Week 1: The good the bad and the ugly vs Buffalo

[rmcjacket23]

29 minutes ago, Inqui said:

It's not uncommon to see a defensive slugfest in the first week as both sides start to find themselves offensively - and Watkins will have dealt with his own early-season jitters from that foot injury and little preseason action himself - but the Bills' offence is still a talented unit and it's worth noting that Pees called a fantastic game and regularly made the right in-game adjustments once the Bills started making headway. We would have held them to 0 had McClellan not fallen off Tyrod. I don't think they'll be this dominant every week, but there's still plenty to be excited about at this early stage.

Toughest part about a game like this, and I was going to post a question like this prior to the game.

The truth is... will we really know anything about how GOOD this team is until at least week 3?

If we beat Buffalo at home... isn't that sort of the minimum standard for even an 8-8 team? If we beat Cleveland on the road (who looked even worse than I thought they would today)... isn't that sort of the minimum standard for even an 8-8 team?

I mean I seriously doubt we would look back at our team at the end of the season and classify beating the Bills at home as a "solid win". At best, they're likely a mediocre, 7-8 win team. In all honesty, I think they'll be one of the worst teams in the AFC when its all said and done.

So I think its going to take us until nearly October to really know if this team is even remotely playoff-caliber.

[BmoreBird22]

4 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

I left a few posts in their prediction forum. I'm not typically into that sort of thing, but I started hitting the sauce a little earlier than usual today.

I'd do it if I weren't on mobile

[Davesta]

The Good: our defense

The Bad: our o-line 

The Ugly: our run game 

[BmoreBird22]

The Ravens were at about a 60-40 pass-run play selection, so that's not out of normal (excluding kneel downs). The bigger issue for me came from the lack of success up the middle and the continuing effort to try it.

[Sami84]

Za;Darius needs to improve. He looks very stiff. Judon always seems to be breathing down the QB..and he knows how to hit..his form/hit power is elite

[Sami84]

Just now, BmoreBird22 said:

The Ravens were at about a 60-40 pass-run play selection, so that's not out of normal (excluding kneel downs). The bigger issue for me came from the lack of success up the middle and the continuing effort to try it.

 

jensen is a mauler..better than zuttah IMHO.

btw skura looked really good in pre season..just saying.

[HoldingCall]

The Good: Buffalo drew a lot of penalties. Buffalo scored just 7 pts. Jernigan, Wright, Weddle, etc. No major injures.  
The Bad: Team only scored 13 pts. Weaker than expected run game. Too many sacks and pressure on Joe. 
 

[edthehead]

ok, 

I love the win

good; all skilled positions,WR'S , RB's TE's Mr. Flacco (I think he still recovering maybe mentally) and the defense (they saved us)

bad; some play calling (2nd half) offense not producing with that many weapons it should be no excuse

but we do need time to gel 

ugly; has to be zuttah didn't get what he was doing

 

[Sami84]

oh michael pierce was pretty damn good too from what i saw. 

[Jekkutin]

I honestly don't understand all the "run the ball more" talk, especially up the middle the run game was god awful... I think it would be easier for Marc to run the ball more if we could execute it better..

[LosT_in_TranSlatioN]

3 minutes ago, Sami84 said:

Za;Darius needs to improve. He looks very stiff. Judon always seems to be breathing down the QB..and he knows how to hit..his form/hit power is elite

Judon is a future starter in my eyes and has the perfect mentors in Suggs and Dumervil. ZDS had a few good moments but is also coming back from injury. He needs to shake off the rust. 

[rmcjacket23]

7 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

I'd do it if I weren't on mobile

Don't bother. Their mods appear to be rather quick. They had removed my posts within minutes and sent me several warnings. I don't think they appreciated me individually calling out people who had the worst predictions.

 

[Greatness]

The Good: Joe Flacco

The Bad: Conservative Trestman

The Ugly: No Pressure Pees and that young, fraudulent 3-man rush (overall the defense played well, but I'm still not a fan of Pees or his scheme. Pass)

[Sami84]

1 minute ago, Greatness said:

The Good: Joe Flacco

The Bad: Conservative Trestman

The Ugly: No Pressure Pees and that young, fraudulent 3-man rush (overall the defense played well, but I'm still not a fan of Pees or his scheme. Pass)

 

flacco wasnt particularly good. He needs to show a bit more courage and leave the pocket. Seemed to lack a LOT of confidence. He needs to move those legs and stop throwing flat footed.

[rmcjacket23]

1 minute ago, Sami84 said:

flacco wasnt particularly good. He needs to show a bit more courage and leave the pocket. Seemed to lack a LOT of confidence. He needs to move those legs and stop throwing flat footed.

Was a tale of two halves. First half I think he was outstanding, pretty much doing whatever he wanted. Second half they got a lot more interior pressure, and it really got to him.

[A Fish Called Yanda]

I wonder how the banning of the chop block is affecting our run game.  We've relied heavily on that for a long long time.

[arnie_uk]

16 minutes ago, BmoreBird22 said:

The Ravens were at about a 60-40 pass-run play selection, so that's not out of normal (excluding kneel downs). The bigger issue for me came from the lack of success up the middle and the continuing effort to try it.

If you were to get a qtr by ayr breakdown I'd say the 3rd qtr was about 90 10 pass heavy though.

[Militant X 1]

15 minutes ago, edthehead said:

ok, 

I love the win

good; all skilled positions,WR'S , RB's TE's Mr. Flacco (I think he still recovering maybe mentally) and the defense (they saved us)

bad; some play calling (2nd half) offense not producing with that many weapons it should be no excuse

but we do need time to gel 

ugly; has to be zuttah didn't get what he was doing

 

But there will be...count on it!

[allblackraven]

Why were we charged a TO on that Forsett's play? Challenge was for a bad spot and the spot was adjusted.

[JoeyFlex5]

Good: jernigan was an absolute world beater. Perriman showed that big play potential. Pitta is back. West ran like a man possessed, forsett seems to keep getting better with age. Stanley gave up very little pressure. Judon brings the heat. Mosley looks like he's back to form. Webble looks like a damn good safety tandem. Shareece wright looks like The best db on the field.

Bad: zadarius Smith sprinted right out of the pocket on every pass rush snap and he was worthless. Jimmy getting knicked up. No targets for maxx. Wagner gave up some pressures. Flacco seems to have lost some of his pocket awareness and mobility. We cannot finish when We have big plays in front of us.

Ugly: zuttah was killing drives consistently. Pre snap penalties. And for the love of god, trestman, understand the offense you're working with and how to defeat a game plan. Our offense can blow the top off of any secondary in the league, and even worse they are DARING you to throw deep by sitting on everything short, yet you play into their game plan and play against our strengths, they're sitting on it short, so they are gonna get caught flat footed often, call some freaking double cuts and go downfield. Every time we threw past 10 yards we marched down the field. And pees, 3 man rushes don't work, the blitz was highly effective, go with the flow. Our coordinators overthing themselves way too much.

[RavensFan34950]

6 minutes ago, A Fish Called Yanda said:

I wonder how the banning of the chop block is affecting our run game.  We've relied heavily on that for a long long time.

That's a good point. Didn't see many stretch runs .

[757RavensFan]

Jeff Zrebiec ‏@jeffzrebiecsun  41m41 minutes ago

Ravens' players raved about Dean Pees' game plan, and communication level on the field before plays and on the sideline.

 

Jeff Zrebiec ‏@jeffzrebiecsun  38m38 minutes ago

Ravens felt they got way too predictable last year on defense. Tyrod Taylor one of several Bills to say Ravens did things they hadn't seen

 

[mc_red23]

1 minute ago, allblackraven said:

Why were we charged a TO on that Forsett's play? Challenge was for a bad spot and the spot was adjusted.

I think it's because it didn't result in a first down.

[jimmypowder]

18 minutes ago, Sami84 said:

flacco wasnt particularly good. He needs to show a bit more courage and leave the pocket. Seemed to lack a LOT of confidence. He needs to move those legs and stop throwing flat footed.

100 QB Rating 

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

25 minutes ago, LosT_in_TranSlatioN said:

Mili when you have a rookie LT, and LG it suddenly becomes a lot harder lol. Add in a Rex Ryan defense, a QB who was clearly hesitant to play like he normally does, with new blood at WR. We had a damn good day on offense, especially the first half. 

 

Give the offense time to mesh. There's a lot more potential than last year and we flashed..

 

But seriously Trestman.... RUN THE DAMN BALL

Yea... Agree completely. Condemning the offense to a year of mediocrity after one game is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

We can't rush to judgement bc of one bad half in the first game where 80% or more of the main contributors on offense were rookies, new FA additions, or returning from serious injuries. 

There were flashes of what this group can do. And the first half they moved the ball very well. If not for some mistakes and penalties they probably would've blown the game open early. 

They need to clean it up, be more consistent, and improve quite a few things but there's enough of a foundation there to be excited about. 

 

And similarly I wouldn't get ahead of myself with the defense. Great performance overall and clearly weren't even at their best. Doom should help that pass rush and we need to be more disciplined on the edges. Definitely exciting but I'm not going to expect near shut out preformces each week. The Bills were not at their best and out of sync. 

But this is a good football team with the upside of being very very good. 

[ludy51]

Glad to shut those Bills fans up

[Sami84]

5 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Yea... Agree completely. Condemning the offense to a year of mediocrity after one game is a little ridiculous in my opinion.

We can't rush to judgement bc of one bad half in the first game where 80% or more of the main contributors on offense were rookies, new FA additions, or returning from serious injuries. 

There were flashes of what this group can do. And the first half they moved the ball very well. If not for some mistakes and penalties they probably would've blown the game open early. 

They need to clean it up, be more consistent, and improve quite a few things but there's enough of a foundation there to be excited about. 

 

And similarly I wouldn't get ahead of myself with the defense. Great performance overall and clearly weren't even at their best. Doom should help that pass rush and we need to be more disciplined on the edges. Definitely exciting but I'm not going to expect near shut out preformces each week. The Bills were not at their best and out of sync. 

But this is a good football team with the upside of being very very good. 

 

im worried about the protection.. remember they were without dareus too.

[respecttheRaven]

Can I also add "surprising"??!! It was very surprising to see 2 penalties called against Yanda.  Zuttah....not the first time he has botched a snap. Overall, offense showed some promise...just need to clean up some things. They WILL get better!!! Defense; Wow.....they are going to be a force to reckon with. J.Smith needs to step his game up! Did anyone else notice that T.Taylor stopped throwing to S.Wright's side and started passing to Smith's side.....seemed to be a step behind everyone. His last play was good though! I am excited for this team!!!  

[ALSKAN RAVEN FAN]

Liked seeing Perriman and Wallace get hook-up from Flacco. Good to see all the guys come back healthy from last year...GO RAVENS!!!

[Sami84]

perriman from what i've seen in the past 2 games needs to work on his slant catches..