post bye - best and worst case scenario.

[JoeyFlex5]

many of our injured players are projected to return after the bye. injuries and bad coaching have wrecked the first half of this season, no more trestman, returning players, and hopefully more emphasis on discipline both from harbaugh  and the players could have us rattling off a few upsets, unlikely, but possible, lets go over it. 

vs Pit - we may have their number, regardless of the teams being fielded we play them well, we have a real solid chance of beating them. IF ben plays, we know he can overcome injuries with the best of them, but torn knee ligaments are gonna limit even the most superhuman of players, if he doesnt play well i like our chances vs landry jones. sammie coates is a guy i actually think wright can shut down, there is nothing to his game besides run fast which is something wright can do. they gave up an average of 200RYPG without cam heyward, if he is still out and our line is healthy then terrence west could take this game over, they dont have much in the front seven that indicates they can shut down a hot hand power back like west. worst case... we continue with penalties, joe throws it 55 times and gets sacked 4 times and we have more injuries. 

 

vs Cle - it may be a tight game, but i expect us to win it... its still the browns, again, this is health permitting. 

 

@ Dal - they do one thing at an elite level, run the ball, fortunately for us we may defend the run just as well, if not better, than they run it. maybe zeke finally feels frustrated and gets shut down. is dez playing at this point? i havent looked into his injury but id feel good about jimmy on dez, this is his kind of matchup. cole beasley and jason witten certainly worry me, and i think their secondary can give us fits, but i also dont see much pass rush or run defense, i think we win this one, we can shut down their top weapon and we can take over with the run game. 

 

vs Cin - theyre on a tailslide. they are playing really bad. sadly i dont know if we can beat them, as long as green has our number i will feel uneasy, until we prove we can stop him in the 4th quarter i wont feel good about it, BUT, they have been average at best on defense and if we get a rhythm going and find our groove we can go into this game hot on the ground and get things opened up through the air. they are 1 dimensional on offense, sadly that 1 dimension wrecks us every time, but hey maybe this is it? 

 

vs Mia - i dont see how we lose to them. they have nothing going for them. suh could take over the game but he likely cant just blast through zuttah every play, we can abuse them everywhere else on the front. neither parker nor landry scare me, they may do some damage but i dont think they take over the game, not by a long shot. 

 

@NE - lol... who knows. we are the team they fear most, no matter how bad we may be playing. obviously they crush us on paper, but ya never know. ill chalk this up as a L though. 

 

vs Phi - i dont see how we win this. they have an elite front seven that likely blasts us off the ball consistently. they wont run the ball on us, we wont run the ball on them, its a slobberknocker and an ugly one, who can catch the other team slipping through the air? thats what this game comes down to. if we can pass protect, we can win, but i dont think we can. 

 

@Pit - ben should come back furious, either that or he came back weeks prior and got hurt again lol. i have us splitting with them, so ill call this the L. 

 

@Cin - theyll probably be fighting for a 6th seed at this point, we'll probably end up losing this one, aj green in the clutch, sigh. 

 

i think the best case scenario, we rattle off 5 wins in the last 8 weeks, splitting with pit and cinci and losing to NE, with the philly and dallas games being the ones that may dictate whether or not we are able to sneak in, we wont make it at 8-8, but if we can sweep one of cinci or pit, or if we can shock the world and pull the upset on the pats then we can sneak in at 9-7, and hey if we get healthy, return all of our starters, and STAY healthy, play disciplined ball, find an identity, establish the run early and often against some soft run defenses, then we really do have a chance. 

TLDR; its a long shot, we could easily win only 1 or 2 more games this year, we have looked awfully ugly, but this is with a lot of injuries, the keys to the 2nd half of the season are: health, fixing penalties, finding an identity. if we can do this, we have a shot to get hot and sneak in. POSITIVITY PEOPLE!

[Maryland]

OL gets healthy, run game improves, they can run more play-action, offense smooths-out, they start generating two-possession leads at the end of games so they don't have to rely on Pees' defense to hold a lead when it counts. 

One can hope. 

/oh, and of course the improved OL cures Flacco of his jitters so he stops throwing off his back foot so dang much

Edited October 30, 2016 by Maryland

[JoeyFlex5]

23 minutes ago, Maryland said:

OL gets healthy, run game improves, they can run more play-action, offense smooths-out, they start generating two-possession leads at the end of games so they don't have to rely on Pees' defense to hold a lead when it counts. 

One can hope. 

basically, yes. lol. we've seen flashes of the run game beginning to completely take over, and then boom, holding call, false start, delay of game, something really stupid kills the drive, then we throw 2 incomplete passes and then complete on 3rd down far short of the markers. it happens over and freaking over again. or we just change it up and call a stupid play on a first down and then were stuck with 2nd and long. 

obviously this is supreme optimism, but hey, if someone said "the ravens will win the super bowl" in november 2012 we all wouldve laughed in their face.

[Sherly_Tebow]

Plus we really have to do some rooting against AFC West teams. Each team in that division is a playoff contender. In most of my own scenarios at the end of the year, using NFL playoff predictor, we should have tiebreaker over the Chiefs, Bills, Bengals, and Chargers. Not the Raiders though.

http://nflplayoffpredictor.com/?L=EwRjpZS4AZ+mcd6tpSUNtUryd8No0kNwRDyIVSY8czJ1LdE9WEnwq98dYNbo3rFauMVgEssEaYI5h5aIA

This website is really cool for seeing all the possible playoff scenarios.

I think we win our next 2, putting us at 5-4. Dallas is a toss up, 5-5 I think. Win the next two to go 7-5. NE game is tough. 7-6. Beat Philly in a tough one, 8-6. Then it comes down to the last two games against Pittsburgh and Cincy. Win both, and we should win the division. Split, and making wild card is a toss up. I say 9-7 right now.

So, winning 7 of our last 9 puts us at 10-6, I'd say 80% chance to make the playoffs.

Winning 6 of our last 9 puts us at 9-7, I'd say 40-50% chance to make the playoffs.

Any less than that, there isn't really any hope. Less than 0.001%.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Sherly_Tebow

[reed20]

Miami has a lot going for them beating two hot teams in a row by finding a gem in Ajayi. They may begin playing some good football now.

[JoeyFlex5]

12 minutes ago, reed20 said:

Miami has a lot going for them beating two hot teams in a row by finding a gem in Ajayi. They may begin playing some good football now.

they beat buffalo who was "hot" but was never a good team, average at best, they beat pittsburgh with an injured roethlisberger and their top run defender was hurt. you cant count on any RB to break off 200 yards every game, it just doesnt happen like that, ravens arent giving up a 200 yard rusher either. our run D isnt 2006 level but its still one of the best in the league, and if mosleys healthy then you can be certain it wont happen

[Rav'n Maniac]

I like everyone's positivity. Glad we are finally starting to get some players healthy but, I'm not feeling much more positive than that, so I'll leave it there. Losing to the Jets kinda broke my spirit.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Rav'n Maniac

[January J]

15 hours ago, Sherly_Tebow said:

Plus we really have to do some rooting against AFC West teams. Each team in that division is a playoff contender. In most of my own scenarios at the end of the year, using NFL playoff predictor, we should have tiebreaker over the Chiefs, Bills, Bengals, and Chargers. Not the Raiders though.

http://nflplayoffpredictor.com/?L=EwRjpZS4AZ+mcd6tpSUNtUryd8No0kNwRDyIVSY8czJ1LdE9WEnwq98dYNbo3rFauMVgEssEaYI5h5aIA

This website is really cool for seeing all the possible playoff scenarios.

I think we win our next 2, putting us at 5-4. Dallas is a toss up, 5-5 I think. Win the next two to go 7-5. NE game is tough. 7-6. Beat Philly in a tough one, 8-6. Then it comes down to the last two games against Pittsburgh and Cincy. Win both, and we should win the division. Split, and making wild card is a toss up. I say 9-7 right now.

So, winning 7 of our last 9 puts us at 10-6, I'd say 80% chance to make the playoffs.

Winning 6 of our last 9 puts us at 9-7, I'd say 40-50% chance to make the playoffs.

Any less than that, there isn't really any hope. Less than 0.001%.

Figures the redskins did everything they could not to win that game against Cincinnati... Atleast cinci didnt  win i suppose. And that Oakland game was infuriating... They just keep continuing to come through week in and week out. Tampa had chance after chance. We just can't catch a damn break for nothing. 

Edited October 30, 2016 by January J

[flynismo]

I think we finish the year 7-2 over these last nine games, giving us a final record of 10-6. Lets hope that we sweep PIT again, because they'll likely also finish with 10 wins, we'll need the tie breaker

[Tornado700]

Final record will be 6-10.

[Maryland]

7 hours ago, January J said:

Figures the redskins did everything they could not to win that game against Cincinnati... Atleast cinci didnt  win i suppose. And that Oakland game was infuriating... They just keep continuing to come through week in and week out. Tampa had chance after chance. We just can't catch a damn break for nothing. 

Oakland has had a horseshoe up their butt all season. A botched kick by SD that would have forced overtime, a dropped pass by the Ravens that would have setup a game-winning field goal, a missed PAT by the Bucs that might have obviated the need for overtime. They get outgained by yards and TOP in most games, but the other team just messes up somehow. They're the opposite of us lol.

[January J]

8 hours ago, Maryland said:

Oakland has had a horseshoe up their butt all season. A botched kick by SD that would have forced overtime, a dropped pass by the Ravens that would have setup a game-winning field goal, a missed PAT by the Bucs that might have obviated the need for overtime. They get outgained by yards and TOP in most games, but the other team just messes up somehow. They're the opposite of us lol.

Lol exactly.  no kidding -Wish our luck would turn for once. And no Im not saying its all bad luck BC we obviously have failed to execute in several areas -but you got to admit the ball hasn't bounced our way in a lonnnng time. Seems like anything that could go wrong, has. Even when we're not even the ones playing.

[ellicottraven]

My hope is for a best case scenario 9-7 end to the season whether or not we make the playoffs, this is the absolute best case. But, then for us to get there however a lot of things have to go our way and the players have to perform like they're supposed to and paid. The coaches the same thing. But, would I bet my life on this outcome? Absolutely not. My gut tells me we'll end up winning about 3-4 of our next 9 games and end up with a 6-10 or a 7-9 record. In this situation, there is going to be a brand new coaching staff and maybe front office next year and its going to be a really strange feeling being considered a bad team here in Baltimore. I am still rooting for the best case scenario outcome and will wait for it with baited breath.

[Ravens4Real]

Losing these past 4 weeks to 3 subpar teams has already put our season into dire straights. Now we need to win against very tough competition when the ones we are competing against have easier schedules.

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

We're still gonna end up 10-6 or 9-7 and make the playoffs.

Health is a magical thing... when you can actually field the team you thought you put together in the offseason. Its beautiful and we're about to be reminded of how beautiful that can be.

This D was dominant before we lost Mosley and Sizz.

This offense wasnt quite a putrid before we lost Stanley, Yanda and SSS. 

 

Buzzing with excitement to see our actual team again. I literally cant remember another year like the past 2 where pretty much every important piece on our team was injured. '12 was somewhat like that with Ray, Ellerbe, Suggs, KO, and Ngata hurt... but this seems worse.

[BOLDnPurPnBlacK]

17 hours ago, Ravens4Real said:

Losing these past 4 weeks to 3 subpar teams has already put our season into dire straights. Now we need to win against very tough competition when the ones we are competing against have easier schedules.

You gotta beat the good competition at some point if youre gonna win in the playoffs.

 

Might as well figure out now if we can beat the top teams, in dire circumstances... bc if not, we're just gonna lose in the playoffs anyways.

[Ravensfan23]

1 hour ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

We're still gonna end up 10-6 or 9-7 and make the playoffs.

Health is a magical thing... when you can actually field the team you thought you put together in the offseason. Its beautiful and we're about to be reminded of how beautiful that can be.

This D was dominant before we lost Mosley and Sizz.

This offense wasnt quite a putrid before we lost Stanley, Yanda and SSS. 

 

Buzzing with excitement to see our actual team again. I literally cant remember another year like the past 2 where pretty much every important piece on our team was injured. '12 was somewhat like that with Ray, Ellerbe, Suggs, KO, and Ngata hurt... but this seems worse.

Gotta think that the offense would have been much better under Marty those first 3 weeks the oline was healthy. So I'm right there buzzing with you. 

The Ravens are very fortunate to have so many key injured players, lose 4 straight and still be in the hunt for 1st place in the North. Not just an outside choice but win Sunday and you're in first place. Win next week and you're 3-0 in the division with a game vs the Bengals looming in 2 weeks and a opportunity to but everyone in the backseat. Obviously the team  has to take one game at a time. But i'm excited to see how things play out