[News] Late For Work 10/26: Terrell Suggs & Ben Roethlisberger Determined To Battle Each Other

[BR News]

Best sight of Tuesday's practice: healthy offensive line. There are no great NFL teams this year. Ravens nearing bottom of power rankings.

View the full article

[Dorota]

Bye week couldn't have come at a better time. I hope by the time we play the Steelers, Mosley will be back too and Stanley, Yanda will be back to full strength and the OL will have time to gel.

[whobilly]

Good that Suggs will be back. On the other hand reality is that we will more than likely need to go 10-6 to have a shot at the playoffs. No way are we going 7-2 over the remaining nine games. To many roster fillers, not nearly enough impact players.

[drillem]

Interesting the article give the O line the credit for win/not win. Just why then did Harbs fire Trestman mid-season if it was the O line? Makes the HC look suspect if anyone cares to think about it. Joe has had more OC's than a barrel of monkeys in his career. Some stability at that position might help. Its got to be difficult on him to be in a constant state of adjustment.

In the battle of the titans (Suggs vs Roethlisberger), I can see these 2 going at it in wheelchairs somewhere in the distant future. The rivalry between Ravens & Steelers which is legendary has this sub-rivalry which is a game inside of a game between these two. Ironic they are both coming off injuries for this year's first contest. It should be interesting.

[drillem]

As far as the part of the article that deals with parity, it seems there is much less loyalty to 'team' as players come and go due to salary cap issues. Its all very predictable stuff. And with so many teams "flawed" as stated, it begs the question are there enough quality players coming out of the draft and undrafted free agents to fill the ranks of this many teams? And if not then this parity thing has highlighted that fact. Some teams are spread so thin on talent that any injuries turn them into sub-par immediately. It's a lot less gratifying to watch each week, teams that are just average. Maybe that's one of the reasons viewer ratings are down.

[gr2522]

WOW "a solid, healthy, functioning offensive line can work wonders". What about the other factors which have plagued the team all season long such as:

1. Poor coaching
2. Inconsistent play from Flacco
3. Special Teams missed tackles on kick coverage
4. Lack of a pass rush
5. Secondary missing tackles
6. Dropped passes
7. Inability of receivers to gain separation
8. Lack of Playmakers
9. Overabundance of penaltys
10. Offensive line's inability to block

Some issues have been corrected, yet new ones have surfaced. All this chaos
must have a starting point. In my opinion it starts with the HC and his coaching staff. Any opinions?

[gr2522]

WOW "a solid, healthy, functioning offensive line can work wonders". What about the other factors which have plagued the team all season long such as:

1. Poor coaching
2. Inconsistent play from Flacco
3. Special Teams missed tackles on kick coverage
4. Lack of a pass rush
5. Secondary missing tackles
6. Dropped passes
7. Inability of receivers to gain separation
8. Lack of Playmakers
9. Overabundance of penaltys
10. Offensive line's inability to block

Some issues have been corrected, yet new ones have surfaced. All this chaos
must have a starting point. In my opinion it starts with the HC and his coaching staff. Any opinions?

I hope these issues are corrected over the bye week.

[eze17]

Good that Suggs will be back. On the other hand reality is that we will more than likely need to go 10-6 to have a shot at the playoffs. No way are we going 7-2 over the remaining nine games. To many roster fillers, not nearly enough impact players.

Well, kinda depends on how we do in the division, and how the Squeelers and Bungles play out the rest of the season. A 9-7 record might be good enough to get the AFC North title, but I think we would need to win 4 out of the 5 remaining games in our division. Really tall order with the way we're playing right now, but probably the only realistic way to make the playoffs. Like the article says, there's no really dominant team this year, so anything is still possible. But the Raven's better get their act together really quick. Not an entirely probable outcome, but still possible.

[CQ1]

Just a reminder: we were not very good before all these injurys- especially the QB and the offense.

Until we progress and score more- from nevermore, my name has changed.
- Edgar Alan Poo

[Bat-mite]

Ravens worst record is 4-12 is their first season. I'm pulling for anything better than that, as a sign that we haven't completely regressed to Year One.

[J.O.14]

WOW "a solid, healthy, functioning offensive line can work wonders". What about the other factors which have plagued the team all season long such as:

1. Poor coaching
2. Inconsistent play from Flacco
3. Special Teams missed tackles on kick coverage
4. Lack of a pass rush
5. Secondary missing tackles
6. Dropped passes
7. Inability of receivers to gain separation
8. Lack of Playmakers
9. Overabundance of penaltys
10. Offensive line's inability to block

Some issues have been corrected, yet new ones have surfaced. All this chaos
must have a starting point. In my opinion it starts with the HC and his coaching staff. Any opinions?

I agree with a lot of this. When we seem to correct something, another issue pops up that kills our ability to win games. The Raiders and Redskins games were blown opportunities by the Ravens. Some poor coaching decisions and the fact that we shot ourselves in the foot.

Mosley's interception against the Redskins would have gave us 7 points had he not fumbled the ball, because I think we would have scored from the 1 yard line with West. That lead to a FG for the Redskins. Then Jernigans boneheaded play last week, all of these are shots in our own foot. On top of the multiple coaching decisions that have lead to bad outcomes. The worst was probably the fake FG against the skins. Take the points, then even after Mosley's dumb play, we only need a FG at the end of the game to tie.

Another issue you forgot to point out is injuries. Were we that good without injuries? No. But the injuries have hurt our chances of winning even worse, as the last 2 games are indicators of that.

Flacco has been inconsistent, and I don't know if Flacco is getting a little gun shy behind that line, or his mechanics are getting that sloppy. He continues to deliver throws off his back foot, going away from his target. He isn't stepping into his throws and using his lower body the way he should. He has a cannon, but he isn't going accurate enough on intermediate throws without bringing his lower half through and using more than just his arm. That is another reason his throws are sailing on him as well. His deep throws are pretty, but when he has mechanical issues, we stand no chance of completing those deep balls. Last week, Wallace ran a go route and Flacco put that ball in a position where the DEFENDER had a better opportunity at the ball than Wallace did.

If Flacco doesn't clean up his mechanics, along with getting better protection, it doesn't matter how well our defense andspecial teams play, and coaches coach, we won't win many games without production from our OL and QB.

[nj_ravens]

WOW "a solid, healthy, functioning offensive line can work wonders". What about the other factors which have plagued the team all season long such as:

1. Poor coaching
2. Inconsistent play from Flacco
3. Special Teams missed tackles on kick coverage
4. Lack of a pass rush
5. Secondary missing tackles
6. Dropped passes
7. Inability of receivers to gain separation
8. Lack of Playmakers
9. Overabundance of penaltys
10. Offensive line's inability to block

Some issues have been corrected, yet new ones have surfaced. All this chaos
must have a starting point. In my opinion it starts with the HC and his coaching staff. Any opinions?

#10 is literally the same thing as the topic. A "solid, healthy, functioning" offensive line would be able to block, no? That's the whole premise. Come on, you just wanted to get to 10 on your list.

Also, it may (not will, but "may") help solve 2, 7, 8, and 9. Obviously Flacco SHOULD be playing better if the blocking is better. And if there is more time to block, then deep routes might actually have time to develop (possibly giving rise to playmakers). And if they are blocking better and functioning better, there should be less holding calls and false starts by definition.

There's a lot to gripe about, like your other 5 points. But you should be able to recognize the importance of having all of the offensive line starters healthy through your frustration.

[Purple Dawg 96]

Big ben gonna wished he stayed out this game! And Joe can see what "REAL PRESSURE" looks like after watching Big Ben run for his life! If our QB played up to his contract it would overshadow every problem the Ravens are having and they could fix them while they were still winning because those games were winnable and the Ravens should be 6-1! But now we gotta look at unnecessary finger pointing and the finger should be pointed at one player! The engine to the Ravens The QB! My Ravens Tie Dye T shirt just arrived and I'm rockin it to the sports bar against them squeelers! LETS GO SIZZLE!

[FloridalovesRavens]

Just a reminder: we were not very good before all these injurys- especially the QB and the offense.

Until we progress and score more- from nevermore, my name has changed.
- Edgar Alan Poo

Not funny at all. Hope you never get injured and can't work.

[Saxxin]

As bad as the last four weeks have been keep this in mind. If the ravens beat the steelers they are in first place.

[metalraven]

Interesting the article give the O line the credit for win/not win. Just why then did Harbs fire Trestman mid-season if it was the O line? Makes the HC look suspect if anyone cares to think about it. Joe has had more OC's than a barrel of monkeys in his career. Some stability at that position might help. Its got to be difficult on him to be in a constant state of adjustment.

In the battle of the titans (Suggs vs Roethlisberger), I can see these 2 going at it in wheelchairs somewhere in the distant future. The rivalry between Ravens & Steelers which is legendary has this sub-rivalry which is a game inside of a game between these two. Ironic they are both coming off injuries for this year's first contest. It should be interesting.

LOL. Makes me think of the Jim Breuer skit about him being in a convalescent home, but still being into heavy metal - him and his old buddies do wheelchair mosh pits.

[Crusader]

Ben and Suggs going at it reminds me of Two grumpy old men going at it.

[Rav'n Maniac]

There's nothing more important to this teams well being than winning this game. The players backs are to the wall and they have to perform now.

[Ravenshine]

Ravens are a better team now than they were weeks 1-3. Think about it. First 3 weeks we were up in power rankings but not scoring TDs, not executing on offense too well esp in red zone, almost no run. Yet there weren't any signs of urgency to address those issues back then. Now those issues are first and foremost. And Oline is getting back to form. New approach to O and new OC. Yet we are down in power rankings. However, the ranking is now only a fallout effect from how we started (started out looking better than we actually were). Those problem areas now being addressed and targeted means we are a better team NOW than we look on paper...the exact opposite of start of season rankings/reality ratio.

[TheConquerorWorm]

Ravens with Ronnie Stanley = 3-0
Ravens without Ronnie Stanley = 0-4

Coincidence?

[mrc724]

When morningweg was made OC, we were supposed see more shotgun, it hasn't happened. Maybe the keeping two, RB's in to block might help. Give Flacco big drop might help. Receivers need to catch more ball would help. The Ravens are too predictable, the defense seems to know what plays are coming. it appears that Flacco needs a quicker release. We need a FB, who will punch someone in mouth and catch the ball out of the backfield and make some good yardage, he seems too go easily. I understand he isn't the primary reason we are losing, we've always had smash mouth FB's.

[mrc724]

The Ravens need a firery leader, ala Ray Lewis. the Ravens have lost the "Eat your Lunch mentality, passion is the key word.

[sizzlingdoom]

As bad as the last four weeks have been keep this in mind. If the ravens beat the steelers they are in first place.

exactly

[bozo]

listen, joe flacco has taking a down hill turn in his abilities to play at a high level.he's playing very scared football ,and it's Easley seen by the way he's rushing his throws. he's just throwing passes away so he doesn't get hit, and he's always kinda of stunk when out of the pocket with his accuracy. with that weak line in front of him the raven need a more moble qb in the back field, like a josh Johnston that they released. if u followed him during the preseason, his moved the team very effectively due to his mobility and his quick release, and accuracy out of the pocket.i believe that if josh was the qb in our last four games we would of won at least 3 of them.