The Week One optimism thread:

[The Mom Gene]

In honesty I think he should be suspended 1 game, it blatent and looked intentional.

I thought so too.

[Ravenslifer]

Second half adjustments - we saw way too little of them during the first 6 years of the Harbaugh era.  Hopefully that trend continues, but I thought our biggest problem last year was the inability to get the offense going early in any capacity, and that still continued today at least.

[The Mom Gene]

In honesty I think he should be suspended 1 game, it blatent and looked intentional.

I was in a bar here in FL, and they had a ton of Steelers fans cheering and laughing about it too...  and they wonder why people don't like steeler fans..

[ravens rule]

Just to pile onto the optimism, that'll happen a lot more under Kubiak's scheme. Those short routes and the potential in the running game were great for Joe in the second half. We can actually scheme for building a rhythm, rather than keep lobbing it 60 yards and hope one of them sticks.

 Hated that. It destroyed Flaccos comp % and showed how lame our offense was.

[The Mom Gene]

 Hated that. It destroyed Flaccos comp % and showed how lame our offense was.

Stats are just that, stats...  Anything for the "W".

[gabefergy]

Fotsett looked great.

Steve Smith was really good in the 2nd half after he put glue on his hands.

Flacco had a pretty solid game outside of a couple brain farts. Drops really let him down.

The secondary played well for the most part.

[Tank 92]

 

 

On to Thursday night and hope for improvement.

[izvoodoo]

We have good players, they just have to execute.  Unlike last year when guys just couldn't block.

[Bravens292]

The most important thing - Kubiak made adjustments! if this was cameron or caldwell id say our offense is already doomed but im confident it will get better since kubes now knows what works best.

[Inqui]

The most important thing - Kubiak made adjustments! if this was cameron or caldwell id say our offense is already doomed but im confident it will get better since kubes now knows what works best.

With Cam or Caldwell the best plan we'd have for that disappointing first half would be to look sad. And then we'd be saying a 15-6 loss isn't so bad.

[hn68wb4]

here's some optimism, at least we don't have Romo as our QB...3 ints in 1 half

[Static]

Atleast the Os are amazing. Go Os!!

[beasy2487]

* Joe Flacco is the toughest player in the entire NFL and when he gets into rhythm, he's unstoppable. Unfortunately for the latter, that happens too few little times.

* The offensive line is much improved from the joke that was the 2013 Baltimore Ravens o-line. Yet, they still need some fine-tuning.

* Justin Forsett is perfect for this offense, as he is a veteran of Kubiak's system.

* Dennis Pitta's presence is a major boost for this offense. Oh, and having a second tight end (Owen Daniels) who can actually catch AND hold-onto the football is a plus.

* Steve Smith Sr., despite a rough start, is the only non-1-dimensional WR the Ravens have. And, boy; I'm just glad the Ravens have S.S.S.'s "it" factor on their side.

* Haloti Ngata looked strong.

* C.J. Mosley is going to be a star.

* In Jimmy Smith I trust!

 

Love this post! Jimmy looked great and I particularly liked the play where he beat Green with his coverage by faking a deep drop, getting him to sit down, and then coming back to him. That is a play I never thought I'd see him make given his early problems with the double move, but now he's not just covering the double move, he's using receivers' tendencies against them. That's special.

 

Forsett was a revelation for me as well, not because of what he did personally but because of what it tells me Ray Rice is going to do. Pierce is undeniably the more athletic back, but Forsett is far more disciplined, which is what Kubiak's scheme calls for. Ray Rice is much more athletic than Forsett and at least equally as disciplined, so I see him coming in and downright terrorizing defenses on the ground--especially as our O-line continues to settle in.

[flynismo]

The biggest positive from all this is that it's only week one

[beasy2487]

I don't think Rice is much more athletic as Forsett, that's a major reach. "Much more athletic", is this the first year you've been aware Forsett existed?

 

Uh. Has Justin Forsett ever started a game in the NFL? I am very familiar with Justin Forsett as a career backup that hadn't scored a touchdown in almost two years or done anything outside of Gary Kubiak's system. Whereas Ray Rice has been to the pro bowl three times, won a super bowl and led the league in yards from scrimmage, and been a top 5 running back in the NFL multiple times... All in systems that did not play to his strengths... Which Justin Forsett and which Ray Rice are you talking about?

 

Edit: Wow. I wrote this rebuttal without doing any research. Now that I've done some, this argument just gets funny. Since Forsett and Rice came into the league at the same time, let's compare their combine stats:

 

Ray Rice:

 

Height: 5' 8" Weight: 199 lbs

40-yd dash: 4.47

Bench: 23

Vert: 31.5

Shuttle: 4.2

Cone: 6.65

 

Justin Forsett:

 

Height: 5' 8" Weight: 194 lbs

40-yard dash: 4.54

Bench: 26

Vert: 26.5

Shuttle: N/A

Cone: 6.96

 

Given those numbers, coming into the league Forsett isn't even in the same universe as Rice in terms of any athletic measurable (outside of tangible size) except upper body strength, which makes sense because they're the same size. In terms of speed, lateral quickness, and leaping ability it's not even fair to Forsett to compare them. You can make an argument that Rice has more wear and tear on his body since coming into the league, but not so much so that it makes up for the fact that Forsett is two years older than he is. Given this info, yes, it is safe to say that Rice is much, MUCH more athletic than Forsett. Even though today was the first time I'd ever seen or heard of him in my life.

[K-Dog]

we came out healthy...

[hn68wb4]

Uh. Has Justin Forsett ever started a game in the NFL? I am very familiar with Justin Forsett as a career backup that hadn't scored a touchdown in almost two years and has never done anything outside of Gary Kubiak's system. Whereas Ray Rice has been to the pro bowl three times, won a super bowl and led the league in yards from scrimmage, and been a top 5 running back in the NFL multiple times... All in systems that did not play to his strengths... Which Justin Forsett and which Ray Rice are you talking about?

just because someone is a better football player than the other doesnt mean they are "more athletic." There are plenty of examples of freakish athletes not succeeding in the NFL, athleticism isnt all it takes. Forsett is a fantastic athlete, always has been but unfortunately for him it takes more than that to succeed. Rice is athletic but to say he is "much more" athletic is just plain wrong. For example: Jerry Rice wasn't a freak athlete by any means, you can look at any number of things to back that up, Stephen hill blew up the Combine, he's probably a much better athlete than Jerry ever was but Hill is looking more and more like a bust and Jerry is arguably the best ever.

[beasy2487]

just because someone is a better football player than the other doesnt mean they are "more athletic." There are plenty of examples of freakish athletes not succeeding in the NFL, athleticism isnt all it takes. Forsett is a fantastic athlete, always has been but unfortunately for him it takes more than that to succeed. Rice is athletic but to say he is "much more" athletic is just plain wrong. For example: Jerry Rice wasn't a freak athlete by any means, you can look at any number of things to back that up, Stephen hill blew up the Combine, he's probably a much better athlete than Jerry ever was but Hill is looking more and more like a bust and Jerry is arguably the best ever.

 

You're right, being a better football players doesn't make you more athletic. Being more athletic makes you more athletic. Please take a look at the combine stats I added to my post. We're talking about guys that are almost the exact same size yet one exceeds the other in nearly every measurable. Why is that? Because one is much more athletic! My lord...one down year and people forget that Rice was arguably the best back in the league not named Peterson for a little while there...c'mon man.

[PurpleCorsair]

The point he's making is that Ray is a better football player and a better athlete. If Forsett can run that well in this scheme imagine what Ray can do when he gets back.

[beasy2487]

The point he's making is that Ray is a better football player and a better athlete. If Forsett can run that well in this scheme imagine what Ray can do when he gets back.

 

You sir... you with the reading comprehension and the thoughtfulness...I commend you.

[The Raven]

Yeah, I've never seen Rice run the way Forsett did today. Last time he was anything close to that was maybe 2009 or 2011. Rice dances too much and he's anything but a one-cut back.

[K-Dog]

I HERD Taliaferro's name today, but I dont think he touched the ball.

Did he?
Was he on special teams ?

[Fries]

Flacco was sending bengals to the trainers left and right. What other qb do you know gives a guy a concussion with his abs?

[ravensdfan]

The biggest positive from all this is that it's only week one

 

Well we at least hope that is a positive. It could be the biggest negative if we don't straighten out things that should have already been straightened out.

 

Let's see positive thing: We played worse than poorly on every side of the ball and still had a chance to win at the end. Imagine if we manage to work out the kinks.

[ravensdan]

Bernard Peirce played awful and Forsett is looking like the starting back for week 2 against PITT. With that said, his benching should've gone around the rest of the team... Flacco awful move end of first half, Steve Smith redeemed himself but receiving core couldn't catch.. and what's up with Chykie Brown lining up with AJ Green? Even if that was the set-up, him and Jimmy should've switched seeing Green run up on that side after the huddle. Poor game.. different OC coordinator, but same old Ravens.

Inconsistent.

Brown lined up against AJ on several plays. He usually of always had safety help to his side though. Which was a smart call on our part. Brown played quite well throughout the game even getting a hand on the pass to green. The safety was out of position. Brown should by no means be the goat of this game.

[Raving_Heathen]

Brown lined up against AJ on several plays. He usually of always had safety help to his side though. Which was a smart call on our part. Brown played quite well throughout the game even getting a hand on the pass to green. The safety was out of position. Brown should by no means be the goat of this game.

 

Agree he shouldn't be the goat, but I think it's a stretch to say he played "quite well". Only reason he didn't get burned a couple more times for potentially big yards was due to pure luck.

[hn68wb4]

You're right, being a better football players doesn't make you more athletic. Being more athletic makes you more athletic. Please take a look at the combine stats I added to my post. We're talking about guys that are almost the exact same size yet one exceeds the other in nearly every measurable. Why is that? Because one is much more athletic! My lord...one down year and people forget that Rice was arguably the best back in the league not named Peterson for a little while there...c'mon man.

at what point did i say anything about Rice being done or not being one of the best RBs? my response was simply related to how their athletic ability compares and you are making it seem like a much bigger gap than it is. You posted the stats, go look at them yourself. Me and the other guy never once said Rice wasn't a superior athlete, we are just saying its not as big of a gap as you keep emphasizing. Rice isn't "much more athletic" than Forsett, superior yes, but not much more.

[reed20]

I love two TE sets. That's all...

Agreed. Owen and Pitta should both be utilized.

[hn68wb4]

I HERD Taliaferro's name today, but I dont think he touched the ball.

Did he?

Was he on special teams ?

there was 1 incomplete pass intended for him, but thats the only time i heard his name through the entire game

[The Raven]

So much for optimism...

 

Guys, we lost by one score to a very good team after playing one of the worst first halves in franchise history. You can't find any positives? Come on, negative nancies. The sky is not falling so stop acting like it.