[News] The Breakdown: Eisenberg's Five Thoughts vs. Raiders

[ravs4me]

You forgot one point Eisenberg. The final drive we could have taken the 2 minute warning and Oaklands final timeout away from them by running the football 2 more times. That is the worst case. Best case we could have run for 6 yards and gotten another first down and the game is virtually over (in our favor). How can you overlook this in your five thoughts? Coaching, coaching, coaching.

 

Excellent point! I was saying the same things yesterday when it was 2nd and 8 from about the 13. Just pick up a first down. We didn't really need a touchdown. A first down would have forced the Raiders to burn their last timeout and allowed us to salt away the clock, then kick a chip-shot field goal to win the game. Two passes to the sideline, both of which stopped the clock were absolutely the worst plays to call in that situation. Coaching, coaching, coaching. If you are going to pass, throw something short and safe that would keep the clock ticking and force the Raiders to use their last timeout. Even though they may have gotten the ball back with 2 minutes left (assuming we did not make the 3rd down conversion), going for the first down instead of the touchdown was the more important task at that critical part of the game. Our coaches have got to think a lot better and force Joe to execute the correct play option in that situation,.

Edited September 21, 2015 by ravs4me

[balfan23]

I agree with the killer instinct comment. The difference for us over the past few years has been that we have been capable of finishing games, especially against teams that have inexperience at key positions.

 

I really thought that was going to come into play when Carr threw that late pick. There it is. Their inexperience. Now - our experience and mettle will show. We'll capitalize with 7 and the defense will hold when we need it most. The fact that didn't happen is a major concern.

[surfdude]

I don't care what team you are this schedule is brutal and it just gets harder .... what up with that ??????? BRUTAL!

[PurpleDoc]

Here's my first thought...get rid of Pees!!

[fusuymada]

This loss is typical Ravens. Whether or not we beat Denver, the Ravens always have a rough time with a lesser team after a matchup against a tough team. Usually they win the tough game and lose the easy one, this time they lost them both. My problem with this game was more the times that we had receivers wide open and Joe Flacco couldn't throw the ball in the receivers zip code. Aiken wide open towards the endzone and Flacco underthrows him by 15 yards. It happened to Aiken late in the game, then the final drive with Smith. We had this game won regardless how the defense played. We need far less field goals and more touchdowns. Personally, I don't think Trestman nor Pees coached a good game. I am not holding my breath that it will be any better against the Bengals or Steelers in the next two games. This is going to be a very depressing year so get used to it. I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel, we are what we are and we are not that good.

[FlaccoEliteSuperBowlMVP]

Here's my take on the 2 losses. It's never easy to start the season with a new offensive coordinator, season ending injury to your team leader and possibly best pass rusher in Ravens history against 2 quality teams that have a lot of weapons. We lost 2 close games. Simple as that. It wasn't like the Ravens got blown out. We will regroup and hopefully bounce back next weekend against Cinci for our first home game and beat the Steelers on the road on TNF. In the words of Aaron Rodgers, "RELAX!!!!" It's 2 games! The Dallas Cowboys went 0-2 in 93 and went on to win the division, claim home field advantage and win the Superbowl! Pats were 2-2 last season and won the Superbowl. All this talk about Dean Pees being fired is ridiculous. He's a phenomenal defensive coordinator! Bounce back, Ravens!!!!

[sofgman]

You don't see the worst yet... Raven will start this season ...0-4 and maybe 0-5.

[RavensBaltimore]

I respectfully and completely disagree.  The defense playing poorly all day is the prime reason that taking away the other teams 2 mins warning and final timeout were a necessity on that final drive.  Even a screen play with a high prob completion if you are worried about the blitz and "running into it".  Come on man.  They scored a TD with 26 seconds left in the game.  I absolutely think that if we would have kicked that FG with 1:55 left on the clock and zero timeouts or 2 mins warning for Oakland that we could have taken away the sidelines and held them to a field goal due to running out of time.  I know that is playing for overtime but it's certainly better than playing for a loss.  I have to completely disagree with you on this and agree with the original commenter.  Coaching lost that game in the end.  The players lost it up to that point, but poor decision making is what got us in the end on the play calling.

First of all, the Raiders could have gone a little faster on the final drive if there was less time left, I don't even think they used their final TO, and there was more than 30 secs left when they snapped the ball, so they probably would have had time to score the TD anyway. Second, if you play for OT, and they win the coin toss, you may not even get the ball back. At that point in the game, an extra 4 points is more valuable than saving them a couple clock stoppages, one of which they didn't even need. The job of the OC is to put the players in the best possible situation to succeed. We had a guy wide open in the endzone for a chance at a 7 point lead. That's a great opportunity, and one that Flacco and Smith will connect on almost every time, so the OC did his job. The players just didn't execute it. Our spread offense had been playing well all day, and the defense had been getting torched, so shutting down our offense and putting it in the hands of our defense would have been foolish. I have seen so many games where teams shut down their own offense to try to run out the clock too early, and they just give the ball back to the other team, and they end up losing. I didn't want us to just give them the ball back, and it was more important there to score a TD than run the clock down, because there was still plenty of time. The best teams in all sports have killer instinct and finish games. We were trying to finish strong instead of playing not to lose, and I'll take that every time.

[rmcjacket23]

I don't care what team you are this schedule is brutal and it just gets harder .... what up with that ??????? BRUTAL!

Hard on everybody else in the division also... they mostly play the same schedule we play.

[rmcjacket23]

First of all, the Raiders could have gone a little faster on the final drive if there was less time left, I don't even think they used their final TO, and there was more than 30 secs left when they snapped the ball, so they probably would have had time to score the TD anyway. Second, if you play for OT, and they win the coin toss, you may not even get the ball back. At that point in the game, an extra 4 points is more valuable than saving them a couple clock stoppages, one of which they didn't even need. The job of the OC is to put the players in the best possible situation to succeed. We had a guy wide open in the endzone for a chance at a 7 point lead. That's a great opportunity, and one that Flacco and Smith will connect on almost every time, so the OC did his job. The players just didn't execute it. Our spread offense had been playing well all day, and the defense had been getting torched, so shutting down our offense and putting it in the hands of our defense would have been foolish. I have seen so many games where teams shut down their own offense to try to run out the clock too early, and they just give the ball back to the other team, and they end up losing. I didn't want us to just give them the ball back, and it was more important there to score a TD than run the clock down, because there was still plenty of time. The best teams in all sports have killer instinct and finish games. We were trying to finish strong instead of playing not to lose, and I'll take that every time.

The play calling didn't bother me because I had zero confidence that we could stop a 2 minute drive at the end of the game.

 

MAYBE if we had scored a TD instead of a FG the defense plays a bit differently and the Raiders play calling becomes a bit more obvious, but I doubt it.

[Barry S]

No! He did not. We lost the game. You cant say that 33 points is enough to win and then blame the defense. It took NE 40 to beat BUF and thats what they got. What I am refering to is a noticable technique change in the way Joe is throwing the ball and it is really bad.

 

But the fact of the matter is that 33 point was not enough to win this game. In order to win a game you have to score more points than your opponent, Joe made bad throws that would have allowed us to win this game!!!!!!! SMH!!!!  

Edited September 21, 2015 by Barry S

[rmcjacket23]

But the fact of the matter is the 33 point was not enough to win this game. In order to win a game you have to score more points than your opponent, Joe made bad throws that would have allowed us to win this game!!!!!!! SMH!!!!  

Sure, but impossible to know whether even completing those throws guarantees us victory or not, because throwing another TD pass earlier in the game likely changes the play calling and execution of those plays on the Raiders part.

 

We could have put up 40+ and still lost...

[Barry S]

Joe's not playing basketball trying to hit fade away jump shots, he's a high paid NFL QB that needs to start stepping in his throws for accuracy. Did we lose the game because of him no, but he could have helped us win it buy making better throws in critical situation.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Barry S

[EdTheMythicalOne]

Here's my take on the 2 losses. It's never easy to start the season with a new offensive coordinator, season ending injury to your team leader and possibly best pass rusher in Ravens history against 2 quality teams that have a lot of weapons. We lost 2 close games. Simple as that. It wasn't like the Ravens got blown out. We will regroup and hopefully bounce back next weekend against Cinci for our first home game and beat the Steelers on the road on TNF. In the words of Aaron Rodgers, "RELAX!!!!" It's 2 games! The Dallas Cowboys went 0-2 in 93 and went on to win the division, claim home field advantage and win the Superbowl! Pats were 2-2 last season and won the Superbowl. All this talk about Dean Pees being fired is ridiculous. He's a phenomenal defensive coordinator! Bounce back, Ravens!!!!

 

Sometimes is isn't about the loss, but how you lose those games. The game in Denver could have been won because the defense did a great job, but the offense failed to do anything at all. Joe Flacco threw some poor balls in that game and the O-line wasn't up to snuff. The Raiders game should have been a win because the offense was clicking all day long. The defense played like a leaking sieve. So 0-2 isn't the end of the world, but the team has looked wildly erratic and could have easily been 2-0.

[EdTheMythicalOne]

My take is this; The Ravens might not be as terrible as they looked on offense against Denver and not as horrible as they looked on defense against the Raiders. They are somewhere in the middle and hopefully they find that consistency going forward. There are tons of things to chip away at negatively, but I want to focus on some positives going forward.

 

Hurst looked much better at LT against the Raiders. He's a solid backup until Monroe comes back. Wagner looked better at RT too, so maybe he's just shaking off the rust. Rest of the O-line is solid as ever.

 

Joe has shown that when given the time he can hit his targets, and the targets showed that if they get a good ball they can tack on additonal yards. Would like to see better decisions from Joe at times and to see him stop throwing off the back leg. If that is his option, tuck it and run it for a couple yards, check down, or chuck it out of bounds rather than severely underthrowing guys and possibly turning the ball over.

 

Steve Smith is still a beast. Good to know. Aiken fumbled the ball on his first catch but was good after. Gillmore is as much of a stud as I have been saying he was all along. Disappeared when they doubled him, but that opened up Smith and Aiken. Perriman should be back eventually.

 

Justin Tucker is still the man. There isn't a kicker in the league I'd want over him.

 

Defensively speaking...At least Mosley is still all over the field making plays. Will Hill made a great play earlier in the game. Just need to find more consistency in the secondary and dial up a pass rush. Easy for me to say, right?

[cbrook1862]

This team might just be too young and inexperienced

[HrdCoreRaven]

Someone posted earlier that the team is too young and i agree somewhat. Not playing Babin against Oak was a huge mistake, even though Harbs wont admit it. Furthermore I am not sold on Zadarius, Mcllean or Upshaw as pass rushers. Also if our defense is going to be so inconsistent, why not look into bolstering our offense, a key deep threat free agent WR available, that was very productive last year is Brandon Lloyd, he was used sparingly on the run oriented 49ers last year and still posted a 25 yards per reception stats. The ravens should really consider bringing in him. Hate to say it but this might mean cutting Waller, I see him clearing waivers and going to the practice squad.

[Crusader]

This team might just be too young and inexperienced

Right now it looks like a college team.

[Crusader]

Hard on everybody else in the division also... they mostly play the same schedule we play.

Who else played two on the road and come home and play two division opponets with in a short week?