[News] The Breakdown: Eisenberg's Five Thoughts vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

[RavensBaltimore]

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

Flacco isn't garbage. The O-line is. He's playing behind the same line that can't even get us 2 yds/carry in the run game. Our receivers aren't good either. The reason Joe's been off lately is because he rarely has time to throw, and he has no faith that he'll have a clean pocket, which prevents him from stepping into his throws and getting into a rhythm. He can't get rid of it quickly because our receivers don't get separation. If the line can stay healthy and get it together, Flacco will be fine and we can contend again. Otherwise, there isn't a qb in the league who can do any better. Also, on his worst day, Flacco still isn't as bad as Roethlisberger was today.

[RavensBaltimore]

Eisenberg gets it, this week.

Balance is the Ravens key to success.
While 50 yards is not much, 29 rushes kept the Time of possession in our favor, keot the defense fresh, and kept Joe under 40 passes.

Check the record this year alone..Joe passes 40x = 4 losses, Under 40 passes =4 wins.

Big plays, Wallace TD, Block punt TD

Your stats are wrong. Flacco has at least 40 pass attempts in half our wins this season, and our offense is averaging more points in games where Flacco has at least 40 attempts. In our two games we won where Flacco had less than 40 attempts, the offense scored 13 and 10 points. That's not exactly a winning formula.

[TheConquerorWorm]

  55 minutes ago, 757RavensFan said:

  1 hour ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

That's a crappy thing to say. 

I agree that it may be a crappy thing to say but what if most of the problems on offense are related to Flacco. Remember, the Ravens floundered behind Kyle Boller for years. I will never have patience like that again for the QB position. I would really like to see what Mallett can do. I can not believe that he can be much worse. So far this season (thru 8 games) he has a whopping 6 TD's which ranks his at 31st. It would be worse but the QB's with fewer TD's have missed games due to injuries.

Mallet sucks.

Talk all you want about Flacco but he wins games. He led the Ravens offense for game winning scores against the Raiders, Giants & Redskins. If this team was 7-1 (we would be if the defense could cover a WR and Perriman toe taps), nobody would be complaining about Flacco. Yes, he misses some throws and yes he will throw an untimely INT but he's done that his entire career. He had a 49.19 QBR in the 2012 season. He has a 57.1 QBR this year (his career avg). Joe is not and will never be a starting fantasy QB. That's not what he does. He makes his money playing in big games in the play-offs.

Stop trying to make him something he's not and stop measuring him against HOF QBs like Brady, Ben or Manning. He's in that Troy Aikman, Kurt Warner, Phil Simms tier of QBs not in that Brady, Favre, Manning tier. Simms had some great years but he also had some 20 TD - 20 INT years too.

He's the best QB we've ever had and he's a proven winner. In an AFC Championship game in New England against Brady, I take Flacco every time over Mallet (Ask Houston - they thought Kubiak was the problem and Mallet was the solution).

[Rich McG]

Poor rich happy Joe. He made a huge mistake today.......he hit a receiver in STRIDE for a TOUCHDOWN. No..no...no...no, It's not a joke' it really happened. Whoa whoa, relax. he has already said he'll never make that mistake again. So here we are in 1st place and happily looking forward to Thursday. Great! Good hard fought game and excellent tackling by the D-backs. Go Ravens!

[TheConquerorWorm]

believe it or not HARRISON was a RAVEN! but he played too tough and physical so the RAVENS let him go,he always seems to get the last laugfh,even at 40 years old! nice move ravens!

Sounds like sour grapes because we beat your beloved Squealers.

You are just making stuff up.

Harrison was cut from the Ravens but he was also cut from your Squealers 3 times while on their practice squad for 2 years. Why?

"Teammate and fellow linebacker, James Farrior, later told NFL Network that Harrison was so green early on in his career that he would simply "give up" on plays on which he was struggling and even would ask the coaches not to play him when he was struggling.[7] Farrior said, "He was a knucklehead that didn't know the plays. We'd be in practice, in training camp, and he might not know what he was doing so he'd just stop and throw his hands up and tell (the coaches) to get him out of there. We thought the guy was crazy."

Now go back to crying in your yellow rag.....

[whobilly]

So what has changed? The offense generated 274 yard of offense with 95 yard coming on the only TD scored by the offense. The Defense scored a TD as did the Special Teams unit. The Ravens Offense is anemic and Flacco is just terrible. I know I should not say this but I was hoping he hurt himself on that slide (if you can call that a slide). I did not want him hurt..hurt. I just wanted to see what Mallett could do.

"Hoping he hurt himself". Do us a favor and please stay away from M&T Bank Stadium although sounds like you don't leave your basement much. Sad statement,

[mendii]

I'm far from the first one to criticize Joe Flacco, heck I was wearing his jersey during the game today, but he just doesn't seem as effective this year. I know, I know, we gotta give him another week with a fully healthy offensive line, I'm just saying he hasn't been playing winning football out there. On the other side of the ball, I am so impressed by Tavon Young. That kid is everywhere.

[TheConquerorWorm]

I'm far from the first one to criticize Joe Flacco, heck I was wearing his jersey during the game today, but he just doesn't seem as effective this year. I know, I know, we gotta give him another week with a fully healthy offensive line, I'm just saying he hasn't been playing winning football out there. On the other side of the ball, I am so impressed by Tavon Young. That kid is everywhere.

Gotta disagree.

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against Oakland (twice)

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against the Giants

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against the Skins

If our defense covers Crabtree & Beckham and Perriman toe-taps, that's 3 game winning drives Flacco has this year and we are 7-1. That's winning football.

But Tavon is a beast!!!

[Crusader]

You want to know why Ravens can not run the ball? All you had to do was watch KO run blocking in the Raiders game.

[Crusader]

After this year burn the playbook, fire every coach on the offense and start over and stop having 350 pds guy trying to run sideways thats just stupid.

[Peej]

Let's see...a win - even an ugly one - against your chief rival and moving into 1st place! People like Crusader and its ilk apparently like to show off colossal ignorance!

Just enjoy the win!

The fact that, as Suggs said very clearly, the team needs to fix a number of things is probably not a surprise to the Ravens!

[sami]

  4 hours ago, 757RavensFan said:

  4 hours ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

That's a crappy thing to say. 

I agree that it may be a crappy thing to say but what if most of the problems on offense are related to Flacco. Remember, the Ravens floundered behind Kyle Boller for years. I will never have patience like that again for the QB position. I would really like to see what Mallett can do. I can not believe that he can be much worse. So far this season (thru 8 games) he has a whopping 6 TD's which ranks his at 31st. It would be worse but the QB's with fewer TD's have missed games due to injuries.

Before Kyle Boller we had like 12 other quarterbacks who did no better.

[Purple Dawg 96]

I wanted to see Mallet because this Offense can do so much better!

[Purple Dawg 96]

  2 hours ago, mendii said:

I'm far from the first one to criticize Joe Flacco, heck I was wearing his jersey during the game today, but he just doesn't seem as effective this year. I know, I know, we gotta give him another week with a fully healthy offensive line, I'm just saying he hasn't been playing winning football out there. On the other side of the ball, I am so impressed by Tavon Young. That kid is everywhere.

Gotta disagree.

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against Oakland (twice)

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against the Giants

Flacco led the offense for the game winning TD against the Skins

If our defense covers Crabtree & Beckham and Perriman toe-taps, that's 3 game winning drives Flacco has this year and we are 7-1. That's winning football.

But Tavon is a beast!!!

Joe should of pulled those games out! PERIOD

[smalljaws]

Four in a row, way to go. Caw ! Caw !

[huntrgathrr]

This team will be carried by a top 10 defense. If the offense just does a little we will be in every game. Hopefully we will win 10 of them and be in the playoffs. Injuries to the offensive line put too much pressure on the defense and resulted in a terrible loss to the Jets. Oakland is a really tough club and we could have beat them...tough loss. Same with the Giants and the Skins....tough losses to decent teams that we probably would have won with a healthy offensive line.
The reason I target the injuries to the O line as critical to the outcomes in our 4 losses is because an abysmal offense just put too much pressure on the defense.
With a healthy O line we totally dominated the Steelers. Despite scant offensive production we still gave the defense time to rest and a small lead to protect. This allowed them to make mistakes and our special teams a chance to capitalize on one of their mistakes.
Forget the final score....they couldn't score until there was 8 min left in the game and it was basically over. The Ravens defense did the same to Buffalo, Cleveland and Jacksonville so it was not unexpected. They would have done the same to the Giants and Oakland but for exceptional plays by exceptional players.
But for this team to advance in the playoffs (assuming we get there) the offense will have to step up and score 24-30 points a game.
I have tempered my expectations however, realizing that each week will be a mystery. The Ravens are clearly capable of playing exceptionally well and equally able to play very poorly. Hopefully they can scratch out a win against Cleveland on Thursday night.
But make no mistake about it........after half a season it's fkn great to be in first place in the AFC North

[RaRaRavens]

Great team win, nice job! Couple of thins to iron out and this team can be legitimate contender:

1. Offense needs to put points on the board, period! The way our defense is playing lights out football, if our offense was competent enough to get even 3 points every other drive, we would be golden. And while the offenses struggles have come in different shapes and forms, I mean no run game, WRs just drop balls, etc., it still starts with Flacco. He is our most expensive piece, the franchise QB and team leader. If others are not performing, it's up to the leader to work it out. At the very least he can not be making mental mistakes, like throwing INTs in scoring field positions, that cost us points. So if we want to get to the playoffs and beyond, Flacco together with the offense needs to figure their sh out ASAP!

2. Defense is solid, so this is really just nitpicking, but if we could generate some pressure on the QB from the edges as well without DB blitzes, and/or if we could limit the big plays like we did for 3 quarters against the Steelers, our defense would be killer.

All in all, Steelers game was a pleasant sight of things moving in the right direction. Let's hope we can stay healthy and for the love of god, the offense starts playing like it's the regular season, not preseason.

[huntrgathrr]

I apologize for over commenting but I want to offer further thoughts on Flacco. He seems to be less confident today than he was in his first 6 years. I'm really disappointed that he can't read the defenses and call his own plays after 7 years in the NFL. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for this but the offense will never be prolific getting plays from the sidelines. His check offs are predictable and usually ineffective. He should be reading the defenses at the line of scrimmage and calling the plays from there. I guess the coaches don't have confidence in his ability to do this. This seems to be the reason the Ravens have a very ineffective offense.

[WordProphet]

Flacco needs to learn how to slide because it looked like he hurt his self, the Ravens played better than they have been playing, and there is still a lot of room for improvement, but they won, and that's what count right, win baby just win!!! GO RAVENS!!!

[WordProphet]

The Ravens played a good game today beating the Steelers!!! Wallace, Steve Smith Sr., special teams, the defense, all looked good and reminded me of the old Ravens, but penalties is still a problem, we just have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot!!! Now we are 4-4 and we still have a long way to go and a lot of football to play, and this is the second half of the season, no more excuses, no more explanations, lets get the job done and go back to the playoffs and win another Superbowl because that's what we do!!! GO RAVENS!!! Oh yeah and by the way, if we can, keep the injuries to a minimum, for we need all our guys on the field if we are going to make a Superbowl run!!! Win Baby Just Win, GO RAVENS!!!

[RailBird]

I have a lot of respect for this defense and they played a really good game. But let's be honest, those final 10 minutes were scary. Those 2 TD drives were way too easy for the Steelers. In that first TD drive the Steelers were pinned back inside their own 15 on 3rd and 21 and managed to get the first down. That's the kind of play that you just can't let happen.

[bioLarzen]

8 hours ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt

You should be deeply ashamed.

[RaRaRavens]

2 hours ago, huntrgathrr said:

I apologize for over commenting but I want to offer further thoughts on Flacco. He seems to be less confident today than he was in his first 6 years. I'm really disappointed that he can't read the defenses and call his own plays after 7 years in the NFL. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for this but the offense will never be prolific getting plays from the sidelines. His check offs are predictable and usually ineffective. He should be reading the defenses at the line of scrimmage and calling the plays from there. I guess the coaches don't have confidence in his ability to do this. This seems to be the reason the Ravens have a very ineffective offense.

In addition to all those things what boggles me is his inability to change blocking schemes on run plays, or just change out of the play if nothing else seems doable. There were at least 4 runs yesterday that Flacco sent just straight up into unblocked defenders. He didn't even change the way of the run. I mean, how are RBs supposed to get any yards when they run into the direction of an unblocked LB?! How is it possible that Flacco does not see it at the line of scrimmage? Or does he just not care? Or is he purposely sabotaging our run game??

[20306cab]

2 hours ago, huntrgathrr said:

I apologize for over commenting but I want to offer further thoughts on Flacco. He seems to be less confident today than he was in his first 6 years. I'm really disappointed that he can't read the defenses and call his own plays after 9 years in the NFL. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for this but the offense will never be prolific getting plays from the sidelines. His check offs are predictable and usually ineffective. He should be reading the defenses at the line of scrimmage and calling the plays from there. I guess the coaches don't have confidence in his ability to do this. This seems to be the reason the Ravens have a very ineffective offense.

Fixed it for ya'.  But right about everything else.

[20306cab]

  9 hours ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt

You should be deeply ashamed.

What he should be ashamed of, is this guy is making $120 mil to be the WORST QB in the league.

[The Greek]

grateful for the win but the offense especially flacco needs to improve. receivers are still struggling to get separation and the routes being run on certain yardage situations make no sense whatsoever. i was happy to see marty stick with the running game even though there were not many running lanes available. harbs needs to make sure this team stays motivated for the browns game or they will get their 1st win of the season. keep grinding and the offense will get to where it needs to be

[The Greek]

  3 hours ago, huntrgathrr said:

I apologize for over commenting but I want to offer further thoughts on Flacco. He seems to be less confident today than he was in his first 6 years. I'm really disappointed that he can't read the defenses and call his own plays after 7 years in the NFL. I'm sure there are a lot of reasons for this but the offense will never be prolific getting plays from the sidelines. His check offs are predictable and usually ineffective. He should be reading the defenses at the line of scrimmage and calling the plays from there. I guess the coaches don't have confidence in his ability to do this. This seems to be the reason the Ravens have a very ineffective offense.

In addition to all those things what boggles me is his inability to change blocking schemes on run plays, or just change out of the play if nothing else seems doable. There were at least 4 runs yesterday that Flacco sent just straight up into unblocked defenders. He didn't even change the way of the run. I mean, how are RBs supposed to get any yards when they run into the direction of an unblocked LB?! How is it possible that Flacco does not see it at the line of scrimmage? Or does he just not care? Or is he purposely sabotaging our run game??

purposely sabotaging the run game? now that is funny. thanks for the laugh

[RaRaRavens]

57 minutes ago, The Greek said:

purposely sabotaging the run game? now that is funny. thanks for the laugh

Yeah, I know. But I can't think for another reason why veteran QB like Flacco consistently fails to audible running plays so they won't run head first into unaccounted defenders on the line of scrimmage. Maybe he's not big friends with West and tries to hand out some punishment for him? What do u think?

Edited November 7, 2016 by RaRaRavens
Grammar

[gooftroop]

  1 hour ago, The Greek said:

purposely sabotaging the run game? now that is funny. thanks for the laugh

Yeah, I know. But I can't think for another reason why veteran QB like Flacco consistently fails to audible running plays so they won't run head first into defenders on the edges. Maybe he's not big friends with West and tries to hand out some punishment for him? What do u think?

Not well-blocked, maybe? Not a great scheme, perhaps?

[Halshayeji]

9 hours ago, TheRavengers said:

Just so you know, Flacco's stats for the day aren't exactly awful, they're average, nothing mind-blowing but nothing horrific. Of the 12 passes that were incompletions, 1 was an INT, some were over/underthrows and the rest were ones that the receivers in question should've had the sense to catch.

Flacco DOES need to get it together and throw for more than 1 TD a game, because 6 TDs on the year is nothing to be proud of, but some of that also falls on the receivers who need to make the catches, too. Having a 95-yard pass play is awesome and I'm glad I saw it but it needs to not be the only offensive highlight of the day, they play just "good enough" offense, not "let's beat the other team into a pulp" offense.

Take out that 95 yard throw and joe would have been 17/29 for 145 yards and 1 fumble 1 INT. I don't care abut how or what he does. He needs to play better. It's that's simple.

All we needed were a few first downs in the 4th and there's no way the steelers can score 3 TDs before the clock hits zero but we just couldn't buy a first down if our life depended on it.

Great win! Couldn't be any happier than this. But I gotta admit I'm sooooo worried