[News] John Harbaugh Addresses Late-Game Urgency

[GeeWallee]

A Defense that can't stop a lousy QB is what cost us the game. Didn't see it live, but I've seen enough tape and read enough articles to know that this team just isn't very good right now. The Secondary is in shambles and they make too many mistakes. All kinds of mistakes. Sometimes you just have a bad Season. The vaunted Seahawks were one "Great New England Defensive Play" away from winning 2 Super Bowls in a row. They blew a good lead against Cincy, to lose in OT and they lost a lead at Home last Sunday. Atlanta was 2-4 at this time last Season and this Season they are 5-1. If any thing should materialize from upstairs ? It will most likely happen in 2 more weeks, when they go on BYE. It just seems to me that the fates are stacked against them at this point. How many times will your Kicker plant his foot into an invisible crater, at the opposing teams stadium. That's a $1.3 Billion stadium that has been re-sodded 5 times......soon to be 6 times, I'd imagine. How many times will Smith Sr. drop 2 realizable TD catches in the same game. They aren't losing by large margins. They have actually been right there with their opponents,in all 6 games. The problem is they haven't finished them out on either side of the ball. I don't think he's lost the locker room. The players just aren't performing. Dropped Passes and INTs.....bad penalties, botched assignments. You can sit here and blame it on the Coaches, but it's on the Players to carry out the game plan. I remember watching the Ravens when Cam Cameron was the O.C. and I could tell what they were going to run, just by where the RBs and FBs were positioned or where a TE moved along the Line or if if he took a step back. If I could tell that from my recliner at home? Don't you think the opposing coaches upstairs or on the field could tell what play was about to be run ? He definitely was going to be fired.
Just want to see them continue to compete and turn this around. It's possible, even if it may seem improbable.

Edited October 20, 2015 by GeeWallee

[LunarRover]

Dont know how to make this short...But blaming Pees and bloaming this or that person for individual plays is a little beneath waht the real issue is here.

* Talent

* Tenure

* Leadership

Those are all serious problems on our team right now. Changing the DC & OC is not enough to overcome the last several years of failed drafting. We have been forced how many times to find Ray Lewis and Ed Reed's replacement? how many times have we kept drafting to get legit guys to fill them shoes? The same goes for many other positions across the team. The guys drafted 3-5y ago are supposed to be the current field generals and we really dont have any of them. They are like lost children before, during, and after each play when burned. There is NO R.Lewis type leader getting in their ears, making them better. Ozzie i feel had a great draft (even without Perriman) but he really needs to do it again next year in the worst way. It usually takes 3y to know what you got in a draft, but what about all the years we did get anything. Those are hurting us now. We are full of junk players that couldnt start on 80% of hte teams in the league, and full of young guys, who do have a ton of young talent, but need more time to mature into the style of pro ball we play. we are a precision team with dull parts all over it. At first i thought it was Pees this and Trestman that, but the more games i watch, the more i see that its the players more than the coaches. Sure Pees could make them a little better, but we are far more than a little off. Guess the bottom line im trying to make is that the source of the bleeding is much deeper then many believe. We are short of TALENT in many positions. WR is a severe problem and our 2ndry/Backfield/Pass Rushing. Losing Suggs may become a serious reality as well. Look how long it took him to recover fully in the past and return to form, and hes now atthe end of his career. I wouldnt be betting money that he will do that again, and certainly wont bet that he will be a factor after he returns. Z'darius Smith has a lot of talent and could in the future be a Qb killer, but still only leaves us Dumervil, who when couble teamed constantly cant do that much. OZzie has serious work to do and id bet hes already looking at the draft crop at PR and CB/SS. It is a matter of how fast can we rebuild with that 80/20 restock rule at this point

[Crusader]

I don't think John knows what time out are used for. Some games he tries to carry them over thru the half time others he tries to carry them to the next game.

[DBsRAVENS]

Agreed - I'm not sure it's just Pees. It seems like a lot of areas on the team could use better coaching. As many have stated, Pittsburgh seems to routinely acquire lesser WRs or DBs, and they turn out to be very good/excellent players. Why can't our staff do that???

Take a look at our coaching staff, there on the Ravens' website under Team drop down. Look at the successful parts of the team (defensive line coach, has the experience and knows about Ravens football) then look at the corner backs coach and you will get the best laugh you've had in a while. The D-line coach holds his players accountable and in spite of Harbaugh his unit is the only consistent unit on the Ravens, no matter who they draft. (Cody being the exception). Knowledge and experience as a position coach counts, but not to John H. 

[axisofeeble]

19-19 since Super Bowl says it all. People got paid for past deeds and certain draft picks didn't work out. Kubiak is 5-0 and Manning looks like the lost rookie QB in his system but their defense&special teams do just enough to win. Good teams,staffed by good coaches get the most out of their talent. High draft picks can rebuild us in two years after cap decisions and coaching changes the Ravens will be back. Schedule hurts this year too.

[BillyD]

Dont know how to make this short...But blaming Pees and bloaming this or that person for individual plays is a little beneath waht the real issue is here. * Talent * Tenure * Leadership Those are all serious problems on our team right now. Changing the DC & OC is not enough to overcome the last several years of failed drafting. We have been forced how many times to find Ray Lewis and Ed Reed's replacement? how many times have we kept drafting to get legit guys to fill them shoes? The same goes for many other positions across the team. The guys drafted 3-5y ago are supposed to be the current field generals and we really dont have any of them. They are like lost children before, during, and after each play when burned. There is NO R.Lewis type leader getting in their ears, making them better. Ozzie i feel had a great draft (even without Perriman) but he really needs to do it again next year in the worst way. It usually takes 3y to know what you got in a draft, but what about all the years we did get anything. Those are hurting us now. We are full of junk players that couldnt start on 80% of hte teams in the league, and full of young guys, who do have a ton of young talent, but need more time to mature into the style of pro ball we play. we are a precision team with dull parts all over it. At first i thought it was Pees this and Trestman that, but the more games i watch, the more i see that its the players more than the coaches. Sure Pees could make them a little better, but we are far more than a little off. Guess the bottom line im trying to make is that the source of the bleeding is much deeper then many believe. We are short of TALENT in many positions. WR is a severe problem and our 2ndry/Backfield/Pass Rushing. Losing Suggs may become a serious reality as well. Look how long it took him to recover fully in the past and return to form, and hes now atthe end of his career. I wouldnt be betting money that he will do that again, and certainly wont bet that he will be a factor after he returns. Z'darius Smith has a lot of talent and could in the future be a Qb killer, but still only leaves us Dumervil, who when couble teamed constantly cant do that much. OZzie has serious work to do and id bet hes already looking at the draft crop at PR and CB/SS. It is a matter of how fast can we rebuild with that 80/20 restock rule at this point

Agreed.  Big time lack of talent.  And the injuries to our few playmakers doesn't help.  As far as the past drafts go, seems like every good player who developed in our system over the past several years is gone.  We only have I believe 7 guys left from the drafts between 2008 and 2012.  Of those players, two are consistently injured (Webby and Pitta) and one is lacking in development (Asa Jackson).  That leaves only 4.  Others like Torrey, Ellerbe, Kruger, are all gone. Not saying they're all top echelon players, but they are good players and are no longer part of the puzzle.  In recent drafts, we have some whiffs like Arthur Brown, some good young guys like Mosley and Jernigan, and a bunch of guys with injuries like Camp, Perriman, Elam, and Urban.  Lewis-Moore is just getting into rhythm after spending his first two seasons injured.

 

It's been a tough stretch so far this season, but I think if we can get healthy we'll be ok moving forward. 

 

Although I've said it before and I'll say it again...overall I'm not a fan of Dean Pees.  I just don't like his approach on defense.  I wouldn't be sad to see him go.  Just my opinion.

[BillyD]

19-19 since Super Bowl says it all. People got paid for past deeds and certain draft picks didn't work out. Kubiak is 5-0 and Manning looks like the lost rookie QB in his system but their defense&special teams do just enough to win. Good teams,staffed by good coaches get the most out of their talent. High draft picks can rebuild us in two years after cap decisions and coaching changes the Ravens will be back. Schedule hurts this year too.

Yeah, I see your point.  Denver has been leaning heavily on its defense this season.  Wade Phillips is a pretty good DC and he has a ton of playmakers on that defense to work with.  It's hard to measure our player development since the SB though.  Williams and Juszczyk are good.  A. Brown was a whiff.  Wagner, Hurst, Urschel, and Jensen are still developing, lot of mistakes still, though.  Elam and Urban are injured, Lewis-Moore is just getting up to speed after being injured his first two seasons.  Mosley, Jernigan, pretty good, but need to develop more.  Lots of injuries, lots of young guys.  But I hear ya...I definitely have some issues with the coaching overall.  Seems like the lack of "talent" or "development" is consistently in the same areas:  WR, CB, SS, FS, OL (I'm speaking about Wagner and Jensen as far as O Line goes, as well as Urschel and Hurst.  Granted, they're all young, but I still see a lot of mistakes being made by them.  Obviously KO is a freak and is doing very well, so count him as a good draft pick.  Zuttah and Monroe were FA acquisitions, so they don't count in this discussion.).  One could argue that those are the same areas where we lack high end talent, though.  Might be time to look at those position coaches and see just what they're up to.  Just my opinion.  Time will tell if this gets turned around. 

[ravenstime]

Most teams spike the ball to stop the clock, in that situation. I can picture Aaron Rodgers, or Big Ben, doing just that. We didn't seem to be aware of what to do in that situation, which is tough to understand, for a 7 or 8 year veteran like Flacco and Harbaugh (head coach). Who knows, an extra play or two and ... yeah, whatever, we're just not that good right now and I understand that.

[BillyD]

Not sure what game or film Harbs was watching. Guys needed to sprint up to the line. It was 20 yards, not 60. Most of these guys aren't exactly running a 4.4 40, but you can't tell me they can sprint and set up in less than 15 seconds. That was tough to watch.

[LunarRover]

I hope that we get a strong play on Vernon Hargreaves III from Florida. CB is a super talent at the position. guys like him are always able to go to get the ball and finish plays where it seems like our CBs are too busy trying to recover from burns and never get to even play the ball. I feel we have current and future passrushers here just need more in the back end to delay progressions.

[Drew P]

The 2 minute drill at the end of the first half was pathetic

[EddiOK]

I would think that playing for respect (which is all we can play for now) would drive these guys to RUN to the line for the next play.

[Eddie Football]

Pure, unadulterated BS coach speak and this season is not the season for it. Artie Donovan on a broken leg would have been faster getting to the LOS than Monroe. He may be as lazy as McKinnie was, plus he's always 'hurt'. Guys like that need to be benched for a few plays to show them up because obviously they won't get it any other way.