks for not giving Ed Reed $6m (the same amount as Boldin) to play for us. How did that work out? Why does nobody point that Dumervil was better in virtually every aspect of football than Kruger, at a substantial discount?

[riseNConquer81]

What did you see different in the play calling from last year and Cameron? With that logic we should have kept Cameron. All year long every pundit and fan kept questioning the play calling yet Caldwell is not the problem. The only thing that changed was the zone stretch run plays that were horrible. The only thing he changed destroyed the run game. Caldwell is not an OC, never called plays and clearly there was a reason and we saw why.

Cam Cameron NEVER ran as much 3 wide as we did this year. I said this in another post, but Joe Flacco SHATTERED his own franchise record on pass attempts by 50 this year. No other quarterback in the history of the team has put the ball up more than 549 times, Joe did it 614 this season.
Caldwell did what he could with a crap offense, and actually adjusted to the situation quite well, that and the defense is the only reason we even made it to 8-8. At the very least we found the ability to move the ball between 20s albeit somewhat inconsistently, but its hard to expect much more when you cant run the ball. The Coordinator saved this team from total embarassment in all reality (for the second time in as many seasons), he kinda did a lot with a little. we dont need a new o-coord, we need offensive talent.

[bioLarzen]

Elam will be fine, he's a rookie, he'll get better. No one's gonna live up to Ed Reed's standard, im not worried about that.

i think using a draft pick any higher than the 5th round on any defensive player is a waste.
We payed for that half of the team this year and we got half a season. time to finish the product.

 

I think Elam was fine - obviously a rookie, but fine. But I agree with those analysts who think he's better suited to become a SS.

 

But who knows - he might end up a terrific FS. All the better for us :)

 

bio

[PackinRavensHeat]

Thanks to all the Ravens Organization, Players, Media, and message board brothers and sisters for a very exiting and entertaining season. Ravens football is the best show on TV.

[coreyadams]

We need to look into reconstruct Flacco salary. Not happy with his 2013 performance.

[Crusader]

One thought. The coaches and player never improved from game one.

[bigbadbrad]

for three O.C.'s running me and my posse of two, as drunk as we we usually are, were yelling out plays on our offense before they snapped the ball- especially on joe's "alaska" audibles. if our half wit living is doing is what do you think their full wit defenses are doing? caldwell is so predictable i predict he's playing tic-tac-doh in fla. with cameron in three months or less. at least i hope so! ahhhhhhhhhh. inside hand offs killed us!

[TrooRavenFan]

Everyone is quick to defend Flacco and I'll be the first to say from watching every game this season (including playoffs) that he has played HORRIBLE all season. "22 INT's and 19 TD's" sounds unbelievable coming from a QB whose the 2nd highest paid player in the National Football League!!!

[TrooRavenFan]

(including pre-season)**

[fight fight fight]

Everyone is quick to defend Flacco and I'll be the first to say from watching every game this season (including playoffs) that he has played HORRIBLE all season. "22 INT's and 19 TD's" sounds unbelievable coming from a QB whose the 2nd highest paid player in the National Football League!!!

He was the 4th highest cap hit on the Ravens this year.

[DaRupp]

is it so crazy to think that the blame could be evenly spread out across all facets of the offense? Flacco made bad decisions and poor throws. But also: WR/TE didn't make plays or get open O line gave Flacco no time and could block for Ray/Bernard Ray has a bug in his butt now where he decides to dive for 1.5 yards instead of taking a hit Play calling was more boring than the Billick era! (run, run, incomplete, punt) The offense just didn't have it this year. The defense was improved from last year, but also lacked excitement. I miss Rex's blitz package. I also miss Cam's offense when Flacco was a rookie. AFC Champ game that year, and they were an EXCITING team. That is what we missed this year.

[DaRupp]

Ew...what happened to my formatting...

[docwis28]

He was the 4th highest cap hit on the Ravens this year.

Who cares how high his cap was. He is very highly paid and he breaks the franchise record for interceptions. We mind as well have given that money to Justin Tucker, it least he's accurate.

[fight fight fight]

Who cares how high his cap was. He is very highly paid and he breaks the franchise record for interceptions. We mind as well have given that money to Justin Tucker, it least he's accurate.

Because the cap hit is the only salary number that matters to me. And really, it's the only salary number that matters at all.

[rmcjacket23]

Who cares how high his cap was. He is very highly paid and he breaks the franchise record for interceptions. We mind as well have given that money to Justin Tucker, it least he's accurate.

So what would you do then? How much would you pay him? And when he refuses and goes and plays elsewhere (which he would), who will be your starting QB and why is he better than Flacco?

There's two types of people in this world... people that can identify problems and people that can identify solutions.

[caw710]

Dean pee's has all this talent. Im not saying he should be like rex ryan but dean is a little bland also. Every game besides the lions were late game collapses by our defense. That shouldnt happen.

Besides the Lions, The Lions game is a perfect example of late in the game collapses on the defense. That's why I always say to scrap the Prevent defense scheme. It does not work.

Otherwise, I agree with you.

[Crusader]

So much for RE LOADING this year. Must have been with blanks.

[DepRaven]

I've been listening to friends and their spouses asking the same question over and over since Joe got dinged in the knee: Why don't they put in Tyrod? When I heard Harbs scoff at the idea, and saw what happened when he did get in during the trash time he had, I now wonder: Why are we keeping him if we aren't going to put faith in him? (I know faith means little if there's not enough talent.) Wouldn't we be better off with an older veteran with more game experience? Do we have too much invested in him?

[digger7060]

Hire Norv Turner as OC and Russ Grimm as OL coach. Make Spagnolo DC

[picke]

This was a very frustrating season. If it had been something different every week, it would have been more understandable and tolerable. But the same problems persisted every week and had been occurring since the beginning of the season. You can probably identify many of them. Some that come to mind are the OL (dual diagnosis of unable to run-block and protect the QB), communication in the secondary, false starts (OL again), the running game (OL again), the wide receiver mess and red zone futility. All-pervasive throughout the season, yet little was done to resolve the problems that were occurring weekly. It makes me think of the definition of insanity: Repeat the same behavior and expect different results.

[gooftroop]

This is a reckoning day for our offense, esp. the O-line and RB's. Harbaugh needs to be ruthlessly honest and push the coaches we have or find better ones. Having the 31st offense on the heels of winning the SB is inexcusable. Joe needs a sit-down and confronted with the brutal facts of his bad decision-making and gunslinger mentality. You cannot repeat this again next year. Our O-line needs to be overhauled with better players. Our RB's need to be evaluated, and possibly a draft pick is in order. We cannot stand pat and be satisfied.

Fair enough, but what do you replace the "gunslinger mentality" with? More runs at 1.8 yards per carry? More vanilla playcalling?

[FranktheTank]

I agree Flacco should be accountable for his role in all this, but let me ask you this? How well did the 1st & 3rd most sacked QBs do this year? (Tannehill & Ryan), how did their teams fair? The offense lives & dies with the O line. I don't pretend to know exactly who or what caused the problem, but overall poor pass protection, inconsistent/poor run blocking are what sunk this team. I think we have quite a few of the pieces we need, just need one or two more to get this crazy train back on track. I'm sure Ozzie will have a plan to shore up the trenches this off season.