End of Season Press Conference

[BmoreBird22]

I really hated how we used zone earlier in the year but we admittedly got better at it. Even the off man coverage got better.

I think having Webb back their for communication helped. Hill can certainly cover tight ends, but damn, he has so little awareness in zones

[GrimCoconut]

I think having Webb back their for communication helped. Hill can certainly cover tight ends, but damn, he has so little awareness in zones

Yeah, it probably did. I didn't notice multiple guys in the secondary pointing and making calls. It looked like too many cooks in the kitchen or whatever analogy you wanna use.

[BmoreBird22]

Yeah, it probably did. I didn't notice multiple guys in the secondary pointing and making calls. It looked like too many cooks in the kitchen or whatever analogy you wanna use.

I guess that's one reason to be wary of starting a new free safety every single year- just find one guy with authority and let him do the work.

[The Raven]

I really hated how we used zone earlier in the year but we admittedly got better at it. Even the off man coverage got better.

 

Effective zone coverage relies on three things: 1. Consistent four man rush. 2. Clear communication. 3. Eleven hats flying to the ball and closing down on receivers. 

 

One tough aspect of zone, in my opinion, is that it requires your defensive backs to be aggressive players, guys who will break hard on the ball, make hits, and force incompletions. You NEED aggressive DB's to run an effective zone coverage. I dunno if our DBs played aggressively early in the season.

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

Effective zone coverage relies on three things: 1. Consistent four man rush. 2. Clear communication. 3. Eleven hats flying to the ball and closing down on receivers.

One tough aspect of zone, in my opinion, is that it requires your defensive backs to be aggressive players, guys who will break hard on the ball, make hits, and force incompletions. You NEED aggressive DB's to run an effective zone coverage. I dunno if our DBs played aggressively early in the season.

We ran way more man to man in the 2nd half of the season, and it did improve. My problem is with the philosophy of a zone scheme, it is not aggressive by nature, and does not scare anybody....I really miss that, after having Rex dial up those exotic schemes, Nolan, Marvin, Pagano....., Pees and Mattison really screwed it all up....I miss the days of holding opponents under 10 points....We have missed the boat by not trading up last draft and grabbing a better corner, that would have helped.. we tend to stockpile picks lately, instead of targeting a guy, and getting the impact player Edited January 10, 2016 by OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL

[GrimCoconut]

We ran way more man to man in the 2nd half of the season, and it did improve. My problem is with the philosophy of a zone scheme, it is not aggressive by nature, and does not scare anybody....I really miss that, after having Rex dial up those exotic schemes, Nolan, Marvin, Pagano....., Pees and Mattison really screwed it all up....I miss the days of holding opponents under 10 points....We have missed the boat by not trading up last draft and grabbing a better corner, that would have helped.. we tend to stockpile picks lately, instead of targeting a guy, and getting the impact player

Zone schemes can be aggressive depending on when they're called and depending on how the secondary plays the ball. If you're in zone you need to attack the ball, hit the WR, and wrap up. We've had issues with all three areas here.

[terrynjulia03]

We ran more man and the secondary played better when Harbs became more involved with the secondary. IF Pees stays we absolutely must replace the punter and rb coach that are our Secondary coaches.

[usmccharles]

We ran more man and the secondary played better when Harbs became more involved with the secondary. IF Pees stays we absolutely must replace the punter and rb coach that are our Secondary coaches.

pees is staying, it's been stated already. With Smith healthy and Suggs back, I think some will be surprised how our defense plays

[ravensdfan]

I bet he wouldn't believe the Seahawks base defense is a zone defense.

We played more man in the 2nd half of the season plus another interesting tidbit - five of the six losses the Seahawks had were 4th quarter leads the defense gave up. Hmmm....

[BmoreBird22]

We played more man in the 2nd half of the season plus another interesting tidbit - five of the six losses the Seahawks had were 4th quarter leads the defense gave up. Hmmm....

The Seahawks also blew a Super Bowl wide open with their defense and damn near won a second consecutive Super Bowl with one.

I'm curious, tough, which games are you even referring to? The Bengals and Panthers, absolutely should be put on the defenses inability to close. Although, that was more of an issue to contain elite tight ends than anything else. I don't put that on their scheme. They just got worked by tight ends.

But surely you cannot even be referring to the first Rams game or the first Cardinals where the defense was literally the only reason the Seahawks had a shot in the fourth in the first place with two touchdowns scored in both games to even the score or take a lead. Really, which games are you referring to?

And, the Ravens did not play more man in the second half. Harbaugh himself said they played more zone, but they just played smarter.

The Ravens didn’t make a whole lot of changes with personnel, but mainly altered their pass defense scheme. They began playing more zone defense, and Head Coach John Harbaugh stressed “minding your luggage” at other times in man-to-man coverage, meaning to simply shadow the receiver instead of trying to make too many reads.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Moderator 3

[RavensFanMania]

The Seahawks also blew a Super Bowl wide open with their defense and damn near won a second consecutive Super Bowl with one.

I'm curious, tough, which games are you even referring to? The Bengals and Panthers, absolutely should be put on the defenses inability to close. Although, that was more of an issue to contain elite tight ends than anything else. I don't put that on their scheme. They just got worked by tight ends.

But surely you cannot even be referring to the first Rams game or the first Cardinals where the defense was literally the only reason the Seahawks had a shot in the fourth in the first place with two touchdowns scored in both games to even the score or take a lead. Really, which games are you referring to?

And, the Ravens did not play more man in the second half. Harbaugh himself said they played more zone, but they just played smarter.

The Ravens didn’t make a whole lot of changes with personnel, but mainly altered their pass defense scheme. They began playing more zone defense, and Head Coach John Harbaugh stressed “minding your luggage” at other times in man-to-man coverage, meaning to simply shadow the receiver instead of trying to make too many reads.

Not only did they start playing more zone, they started dropping linebackers into coverage and blitzing less, plus Jimmy Smith healed up from his lisfranc.  Although he didn't miss a game, he was still healing from 2014.  He was the 6th best CB per PFF the last half of the year and they had the 2nd pass pass defense in the final eight games. 

 

That's just a few of the reasons the Ravens defense got better in the 2nd half of the season.   I think the Ravens will be in contention again next season.

Edited January 11, 2016 by RavensFanMania

[GrimCoconut]

Lol Seattle runs a cover 3 zone when they're most effective back when they had the players who could run it. I liked zone when I played CB but we were bad at it early in the year.

I don't like Pees but I'm not about to debate why anymore. It looks like he'll be here again next year. I just wonder when everyone turns on him. I used to defend the guy but I can't do it anymore. I think he unfortunately expects too much from his guys, who just don't have discipline to run his complex scheme. I'm no football authority but he looked like he was using his players to attack the ball more at the end of the year.

[Steve0x]

This is why its so important to win. So we wont be talking about the off season. Im just so disapointed Ozzie nor Biscotti wouldnt fire anybody. Pees and Treshell didn't do their jobs.  Ravens finished below 20 in offense and on defense and somebody should have been fired. This is unacceptable. Its bad enough the O's wouldn't fire Buck Showalter when they played badly.

Edited January 11, 2016 by Steve0x

[Cville-Raven]

This is why its so important to win. So we wont be talking about the off season. Im just so disapointed Ozzie nor Biscotti wouldnt fire anybody. Pees and Treshell didn't do their jobs.  Ravens finished below 20 in offense and on defense and somebody should have been fired. This is unacceptable. Its bad enough the O's wouldn't fire Buck Showalter when they played badly.

Trestman did a fine job with what he had to work with.

 

Also I've seen some crazy stuff on here but wow...Yeah fire the guy who helped turn them around from total mediocrity. Sounds like a great idea. 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Cville-Raven

[ravensdfan]

The Seahawks also blew a Super Bowl wide open with their defense and damn near won a second consecutive Super Bowl with one.

I'm curious, tough, which games are you even referring to? The Bengals and Panthers, absolutely should be put on the defenses inability to close. Although, that was more of an issue to contain elite tight ends than anything else. I don't put that on their scheme. They just got worked by tight ends.

But surely you cannot even be referring to the first Rams game or the first Cardinals where the defense was literally the only reason the Seahawks had a shot in the fourth in the first place with two touchdowns scored in both games to even the score or take a lead. Really, which games are you referring to?

And, the Ravens did not play more man in the second half. Harbaugh himself said they played more zone, but they just played smarter.

The Ravens didn’t make a whole lot of changes with personnel, but mainly altered their pass defense scheme. They began playing more zone defense, and Head Coach John Harbaugh stressed “minding your luggage” at other times in man-to-man coverage, meaning to simply shadow the receiver instead of trying to make too many reads.

I honestly did not evaluate their games one by one. It was information I just found out that I thought curious since it is my main issue with the defense since Pees took over and they do run mostly zone. 

 

Lol Seattle runs a cover 3 zone when they're most effective back when they had the players who could run it. I liked zone when I played CB but we were bad at it early in the year.

I don't like Pees but I'm not about to debate why anymore. It looks like he'll be here again next year. I just wonder when everyone turns on him. I used to defend the guy but I can't do it anymore. I think he unfortunately expects too much from his guys, who just don't have discipline to run his complex scheme. I'm no football authority but he looked like he was using his players to attack the ball more at the end of the year.

Which was kind of the point that made me curious about those 4th quarter leads.

 

This is why its so important to win. So we wont be talking about the off season. Im just so disapointed Ozzie nor Biscotti wouldnt fire anybody. Pees and Treshell didn't do their jobs.  Ravens finished below 20 in offense and on defense and somebody should have been fired. This is unacceptable. Its bad enough the O's wouldn't fire Buck Showalter when they played badly.

Win or lose we still talk about the off season. Not sure who Treshell is () but it was Trestman's first year and they asked him to basically run someone else's scheme. Then the injuries on offense as well. There are things I did not like about his play calling, mainly how ineffective our 2 min drills were, but think you can't judge him too harshly just yet.

[Steve0x]

But they didn't make playoffs again. At least Harbaugh got the Ravens to the Super Bowl. What has Buck done lately? 

[Steve0x]

I honestly did not evaluate their games one by one. It was information I just found out that I thought curious since it is my main issue with the defense since Pees took over and they do run mostly zone. 

 

Which was kind of the point that made me curious about those 4th quarter leads.

 

Win or lose we still talk about the off season. Not sure who Treshell is ( ) but it was Trestman's first year and they asked him to basically run someone else's scheme. Then the injuries on offense as well. There are things I did not like about his play calling, mainly how ineffective our 2 min drills were, but think you can't judge him too harshly just yet.

Treshell is my way saying Trestman'

[Sherly_Tebow]

But they didn't make playoffs again. At least Harbaugh got the Ravens to the Super Bowl. What has Buck done lately?

ALCS 2 seasons ago? O's should be a playoff contender this year. Bucks fine!

[Steve0x]

Well I'm not happy even they made ALCS playoffs is nothing. Its just like a reg season game. Anybody can attend playoffs tickets aren't hard to get i seen them all. Here are list of playoff games i attended 

 

1974 Game 2 A's vs Orioles 

1976 Steelers vs Colts

1977 Raiders vs Colts 

1979 game 2 Angels vs Orioles  

1982 Game 4 Celtics vs Bullets 

1984 Game 2 Islanders vs Caps   

1997 Game 6 Indians vs Orioles 

2000 Denver vs Ravens 

 

But Super Bowl and World Series are very differcult to get tickets. Im just glad i finally made it to the big show Super Bowl XLVII 

Edited January 11, 2016 by Steve0x

[Willbacker]

The Ravens didn’t make a whole lot of changes with personnel, but mainly altered their pass defense scheme. They began playing more zone defense, and Head Coach John Harbaugh stressed “minding your luggage” at other times in man-to-man coverage, meaning to simply shadow the receiver instead of trying to make too many reads.

Good post but why did he wait until about the 10th week. One of the most notable differences was the cb's played up tighter too the receiver on 3rd downs where they actually covered the 1st down marker lol. Freakin genius. Webb playing the slot and safety was waaaay overdue. This really helped in the Steeler game. Now Idk if they actually played more zone cuz I seen Mosley in man to man waaay too often. He either needs to blitz more or play in a zone while everybody else plays man. I know we didn't do well in the Seattle game but I give credit to Pees for at least thinking a little out of the box for trying to use Brooks as a spy but since he didn't do too well he went to the famous doghouse.

 

The bottomline to me is is that Pees is only so-so as a DC. Last in turnovers. Pisspoor in sacks and pressure in general. The 2nd half schedule dictated we should do better on D and the great defensive showing against the Steelers well if you think about it this is probally about the 10th time he's faced Haley's offensive scheme.

[usmccharles]

This is why its so important to win. So we wont be talking about the off season. Im just so disapointed Ozzie nor Biscotti wouldnt fire anybody. Pees and Treshell didn't do their jobs.  Ravens finished below 20 in offense and on defense and somebody should have been fired. This is unacceptable. Its bad enough the O's wouldn't fire Buck Showalter when they played badly.

You do realize we were 90 yards off of last season's offensive yards.  Trestmen in his first year trying to run a hybrid of someone elses' scheme and his own was 90 yards off our franchise record,with no deap threat, with the following weapons:

 

QBs

Flacco- 10 games, was on pace for 4500 yards (career high)

Clausen

Schaub

Mallet

 

WRs

SSr- 7 games, on pace for well over 1k yards

BP, who never played one snap...

Aiken

Butler

Camp

TE trio

Waller

D. Brown

 

We easily had one of the worst WR corps in the entire league and yet Trestman made it work beyond expectations imo.  No one is going to like the OCs calls 100% of the time....we will always complain about play calls, but im extremely excited to see what Trestman can do with SSr, BP, Aiken, Camp*, Butler*, TEs etc....

[Steve0x]

IDK I'm hoping i see improvement from the O-Line and from Mr Flacco. I wanna see Flacco start playing like Manning and Brady. 

[usmccharles]

IDK I'm hoping i see improvement from the O-Line and from Mr Flacco. I wanna see Flacco start playing like Manning and Brady. 

I hate to break it to you, but i dont think you will ever see him play like Brady or Manning....in the regular season.  I highly doubt flacco is ever going to have one of those 40+ TD 5k yard seasons, but thats not discrediting him by any means.  He out played Mannning in our SB run, then he outplayed Brady, He even out played Brady last year.  Flacco's head to head record against Brady is pretty good actually and since Flacco has came into the league, i believe he has better playoff stats than Brady...and Flacco is entering his prime in my opinion. 

[Winchester]

IDK I'm hoping i see improvement from the O-Line and from Mr Flacco. I wanna see Flacco start playing like Manning and Brady.

The OLine dominated the cinci and Pittsburgh DLines at times once KO manned left tackle. Keep in mind Jensen is young and inexperienced yet dominated Atkins at times. Urschel is young and adjusting to center. He is a very hard worker and powerful and intelligent. Harbs clearly wants Urschel to get adjusted to center. Oh and cinci and Pittsburgh have elite DLines. If ravens fronted legit playmakers at receiver the offense would of put cinci away by halftime cuz the OLine was kicking their butts. Joe Cool could be a 4800 yard 40 TD QB with legit #1 receiver surrounded by legit playmakers as well. Especially with the ravens Oline that is shaping up.

[Tru11]

IDK I'm hoping i see improvement from the O-Line and from Mr Flacco. I wanna see Flacco start playing like Manning and Brady. 

 

Wont happen.

different QBs in different systems.

 

 

I hate to break it to you, but i dont think you will ever see him play like Brady or Manning....in the regular season.  I highly doubt flacco is ever going to have one of those 40+ TD 5k yard seasons, but thats not discrediting him by any means.  He out played Mannning in our SB run, then he outplayed Brady, He even out played Brady last year.  Flacco's head to head record against Brady is pretty good actually and since Flacco has came into the league, i believe he has better playoff stats than Brady...and Flacco is entering his prime in my opinion. 

 

 

Flacco did not outplay brady last season though.

not sure why people think this lol.

 

also head to head from when flacco came into the league brady has the edge though.

they are 2 - 2 in the play offs but brady is 3-1 in the reg.

 

as for play off stats it pretty much depends on how you want to look at it.

 

head to head i believe flacco has better overal stats then brady.

play off stats in general i think favours brady more.

[HoldingCall]

You do realize we were 90 yards off of last season's offensive yards.  Trestmen in his first year trying to run a hybrid of someone elses' scheme and his own was 90 yards off our franchise record,with no deap threat, with the following weapons:

 

QBs

Flacco- 10 games, was on pace for 4500 yards (career high)

Clausen

Schaub

Mallet

 

WRs

SSr- 7 games, on pace for well over 1k yards

BP, who never played one snap...

Aiken

Butler

Camp

TE trio

Waller

D. Brown

 

We easily had one of the worst WR corps in the entire league and yet Trestman made it work beyond expectations imo.  No one is going to like the OCs calls 100% of the time....we will always complain about play calls, but im extremely excited to see what Trestman can do with SSr, BP, Aiken, Camp*, Butler*, TEs etc....

The lack of turnovers may have been the (yardage) difference but on offense there was an apparent weakness in red zone scoring, plus a weaker than usual run game. The changes at OL can be cause for the shortfall, too.

[usmccharles]

Flacco did not outplay brady last season though.

not sure why people think this lol.

 

also head to head from when flacco came into the league brady has the edge though.

they are 2 - 2 in the play offs but brady is 3-1 in the reg.

 

as for play off stats it pretty much depends on how you want to look at it.

 

head to head i believe flacco has better overal stats then brady.

play off stats in general i think favours brady more.

I meant during the playoffs, i know flacco had one more int but he was playing against a far better secondary and i really blame Torrey on the game ending int. 

 

Also, since 08' Joe is 10-5 and Brady is 7-5 in the post season....

 

Brady also hasnt won a playoff game on the road since then, but in context i doubt he has played many playoff games on the road. 

*edit* just looked up his road record in the post season, if you count the SBs hes 6-5, im bored...

Edited January 12, 2016 by usmccharles

[Tru11]

I meant during the playoffs, i know flacco had one more int but he was playing against a far better secondary and i really blame Torrey on the game ending int. 

 

Also, since 08' Joe is 10-5 and Brady is 7-5 in the post season....

 

Brady also hasnt won a playoff game on the road since then, but in context i doubt he has played many playoff games on the road. 

*edit* just looked up his road record in the post season, if you count the SBs hes 6-5, im bored...

 

Its really hard to get a road game when you are the #1 seed lol.

 

heck even as the #2 seed you only get 1 road game if the #1 seed makes the championship game.

 

sure flacco won more games but Brady has progressed further in the play offs .

 

Brady has more SB and championship appearances then flacco.

 

So talking about who has more wins is kinda skewed when 1 always has a bye and the other start in the wildcard round.

 

Personally im more interested in look who made its the farthest the most times.

[usmccharles]

Its really hard to get a road game when you are the #1 seed lol.

 

heck even as the #2 seed you only get 1 road game if the #1 seed makes the championship game.

 

sure flacco won more games but Brady has progressed further in the play offs .

 

Brady has more SB and championship appearances then flacco.

 

So talking about who has more wins is kinda skewed when 1 always has a bye and the other start in the wildcard round.

 

Personally im more interested in look who made its the farthest the most times.

Oh yea i know its skewed...Hell, Brady has lost more SBs than Joe has won lol. 

 

Sidenote, i went back and watched a lot of games from our SB run.  I really think we need a play making RB.  Rice was so vital to our succes with the way he could extend plays, turn 3 yards into 30, the way he breaks tackles.   I know a lot of people on here really like buck, but i just dont see that ability in him, i see a chris ivory maybe.  I know people will say RBs are a dime a dozen but when you have an elite one they arent.  And good god Boldin was such a monster. 

[Tru11]

Oh yea i know its skewed...Hell, Brady has lost more SBs than Joe has won lol. 

 

Sidenote, i went back and watched a lot of games from our SB run.  I really think we need a play making RB.  Rice was so vital to our succes with the way he could extend plays, turn 3 yards into 30, the way he breaks tackles.   I know a lot of people on here really like buck, but i just dont see that ability in him, i see a chris ivory maybe.  I know people will say RBs are a dime a dozen but when you have an elite one they arent.  And good god Boldin was such a monster. 

 

well rice made plays but he had some fumbles as well though.

we really do need such a guy.

 

many dont want to acknowledged it but the guy was 1 of the elite backs  at the time though.

 

from 09 till 12 he was a top 10 player in yards from scrimmage.

 

we could use a guy like that for sure.

 

i was hoping gurley would fall to us lel.

 

yup boldin was a beast.

 

we had a perfect mix of guys who all excelled at certain things.