[News] Late For Work 10/27: 8 Crazy Things That Have Happened To Ravens This Season

[Ravensfan4life2010]

Well when can we ever get a consistency in the OC, I feel bad for Joe every quarterback has been in a consistent offensive system for at least 2 years, but Joe every season he has another playbook another person to gel with. When will Ozzie realized this league is becoming a passing league? you have to get wide receivers that can catch, run routes, read defenses so they know where they can sit in a zone coverage. It is becoming likely that Monroe may be gone at the end of this season and hopefully Webb. We need a new DC get Shwartz dude can coach ravens defense football.

[JamieRaven]

Where do I start off!

We can all come up with what we believe are the problems here, I have heard so many - injuries, bad coaching, Joe Flacco and others not performing, wrong play calls, bad refs, bad luck etc etc..the list goes on! Some I agree with others I don't but when you put even a few of these together it is going to result in losses and poor performance end of story. Maybe you can get away with 1 or 2 of these factors but that is it.

Personally, after following the Ravens from the UK for a good 10 years now, I feel like we are going along a road which we need to avoid. I always see teams as cycles going through good to bad rebuilding etc. Well I think even at this point in the season we could be at that crossroad.

If this organisation is to rebuild the team and staff correctly then for me things need to be looked at seriously including -

1. Our approach to free agents - I mean this more so in terms of those that we should look to sign from other teams. I feel like this is something we don't do enough. I don't expect us to splash the cash but we can't really keep relying on the draft to keep 'reloading'. I see lots of experienced pro ready free agents being productive for teams each year. Okay sometimes we won't have the cap to compete for some but why not try to be more aggressive, the Dumervil deal was about as aggressive as I have seen us in the last 3-4 years go after an actual experienced top level player. Too many times the emphasis seems to be to go to the draft 'stock pile' and try and find value for someone in the late rounds - this is tough and hard to pull off - as some players are NOT pro ready and experienced enough to immediately replace others meaning we become weaker. In summary, I think we need to be more aggressive in the off season with free agent signings, and use the draft to supplement what we have.

2. This links to no.1 above. There are now a number of players on this team that I would start to term as 'deadwood'. Some are on contracts which would mean cutting at the end of the season would make no sense fair enough, but I feel that some strong and big decisions need to be made similar to the Ngata one (which was the correct one), we need to overhaul and hopefully allowing some that are free agents and some still under contract to leave at the end of the season will give us some more power in terms of free agent signing. Again I don't expect us to start throwing money around but like I have said we are too reliant on the draft and look what that has done this year to us! It is unfair to expect so much from late round draft picks!!

3. What do we want to be our identity going forward?? I feel like fans including me want that original identity run the ball, play good D and throw sensibly and to the strengths of the current QB. Well I think our OC wants to pass pass...ok...well that's okay but we all have to buy into that and we cannot do so with this current team. The DC is also something that needs to be addressed in regards to the term 'bending not breaking'. A defense should not accept a team driving on them as being okay and then just try to be solid in the endzone, that is just heaping the pressure on yourself! Why! Eventually that is difficult to maintain and we can't keep expecting to stop teams and make them settle for a FG.

Abit ranty and yes it is early in the season, and yes I am sure the FO are way on to this or at least I hope so! What does everyone else think?

JC

[Ravensfan4life2010]

uhm marlon brown has been dropping passes every week, cannot get separation that is why we are wanting him to be cut

[Ravensfansince03]

The refs making bad calls, I definitely understand, but Harbaugh coming out crying about headsets going of to the press.......?????!?!?? Unacceptable

[Ravensfansince03]

Besides the refs with an absolute poor and corrupt performance, this team didn't get the job done. The first half was full of missed tackles.

[burnbigben]

pretty sure we had 2 or 3 guys falling into the neutral zone right before the ball was snapped on our blocked punt but I guess no one here noticed that..

[Bat-mite]

That article just about sums it up. We are always just enough in the game to make it interesting, but enough to pull it out. It's starting to look like the win against Pittsburgh was a fluke.

[Ravensfansince03]

Yeah too bad he waits for a guy to be on the ground to hit someone. If you watch him on the replays in pass rush situations he gets stood up immediately and is completely ineffective

 

I did notice that. Maybe that's why Upshaw found himself on special teams. But its becoming pretty clear that he is not an edge setting OLB. I saw a run go to his side successfully because he didn't do his job.

[Raven_Don]

Oh yeah... shout out to Will Hill... he balled out last night... and not sure how Brown caught that pass in double coverage but that was a dime... outside of three or four plays the defense played well... only gave up 280 yds to a high powered passing attack... I think we should let Trestman implement his own playbook... I think its unfair to him to be running Kubiak's offense with a few wrinkles... and for the critics saying we should have ran the ball more in the second half... its kind of hard to do when they are putting extra defenders in the box... the four run plays were for negative yds... I don't think Justin is fully recovered... Canty balled out as well...

[Ravensfansince03]

That article just about sums it up. We are always just enough in the game to make it interesting, but enough to pull it out. It's starting to look like the win against Pittsburgh was a fluke.

 

They had Vick as QB. And a couple missed FG. Regardless we still won

[Ravensfansince03]

Oh yeah... shout out to Will Hill... he balled out last night... and not sure how Brown caught that pass in double coverage but that was a dime... outside of three or four plays the defense played well... only gave up 280 yds to a high powered passing attack... I think we should let Trestman implement his own playbook... I think its unfair to him to be running Kubiak's offense with a few wrinkles... and for the critics saying we should have ran the ball more in the second half... its kind of hard to do when they are putting extra defenders in the box... the four run plays were for negative yds... I don't think Justin is fully recovered... Canty balled out as well...

 

Yea I have faith in Trestman now. He is starting to get the run game going. Were just an offense depleted of playmakers.

[burnbigben]

Part of me thinks if Bernard Pollard had made the hit Hill made it would have been flagged

[Ravensfansince03]

3 people I would love to see us have as D-coordinator. Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, or Rex Ryan.

[Guest ColoradoSpringsRaven]

There have indeed been some unbelievably bizarre finishes in every game this year...Last night, I was extremely pleased with the heart and attitude the Ravens displayed in front of a national audience..There were some obvious missed calls that didn't go our way which killed our momentum, but nothing but love and respect from the state of Colorado! Raven Nation forever

[Rat]

Blah, blah,blah......most of what I read here is the same old crybaby crap.....yes, they made a few mistakes.....and yes the ref's sucked (no question).....but I watched a team that played, generally, with great intensity......our offense, given who we have.....played pretty well. Our D, playing against one of the best passing teams in the NFL....played better then previous games..our special teams played ok.....( I believe that a case can be made for Ross being down)...I'm optimistic on the rest of the season. How about some positive comments for a change......instead of the same old blah, blah, blah....

Besides.....we beat the squealers.....

GO RAVENS KEEP PUSHING........

[voltesV]

The 9th crazy thing that have happened to the Ravens this season.... Win a game against the Steelers at Pittsburgh.

[n#7]

Well, Asa almost brought the Ravens back to a win with that blocked punt. It looks like Ross is up to his old trick of fumbling. Not worth it esp. although fast, he can only run north and south. And the #1 draft pick? Only as good as the ones doing the picking!

[fusuymada]

okay we are not that good, the refs were horrible (and thats throughout the whole NFL), we haven't had one call our way all year, we haven't even had the ball bounce in our favor this whole season. I don't think I recall for any team the perfect storm of things that happen, sometimes of our own doing, that are keeping this team from winning. It is not our year, we get it, the schedule pounded us, we still cant secure a home Monday Night Game, it just seems the forces of the universe are scheming to get us. We need to accept it, suck it up, start playing our younger guys and get them some experience. We need to sit the guys who wont be here next year and we need to use this season almost like a development league to get the guys that will be here next year as much playing time as possible. KO's and Monroe's injuries are tough but a blessing in disguise. Now we will get extended looks at next years line and perhaps we need a left tackle in the first round. If so, lets find out what will make the biggest impact on the team and we figure that out by playing out this season and lets start trying new things, different players, and new schemes. Lets use the rest of this year to get the info we need to have a killer draft next year and fill our holes with top draft picks and some good free agents. I can accept two non-winning seasons in the last 8 years, but not if it goes to 3 next year. Lets figure this out so I don't have to go through this again next year. Smile Ravens fans, we will be back stronger and better and the pundits weren't totally wrong, there is a lot to like on this team but this funk we are in will soon be gone and we will be playoff bound again next year.

[NJ Raven]

Marlon Brown shouldn't be cut, just buried on the bench, Joe either over or under throws someone every game to miss a td, refs completely have it out for us idc what anyone says.. And our Cbs have no confidence, they were playing 10 yards off the receivers again and Gruden pointed out that Jimmy Smith knows he cant cover J Brown 1on1 smh they literally looked scared out there.. Nice to see Webb make some plays tho

[paulCBpac]

on a good note justin tucker's ray lewis impersonation was great!

[Minionhunter]

The NFL does not put on athletic sporting contests, they put on an entertainment game (legally defined post spygate). NFL referees are legally considered employees of the league. As such the league can tell them to do whatever the league wants, including giving calls to specific teams and not for others, or calling fouls on certain teams and not others. That is legally considered fine and fair. Anyone who doubts this should look up the court case where the Jets fan sued the Patriots and NFL for spygate.

[OzzieBisciotti]

Ross%u2019 Fumbling Dates Back To Detroit

Would've been nice to have kept Bobby Rainey- Oz tried to hide him on the Practice Squad, but Tampa picked him up. I think he leads the league (or close to leading) in kick returns. Seems like that was a questionable move by Oz.

[OzzieBisciotti]

Did anyone notice that Marlon Brown was decent last year? Why? Because Torrey opened up everything for everyone else- I wished the FO would've valued that (plus he led the league in PI call = extra yards). We shouldn't have banked on having only 1 speedster (and unproven) receiver in Perriman on the roster this year- that was a big mistake- along with not addressing our secondary. 2015 would have to be characterized as the year of questionable roster decisions- how does a team fall so far, so fast? It's crazy...

[WNC-Raven]

I would be happy if the only other game we win is against PIT. 2-14 but screw the steelers

[RobF]

Let's hope we get ALL of the demons out this year. What's left to happen that hasn't yet? We need to get them on the 2015 bucket list and start checking them off.

[ReginaldColeman1]

What is the finer point of putting an otherwise ineligible receiver into the game and casting him as eligible if the refs going to announce it? The secret is out. I suppose if the defense is slow witted maybe it will work. Instead get yourself an actual receiver who can hold onto the ball the way Smith Sr does. When the March Madness craze starts every expert with a blog goes on ad nausea about the eye test for a marginally qualified team. It's another way of polling for possible votes from the sport representatives. So based on last nights performance alone the Ravens do not pass the eyeball test. Not without a new prescription. They fail to get the TD and settle once more for a FG in the first series. Palmer turns around and four plays later the hilariously funny early lead is gone. I will say the defense was in there clawing and scratching. Wagner and Yanda are fighters. But look up the cap space occupied by the likes of Zuttah and Monroe not to mention the two corners still chasing the receiver the next morning. Number one draft pick? I gotta see what they do with it. As for the refs and the league u gotta look closer at the website leagues owned by ESPN, Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. If they weren't wearing suits I'd say they were crooks.

[jravens13]

Our cap situation is is bad shape also. Going into this offseason we are projected to be 3M under the cap, and there are a lot of important moves we will need to make including adding a veteran WR, and hopefully a pass rusher.

[cobrajet]

I think we were out played the most this season in the one game we actually won. Go figure, so how mad must those Steelers fans be?

[Kwilliams84]

Next offseason we need we need Flacco to reconstruct his contract again if pitta isn't going to play cut him also cut marlon brown and let osemele walk for the money he wants also let upshaw walk he isnt doing much this year. Talk steve Smith to coming back one last year,Suggs will be back, draft 1st Round Pick Joey Bosa if top pick if we have top 3 picks Take Jalen Ramsey If we have top 11 pick take Laquon Treadwell 2nd round take another wide reciver or Shawn Oakman and 3rd round take a wr.

[balfan23]

I know we're making too many mistakes, but I refuse to qualify plays like the Urshel penalty and the 50 yard tack on run after a play is over as being examples of us being our own worst enemy. It sometimes appears we have other enemies aside from ourselves and our opponent.