[News] Late For Work 9/11: The Picks Are In: Plenty Doubt Ravens Can Beat Broncos

[dhartm2]

... or they are just too clever to think: "if we do it NOW, nobody will think we dared to do it on purpose because of all the deflategate-aftermath... so everyone think it was a technical glitch... so, let's do it"

It's not about perception, Belicheck couldn't care less about that, it's all results.  The NFL is never changing the outcome of a game, so honestly who cares?  Cheat, win games, get caught, get punished, get a standing ovation from your crowd.  These guys will take any edge they can possibly get, because at the end of the day it's all about wins and losses.

Edited September 11, 2015 by dhartm2

[jravens13]

Man I can't believe that I am saying this, but I hate the Patriots more than the Steelers now. All of the cheating, the media hoopla, the horrible bandwagon fans that don't know the rules, and the special treatment of No. 12. I respect the Steelers and the style of football they have played. The Patriots organization is Slime, yet their fans act like they are classy. They continue to hit on the Ray Lewis story, when their own guy was caught red handed on 2 different occasions. What I did learn from that game is our Defense is going to be a huge advantage this year in the AFC. We would have marched up and down the field on both of those teams last night. Their D-Line's were getting pushed around, their LB's were out of position, and their secondaries can't cover. The Steelers had 3 different occasions where they actually didn't have a player covering Gronk. Thats too easy. The kicking situation is also horrible for Pittsburgh. Troy and Ike knew what they were doing when they retired.

[trevorsteadman]

Anyone else read the subtitle of this article and think it said "Flacco hasn't read Trestman's playbook"? I read that and I was really confused and scared for a second.

[Crusader]

Like Ray Lewis said "We were always playing pissed off" Ravens need to get back there.

[steelcityraven]

For the sqeelers.... it sounds like more sour grapes. They always have an excuse! When in reality.... they cannot stop Brady. He is 8-2 vs the sqeelers and has a ridiculous TD to INT ratio vs them. He has to wish he could play Pittburgh every week. Secondly they had no answer for Gronk. (most of the league don't) but how to they leave Him of all people uncovered in the REDZONE????? How do they play a cover two and let the best TE in the game split you seam for 50 yards. Head set issues are not the teams doing it is the leagues and regardless of how they were communicating or not... they looked clueless when it came to both BRADY /GRONK and I don't think any headset or anything else would have mattered. TBH... I think on 3 of Gronks 3 TD's the Pats could have told them the play and the sqeelers still couldn't have stopped it. More sour grapes for Tomlin and his tin men!

[Crusader]

Also Just remember only Bill Cowher picked the Ravens win the SB so nobody picking them now is a good thing.

[steelcityraven]

We have two reasons to blame for not having our SB celebration at home: 1. the Colorado Rockies suck and 2. So does Peter Angelos!

[Militant X 1]

One thing is true. The Ravens (and their fans) love the underdog role where just about everyone doubts them.

 

^ Not true!

 

I for one can't stand the constant "underdog" role our Ravens find themselves in from week to week!  I hated it with passion!  Silence the hate and just steam roll these teams...starting with Denver!

Edited September 11, 2015 by Militant X 1

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

Giving up 7 tds in Denver last opening day there to a fresh Manning, obviously skews the picks. That and the fact that Manning has owned the Ravens even with Suggs, Ngata, Lewis, and Reed on D. Except in the cold that one time. That being said, I hope we blast them, and shut the pundits up. I am skeptical tho

[steelcityraven]

I predict that when you hit Peyton Manning a few times... you can almost see him age instantly. If you don't get to him... he looks like he found the fountain of youth. CMon DPees.... get after this guy and he will show is age... all the geritol in the world wont change that!

[The Mom Gene]

Sure, but if you actually do something serious enough that warrants a significant punishment, then you get punished at a level that hurts your wins and losses.

 

The problem is, despite what the general public probably thinks, the Patriots haven't done something serious yet. 

 

I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you on that....  Nothing serious yet???  Just about everything they have gotten caught doing has been enough to question their integrity when it comes to the game rules and the game itself.  All of these have had to do with Game play advantage.

 

Spying on Practices...

Going into Visiting Team's Locker rooms...

Deflating Footballs...

and even though legal...  Those funky receiver plays... 

 

If they weren't doing it for a reason???  They wouldn't be doing it.  They've just been the golden-child of the NFL for far too long.

[757RavensFan]

Sorry, but I flat our do not believe Belichick's after the fact claim that the Pats headsets were not working either. If that were true, the media would have absolutely found out and commented on it. The Steelers had to go without communication in to the second quarter. This is not the first time this has happened in NE. Of course the Pats have a competitive advantage when the opposition's headsets have interference. Belichick's claim that their headsets also weren't working was nothing but an afterthought to cover the Pats backside for cheating again.

 

Another reason I don't buy Belicheck's response, he said at the end of the game Brady's mic/speaker in his helmet wasn't working.  Tomlin never said coach to player comms were down, he said coach to coach(in the box) wasn't working.  

[steelcityraven]

Peyton is 9-2 vs Baltimore with a 62% completion pct and 25 TD to 8 INT. THat is owing us. We have sacked him 17 x in those 11 games. In the games that we have sacked him 3 or more times we are 2-1. The Patriots have the best record vs Peyton... they have won 13 of the 20 games where they faced off. Part of it is bc they have a great offense to match up but part of it is bc they have sacked Peyton more then any other team in the league. Peyton never did like physicality and he is old and more fragile then ever. If we get to him - he is not the same QB but we have to get to him... or he can still pick us apart. Dean Pees cannot sit back and play soft against this guy like he did last year! I hope he learned his lesson!

[757RavensFan]

Anyone remember the Billy Cundiff shank in the AFC championship? That was because the sideline crew showed the wrong down.

 

Any Ravens coach not knowing what down it was during that last series, shouldn't be coaching.  

If I'm going to blame anything on the coaching prior to Cundiff's kick, it's not calling a timeout. 

It was clearly a chinese firedrill right before he ran out on the field.  

[20306cab]

 The league hates Baltimore it time to embrace it and stop trying to get them to like us.

C'mon man.  No need for an inferiority complex.  The NFL did what they could to accommodate the Ravens by scheduling their west coast trips back to back two times.  Just glancing at the rest of the AFC North schedule, didn't notice any favors for the rest of the Division. It is what it is.  JUST WIN!

[Minionhunter]

Another reason I don't buy Belicheck's response, he said at the end of the game Brady's mic/speaker in his helmet wasn't working.  Tomlin never said coach to player comms were down, he said coach to coach(in the box) wasn't working.  

Exactly.

[cobrajet]

IMHO, drawing Denver in week 1 in thin-air Denver just sucks.

[ellicottraven]

Sorry, but I flat our do not believe Belichick's after the fact claim that the Pats headsets were not working either. If that were true, the media would have absolutely found out and commented on it. The Steelers had to go without communication in to the second quarter. This is not the first time this has happened in NE. Of course the Pats have a competitive advantage when the opposition's headsets have interference. Belichick's claim that their headsets also weren't working was nothing but an afterthought to cover the Pats backside for cheating again.

I don't think he believed that anybody else believed it either.  But, yet he doesn't seem to care. He goes on about his cheating ways while saying little to nothing to mitigate it. He knows that the world knows they are cheats and that there is nothing they can do about it as long as the Cheatriots continue to deny it despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary!

[20306cab]

We have two reasons to blame for not having our SB celebration at home: 1. the Colorado Rockies suck and 2. So does Peter Angelos!

Give it up already!  I hate Angelos too, but he had nothing to do with that.  It was another total botch by the 40 million dollar man, Goodell!

[Purpleghost23]

2 longest days of my life

[PersianRaven]

American sports teams will never be punished the way REAL PUNISHMENTS take place like in Europe. Here is an example for you folks: 3 top Italian Futbol clubs were caught doing match fixing a few years back. Outta the 3, 1 had won the championship that year. The results: all 3 were demoted to division 3 (That's 3 years worth of work to get back to division 1), each team was banned 3 years from signing free agents, each team paid over a million in fines, and last but not least, they stripped the champs from their title. That's called a punishment. Cheers!

Edited September 11, 2015 by PersianRaven

[Corvus]

Even though it's probably sour grapes, think about the Steelers' accusation. What better time to pull radio interference out of the bag of tricks than immediately after they just beat the NFL in court? The NFL can't do anything about them without looking like they are on a "witch hunt." I think their loss had more to do with the Steelers' JV secondary taking a page from the Ravens' "play 5-10 yards off of every receiver" book but you can't rule out the Patriots being underhanded again either.

[757RavensFan]

IMHO, drawing Denver in week 1 in thin-air Denver just sucks.

 

Especially when we just played them there to open the season 2 years ago.  

[OriolesMagicPlease]

Still blaming the Orioles for denying us the home opener? IT WAS THE NFL WHO REFUSED TO MOVE THE GAME to that Wednesday because it was a Jewish holiday. Guess what? There are TWO NFL games scheduled this Monday night, which happens to be Rosh Hashanah (which actually starts at sundown on Sunday). Why are all those games scheduled? It was lame excuse and ALL the blame should be on the NFL, not the baseball team who already had their game scheduled.

[playlikeawhat]

Steelers weren't cheated. NFL hasn't officially said so. 0-1 without being cheated is even sweeter to me.

[El Cuervo]

I'm still blaming the Orioles, cause they can reschedule a game for raining why not for a celebration like that. The 2013 opener is gone, same as the orange birds. Go Ravens

[fusuymada]

Even though it's probably sour grapes, think about the Steelers' accusation. What better time to pull radio interference out of the bag of tricks than immediately after they just beat the NFL in court? The NFL can't do anything about them without looking like they are on a "witch hunt." I think their loss had more to do with the Steelers' JV secondary taking a page from the Ravens' "play 5-10 yards off of every receiver" book but you can't rule out the Patriots being underhanded again either.

And your opinion is exactly the thing that everybody is going to say everytime something happens with the Patriots.  They did it to themselves.  They created this monster by bullying a new Commissioner by the name of Roger Goodell after he had been commish for barely a  year to cover up "spygate" because of the black eye it would give the "shield" and because of that they have owned him for years.  Not even other owners knew the extent of the Patriots cheating.  Now that Roger wouldn't roll over and play dead over deflategate, they had no more use for him and he has become their target instead of the ace in the hole.  Kraft is a billionaire because he is nobodys fool and he knows how to use people to get to where he is and he used Goodell by scaring him into covering up "spygate".  Now you are right.  With the temporary win over the NFL in the courts, the NFL seems retaliatory no matter what they do, but it will hurt the Patriots in the long run.  As more and more cheating stuff comes up, the longer and longer it will take Kraft, Bellichick, Brady and all the other 2000 and on Patriots to get into the HOF.  There isn't a first round HOF balloter amongst them and all their wins and their whole legacy will forever be tarnished.  They are the Lance Armstrong of football.  Yeah, they won, but everyone knows what they did to win.

[rmcjacket23]

American sports teams will never be punished the way REAL PUNISHMENTS take place like in Europe. Here is an example for you folks: 3 top Italian Futbol clubs were caught doing match fixing a few years back. Outta the 3, 1 had won the championship that year. The results: all 3 were demoted to division 3 (That's 3 years worth of work to get back to division 1), each team was banned 3 years from signing free agents, each team paid over a million in fines, and last but not least, they stripped the champs from their title. That's called a punishment. Cheers!

Fixing games isn't even remotely on the same playing field as deflating some footballs or videotaping practices.

 

For what its worth, guys who were perceived as to have been fixing games (Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe) are banned from their sport for life.

[dhartm2]

Sure, but if you actually do something serious enough that warrants a significant punishment, then you get punished at a level that hurts your wins and losses.

This is only true if you get caught.  If the OTL story from ESPN is to be believed, clearly Belicheck thinks the risk is worth the reward.

Also, in regards to the headsets last night, there is a Deadspin story the refutes a lot of the technical points in the NFL's statement.  For example, NFL spokesman Michael Signora said "The coaches’ communications equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day."  But an NFL.com article said "Bose shipped about 50 headsets to each stadium, for use by coaches on the sideline and in the booth, medical and officiating personnel. Teams travel with their own headsets," and the NFL Gameday Policy Manual says "Home clubs are responsible for the installation and maintenance of the coaching staff communications infrastructure."  There's also some electrical talk that's above my pay grade.

[Minionhunter]

Now, per PFT, the NFL is allegedly investigating the Steelers TE coach for allegedly assaulting and verbally accosting a Patriots fan at half time! This WWE-NFL is just outrageous now. How did he get on the same plane as a fan to kick him in the leg? Unreal. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/09/11/report-nfl-investigating-steelers-assistant-in-assault-of-patriots-fan/

Edited September 11, 2015 by Minionhunter