[News] Late For Work 11/22: Ravens Can Deliver 'Knockout Blow' And Make Division A Two-Team Race

[BR News]

Where was Breshad Perriman Sunday? Top-graded Ravens in Dallas loss. Nick Boyle’s 10-game suspension is complete. Harbaugh mum on injury status of Jimmy Smith and Elvis Dumervil. Ravens Mexican-themed helmet.

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[Tdot.to.Bmore]

We need to go 4-2 in the last 6 games to even think about making the playoffs, and are we good enough to do it? Time will tell. The Steelers have a much easier schedule moving forward with 4 home games out of 6.

[Bat-mite]

I think we can go 4-2 in these last six games, which would give us a 9-7 for the season. I truly believe that should take the division.

One thing is sure: we MUST take the division -- we will not qualify for a wild card berth with our record, unless we win out. But if we win out, we still win the division.

I am so tired of hearing that we need to take more big shots down field, and about Flacco's arm strength. Flacco frequently underthrows the receivers, and they have to slow, stop, or even backpedal to catch the ball; and in those cases, they usually don't. And then, of course, sometimes he overthrows. A strong arm is not as valuable as an accurate arm, and Flacco has lacked accuracy all season.

It will be good to get Boyle back, especially on blocking plays.

I never thought I'd see day when you would need an active passport to play in the NFL!

[TheRavengers]

There is NO reason they shouldn't take advantage of the Bengals' injuries this week.

[VermontRaven]

17 minutes ago, Bat-mite said:

I think we can go 4-2 in these last six games, which would give us a 9-7 for the season. I truly believe that should take the division.

One thing is sure: we MUST take the division -- we will not qualify for a wild card berth with our record, unless we win out. But if we win out, we still win the division.

I am so tired of hearing that we need to take more big shots down field, and about Flacco's arm strength. Flacco frequently underthrows the receivers, and they have to slow, stop, or even backpedal to catch the ball; and in those cases, they usually don't. And then, of course, sometimes he overthrows. A strong arm is not as valuable as an accurate arm, and Flacco has lacked accuracy all season.

It will be good to get Boyle back, especially on blocking plays.

I never thought I'd see day when you would need an active passport to play in the NFL!

With the Steelers schedule, I'm not sure 9-7 will be good enough unless one of those wins is on Christmas at Pittsburgh.  I just don't see Pitt dropping more than 1 other game (@ Colts-probably without Luck, home vs. Giants, @ Bills, @ depleted Bengals...then us....then the gimme to end the season at home vs. Browns)  Giants and Bills are the only 2 realistic possibilites to beat them now that Luck is most likely out...and Steelers are tough at home--so I think they beat the Giants...regardless, I don't see them losing BOTH of those games)  Right now, I think our most realistic path is to go 4-2 down the stretch (with one of those wins being on Christmas and hoping Steelers drop a games somewhere)

[TheRavengers]

It's really funny how every year at least one division is just mediocre or considered "the worst" in the league: 2014 was the NFC South, last year it was the AFC South and NFC East, now it's our turn this year.

[The Greek]

even without aj green and giovanni bernard the bengals will make it close because of our crappy offense.

[Minionhunter]

When he noticed Luck is likely out with a concussion for the IND-PIT game, Ben said "Well, I've already been in the concussion protocol three times this week. And I'm not a drama queen."

Stolen from PFT

[Halshayeji]

I don't respect wining against a team without their top playmakers but I sure as hell hope Green sits the next game out coz we really need it. Dez destroyed us not just in the stats department. His first 6 catches were 4 third down conversions and 2 TDs on 1vs1. 

[Minionhunter]

I'm just thinking, what is the world coming to?

We have to root for the Luckless Colts on Thanksgiving.

Edited November 22, 2016 by Minionhunter
humor

[Minionhunter]

3 minutes ago, Halshayeji said:

I don't respect wining against a team without their top playmakers but I sure as hell hope Green sits the next game out coz we really need it. Dez destroyed us not just in the stats department. His first 6 catches were 4 third down conversions and 2 TDs on 1vs1. 

Yes, and they didn't call his obvious pushoff on a facemask to rescue that drive they had to make the 1st down. Refs were obviously pro Dallas that day.

[sami]

We have two of the fastest receivers in the league and we didn't use them. We had a super running attack and stopped using it. The Cowgirls were playing off us and we didn't take advantage of that. What was the game plan? and that Mexican helmet is ugly

[hereweare]

31 minutes ago, VermontRaven said:

With the Steelers schedule, I'm not sure 9-7 will be good enough unless one of those wins is on Christmas at Pittsburgh.  I just don't see Pitt dropping more than 1 other game (@ Colts-probably without Luck, home vs. Giants, @ Bills, @ depleted Bengals...then us....then the gimme to end the season at home vs. Browns)  Giants and Bills are the only 2 realistic possibilites to beat them now that Luck is most likely out...and Steelers are tough at home--so I think they beat the Giants...regardless, I don't see them losing BOTH of those games)  Right now, I think our most realistic path is to go 4-2 down the stretch (with one of those wins being on Christmas and hoping Steelers drop a games somewhere)

agreed. The AFC North will be decided Christmas day

[jravens1313]

I don't respect wining against a team without their top playmakers but I sure as hell hope Green sits the next game out coz we really need it. Dez destroyed us not just in the stats department. His first 6 catches were 4 third down conversions and 2 TDs on 1vs1. 

Yeah when the zebra's refuse to call push off's it's easy to get open. That play where he just shoves Tavon Young in the helmet full extended arms and they just let it slip. SMH.

[Minionhunter]

I really wish they would try and talk Steve Smith into coming back next year. I bet if John and Ozzie both told him they really wanted and needed him and gave him a good one year contract he would come back.

[Minionhunter]

For everyone thinking that the New England game is going to be a loss for us, I can tell you that they are imploding on defense right now. Belicheat has caused a mini mutiny in trading away players on defense. They are more beatable than Dallas and we always play them tough. Only reason for concern is if they have a new cheating method they have been saving up.

[hereweare]

2 minutes ago, Minionhunter said:

For everyone thinking that the New England game is going to be a loss for us, I can tell you that they are imploding on defense right now. Belicheat has caused a mini mutiny in trading away players on defense. They are more beatable than Dallas and we always play them tough. Only reason for concern is if they have a new cheating method they have been saving up.

lol well they won't be wasting it on us 

[Minionhunter]

1 minute ago, hereweare said:

lol well they won't be wasting it on us 

LOL! Seriously, never underestimate the pure hate that team and ownership has for the Ravens....

Plus Gostkowski has been missing extra points this year and seems to have a mental thing since last season when he lost their playoff game by missing an extra point. 

[RailBird]

So the Bengals are without their top running back and wide receiver. Like that's going to make much of a difference. We have one of the best defenses against the run so even if Bernard were able to play, big deal. As for our secondary, sure, it'll be "easier" without their best receiver, but much of that will depend on whether or not Jimmy Smith is healthy enough to play.

[iluvpurple]

My biggest question and continuing problem since Marc Trestman was let go, is there isn't a whole lot of change on offense, like why did we only run the ball 15-16 times on Sunday? And why aren't we, like Sarah mentioned, using Perriman a lot more? How are we going to see his progression if he is not getting the ball? The offensive game just doesn't ever make sense with the talent we have, and I DO think we have talent offensively.....

[steelcityraven]

I don't understand why we would need to remind a OC to get our weapons more involved. Its not like we are having so much success that we didn't need them! I don't get why we are not playing to our offenses strength and recognizing what we drafted for. We have a QB with a very strong arm and as a result we drafted WR's who can fly to take the top off of a defense. (This is our strength - this is what we drafted for and what we build our offense to look like). This will also open up a run game that has struggled for much of the year.

I don't understand why our head coach is not demanding our OC's to work within the team philosophy. I am not saying that Harbs should be a dictator but I am saying that all the coaches need to be on the same page and that is Harbs job to ensure that.

I just feel that he allows his assistant coaches way too much freedom to work outside of our the teams philosophy and as a result we have had a team (for the last 2 plus seasons) that is very unsure in their identity.

The Patriots identity is very clear- Short passing game
The Packers are an up tempo offense
The Titans philosophy is to run the ball
The Raiders have become a big play offense
The Broncos are a ball control team (using balance)
The Bills are a run first offense
The Steelers are that big play offense / that is set up off of the run
The Colts are an offense that loves to spread the ball out
The Seahawks are run oriented / ball control team

I can keep going

What is our identity? I really don't know. One week we try to be a big play offense, one week we try to be a spread the wealth, one week we try to play long ball, one week we revert back to the short passing game, one week we are no huddle-up tempo type offense, the next week we are a slow it down / grind it out type- we seem to have no clue who we are and it shows with a lack of consistency and at times a lack of understanding of how to call plays to build towards our game plan.

Hard to call plays to build towards our game plan when we are not sure what we want to do. We lack an offensive identity and as a result we lack an offense that we can count on.

I am not saying that Marty is not the right guy... I am saying that Marty needs to held to making his offense work with in the parameters of our philosophy. If he cannot do that then we need to find an new OC... if he can and has a clear direction... I think we will see this improve.

The last time we had a clear direction on offense was with Kubiack. It was very apparent that he had a game plan and that and that his philosophy was clear. I couldn't guess what our philosophy was since and it shows in our performance.

Harbs needs to hold his assistant coaches to fitting into our team philosophy and lets see what happens.

[bioLarzen]

Unfortunately the steelers are in a better position right now - and even luck may be on their side:

- their remaining schedule definitely looks easier than ours;
- they will play us at their place;
- they will probably not have to play against Luck next week, giving them a much, much better hopw to win in Indianapolis;
- they will likely play in Cincinatti with Green still sidelined, or at best not 100%, giving them a much better chance of sweeping the Bengals than we do, assuming Green is back by Week#17, and fairly healthy, which there is a fair chance of happening.

If we only take the most likely outcomes, the steelers may easily finish 9-7 or 10-6, while, even if we assume that we'll win all our 3 "fairly winnable" games left on our schedule (v the Bengals, the Dolphins and the Eagles), we'll still need to win at least one of our road games to go 9-7 - which will only be enough for anything if we win the division. And if we take our present form, I don't see a lot of chance in any of our 3 road games: almost no chance at all in Foxboro, and only a little chance in Cincinatti (assuming Green is ready by then).

Therefore, our "Super Bowl" this season will be Week#16 in Pittsburgh. If we can win that, we may end up 9-7, and the steelers have to win out their remaining 5 games to finish ahead of us... and the Bengals will be mathematically eliminated. And we all know and have seen that we always have a chance to beat the steelers in Pittsburgh - assuming we haven't had too many casualties by then - even if we are in poor form (see last season). In fact, I'd go as far as saying, we have a better cahnce to win in Pittsburgh than beating the Eagles in the Bank.

All in all, we must concentrate on our remaining 3 home games. If we can win all three (far, far from certainty), we have a fair hope of making the playoffs. If we drop as much as 1 home game, our hopes dwindle. If we drop two, it's almost a certainty that we'll miss the playoffs (assuming the steelers won't go into tailspin mode...)

... and at this point one realizes the level of offense we'vew had this season... and puts away the pen, paper and calculator...

[rmcjacket23]

We have two of the fastest receivers in the league and we didn't use them. We had a super running attack and stopped using it. The Cowgirls were playing off us and we didn't take advantage of that. What was the game plan? and that Mexican helmet is ugly

We didn't abandon the run.

[bioLarzen]

even without aj green and giovanni bernard the bengals will make it close because of our crappy offense.

A close win will be perfect. It is withs exactly the same a blowout win does.

[crazyboutravens]

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way this season I would like to see the Ravens make a big push to sign NORV TURNER to be our OC. Maybe he could find a way to stop this offense from our two quarters of nothing and try scoring in every single quarter. It is amazing how quickly this team can score. First score was 3:04 and our second was 3:19. That means our offense was
resting for 53 minutes and change. That is insane.

[bioLarzen]

When he noticed Luck is likely out with a concussion for the IND-PIT game, Ben said "Well, I've already been in the concussion protocol three times this week. And I'm not a drama queen."

Stolen from PFT

Funny (really) - but it's not the player to decide whether he can play, but the docs who must clear them first.

[crazyboutravens]

Steelers get lucky again. Luck to sit out Thursday and will not play against the 26th ranked pass defense.

[Halshayeji]

31 minutes ago, sami said:

We have two of the fastest receivers in the league and we didn't use them. We had a super running attack and stopped using it. The Cowgirls were playing off us and we didn't take advantage of that. What was the game plan? and that Mexican helmet is ugly

Someone's pissed off lol

[Drew P]

The FO has to be searching for an OC this Morningwood guy is awful.

[omar586]

why is levine not on the field.