Next Up: Ravens vs Eagles M&T Bank Stadium December 18, 1300

[DomMcRaven]

4 minutes ago, Militant X 1 said:

I did!  

I drank the "offensive kool-aid" against my better judgment and then on top of that the defense failed me as well.  However, not within these next 3 games. I'm staying true to form.  And for you Dom?  Don't read any articles that may be "juicing up" the Ravens a the favorites.  Just watch it play out! 

 

Got it chief! I'll do my best to ignore them at all costs. 

[robbie29]

7 hours ago, Deflated Football said:

All three of those NFC teams have solid defenses, but still, you take away CJ's fumble in the end zone, Jimmy Smith not being concussed and (I have no exuse for the Cowboys game, they're just better than us) we have a real chance of being 2-1 against them. Flacco doesn't play against the opposing QB so it's really a nonsensical point to make. I've just never heard the Eagles called the "beagles" before. Sheesh. I'm not sure about the injuries, though visiting our homepage or Rotoworld.com may shed some light. We aren't losing to Philly. Write that down and come back to me on Sunday evening. Even if Jimmy is out. 

It doesn't matter what we take away or what might have happened differently. The bottom line is that we have played bad against the NFC East this year. 0-3 is 0-3, and scoring only 10 points against the Redskins just highlights how terrible this offense is. Well, that and the 0 TDs against the freaking Jets. But that's a different division, so I digress.

[Ravens419]

This is slightly off topic but it made me laugh in playing madden right now with a season as the Ravens and I'm playing the pats game and I had a huge 40 yard run and it was called back by a holding call I couldn't help but laugh this stuff is too realistic for me ??

[Ravens419]

Alright last one I kid you guys not I just threw a deep ball to Wallace down the middle and Butler picked it off the hands of Wallace is butler the one that picked it last night? ???

[DomMcRaven]

39 minutes ago, Ravens419 said:

This is slightly off topic but it made me laugh in playing madden right now with a season as the Ravens and I'm playing the pats game and I had a huge 40 yard run and it was called back by a holding call I couldn't help but laugh this stuff is too realistic for me ??

LMAO! That's great! Very Ravens-esque.

38 minutes ago, Ravens419 said:

Alright last one I kid you guys not I just threw a deep ball to Wallace down the middle and Butler picked it off the hands of Wallace is butler the one that picked it last night? ???

It was McCourty, but close enough lol.

[JoeyFlex5]

I think the only chance we have is to ride Dixon. He is the best option we have on offense and we don't have to depend on a clean pocket and separation to get the ball in his hands. No stupid shuffle sweeps either. He was just about the only guy we had on offense Monday night. He was playing like an absolute maniac aside from 2 drops. 

Get him the ball early and often and see what he does. Except against Philly we actually might wanna pass lol. But after that ride Dixon.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

I know this sounds a bit off topic but doesn't the playing surface at M T & T play a big part in the game.  I mean I know the players prefer playing on real turf instead of the plastic sand crap but it must be a major factor. Does anyone happen to know the percentage of stadiums with real grass these days in the American Conference ? and what we are playing on in the last 3 games ? 

[Militant X 1]

32 minutes ago, Marcus_Aurelius said:

I know this sounds a bit off topic but doesn't the playing surface at M T & T play a big part in the game.  I mean I know the players prefer playing on real turf instead of the plastic sand crap but it must be a major factor. Does anyone happen to know the percentage of stadiums with real grass these days in the American Conference ? and what we are playing on in the last 3 games ? 

Where is this stadium?

[JoeyFlex5]

25 minutes ago, Militant X 1 said:

Where is this stadium?

Dallasmore, Marylexas.

[Militant X 1]

26 minutes ago, JoeyFlex5 said:

Dallasmore, Marylexas.

Virginia-See (Virginia/Tennessee)

[JoeyFlex5]

12 hours ago, robbie29 said:

It doesn't matter what we take away or what might have happened differently. The bottom line is that we have played bad against the NFC East this year. 0-3 is 0-3, and scoring only 10 points against the Redskins just highlights how terrible this offense is. Well, that and the 0 TDs against the freaking Jets. But that's a different division, so I digress.

But what the hell do the redskins, giants, and cowboys have to do with the eagles? How do those past games against different teams dictate this matchup at all?

[Rav'n Maniac]

No matter how this game plays out, win, lose or draw. Good Joe/bad Joe, offensive breakout or breakdown, defensive stand or collapse. 

There will still be one brutal fact remaining, which is 

[cobrajet]

On 12/13/2016 at 1:08 AM, FoxRox75 said:

That does put a damper on things. But if it's a do or die situation at that point, I still like our chances alright. Having more motivation than the opposing team always helps.

Sometimes yes, but it can make players play tight and nervous on crucial plays, especially if things don't start very well.

[cobrajet]

Is it possible that Jimmy Smith's injury is not as bad as we first thought? Could he be back in a week or two? Any word yet on the severity?

[cobrajet]

14 hours ago, Ravens419 said:

I also really enjoyed Steve smiths comments after the game after being asked what's the mindset with a three game season and he said "we gotta play dangerous real dangerous and not not to lose" and he's 100% correct 

I like that!

[terrynjulia03]

1 hour ago, cobrajet said:

Is it possible that Jimmy Smith's injury is not as bad as we first thought? Could he be back in a week or two? Any word yet on the severity?

Dunno but he's played 2 full seasons in his 6 years. Honestly I don't count on him for much. 

[Militant X 1]

21 minutes ago, terrynjulia03 said:

Dunno but he's played 2 full seasons in his 6 years. Honestly I don't count on him for much. 

I'm starting to feel the same way.  Just when I get my hopes up about Jimmy...he goes down again and again and again.

[reed20]

1 minute ago, Militant X 1 said:

I'm starting to feel the same way.  Just when I get my hopes up about Jimmy...he goes down again and again and again.

I think its time to part ways when his contract is up unless this improves.

[Tank 92]

5 hours ago, Marcus_Aurelius said:

I know this sounds a bit off topic but doesn't the playing surface at M T & T play a big part in the game.  I mean I know the players prefer playing on real turf instead of the plastic sand crap but it must be a major factor. Does anyone happen to know the percentage of stadiums with real grass these days in the American Conference ? and what we are playing on in the last 3 games ? 

Many of the NFL stadiums have artificial turf, not sure of the number but I would guess more than have natural grass.  M and T was switched back to natural grass just this year. 

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ravens-Switching-To-Natural-Grass-At-MT-Bank-Stadium/46d32170-a754-4201-ae6e-649bffa3959d

[Tank 92]

11 minutes ago, reed20 said:

I think its time to part ways when his contract is up unless this improves.

I think there's two years left on the extension signed in 2015. 

[rmcjacket23]

7 minutes ago, Tank 92 said:

I think there's two years left on the extension signed in 2015. 

23 minutes ago, reed20 said:

I think its time to part ways when his contract is up unless this improves.

Signed through 2019. 

He will 100% be here next year.

Its kind of hard to justify moving on from pretty much the only defensive player on the roster who, when he isn't in the lineup, the defense almost entirely collapses. 

Maybe that would happen if Weddle were to get hurt, but this unit overall is probably pretty average when Jimmy isn't on the field. 

Those aren't the kind of players you "move on" from.

 

[Deflated Football]

9 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Signed through 2019. 

He will 100% be here next year.

Its kind of hard to justify moving on from pretty much the only defensive player on the roster who, when he isn't in the lineup, the defense almost entirely collapses. 

Maybe that would happen if Weddle were to get hurt, but this unit overall is probably pretty average when Jimmy isn't on the field. 

Those aren't the kind of players you "move on" from.

 

Yup. We'd be the laughing stock of the NFL if we cut Jimmy. The only person that needs to be blamed in a situation like this is Ozzie because he sticks to bargain bin signings at Corner with the likes of Powers and Shareece. You can never have enough good Corners

[rmcjacket23]

2 minutes ago, Deflated Football said:

Yup. We'd be the laughing stock of the NFL if we cut Jimmy. The only person that needs to be blamed in a situation like this is Ozzie because he sticks to bargain bin signings at Corner with the likes of Powers and Shareece. You can never have enough good Corners

Well sort of. 

There's not many teams that are out there spending big time money on more than 1 corner, because its hard to construct a winning football team that way in the long term. Its not like we can spending $10M a year on Jimmy and then go sign a big time FA corner for another $10-15M. You can do that, but others areas of your team are going to suffer because of it.

I would say frankly that perhaps the only viable solution is to constantly throw darts in the draft at corners and hope you land a good one. Its not even that wise to target high draft picks, because its a total crap shoot as to whether they pan out.

Plus, there is only maybe a handful of teams who actually have "depth" at corner. They appear to have depth because they have maybe 2-3 good corners, but an injury or two and they're without depth as well.

Incredibly high demand position with not nearly enough supply. Its a league-wide issue, not just a Ravens issue.

[jboy19]

2 minutes ago, Deflated Football said:

Yup. We'd be the laughing stock of the NFL if we cut Jimmy. The only person that needs to be blamed in a situation like this is Ozzie because he sticks to bargain bin signings at Corner with the likes of Powers and Shareece. You can never have enough good Corners

Definitely, and also not drafting enough corners has hurt us, since 2013 (that draft class currently in the last year of their rookie deals), we drafted only 4 corners- Marc Anthony (7th), Tray Walker (4th), Tavon Young (4th), Maurice Canady (6th). Young is the only one on the active roster and Canady is probably only a ST player. I don't think any team could have more success than the Ravens considering how important the position is and how neglected it has been here recently. 

[rmcjacket23]

Just now, jboy19 said:

Definitely, and also not drafting enough corners has hurt us, since 2013 (that draft class currently in the last year of their rookie deals), we drafted only 4 corners- Marc Anthony (7th), Tray Walker (4th), Tavon Young (4th), Maurice Canady (6th). Young is the only one on the active roster and Canady is probably only a ST player. I don't think any team could have more success than the Ravens considering how important the position is and how neglected it has been here recently. 

Well, in that defense, that's actually not a small #. That's four in four years, or 1 per year. Not really that small of a number.

4 of 38 picks at corner, which is roughly 10% of picks. I don't think that's an unreasonably low number. 

The only argument for draft issues is using 6th and 7th round picks on corners. Those are draft slots where players rarely pan out. Would like to see more corners selected on day 2 or early 3, maybe in the 2nd-4th rounds. We are typically quite good at finding value in the 3rd and 4th rounds, so that's an area to target.

We've had 48 picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft in the Harbaugh era (08-16), and only 3 of those picks have been used on Corners (Webb in 09, Jimmy in 11, Young in 16). Realistically, all three have panned out at a reasonable level thus far.

Also excludes the FA signings, like Arrington and Wright, that arguably haven't panned out that well. 

In short, I'm not sure its a lack of "trying". I think its merely a lack of execution and not using quality enough draft picks on the position.

[Drew P]

20 minutes ago, Deflated Football said:

Yup. We'd be the laughing stock of the NFL if we cut Jimmy. The only person that needs to be blamed in a situation like this is Ozzie because he sticks to bargain bin signings at Corner with the likes of Powers and Shareece. You can never have enough good Corners

But they sure as hell overpaid Shareece and a suck butt offense doesn't help the D out one damn bit .

[rmcjacket23]

3 minutes ago, Drew P said:

But they sure as hell overpaid Shareece and a suck butt offense doesn't help the D out one damn bit .

I mean he's making less than $5M, so its not like we were going to have big money to spend by not signing Shareece. 

His compensation really doesn't matter much. 

[jboy19]

3 minutes ago, rmcjacket23 said:

Well, in that defense, that's actually not a small #. That's four in four years, or 1 per year. Not really that small of a number.

4 of 38 picks at corner, which is roughly 10% of picks. I don't think that's an unreasonably low number. 

The only argument for draft issues is using 6th and 7th round picks on corners. Those are draft slots where players rarely pan out. Would like to see more corners selected on day 2 or early 3, maybe in the 2nd-4th rounds. We are typically quite good at finding value in the 3rd and 4th rounds, so that's an area to target.

We've had 48 picks in the first 4 rounds of the draft in the Harbaugh era (08-16), and only 3 of those picks have been used on Corners (Webb in 09, Jimmy in 11, Young in 16). Realistically, all three have panned out at a reasonable level thus far.

Also excludes the FA signings, like Arrington and Wright, that arguably haven't panned out that well. 

In short, I'm not sure its a lack of "trying". I think its merely a lack of execution and not using quality enough draft picks on the position.

I think it's an exceptionally low number considering the struggles we've had at that position, I know I definitely neglected a lot of information, like FAs and how many corners we moved to safety (Webb, Levine), but I do think that its a position that can't be neglected. I'm all for BPA drafting, but in light of how things are turning out for the team and how the league is moving towards nickel sets on almost every down, I think that there should be a consistent pipeline of corners coming in, even if the team is reaching a little bit on prospects. 

[Deflated Football]

Did anyone see the video of Smith Sr. talking to the Pats fans lol? I would post the link but it's NSFW. There goes his Walter Payton award 

[rmcjacket23]

2 minutes ago, jboy19 said:

I think it's an exceptionally low number considering the struggles we've had at that position, I know I definitely neglected a lot of information, like FAs and how many corners we moved to safety (Webb, Levine), but I do think that its a position that can't be neglected. I'm all for BPA drafting, but in light of how things are turning out for the team and how the league is moving towards nickel sets on almost every down, I think that there should be a consistent pipeline of corners coming in, even if the team is reaching a little bit on prospects. 

Right, but a "consistent" pipeline of corners realistically means maybe adding one per year (either via FA or corner), provided that the one you add is at least moderately good. Its not practical enough to use like 2-3 draft picks every year on corners. For starters, its pretty much a lock that at least half of them won't amount to anything, and if that's the case, you're essentially spending 2 or 3 draft picks just in order to hopefully find ONE good player out of them, instead of spending 2-3 draft picks to get 2-3 good players.

I mean in the last two years the Steelers have drafted four corners in the first four rounds. They used a first, two 2nd, and a 4th on corners, and I still wouldn't trade our unit for their's, nor do I think they have much depth there. They have a quantity of corners, but not a quality of corners.

Not to mention the fact that, on this team, Corner probably isn't even the weakest link at this point, and there's plenty of other positions where we will likely need to address as well, so we can't commit to spending a large portion of our draft on one position.