The good bad and ugly Pre-Season 1

[kjbmore]

its only one preseason game but we're not having much luck with these cast off secondary players - arrington, lewis, powers looked slow today - all been heralded as such shrewd signings by oz, get talked up all training camp, n do nothing and i know its only one drive but powers looked horrible

hopefully some of our kids, young, canady, can start to develop, rather than having to waste money on guys that are on their way out, or werent much to begin with

or now that we got some cap space stop being bargain bin hunters and go out and spend some cash on a top tier corner to pair with jimmy (fingers crossed gets healthy)

 

Edited August 12, 2016 by kjbmore

[rmw10]

3 minutes ago, Willbacker said:

Games 2 and 3will tell us a lot more.

West is ahead of Allen imo.

Defense needs to disguise their defense a little better. We commit and show our hand a little too early. Need to be able to audible out of it.

It's only preseason game 1, where there's 0 game planning. It's essentially a "here's the play, go do it" situation. Hard to disguise anything at this point. 

[Ravensfan23]

26 minutes ago, jboy19 said:

I don't think he did anything during the game specifically, just going off of practice reports from camp so far. I hope we get to see some more from him in the next couple games to get a better look. 

Edit: Also a little concerned for the guy that he might not have seen the field had Perriman or Moore been playing. 

I actually think it would have been better for Reynolds if those guys were playing. The reason being is because with He and Butler basically the only 1st and 2nd team WRs healthy enough for this game, Reynolds had to work outside the numbers a lot more than what I think the Ravens want him to. If those guys were on the field to take the top off, we would have seen more crossing patterns from Reynolds underneath with rac potential imo. But with he was forced to run a lot of routes that really doesn't fit him right now in his development. From an experience standpoint it was good for him to have to run those routes tonight, but I don't think he was used the way he'd be used in a real game if he were to make the team. 

[JoeyFlex5]

1 minute ago, kjbmore said:

its only one preseason game but we're not having much luck with these cast off secondary players - arrington, lewis, powers looked slow today - all been heralded as such shrewd signings by oz, get talked up all training camp, n do nothing and i know its only one drive but powers looked horrible

hopefully some of our kids, young, canady, can start to develop, rather than having to waste money on guys that are on their way out, or werent much to begin with

or now that we got some cap space stop being bargain bin hunters and go out and spend some cash on a top tier corner to pair with jimmy (fingers crossed gets healthy)

 

i think young is gonna be a solid nickel guy in the very near future, hes got NFL traits that you cant teach, like clean ball attacking skills, and closing speed. i think next offseason is gonna be when we finally address the hell out of our secondary, with a respectable signing and a high draft pick or 2. i also think less vanilla looks with webb and weddle back there and having a starting pass rush will pay dividends. finally having smart safeties cant be understated, we have been atrocious back there until now.

[terps85]

I think Sheldon Price is someone to watch out for in the secondary. Long corner that everyone covets in the NFL nowadays and has been good in the practices I've seen (3 of them) and good tonight. Not sure why more people aren't talking about him. 

[Ravensfan23]

What type of injury is Zuttah recovering from again? I ask because I don't remember him being so poor with shotgun snaps. I've seen at least 3 camp reports about he and Flacco not being on the same page in that area and he had a poor snap tonight as well. 

[kjbmore]

5 minutes ago, JoeyFlex5 said:

i think young is gonna be a solid nickel guy in the very near future, hes got NFL traits that you cant teach, like clean ball attacking skills, and closing speed. i think next offseason is gonna be when we finally address the hell out of our secondary, with a respectable signing and a high draft pick or 2. i also think less vanilla looks with webb and weddle back there and having a starting pass rush will pay dividends. finally having smart safeties cant be understated, we have been atrocious back there until now.

agreed, in regards to next offseason. cant see our defense winning us any games this year - contain, bend dont break looks like the best we can hope for, this season - that seemed to be on full display on the opening drive

[EdTheMythicalOne]

I'm just going to try to bullet point what I think I saw:

1) We came away from the game with no serious injuries as far as we know now. They said at the end of the game that Young might be a little shaken up so we'll see on that.

2) I don't think Mallet looked as sharp as the announcers said he was. You know who looked sharp and silky smooth and was on the money with darn near every pass? Josh Johnson. He looked good save for the fumble.

3) Didn't hear Correa's name in on any plays, but I know he was on the field.

4) Some big plays from the TE/WR guys Waller and Dan Brown.

5) T-dub (T. West) looked real good and so did Dixon. Allen not so much running, but nice catch.

6) Ducasse and Wesley did not look good at RG. On one of West's big runs Ducasse completely whiffed on his block and grabbed the guy's facemask and he held him, got away with it. Wesley was a revolving door who let some plays up in the backfield.

7) Butler looks like another Aiken. He'll catch most of what he should and get you what's there, but not explosive playmaker. You need guys that can catch so that is no knock on him.

8) Harbaugh trying out everybody as KR/PR. If Dixon can make it as a return man, no need to carry an extra WR for the job. Clay didn't help himself.

9) Pass rush wasn't much of a factor until after Cam Newton left. Still some guys played really well. Judon, Z. Smith, Chris Carter, Willie Henry, Mike Pierce, and even Arthur Brown made some plays, though he botched on a big one.

10) Secondary looked decent. Didn't see much confusion or miscommunications. Most blown plays were due to slips. Arrington looked bad.

11) Nick Boyle: Nice pattern and catch for the 2pt conversion and winner of the high hurdle contest! Too bad he's out for 10 games.

Edited August 12, 2016 by EdTheMythicalOne

[EdTheMythicalOne]

7 minutes ago, Ravensfan23 said:

What type of injury is Zuttah recovering from again? I ask because I don't remember him being so poor with shotgun snaps. I've seen at least 3 camp reports about he and Flacco not being on the same page in that area and he had a poor snap tonight as well. 

I think it is called snapitis and it appears to be contagious because Urschel caught it too.

[rmw10]

I'm pretty sure Arrington was the worst player on the field tonight. I don't know what's happened to him, but he looks so lost in every facet of the game. 

[EdTheMythicalOne]

7 minutes ago, kjbmore said:

agreed, in regards to next offseason. cant see our defense winning us any games this year - contain, bend dont break looks like the best we can hope for, this season - that seemed to be on full display on the opening drive

You can get all the  yards you want on our defense, just as long as you don't get it in the endzone. I got my wish tonight, didn't see a dab from Cam. Thought we might see one, but then the defense stopped him and they had to go for a FG instead.

[JoeyFlex5]

5 minutes ago, rmw10 said:

I'm pretty sure Arrington was the worst player on the field tonight. I don't know what's happened to him, but he looks so lost in every facet of the game. 

man, he is done in this league. i was so excited about the signing because we desperately needed a nickel corner, but he has been the worst player in the secondary without question since he came in.

[EdTheMythicalOne]

Just now, JoeyFlex5 said:

man, he is done in this league. i was so excited about the signing because we desperately needed a nickel corner, but he has been the worst player in the secondary without question since he came in.

He looked pretty bad and then he got banged up on a play where he actually made a good one on a running play when he crashed down on it and then got an MMA takedown from whoever that dude was. Powers looked pretty bad too, but it looked to me his issue was slip and fall. Maybe the wrong cleats? Price looked decent, Wright looked good, Sam Brown made a few plays. Jimmy was on the field and was beat on the throw in the endzone. A better pass might have been a TD.

[Steve0x]

Was at the game,,WOW Josh Johnson looks good reminds me of Michael Vick. And Harbaugh did the right thing by benching Flacco. I don't want him hurt. So it comes down to two back up QBs Mallet should go on pup list and Josh Johnson gets second back up job.  

Edited August 12, 2016 by Steve0x

[EdTheMythicalOne]

41 minutes ago, Willbacker said:

Games 2 and 3will tell us a lot more.

West is ahead of Allen imo.

Defense needs to disguise their defense a little better. We commit and show our hand a little too early. Need to be able to audible out of it.

You're not going to see too many exotic looks on offense or defense. It will be kept pretty basic as to not tip our hand as to what we will roll out during the season. But you should be a master of the basics and this team has a bit of work to do. We got fooled on the end around too many times and the screen pass. That's just some inexperience on the edge setters there not recognizing the play...which isn't an easy thing to do mind you, but you're in the NFL fellas.

That being said I do think we show our blitz too soon and when Cam saw it he audibled and crushed us with the screens.

[allblackraven]

Our secondary gives me headache.

[Steve0x]

1 minute ago, allblackraven said:

Our secondary gives me headache.

See,,Told you secondary needs work. If Ravens don't do well on defense and miss the playoffs tell Dean Pees YOURE FIRED!

[EdTheMythicalOne]

2 minutes ago, Steve0x said:

Was at the game,,WOW Josh Johnson looks good reminds me of Michael Vick. 

I wouldn't go that far, but he looked very smooth. He was pinpoint with almost every one of his passes and he's got enough speed to pick up a first down for us if we really needed it. Mallet looked like he was running in quick dry cement, but that's not his game. That pick by Mallet wasn't his fault, he hit Waller right in the hands. But he had several passes that were off target. I only really recall one bad toss from Johnson and that was the low throw to Clay. If money wasn't the issue and they were having an open competition for #2, I think Johnson won this round.

[EdTheMythicalOne]

3 minutes ago, allblackraven said:

Our secondary gives me headache.

*pulls you over to the sideline and shines a light in your eyes*

Do you know what day it is?

Do you know your name?

Do you know where you are?

I'm not clearing you to post again until you pass my spoof concussion test. I agree with you that we were getting a little manhandled in the secondary. We got out sized on some plays, Arrington looked horrible in coverage, Powers fell down a lot. One positive is that after a pass was completed it was clamped down on pretty quick. No real big YAC plays. This means the safeties were coming over the top to help and they actually looked decent.

[EdTheMythicalOne]

3 minutes ago, Steve0x said:

See,,Told you secondary needs work. If Ravens don't do well on defense and miss the playoffs tell Dean Pees YOURE FIRED!

Leslie Frazier, please make our secondary great again!

[rmw10]

I was also pleasantly surprised with Michael Pierce. He got snaps early and did well with them. I'm curious to see how we use him going forward. He might actually have a chance being only the 2nd true NT type on the roster behind Brandon Williams. We've used other guys like Carl Davis there, but none of them have had the prototypical size. 

[Steve0x]

Don't be surprised if the Ravens look like the Chargers of the 80s explosive offense but bad defense. 

[EdTheMythicalOne]

1 minute ago, rmw10 said:

I was also pleasantly surprised with Michael Pierce. He got snaps early and did well with them. I'm curious to see how we use him going forward. He might actually have a chance being only the 2nd true NT type on the roster behind Brandon Williams. We've used other guys like Carl Davis there, but none of them have had the prototypical size. 

Pierce and Henry made a few plays and that's encouraging because I agree with you. I think Carl Davis is out of position as a NT and is more set for our DT or DE slot. I think Carl left early due to an eye poke so I don't think he got as many reps as the coaches would have liked.

[Sizzlebshu]

1 hour ago, Moderator 3 said:

I think our secondary is too small.  They look like midgets out there. 

you realize the Panthers pass catchers are all 6ft 4 +

[Sizzlebshu]

1 hour ago, redrum52 said:

I said this too.  Wright looked like a boy next to Benjamin.  Would like to get bigger, but nothing we can do now.  Also, I think the team is more focused on building for our toughest comp.

 

[Inqui]

I wasn't able to watch the game (will try to in coming days), but it's encouraging to hear that Stanley in particular did well. He's our shiny prize for having such a woeful season so it's nice to hear he's starting to pay dividends already - be it preseason or otherwise.

The RB battle is the other thing I'm interested in. I'm sure things will start to settle on that front in the coming weeks as well, and I imagine Forsett will look to shake things up soon too.

[sflegend89]

51 minutes ago, terps85 said:

I think Sheldon Price is someone to watch out for in the secondary. Long corner that everyone covets in the NFL nowadays and has been good in the practices I've seen (3 of them) and good tonight. Not sure why more people aren't talking about him. 

I think because we've had our hopes up before with Rashaan Melvin and ended up disappointed. I agree, Price looks promising, we've just had such bad luck at corner lately it's hard to get excited about anyone this early.

Also interested to see Canady when he get's healthy. Got good reviews early on and has ideal size as well.

[Sizzlebshu]

1 hour ago, ravensdfan said:

Limited playing time and some key guys missing, this is understood, but I'm not seeing any improvement in our secondary at this point. In fact, they looked pretty typical for Pees time here.

But, we'll have the best 2nd & 3rd string defense around. Hoping to see some improvement as pre-season rolls on.

Its pre-season and the Panthers ran up tempo no huddle. This is no different than the Eagles game last yr

1 hour ago, Willbacker said:

Games 2 and 3will tell us a lot more.

West is ahead of Allen imo.

Defense needs to disguise their defense a little better. We commit and show our hand a little too early. Need to be able to audible out of it.

This is preseason. You don't show your hand in preseason because it literally doesnt matter. All the plays are virtually vanilla

[Sizzlebshu]

My thoughts:

Stanley looked pretty good for what I saw. He held his own which is all that you can ask/expect at this point and he gave effort on running plays.

The offense did well considering what they were up against and who they were without. Left guard is still a question mark to me though as no one stood out.

The run defense is more concerning to me than the secondary. Yes we were missing Suggs, Jernigan and Williams, but we have the depth to where we should be able to do better replacing these guys. Put simply, Carolina imposed their will on us on that first drive.

Shareece Wright is the corner he has always been and Jimmy Smith is clearly still recovering from all the off season work he had. However, time and the pass rush getting healthy should leave the secondary in respectable shape.

Still Not a fan of Kamalei Correa (just pointing this out)

Edited August 12, 2016 by Sizzlebshu

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

I think the secondary issues are being overstated. 

No BWill, Jernigan, Suggs, or Doom. 4 of our best 5 players in the front 7 were not playing when we went up against their 1's. We weren't going to get much pressure so it was always going to be an uphill battle on the back end. 

Arrington was awful. Other than him I didn't think anyone was glaringly bad. 

Every big play I can remember someone either slipped or was picked. Plus, we weren't scheming anything. 

I guess put it this way - in a similar environment on the other end their secondary struggled to cover Butler, Waller, Brown and company. 

The secondary more than any other position group is at a huge disadvantage in a pre-season game environment... Even more so when your pass rushing talent isn't on the field. 

 

Price looked good. Missed a cpl chances to break up plays but consistently played great technique, was tight on his man and was at least in position to make a play. That PI call on him was BS. Weak call at best, but he was turned and looking at the ball. The minimal contact that occurred is allowed by rule. 

Davis looked good to me. Wright was flat out beat on the TD but otherwise was ok. Young looks very promising.

Levine made a great play on that near interception. Got deep enough in his drop and read the QB perfectly. Invited the throw, just needs to finish. Difference between us stopping them and having a chance to score again and them putting up 3 pts. Those plays win and lose games. 

Correa made one good play I remember. Set the edge well and closed the RBs space to force him to stop and cut into a tackle. 

Henry showed that burst. If he can find some consistency he may be the steal of our draft. My gosh on that one run play, he made their guard look invisible and was at the ball before the handoff.

the backup QB situation looks fine. Obviously if Joe goes down we're screwed, but I think we are better off than probably 2/3's of the league if we need a back up to win a game or close out a lead for a quarter. 

The RBs didn't disappoint. Dixon looks elusive and decisive. Really quick feet and burst. West showed why there's hype. That 2nd TD was beautiful. Buck disappointed me. No vision while running. Looked labored and slow. He was impatient when he need to be patient, and waited too long when he needed to just take the yard or two he was given. Nice catch and run though. 

Unfortunate there may not be spots for Butler and Waller. Though Harbs comments on wanting guys who can get on the field... Not about potential anymore, need guys who can make catches now... That bodes well for these guys. Both made a mistake, Wallers more egregious, but rebounded nicely. Good possession guys. 

Kaelin Clay - don't let the door hit ya. Sorry but any shot you had is gone. Indefensible mistake. 

Chris Carter and Pierce were huge surprises. Both looked at times like the best players on the field. Granted against 3rd string for the most part, but they were the most consistently disruptive defensive players in purple tonight. Could we see one or both sneak their way onto the team?

 

Well I thought tonight would help provide answers about the 53. I've got more questions than I started with. RB and TE look even deeper than I thought (Boyle looks like someone we need to keep, but how?? Can he serve 16 games just so we can keep him?). Liked Butler and Waller but didn't think they had a real shot - that's changed. Brooks, Onwuasor and Levine all made a couple plays and could be in the running for that S/LB role. Carter and Pierce add a question to what I thought were two cemented position groups (pass rush and DLine). Both played like they deserve a spot. Price, Davis, Young and Brown all made cases for a spot on the team and there won't be enough for all of them. 

Even backup QB got a little cloudier. Mallet played well enough but Josh Johnson looked good. It's prob still Mallets job, but should it just be handed to him if Johnson continues to play like that?

The only things I came away feeling sure about are that: Arrington, Hurst, Art Brown and Taliaferro aren't making this team. Stanley can handle the job. We're the deepest at skill positions we've ever been and will cut players capable of playing in the NFL. Can't say I've ever felt that every WR, TE and RB on our roster was an NFL player... Let alone that we would actually cut NFL players at those positions. Maybe opens up a trade possibility somewhere?? Forsett for a corner?

Feeling better now about this team than I did going into the game. Looked like I had hoped they would.... And without arguably our 6-7 best players on the field.