[News] Game Recap: Bengals 23, Ravens 16

[purpledown]

Looks like the Ravens of last year , close but not close enough.Flacco was not great but his receivers didnt help him. Steve Smith showed why he is still a big factor in the passing game. Bench Pierce against the Steelers start Forsett and give Toussaint a long look also.

[feartheflock]

May the Steelers have mercy on our souls.

[feartheflock]

Im surprised Flacco didn't see that overload blitz on our final play. Im no football genius, but even I saw that blitz coming all the way(especially since it looked like the Bengals kept sending blitzes on 3rd down). Could Flacco have called some audible or shifted protection(whatever that means)? I don't know. But I feel like a great QB would've seen that blitz coming and done something about it. Not just hut the ball and let our RT block 2 guys. It was just an embarrassing game to watch all around. Pathetic and embarrassing.

[robbie29]

Anybody else see that Terrance West rushed for 100 yards in his NFL debut today? Against the Steelers no less. Maybe Thursday we should give Taliaferro more touches than the zero he got today.

[rmcjacket23]

Im surprised Flacco didn't see that overload blitz on our final play. Im no football genius, but even I saw that blitz coming all the way(especially since it looked like the Bengals kept sending blitzes on 3rd down). Could Flacco have called some audible or shifted protection(whatever that means)? I don't know. But I feel like a great QB would've seen that blitz coming and done something about it. Not just hut the ball and let our RT block 2 guys. It was just an embarrassing game to watch all around. Pathetic and embarrassing.

Not real sure what can be done about it honestly. You can adjust protections, but a blitz, by definition, means they are sending more guys than we have to block them. The protection still has to be executed, as does the play.

[feartheflock]

Also, even though we got through the preseason without a loss, our starters never really had a performance that gave me much confidence in them for the season. We won those preseason games because our back-ups beat their back-ups. At least that's what it looked like to me. Today was somewhat of a reality check.

[Karasu]

Too many mental mistakes and not being focused. Missed FG...missed opportunities for FG's...dropped passes...turnovers...points left on the field and only playing(offense)30 minutes of a 60 minute game equals a loss in the NFL, every freaking' Sunday.Same old team from last year and...yeah...as it stands now, nothing has changed from last year except some new faces. Same critical people not playing(injured)or lackadaisical nonchalance of our so called "team leader(S)". Baltimore Ravens, you were not ready to start this season as you were ill prepared and the fans deserve better. Sadly, almost 300 days have gone by since last destruction, 5 weeks of spring training and this is what you show us. I don't know where this teams heart is or if they even have one...optimistically, they may still be able to find one. I think the great and powerful wizard of Oz can help with that and if he can't than maybe the tin man will give up his?

[throwback2000]

Pierce is not the guy. We need to find and begin to groom our QB of the future. We have seen the best of Flacco. Come on now! T. Pryor, if he is available. Let's keep our options open.

[RavensBaltimore]

No Flacco did not play well. What other QB in the nfl would have handled 8 seconds left on the clock like Flacco did......No one

Cherry picking one play out of an entire game is not a valid argument. I already acknowledged that Flacco made a couple mistakes, which isn't bad considering he had 62 attempts.  The one you're referring to cost the team 3 points, which wouldn't have mattered had the receivers caught the passes that hit them in their hands. Had Jacoby not let a perfectly thrown deep pass go right through his arms, that play at the end of the half would have never happened in the first place.  How many NFL qb's can take a hit like that from Burfict and still drop a perfect dime as they're getting slammed to the ground?

 

And other qb's make clock management errors, too.  I remember Peyton Manning wasting a timeout at the end of a playoff game against the Steelers, right before their kicker shanked the kick to lose the game.  In Flacco's 6+ years in the league, I don't remember any other clock management mistakes, so this one was just a fluke.  Again, he certainly made enough plays to win the game even with the mistake he made.  The receivers just have to catch the passes that hit their hands, and I'm confident that they will, starting Thursday.

[feartheflock]

Not real sure what can be done about it honestly. You can adjust protections, but a blitz, by definition, means they are sending more guys than we have to block them. The protection still has to be executed, as does the play.

I don't remember how many guys the Bengals sent on that final play, but it didn't look like a lot. It just seems like they sent 2 guys at our RT. And Flacco seemed to completely ignore them. He just hut the ball and took that sack, like if he had no idea a blitz was coming from his right. But like you said, Im not sure if anything could've been done about that. I just felt like that Bengal blitz worked too easily for them.

[Jim Giampaoli]

As the curtain goes up, this is the all new West Coast run the ball play action pass jump start offense that puts up points. I'm overwhelmed. When do we start putting it to use.

[Zeus]

Harbs said after the game that it's time to go back to work. He had all week to prepare the guys and this is what we got. Now what's he going to do to prepare them for Thursday night?

[ravenmaniac1123]

This may be another long season for the Ravens. Read a stat last week that only 25% of teams who lose their opening game go on to make the playoffs

[Zeus]

As the curtain goes up, this is the all new West Coast run the ball play action pass jump start offense that puts up points. I'm overwhelmed. When do we start putting it to use.

Week 12

[Zeus]

If the Ravens bring the same game plan that they brought today, then yes- unfortunately I think you're right.

I'm afraid I will be right also.... This west coast system is awesome, Wonder why The Texans fired him?

[ndinoto03]

Cherry picking one play out of an entire game is not a valid argument. I already acknowledged that Flacco made a couple mistakes, which isn't bad considering he had 62 attempts.  The one you're referring to cost the team 3 points, which wouldn't have mattered had the receivers caught the passes that hit them in their hands. Had Jacoby not let a perfectly thrown deep pass go right through his arms, that play at the end of the half would have never happened in the first place.  How many NFL qb's can take a hit like that from Burfict and still drop a perfect dime as they're getting slammed to the ground?

 

And other qb's make clock management errors, too.  I remember Peyton Manning wasting a timeout at the end of a playoff game against the Steelers, right before their kicker shanked the kick to lose the game.  In Flacco's 6+ years in the league, I don't remember any other clock management mistakes, so this one was just a fluke.  Again, he certainly made enough plays to win the game even with the mistake he made.  The receivers just have to catch the passes that hit their hands, and I'm confident that they will, starting Thursday.

I agree with you we dropped too many passes to win that game. If Flacco did throw that ball away, most likely we would have gone into over time. Look at it this way, we add 3 points to our score if he throws the ball away which makes it 23-19. If we kicked the field goal at the end of half we wouldnt have gone for two, so you can add another point to that, 23-20. At the end we wouldnt have gone for it and justin tucker ties it up sending it to over time. The reason im picking on this single play is because Flacco is the quarterback and should know the situation at all times. Also those drops were physical errors, flaccos was mental.

[Drew P]

Lack of talent, questionable Draft selections and the lone bright spot in preseason deonte inactive? Smh

[Ravenshine]

Let's put this in perspective. Everyone has a bad day. Sometimes several have a bad day together, known as a team. If it happens at our job (days few things go right) we know it happens in pro football too. The preseason looked good, it's too soon to judge and be negative. Chalk it up to a bad day at the office. Let's keep the torch lit on the good preseason and hope nerves settle for Pittsburg game.

[TrooRavenFan]

It's not Flacoo's fault......I forgot, it's Cameron, wait..........Caldwell, oh now it's Kubiak

[feartheflock]

Lack of talent, questionable Draft selections and the lone bright spot in preseason deonte inactive? Smh

Well, the guy that took Deonte's spot, Kamar Aiken, had a pretty good game.

[DepRaven]

What I thought of that last sack was that it was an obvious opportunity for a blitz (we're desperately going to throw into the densely packed end zone because we didn't have a beastly RB to pound it in [sorry Lorenzo - you weren't in, and you're barely beastly]), and Joe is in the shotgun - lifting his leg and giving the blitzers a starting gun to race in and cream him. What are they thinking? What do they expect?

[partmachine]

May the Steelers have mercy on our souls.

How dare you! Down-voted.

 

A loss worse than any other would be more acceptable than that group of troglodytes giving us anything, especially even just an ounce of mercy. Turn in your jerseys.

[steelraven]

Not real sure what can be done about it honestly. You can adjust protections, but a blitz, by definition, means they are sending more guys than we have to block them. The protection still has to be executed, as does the play.

It's called a hot route. You see the blitz you change the route. Flacco has been playing to long in the NFL to make that mistake, it's just common sense.

[FoxRox75]

Very disappointed indeed. I thought for sure we would be able to win this game, but we just didn't deserve it at all. A solid rally, but we just didn't deserve a W. We have to be way less sloppy and just get the job done. If we don't win at home against Pittsburgh it's time to hit the panic button.

[feartheflock]

How dare you! Down-voted.

 

A loss worse than any other would be more acceptable than that group of troglodytes giving us anything, especially even just an ounce of mercy. Turn in your jerseys.

Im sorry. I just don't want to see the Ravens get dominated by the Steelers in Baltimore on prime time tv. It would hurt too much.

 

I ask for forgiveness.

[leffty]

i honestly am not mad about the amount we were throwing if anything we should pass to set up the run, but 62 passes compared to 20 runs is ridiculous, that is Matthew Stafford attempts right there and he has a Calvin Johnson on his team, and we don't.

[leffty]

look i like pass heavy games as much as the next guy but 62 passes compared to 20 runs is ridiculous, with that many attempts flacco should have surpassed 400 yards easy

[Karasu]

The bottom line is the mistakes and mental errors were costly and there is no excuse for them. He gets paid $100 million to not make those mistakes. The entire organization gets paid extremely well to not make those errors, prevent them and correct them. In the real world, one gets fired for continually not doing their job or failing at it. Many mistakes were made by the team but his were the most inexcusable at the most critical of times. Joe is the QB,the leader, the highest paid, Superbowl MVP, 6 year veteran and the blame falls on him and him alone. He has to focus, "Mu Shin"...no mind. Do not try and sugar coat it because a "crap sandwich" is still a load of "crap" between two slices of fluff. He has been inconsistent for years and does just enough to keep people hopeful. It is time for him to man up and do it every game day. I was never a Joe hater or am...but, he definitely loves to prove the critics and pundits right. You have no one to blame but yourself.I'm really beginning to think I'm the "derriere" in all of this for keeping hope and trusting in you and your abilities.

[RavensFootballFan]

This may be another long season for the Ravens. Read a stat last week that only 25% of teams who lose their opening game go on to make the playoffs

 

Actually, it is not as bad as you made it sound. Only 52.3 percent of 1 - 0 teams make the playoffs on average. There are more than a handful of teams making the playoffs after starting 0 - 2. It is more common for playoff bound teams to lose in the first week than any other week. Check out this article from 4 years ago. http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/so-how-important-is-week-1-in-the-n-f-l/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[propjoe]

Well it's only Week 1 and one this is certain, they won't go 16-0 this year. For therapeutic purposes only, let me recap the ugly stuff on the field today, even though I'm just regurgitating what other people may have said already:

* Offense looked rusty in the 1st half, maybe offseason workouts in NJ with Joe could have helped with that??

* Joe decision making (which is 100% mental) is still questionable. He easily cost the team 3 points at the end of the 1st half, by not just making a quick read and throwing the ball away. I question his growth and maturity in the league when he makes a High School Football mistake like that.

* Drops, Drops and More Drops. Either catch the ball or go hang out with Bobby Boucher and Lee Evans making high quality H20 or gatorade.

* When you have a lead, don't let the teams primary offensive weapon behind you on a deep route, even if you have to give up a long completion in front of you, don't get beat...Chykie Brown

* Whats up with Webb?? Is this guy ever going to start again

* When the game is on the line (O-Line) you can't give up a sack, let alone 2 sacks in a row on 3rd and 4th down...Pretend the D-Line just said something bad about your mama and smack them around...C'mon.

Overall I think the team has better parts than last year and hopefully this was just shaking off some rust against a good Bengals team. Have to give the Bengals props, but if the Ravens don't correct some mistakes this week, I don't think the results will be any better than last year.

So far Harbs in the Post Lewis / Reed Era is 8-9 (Under .500) Not good at all....I'm hoping I eat my words the next 15 weeks or longer and the Ravens prove me wrong on all my quick knee jerk assessments.

Thank god the O's distracted me a little today.