[News] Eisenberg: Don't Get Carried Away With Worry; 3-0 A Wonderful Place To Be

[BR News]

All teams, including all the undefeated teams, have issues to correct. But a perfect 3-0 mark sure beats a ‘2-1 but promising’ record.

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[Fastynart]

At least this year the Ravens have managed to beat the lowly Bills, Jaguars, and Browns. That is something they failed to do last year. But the good news stops there. They will not beat the Bengals, Steelers, Patriots, or Eagles with this offense. While the defense has played respectably, the offense stinks. If anyone thinks we can beat the better teams with field goals, they are sadly mistaken. We have a couple more weeks for the offense to show up, so, while there is hope, it is fading fast. Oh, by the way, Perriman stinks. What a waste of a first round pick. He drops more balls than he catches, just like he did in college. What the heck were the Ravens thinking?

[Ravenshine]

It's not about worry, it's about seeing long term strategy. Mainly, we need to be scoring more TD to continue our winning streak.

To put it in perspective: Ravens thus far 4TDs total...Raiders who we play next week have 10TDs total, NE who we play second half of season and we looovvve to beat 9TDs total...Steelers also we'll play 2X and our div rivals 8TDs total and Giants maybe closest to us in scoring, and we play them later too...even they have more TDs than us @ 6 total.

[markyp599]

The Ravens are also 3-0 against the AFC. Lets make that 4-0 against the Raiders this Sunday

[megalomarc]

Bills : have a 1-2 record against opponents that has a combined record of 5-4 (Close one vs baltimore and jets)
7-13 vs baltimore 3-0
31-37 vs jets 1-2
33-18 vs Arizona (WIN) 1-2

Jaguars have a 0-3 record against opponents that has a combined record of 6-3 (close game against Baltimore and green bay)
23-27 vs green bay 2-1
14-38 vs san diego 1-2
17-19 vs Baltimore 3-0

Browns is 0-3 against opponents that have a combined record of 7-2 (and almost won vs dolphins)
10-29 vs eagles 3-0
20-25 vs Baltimore3-0
24-24 vs dolphins 1-2

If we deny the value of Baltimore based on numbers, we must evaluate the other numbers. It happens that the only big loss by the Browns happened vs the Eagles who are a hot team right now. The Bills gave a beating to the Arizona Cardinals who reached the semi-finals last year and lost vs the Panthers. The Jaguars had two close games versus Baltimore and Green Bay. They lost big vs the Chargers.

How people evaluate if a team is good or not just three weeks into the season is a bit pointless. But the combined numbers and the way they lost tend to show that these 3 teams are not as bad as their records show.

[megalomarc]

I tried to write "[profanity deleted]ached" and they use censor for profanity. LOL they, "who reached" semi-finals...

[RavenLunatic]

I think most Ravens fans agree, the offense is suspect. A playoff/championship caliber team knows how to prepare, execute and adjust. They also show improvement each week. I don't think Trestman is a playoff/championship caliber OC for the NFL. I don't think his offensive schemes pose that much of a threat to opposing defenses and his lack of in-game adjustments further solidify my beliefs. But I will be the first to back him up if he proves me wrong, which I pray every week he does.

[b93333]

Beyond Zuttah, Trestman may just be the main weak link in the offense. I do think he still needs more time to prove himself one way or the other. Time will tell.

[Darryls17]

26 minutes ago, Darryls17 said:

1 hour ago, Fastynart said:

At least this year the Ravens have managed to beat the lowly Bills, Jaguars, and Browns. That is something they failed to do last year. But the good news stops there. They will not beat the Bengals, Steelers, Patriots, or Eagles with this offense. While the defense has played respectably, the offense stinks. If anyone thinks we can beat the better teams with field goals, they are sadly mistaken. We have a couple more weeks for the offense to show up, so, while there is hope, it is fading fast. Oh, by the way, Perriman stinks. What a waste of a first round pick. He drops more balls than he catches, just like he did in college. What the heck were the Ravens thinking?

You must have missed the playoff game from the 09 season when the Colts beat us by kicking 5 field goals in a battle of teams with super bowl caliber defenses. Colts won the Super Bowl that year by the way. Our defense looks stout and if the Broncos Seahawks Superbowl is any indication.......DEFENSE wins championships. Perriman has had a drop or two, but he has also made some great grabs. If this offense plays as explosive as it's capable of, with the defense looking good. We will be hard to beat.

P.S. I'm all the way in on the Kenneth Dixon bandwagon, I think he is going to be great. Not just good, great.

correction ******06 season

Edited September 27, 2016 by Darryls17
corrections

[Moderator 3]

37 minutes ago, megalomarc said:

I tried to write "[profanity deleted]ached" and they use censor for profanity. LOL they, "who reached" semi-finals...

Those typos are rough.

[AvianBrain]

With all the new additions, vets coming back from serious injuries and rookies playing on this team, I believe it will take some time for them to find their identity. I would not be surprised if we see a "different" team the second half of the season. Then again, it would not surprise me if the whole season follows the pattern of the first three. Heart palpitations aside, at 3-0 I cannot complain!

[A Fish Called Yanda]

So far it simply comes down to not being able to execute properly on offense. We have managed to scrape up 3 wins in games that we could have very easily lost simply because of errors by our offensive players. There have been dropped balls, poor passes, and a terrible run game (caused both by the blockers and RBs). The good thing is all of these items are fixable - and hopefully our team continues to gel through this "easy" stretch of the schedule in order to increase our ability to execute properly.

My main worry right now isn't even with the offense - it's the lack of pass rush we are getting against opponents that don't exactly have stellar offensive lines. We have gotten lucky on defense with our opponents committing the same sort of execution errors that we've seen from our own offense. Numerous receivers were wide open on Sunday against the Jags but Bortles simply overthrew the ball on a couple of passes that would have gained significant yardage. I'm worried that when we play against better QBs (the first coming up this Sunday), we will not be able to rely on our opponents bailing us out with mistakes like this, and at the end of 60 minutes we may not be able to claw ourselves another win like we've done so far this season.

[FloridalovesRavens]

I'll take these kinds of wins all season long. Scoring more points is the name of the game. There isn't any rule that says you must have lots of TDs to win. Just score more points then your rival.

[reed20fence]

Nobody knows what the heck is going on in truth. It's a fun time killer to prognosticate. Even the coaches don't truly know for 100% certainty how to fix the anemic offense. It's not for lack of willingness to take shots on chunk plays. We've got the talent and will. Sometimes the plays just click and other times they don't. That's life. People don't like to acknowledge that any endeavor involving human error can have widely random outcomes.

Recall how Ray Lewis remembered that Denver game in 2012 where we got blown out and then next week every play was made against the Giants. He said "one game all the mistakes happen, the next week every tackle was made, every pass was caught, every play made - that's just sports, you move on that quickly."

[ellicottraven]

Let's go 4-0 this week and then we'll only have 12 weeks of fretting and fuming left!

[TheSim]

1 hour ago, A Fish Called Yanda said:

So far it simply comes down to not being able to execute properly on offense. We have managed to scrape up 3 wins in games that we could have very easily lost simply because of errors by our offensive players. There have been dropped balls, poor passes, and a terrible run game (caused both by the blockers and RBs). The good thing is all of these items are fixable - and hopefully our team continues to gel through this "easy" stretch of the schedule in order to increase our ability to execute properly.

My main worry right now isn't even with the offense - it's the lack of pass rush we are getting against opponents that don't exactly have stellar offensive lines. We have gotten lucky on defense with our opponents committing the same sort of execution errors that we've seen from our own offense. Numerous receivers were wide open on Sunday against the Jags but Bortles simply overthrew the ball on a couple of passes that would have gained significant yardage. I'm worried that when we play against better QBs (the first coming up this Sunday), we will not be able to rely on our opponents bailing us out with mistakes like this, and at the end of 60 minutes we may not be able to claw ourselves another win like we've done so far this season.

But those problems aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. When your offense struggles, especially against a team like the Jags who are LOADED with speed at the wideout and TE positions, your defense has to play more snaps, and it's more likely that your DBs get overworked chasing after thinner, faster guys. And so people get open. So if the offense can get even a mediocre run game going, I think we start to see our DBs having less trouble keeping up over the course of the games.

Also, it's worth mentioning that every QB, not just Blake Bortles, has trouble with accuracy beyond 20 yards. Even Joe, who everyone always says has the best deep arm in football, frequently struggles to hit wide open receivers way downfield, because it's just that hard to do, even at the highest level of football. That doesn't mean that you should make a habit of leaving guys open, but it means that the chances of a team regularly beating you that way are small compared to other potential weaknesses, like a porous run D or not being able to keep up with TEs/slots on crossing routes.

[ravens4life86]

I would like to point out, I was on RSR and another fan who has All 22 pointed out Trestman not running the ball with any traditional formations I formations,under center, with lead Fullback etc. Then the 15 yrd gainer West got was with a lead Fullback. However Trestman never used it again.
Hey Trestman. Get out of your stupid ways.. we here in Baltimore Run The Ball!!! With Lead FBs from under Center,

Not these stupid sweeps,tosses, chip kelly Oregon type plays when you need a 4.0 Darren Sproles type scatback.
No use the FB...to punch Lbrs in the mouth and help your RBs out by creating holes.
Harbs its on you, force Trestmans hand

[ravens4life86]

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

[A Fish Called Yanda]

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

The ZBS we used to run has effectively been banned by the NFL when they decided to make cut blocking illegal. We can't go back to the way we used to do it, whether we like it or not.

[Minionhunter]

  2 hours ago, ravens4life86 said:

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

The ZBS we used to run has effectively been banned by the NFL when they decided to make cut blocking illegal. We can't go back to the way we used to do it, whether we like it or not.

Cut blocking is not illegal, chop blocking is illegal. Watch Denver, Kubiak still does cut blocking in the zbs.

[A Fish Called Yanda]

  1 hour ago, A Fish Called Yanda said:

  3 hours ago, ravens4life86 said:

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

The ZBS we used to run has effectively been banned by the NFL when they decided to make cut blocking illegal. We can't go back to the way we used to do it, whether we like it or not.

Cut blocking is not illegal, chop blocking is illegal. Watch Denver, Kubiak still does cut blocking in the zbs.

Oops - yes sorry I meant the banning of chop blocking on run plays, not cut blocking.

[TheConquerorWorm]

I would like to point out, I was on RSR and another fan who has All 22 pointed out Trestman not running the ball with any traditional formations I formations,under center, with lead Fullback etc. Then the 15 yrd gainer West got was with a lead Fullback. However Trestman never used it again.
Hey Trestman. Get out of your stupid ways.. we here in Baltimore Run The Ball!!! With Lead FBs from under Center,

Not these stupid sweeps,tosses, chip kelly Oregon type plays when you need a 4.0 Darren Sproles type scatback.
No use the FB...to punch Lbrs in the mouth and help your RBs out by creating holes.
Harbs its on you, force Trestmans hand

Juice got 19 snaps on offense last week - 28% of all offensive snaps. Not exactly "used it once, never again" as you would claim....

[terpmaniac]

At least this year the Ravens have managed to beat the lowly Bills, Jaguars, and Browns. That is something they failed to do last year. But the good news stops there. They will not beat the Bengals, Steelers, Patriots, or Eagles with this offense. While the defense has played respectably, the offense stinks. If anyone thinks we can beat the better teams with field goals, they are sadly mistaken. We have a couple more weeks for the offense to show up, so, while there is hope, it is fading fast. Oh, by the way, Perriman stinks. What a waste of a first round pick. He drops more balls than he catches, just like he did in college. What the heck were the Ravens thinking?

We're 3-0 and you are pissed! I can only imagine what you would say if we were 0-3. Go route for the Steelers, Please.

[TheConquerorWorm]

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

Oregon runs a hybrid ZBS - the same as Gary Kubiak.

The I formation with 2 TE, FB and student body left run plays hasn't worked in decades.

What's wrong with the run game is not the OC, it's the personnel. West & Forsett are plodders, period. Zuttah & Yanda have played mediocre and while the 2 rookies have been solid - they are still rookies.

Some just can't be happy with 3-0.

[Obie]

Analysis mezzalysis, (???) just win baby, this is the NFL, 1 point is the same as 30.

[RavenSwag]

Be happy people we're 3-0. A lot of other teams would love to have our record no matter how they win.. a win is a win. Yes we would love to see them put up points and blow some teams out but that's not the Ravens. Every game has to be a nail biter(which drives me crazy) but they win ugly which works for them. Maybe we can put up a 40 burger on Oakland.

[Militant X 1]

Great article! I'll admit, I'm one that pays attention to the "how" our boys have and are playing to get to where they are. I want them to do well and look good while doing it. And yet, I'm grateful for the 3-0 start and this article has helped me to put things into a different perspective.

Now, let's get out there and beat down the Raiders on Sunday. I'll be there!

GO RAVENS!!

[Ravenshine]

Analysis mezzalysis, (???) just win baby, this is the NFL, 1 point is the same as 30.

Not really...because in this NFL players are evaluated on their performance and their pay is based ...on their performances (stats). As are coaches. So while winning by 1 point is definitely good simply because it's a win...game after game the whole idea is to rack up TDs by the QB connecting with RBs and Receivers. Players want this. AND they want to win regardless. But getting LOTS of points scored helps the team and the individual players develop their resume AS players (hence how their value and pay as an offensive player is determined) and also, it's the only way to win consistently playing all 16 games. So yeah...they'd rather have 30 points than 1... There's a huge difference to them personally and it's what they practice for week after week.

[slowboater]

I also hear.. key players like Yanda are not to happy with Trestmans blocking scheme and are pushing back. They want the old scheme back. And to that I say good. You dont take a All Pro G and all of a sudden start running Oregon style run game, tosses,sweeps, bs.. No.. you go with whats worked for decades&what worked with kubiak..Put a Fullback in the game.. put a RB in the game.. 2 TEs and run the ball from under center, or shotgun

And when your significant other cooks a "marginal" meal, what do you say? "You screwed it up. Too high an over temperature, too much salt, lacks taste..." Some people are never happy I guess.