Wins are Wins, but against 31st and 32nd Ranked Teams

[letitgosometimes]

Let’s not crow about two wins to start off the 2016 season for the Ravens.  However, let’s put these wins in proper perspective – they were against the two lowest ranked NFL teams according to USA Today’s recent ranking.  Moreover, the Ravens play the 29^th ranked team, the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend. The Jaguars will prove to be competitive, but not tier-one.  The Ravens first eight games, short of the Giants and Jets, and Raiders, are more like preseason games.  That is not all together a bad thing.  The Ravens are clearly working on execution of offensive plays and new defensive sets.  They are experimenting with defensive man-to-man and zone-like coverage, while carefully grooming the offensive line for various run and pass play formations.  Joe is trying new things, too.  He is holding the ball long enough to launch the long pass and short enough to fire the quick pass.  The Ravens are taking advantage of their relatively light schedule, but are not discounting any of their opponents.   The Ravens are taking care of business in a tightly controlled manner that will pay dividends during their second eight games.

[Sami84]

true..

 

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

43 minutes ago, letitgosometimes said:

Let’s not crow about two wins to start off the 2016 season for the Ravens.  However, let’s put these wins in proper perspective – they were against the two lowest ranked NFL teams according to USA Today’s recent ranking.  Moreover, the Ravens play the 29^th ranked team, the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend. The Jaguars will prove to be competitive, but not tier-one.  The Ravens first eight games, short of the Giants and Jets, and Raiders, are more like preseason games.  That is not all together a bad thing.  The Ravens are clearly working on execution of offensive plays and new defensive sets.  They are experimenting with defensive man-to-man and zone-like coverage, while carefully grooming the offensive line for various run and pass play formations.  Joe is trying new things, too.  He is holding the ball long enough to launch the long pass and short enough to fire the quick pass.  The Ravens are taking advantage of their relatively light schedule, but are not discounting any of their opponents.   The Ravens are taking care of business in a tightly controlled manner that will pay dividends during their second eight games.

You ignore one distinct possibility. 

Those teams are ranked so low bc they played us. Our D shut them completely out for 7/8 quarters and our offense did what it wanted when it needed to. 

We made them look perhaps worse than they really are  

I can can tell you right now the Bills will not be the 31st team when all is said and done. 

The Eagles were expected to be bad. We were not highly thought of and the Jets are the Jets... perennially a mid tier team. With those expectations of the Bills and Browns opponents it looks worse than it is. 

Theyre both 0-2 and lost to two teams that no one really anticipated being very good. So of course they put them near the bottom  reality is both lost to two good clubs.

The Eagles are much better than expected. The Jets have an explosive offense and a scary front 7. And we might be one of the most well balanced and deep teams in the NFL. 

Both the Browns and Bills will give several good teams a tough game. 

 

Plus, when did USA Today become known for their football analysis??

A win is a win. Especially when your D plays shutout football for 7/8 quarters and your offense which has 9 rookie, 1st year or returning injured starters has shown the ability to make explosive plays and score whenever it has needed to. 

 

Plus weekly power rankings are a joke. Green Bay was a consensus top 5ish team coming into the season and after week 1 and the Jags gave them all they could handle. But because they laid an egg versus a bad but streaky Chargers team they're suddenly a bottom 4 team?

Every team is finding their identity right now. The landscape right now likely won't resemble the playoff picture at all. The one thing that will is that the teams finding ways to win ugly right now will still be doing it later when they hit their groove and start winning with style points too. 

That's us. We're winning even when game flow dictated we shouldn't have. When things click we'll roll. 

Edited September 21, 2016 by BOLDnPurPnBlacK

[Passepartout]

And yeah it may be ugly wins. But a win is a win. But we are nearly three seasons in 2016!

[flynismo]

I wonder why those teams rank so low...perhaps because we beat them up?

[AsianRice]

Not sure why fans complain even when we win; I mean the most important goal is to get to the post season, so it doesn't matter how ugly we win, it is the result of the win, the January ticket......

Lots of team got all the cylinders clicked so early, and as a result they end up wearing out in the end, losing game that they're supposed to win. 

Once December comes, our cylinders will all click and we'll roll in the January to February.....

Of course, we have lots of wrinkles to iron out, and as season progresses, we will get better.

[Maryland]

Win's a win. I'd take a cake-walk to the postseason like the Pats get every year while happily ignoring everyone crying about SOS and being unproven. Fact is, all you can do is beat the teams you're given. Do it enough times and you'll make the postseason. It's a different sport, but the Spurs just won a championship a couple years ago after beating a bunch of bad teams and losing to the "contenders" during the regular season. Point being, all you need to do is get to the postseason--from there, anything can happen. If getting to the postseason means beating a dozen sub-500 teams while losing to the contenders, so be it. 

[VermontRaven]

7 hours ago, Maryland said:

Win's a win. I'd take a cake-walk to the postseason like the Pats get every year while happily ignoring everyone crying about SOS and being unproven. Fact is, all you can do is beat the teams you're given. Do it enough times and you'll make the postseason. It's a different sport, but the Spurs just won a championship a couple years ago after beating a bunch of bad teams and losing to the "contenders" during the regular season. Point being, all you need to do is get to the postseason--from there, anything can happen. If getting to the postseason means beating a dozen sub-500 teams while losing to the contenders, so be it. 

Amen to that.  This isn't college football where style points matter to get into the postseason.  As Harbaugh has said before, it's all about getting into "the tournament" and playing well when you get there.  Do we look like a serious contender right now?  No, but championships are won in January and February, so we have a while to get better and become contenders.  So, if we look ugly and get W's, you won't see me complaining. Keep playing hard, find ways to get W's to make the tournament, then game on in January and February!  GO RAVENS!

[January J]

We can't control our opponents- all we can do is beat them...which we have done. 6-0 including preseason. Yes the front half of our schedule looks much friendlier- but what better way to work out all the kinks and get some steam heading into December. As long as we take care of business and finish with a W the rest will take care of itself. I like how we're flying under the radar...easier to creep up on teams and pop em in the mouth.

[Bruce_Almty]

Not the Ravens fault the comp they have faced so far this season is worse than they. Their chance to show their stuff is coming soon enough.

[AsianRice]

Another common thing about any sport is that people will talk about the winner rather than a fancy popular loser, so doesn't matter how you want to twist it, all people care is who win the match....

 

[rmcjacket23]

I hate to break it to you, but it will probably be about week 6 (or possibly later) before we can say that we definitively beat a "good" team.

The jury is still very much out on Jacksonville, Oakland, and definitely the Redskins, who don't look like a good team at all.

We could be 5-0 and still asking "are we any good". But at the end of the day, the schedule is what it is. 

But in general, I sort of agree. We keep complaining about a "lack of respect" our team gets, and its not going to get a shred of it by beating Buffalo at home and Cleveland on the road (especially when you're down 20). 

When we beat Pittsburgh, we'll get respect. We're probably not getting it by beating Jacksonville or Oakland either. 

But one thing can't be ignored... you're not getting any respect at all if you're losing to teams like Cleveland, regardless of whether you beat Pittsburgh or not. Teams that are respected usually (not always) handle their business against inferior teams, and that's what we need to keep doing.

Edited September 21, 2016 by rmcjacket23

[757RavensFan]

IF we win vs the Jags, its quite possible that our first three opponents could be a collective 0-9. Ask me if I care.  I'll take 3-0 to open any and every season.  

[letitgosometimes]

The Ravens are noticeably not taking teams lightly.  Playing football between the left tackle and right tackle is the way to attack Jacksonville.  The pass is an option all day, but the Ravens would be smarter to work on the power running game to improve sync with blocking assignments by interior linemen.  Expect the running game to set up the passing game.   Joe will successfully deploy an array of aerial attacks: short darts, screens, and fast fly patterns. Bottom line: the Ravens must find a way to get the lead early and to keep hold of the momentum on both sides of the football the entire game.   

[The Raven]

Rankings don't mean crap until at least eight games in.

You think two games is a good sample size? Lmao.

Edited September 22, 2016 by The Raven

[PurpleCity5]

I'm more concerned about beating weak teams than playing them honestly. 

[PurpleCity5]

To also add, It's actually good for us to play weak teams first. This offense and defense are still taking their time to gel, build and get their guys back. The offense is still a work in progress and by the time we reach week 6, the Steelers, we'll have an offense that has reached its prime and could be top 10. Same with the defense. I see Za'darius coming along soon, same with Smith and Doom will only make this team better. We're getting adjusted on growing on both sides of the ball against weak teams, by the time we play those good to great teams, we'll have a team that will have reached its peak. 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by PurpleCity5

[VermontRaven]

8 hours ago, PurpleCity5 said:

To also add, It's actually good for us to play weak teams first. This offense and defense are still taking their time to gel, build and get their guys back. The offense is still a work in progress and by the time we reach week 6, the Steelers, we'll have an offense that has reached its prime and could be top 10. Same with the defense. I see Za'darius coming along soon, same with Smith and Doom will only make this team better. We're getting adjusted on growing on both sides of the ball against weak teams, by the time we play those good to great teams, we'll have a team that will have reached its peak. 

 

 

The first time we play the Steelers is Week 9.

Wk 3 -@ Jacksonville

Wk 4- home vs. Oakland

Wk 5 -home vs. Washington

Wk 6- @ NY Giants

Wk 7 -@ NY Jets

Wk 8 -BYE

Wk 9 -home vs. Steelers

Wk 10 -home vs. Browns

Wk 11 - @ Dallas

Wk 12 -home vs. Bengals

Wk 13 -home vs. Miami

Wk 14 -@ New England

Wk 15 -home vs. Philadelphia

Wk 16 -@ Steelers

Wk 17 - @ Bengals

[ERey]

You play the teams that are on the schedule. The Ravens went 5-11 and lost these games a year ago. Last year's team never would have recovered from 20-0 in the first quarter in Cleveland. 2-0 is a great start. Hopefully they return home 3-0 with a chance to match the franchise's best start ever. I don't believe in ugly wins, there's just win or lose.

[cobrajet]

You have to put things into perspective. USA Today talked about the Browns now having to go forward with third string QB Kessler, so maybe they are ranked 32 because they do not have McCown. The Bills scored 31 points on the Jets, 24 points more than they did against us and I believe were up on the Jets late, but they gave up 37. Is it possible that their offense just had a bad day week one and their defense just had a bad day week two and they may not be as bad as the rankings show?

I said this before in other posts, but I will say it again. The Ravens had to go on the road to play the Browns last week just as they heard the news that CB just lost his battle with cancer. They had little time to digest that news and grieve their loss when that game started. On the flip side, the Browns played Ravens at home  on a game they had circled in red on their calendar. This is the game Cleveland fans want their team to win and their players know how important beating us is to their fans. IMHO, McCown should have been the starter over RG3 all along. He is a big strong armed Quarterback, who is not afraid to stay in the pocket and make tough very accurate throws. So what does this mean for me?

Well, the Browns started that game pretty healthy and came out pumped in front of their home crowd to play the hated Ravens. We came out with guys probably saying, "we need to win this one for CB," who they had no had time to properly grieve and puts a lot of pressure on the team. You can kind of understand how the Browns started off so hot and we needed to snap out of our funk. When we woke up after the the first quarter, the defense put the smack down on them and shut them down. On offense we scored on 5 of our last 7 possessions and it would have been 6 of our last 7, if we would have sent out Tucker instead of going for it on 4th and 2 (IMHO, a bad decision by Harbaugh). We may have blown out the Browns, if they started the game with RG3 or Kessler, but they started with a healthy experienced big strong armed quarterback, that showed a lot of heart in that game. BTW, we won that game with all the factors I pointed out, that do not show up in a box score.

[berad]

These are games the 2015 Ravens would have lost. Even in our best years, we have won some squeakers. As they say, they don't grade them, they just count them up at the end.

[jboy19]

I'm happy with where the team is at right now. They did to an extent luck out with some easy early matchups, but considering how many players are coming off injuries, how many new players are in new roles, and a lack of offseason practice for Joe to get chemistry with the receivers, I expect these to be problems that get better as the season goes.

I know many people think the OL is a big mess, but I think that once Zuttah and Lewis can settle in a little more, things will get better. Kyle Williams and Danny Shelton are tough match ups for Zuttah coming off of injury. Roy Miller (who might not be playing this week, i don't really follow Jags injury reports well enough to know) is going to be a much easier matchup for Zuttah. I think we should focusing on the things that have gone well so far- Orr seems to have helped avoid a drop off from Daryl Smith, Stanley hasn't allowed a sack, Shareece Wright has been more good than bad, the Weddle/Wallace signings have worked out, Perriman exists, there's more depth at OLB and CB, etc.. 

I had lower expectations for this season, I wasn't expecting to blow anybody out right out of the gate. So I still think we are in a good place of finding ways to win close games instead of losing them. The cliche is that that's how championship teams are made. 

[PurpleCity5]

2 hours ago, VermontRaven said:

The first time we play the Steelers is Week 9.

Wk 3 -@ Jacksonville

Wk 4- home vs. Oakland

Wk 5 -home vs. Washington

Wk 6- @ NY Giants

Wk 7 -@ NY Jets

Wk 8 -BYE

Wk 9 -home vs. Steelers

Wk 10 -home vs. Browns

Wk 11 - @ Dallas

Wk 12 -home vs. Bengals

Wk 13 -home vs. Miami

Wk 14 -@ New England

Wk 15 -home vs. Philadelphia

Wk 16 -@ Steelers

Wk 17 - @ Bengals

Oops. my bad, well the Giants are a formidable opponent. 

[gtalk12]

here we go smh 

[gtalk12]

33 minutes ago, PurpleCity5 said:

Oops. my bad, well the Giants are a formidable opponent. 

schedule gets alittle rough towards the end

[Ravens4Real]

Week 9 on is such a brutal stretch, outside of the Browns. The Ravens need all the wins they can get before then. Could easily lose the last 4 games with how the Eagles have started.

[trevorsteadman]

People were hyping the Bills again saying they were a play off team. The Browns have a good offense they have a great tight end and they have one of the best group of receivers. If Hawkins is your #4 receiver you are doing something right. Gordon, Coleman, and Pryor are all solid options and if Cleveland gets one of the stud running backs in the draft it doesn't matter who their QB is. Their o-line has been great for a long time. Yes their defense is patchwork but I think these teams are better than 31 and 31 respectively.

[FlocksGottaFeed]

When it comes down to who wins or loses is what defines a 'weak team' 2 games into the season, what is the standard? Before the season began many prognosticators had it like this in the rankings:

• 14th Bills
• 17th Jags
• 23rd Ravens
• 32th Browns

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000682013/article/nfl-preseason-power-rankings-jets-blast-off-steelers-plunge

Because we beat 2 teams ranked above and below us doesn't necessarily mean the teams were weak or strong. It simply means that they were wrong about us before the games were played (ranking us so low) and could be just as wrong about the Bills and Browns until they get to play the teams (so-called) stronger than them. That's why we play the game.

[usmccharles]

You can only play the teams on your schedule. We are one of 8 teams that are 2-0, ill take it. 

[elemento]

Last season we lost against a bunch of Crap teams in close games and beat the Steelers twice, even playing with several backups, including the QB.