[News] Game Recap: Ravens 27, Eagles 26

[Flamengo1265]

That play call that Flacco got intercepted on was one of the worst calls in NFL history.....the Ravens would have been better off lining up 3 times in the victory formation and then kicking a FG.

[sp3ctor]

People can say what they want about Flacco's interception. Was it a bad throw? Yes. Were the receivers running the wrong routes? Yea, it sure looked like it. Is there blame to place on the side of the offense, including Flacco? Absolutely.

BUT!

MARTY MORNHINWEG! C'mon! Why are you even calling a throw to begin with! Why? Just simply why? I know the guy isn't going to be the long-term solution at OC and he hasn't been the greatest thus far, but even the most inept offensive coordinator or grade 3 student knows when you're up by 10 points with 6 minutes left to go and you have a first and goal you run, run, run, run that ball.

Like I said, bad throw. No excuses for Flacco and that offense today. They looked inept once again. But c'mon, Marty. Call three straight run plays and kick a field goal. I'm fine with that. Instead he call a quick pass over the middle, the same pass we've used quite often this season, the sort of pass that can be easily tipped for an interception, or read for an interception like the Eagles LB did. My goodness, what a gigantic mess of a game. Our defense looked bad. Our special teams were only special because Tucker continues to be the best darn kicker in NFL history, and the offense is just so utterly flat. Dixon and West are averaging over 4 yards a carry. Keep pounding the rock. SMH. I'm going to need a valve replacement and a lifetime supply of Warfarin by the time the season is up.

[TheConquerorWorm]

Seems to me everyone is forgetting we have to win at the Bungles place or the Pittsburg game doesn't matter.

Ravens win out = Division win.
Ravens beat Squealers, Squealers lose to Browns = Division win.

[callahan09]

22 minutes ago, TheConquerorWorm said:

The throw was to SSS on a slant. SSS was well covered (so much so, you don't even really see him in the replay. Hicks made a good play by faking the blitz and falling back.

Yeah, I've watched it about 10 more times since reading your comment just to see what I see in light of your conclusion, and that looks like it might be the definitive answer.  It's kind of hard to see whether he's looking at SSr or at Waller, but I'm starting to think you're right.  In which case, him not seeing Hicks sitting in that spot and reading his eyes, and throwing it anyway, is a huge mistake.

[JamesA119]

I have noticed a bad habit with the way Perriman catches the ball, and that is responsible for most of his drops. If we can see it on television, why can't the coaches grill him on it so he can break that bad habit. When he reaches to catch the ball he prefers to stretch his arms out with his right hand above the left, and the back of his hand towards his face. The better way is to stretch the arms out with the left arm slightly above the right, but however the palm towards the face. His style quite frequently causes the football to clank off his hands

[law215]

  20 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

  26 minutes ago, callahan09 said:

  42 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

I don't buy your attempt at one more excuse for an underachieving QB

It's not an excuse, it's a search for an explanation on a ball that had no chance of being anything other than an interception.  And if you were to think honestly and look back at history, you'd have to acknowledge that this not a typical Joe Flacco type of interception.  He'll throw interceptions where a route got jumped, or he'll have an over/under/behind/in-front of off-target throw, right?  But this throw was none of those things.  It was just completely targeted to a spot where no receiver was running a route to.  These are typically what we call "miscommunications" so that's the most obvious explanation, right?  If you re-watch the play, you can see how if Waller ran a horizontal cut on that route instead of diagonal, then the throw actually starts to make sense.  So, that's *a possibility* for what happened on that play.  Rather than just calling it an "underachieving QB" why don't you watch the play and come back at me and explain how there is no possibility that this was anyone's fault but Flacco's, for X/Y/Z reason(s)?  I'd love an actual discussion, rather than dismissal with no actual argument.  I think that's fair.

I appreciate your view. On the replay it appeared that he had made up his mind that he was going to Steve Smith. The problem was that that route that Steve smith ran was sniffed out pretty early and he had no chance, and yet Flacco threw it.

SSS slipped on his break, otherwise he was open in the endzone. Timing play that would have been a TD but Joe should have seen the LB falling back. It's a hard read for any QB in under 2 seconds.

 

 

Oh stop it! I see 3 defenders converging on the route.

Joe is a dumb QB. Just because it was a bad call does not excuses his poor execution. Marty did call interception as the play.

Joe is dumb and only looked good with vets surrounding him. He's the same guy that on 4th and 29 with the playoffs on the line, he threw a 6 yard pass to Rice. Same guy that consistently saw Polamalu line up on the outside and did not adjust protection.

After 9 nine years and 5 OCs he's run out of people to blame.

[Purple Dawg 96]

The Ravens play soft at home! Is why when they won both Super Bowls they didn't have a home game! "ROAD WARRIORS"! Squeelers and Browns fans said we had a 10 point lead relax I said nope they will give them points up in them 2 minutes! Yup look what happened! Good game now it's time for Joe to earn that DOE he got the weapons! 10-6 to the Super Bowl!

[billiejean]

6 minutes ago, The Greek said:

hey billiejean i cannot wait to read how you defend flacco,the receivers and the o-line after this crappy performance. the podium is yours!!

I am not sure why you think the receivers didn't play well....  on second thought I do know why, it is because you don't know what you're looking at and when the offense plays poorly you blame everybody including the coaches.  Why you think you would be able to differentiate what faults are due to positional coaches rather than a players performance, when you clearly can not articulate what positional units either on offense or defense struggled, is beyond me.  And as a unit the offensive line didn't play terribly.  They werent outstanding but they were able to open up some holes in the running games.  There were some issues in pass protection with the 3 sacks but I don't think all 3 can be attributed solely to the OL.  That said Ducasse looks over-matched at times but there isn't anyone on our team that would be an upgrade over him.  With all of that said I do find it strange that you chose to single out the offense.  Yea Joe threw some ugly balls that ended up as points for the Eagles, but the defense was getting run over all game. Although the offense didn't do them any favors I think they played just as poorly as the O.  How did Leslie Frasier do this game???

[The Greek]

  26 minutes ago, sami said:

Seems to me everyone is forgetting we have to win at the Bungles place or the Pittsburg game doesn't matter.

Ravens win out = Division win.
Ravens beat Squealers, Squealers lose to Browns = Division win.

squeelers lose to browns? hahahahahahahahaha how about flacco playing like a 120 mil man and beating the raiders skins giants and jets. brady would have put up 45-60 against the eagles today

[billiejean]

  1 hour ago, law215 said:

This team absolutely refuses to run the darn ball. Almost a 3rd game lost by stupid decision. Then Peterson going for 2 and the Bungles blowing a huge lead at home.

Its like I said before. The Ravens are flawed from coaching to front office and players, but so are the other teams in the NFL.

Now it on the Steelers with everything on the line. Merry X-mas

o-line is too inconsistent and flacco is below avg thus far running the offense. i pray he wakes up on xmas and gives us the best light show we have ever seen. maybe the receivers will show up and not drop passes as well

how many dropped passes were there today?

[The Greek]

  47 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

I don't buy your attempt at one more excuse for an underachieving QB

It's not an excuse, it's a search for an explanation on a ball that had no chance of being anything other than an interception.  And if you were to think honestly and look back at history, you'd have to acknowledge that this not a typical Joe Flacco type of interception.  He'll throw interceptions where a route got jumped, or he'll have an over/under/behind/in-front of off-target throw, right?  But this throw was none of those things.  It was just completely targeted to a spot where no receiver was running a route to.  These are typically what we call "miscommunications" so that's the most obvious explanation, right?  If you re-watch the play, you can see how if Waller ran a horizontal cut on that route instead of diagonal, then the throw actually starts to make sense.  So, that's *a possibility* for what happened on that play.  Rather than just calling it an "underachieving QB" why don't you watch the play and come back at me and explain how there is no possibility that this was anyone's fault but Flacco's, for X/Y/Z reason(s)?  I'd love an actual discussion, rather than dismissal with no actual argument.  I think that's fair.

flacco has reached his peak in bmore. he is below avg. until proven otherwise. he had a great 4 game run and that is all. receivers are weak as well

[The Greek]

  34 minutes ago, The Greek said:

  1 hour ago, law215 said:

This team absolutely refuses to run the darn ball. Almost a 3rd game lost by stupid decision. Then Peterson going for 2 and the Bungles blowing a huge lead at home.

Its like I said before. The Ravens are flawed from coaching to front office and players, but so are the other teams in the NFL.

Now it on the Steelers with everything on the line. Merry X-mas

o-line is too inconsistent and flacco is below avg thus far running the offense. i pray he wakes up on xmas and gives us the best light show we have ever seen. maybe the receivers will show up and not drop passes as well

how many dropped passes were there today?

4

[callahan09]

9 minutes ago, law215 said:

Oh stop it! I see 3 defenders converging on the route.

Joe is a dumb QB. Just because it was a bad call does not excuses his poor execution. Marty did call interception as the play.

Joe is dumb and only looked good with vets surrounding him. He's the same guy that on 4th and 29 with the playoffs on the line, he threw a 6 yard pass to Rice. Same guy that consistently saw Polamalu line up on the outside and did not adjust protection.

After 9 nine years and 5 OCs he's run out of people to blame.

Ya know, I see this 4th & 29 argument used against Flacco a lot lately.  Last I checked, the play was successful, right?  Let's see, what should he have done instead?  If you look at the coach's film on that play, nobody else is open anywhere near the line to gain and it would have been no chance of anyone catching a first down on that play EXCEPT Rice, who had miles of open space in front of him, so Flacco trusted him to make a play and utilize all that nice, clean, open space in front of him and get that first down, and guess what, it worked!  So can we please stop using this play as some kind of pinnacle example of how Joe is stupid?  Was it risky and unconventional to get a first down that way in such a situation?  Um, yeah, you could say that, but given the position of all the players on the field, it's not like there was any option any more likely to succeed, and IT WORKED!

[ellicottraven]

Flacco and Marty almost cost us this game and the season. Luckily the Eagles went for 2 as I had suspected but failed. This wasn't a game that needed to be close but for some bone headed calls and play by coaches and player.

[davy_861]

Harbaugh will coach next weeks game as though his job were on the line. He feels really bad about how the game almost ended and I can assure you that he will do everything in his power to make up for what happened.

[bluehen]

Just what is Perriman's roll on the team? Second year No. 1 draft pick, gets targeted once and drops a ball that hits him right in the hands!

[JamesA119]

  19 minutes ago, law215 said:

Oh stop it! I see 3 defenders converging on the route.

Joe is a dumb QB. Just because it was a bad call does not excuses his poor execution. Marty did call interception as the play.

Joe is dumb and only looked good with vets surrounding him. He's the same guy that on 4th and 29 with the playoffs on the line, he threw a 6 yard pass to Rice. Same guy that consistently saw Polamalu line up on the outside and did not adjust protection.

After 9 nine years and 5 OCs he's run out of people to blame.

Ya know, I see this 4th & 29 argument used against Flacco a lot lately.  Last I checked, the play was successful, right?  Let's see, what should he have done instead?  If you look at the coach's film on that play, nobody else is open anywhere near the line to gain and it would have been no chance of anyone catching a first down on that play EXCEPT Rice, who had miles of open space in front of him, so Flacco trusted him to make a play and utilize all that nice, clean, open space in front of him and get that first down, and guess what, it worked!  So can we please stop using this play as some kind of pinnacle example of how Joe is stupid?  Was it risky and unconventional to get a first down that way in such a situation?  Um, yeah, you could say that, but given the position of all the players on the field, it's not like there was any option any more likely to succeed, and IT WORKED!

That 4th and 29 even though it worked just epitomizes Flacco. He doesn't usually give it his best, or his best is just not good enough.

[Ravens8383]

  24 minutes ago, TheConquerorWorm said:

  46 minutes ago, sami said:

Seems to me everyone is forgetting we have to win at the Bungles place or the Pittsburg game doesn't matter.

Ravens win out = Division win.
Ravens beat Squealers, Squealers lose to Browns = Division win.

squeelers lose to browns? hahahahahahahahaha how about flacco playing like a 120 mil man and beating the raiders skins giants and jets. brady would have put up 45-60 against the eagles today

But Flacco put up 27 and got the W so I don't see why we are talking about Brady.

[The Greek]

Just what is Perriman's roll on the team? Second year No. 1 draft pick, gets targeted once and drops a ball that hits him right in the hands!

another great pick by ozzie

[callahan09]

7 minutes ago, The Greek said:

flacco has reached his peak in bmore. he is below avg. until proven otherwise. he had a great 4 game run and that is all. receivers are weak as well

When he has had unimpressive stats in the past, but we were winning, stats are held against him.  So do stats matter or not?  Because now it feels like he's being criticized with the eye test only, in spite of the stats.  Or are you all not aware of the stats?  Because I'll take this any time:

Since the bye week: 185/271, 1951 Yards, 14 TD, 7 INT = 68% completion percentage, 7.2 Y/A, 2-to-1 TD/INT ratio, 95.4 QB Rating ... and a 5-2 W/L record, with the two losses being against the two best teams in the NFL on the road.

Or does none of that matter now because you didn't like the way he "looked" while we were winning?

I also think people don't pay enough attention to the things that aren't going his way.  The pass protection was really bad on a number of plays today, leading to some untimely sacks.  The receivers dropped a handful of passes, and in the first half a couple of passes sailed incomplete after the receiver slipped on the sod.  Last week, Flacco's interception was actually a fine pass to Wallace that should have been caught, and literally slipped right through his arms.  Today Flacco threw a pass without seeing the linebacker there and it got intercepted, let's say it's 100% Flacco's fault.  OK?  It's not the end of the world for a quarterback to make a mistake like that.  Brady did a similar one last week, in a similar situation being up by a couple scores, throwing in the red zone, and got picked off, also 100% his fault.  Does that make Brady a "peaked" QB who is below average?  Of course not.  Even the greatest QB in this game, who by the way was having a fantastic game, can make an inexplicably bad play.

I think some of the critics need to see it for what it really is, it's an inconsistent offense with a home-run or bust running game that gets stuffed no a loss or no gain on a regular basis, but has a better-looking average because they are good for 1 or 2 big runs per game that catch the defense off-guard.  But for the most part, running the ball on this team just gets us into 3rd and long situations.  It's a team that has receivers running the wrong routes, slipping on the turf, dropping passes, making bad plays on the ball in the air, or just plain not getting open.  And thus we dump off a lot.  It's a function of everything that's going on on the field.  And Flacco gets hung out to dry by pass protection that suddenly breaks down, when he thinks he's got a pocket to step up into, it's suddenly not there and the guard is getting beaten for a sack.  It's been a injury-recovery season with an extremely inconsistent O-line and a lot of good coverage against our receiving corps, and that's why we are seeing a lot of checkdowns or a lack of trust in the line from Flacco leading to some poor mechanics.  These things all go hand in hand.  You can't just observe Flacco and say that all the problems on this offense are because of him.  It's equally as true (I'd argue much more so) that most of the problems with Flacco are because of the offense he's operating in.  Did we also forget that fired an offensive coordinator in the middle of the season?  Or that most of our biggest players on offense weren't around for significant chunks of the off-season because of injuries?

And yet back to my original point, since we had our bye week, Flacco is not a statistically below average quarterback.  He's among the highest in yards per game and completion percentage, he's got among the highest quantity of touchdowns, and he's up there in QB rating as well.  And we're winning.  By whatever means, it seems, except for (again) 2 games against the top 2 teams in the league, on the road.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy with the way the offense has looked these past two games... but I just think the criticism of Flacco is really over the top given all the facts and circumstances.

I agree with criticizing Flacco for missing plays here and there and for throwing a bad interception not seeing the whole field in perspective properly today, but him not being 100% unequivocally perfect on every single play does not mean that he deserves the vitriol that our fanbase has started to develop towards him, calling him stupid, dumb, terrible, below average, or whatever.

People try to use statistics to make that argument, but then when the statistics are improving, they say the statistics don't matter and revert to other arguments instead.  The statistics for the first half of the season were awful, and he was near the bottom of the league in most category.  Now, since the offensive line has gotten a little more consistent, Flacco has some games under his belt instead of it being the beginning of a season not even a year removed from a season-ending injury with one of the worst O-lines in the league, the performance out of him IS statistically improved, and he's now near the top of the league in many categories over the span of the 2nd half of the season.

[The Mom Gene]

1 hour ago, pocket said:

No. "At least" is never allowed to be used in pro sports. He always throws an interception at the wrong time. Points should have been had there. Save the cultural rhetoric for your twitter feeds. 

CLEARLY...as was outlined in the pressers, that was a called play. And Harbaugh said he should have vetoed it.  Be careful...  lots of professionals use the term "at least"...  and I will do so at my leisure, or as I feel appropriate.  Your use of the term cultural rhetoric has nothing to do with football.  So, your choice of wording was inappropriate at best.
 

[metalraven]

That interception looked ugly as hell. The only thing I can think of is that Waller was supposed to cut horizontally across the field at the spot where he cut up diagonally. If that was the route he was supposed to run, then it looks like Joe's decision to throw and the placement of the throw might have been correct. Because if that's NOT the case, then the decision and the throw make abslutely NO sense. Personally, I'd give the benefit of the doubt to Flacco over Waller. Waller is an inexperienced player who wasn't on the active roster for a significant portion of the offseason & season, so him running the wrong route seems more likely to me. But this is why football is such a difficult game to analyze. How are we as fans supposed to know what happened on that play? But after trying to figure out why Flacco threw that horrible looking pick, it appears to me that if Waller had cut directly horizontally across the field rather than diagonally, it might have been a completion, and that the only explanation that makes any sense to me is that Waller ran the wrong route.

No way dude. Even if it was Waller's fault; that is stupid call AND stupid pass. Very seldom do slants work as "timing routes" deep in the red zone. That was completely idiotic. But it's typical of this Ravens team. Lots of talent, but a lot of dumb people calling the shots.

[JamesA119]

  31 minutes ago, The Greek said:

  38 minutes ago, TheConquerorWorm said:

  1 hour ago, sami said:

Seems to me everyone is forgetting we have to win at the Bungles place or the Pittsburg game doesn't matter.

Ravens win out = Division win.
Ravens beat Squealers, Squealers lose to Browns = Division win.

squeelers lose to browns? hahahahahahahahaha how about flacco playing like a 120 mil man and beating the raiders skins giants and jets. brady would have put up 45-60 against the eagles today

But Flacco put up 27 and got the W so I don't see why we are talking about Brady.

Today was the worst I've seen our D in a long time

[metalraven]

  1 hour ago, callahan09 said:

That interception looked ugly as hell. The only thing I can think of is that Waller was supposed to cut horizontally across the field at the spot where he cut up diagonally. If that was the route he was supposed to run, then it looks like Joe's decision to throw and the placement of the throw might have been correct. Because if that's NOT the case, then the decision and the throw make abslutely NO sense. Personally, I'd give the benefit of the doubt to Flacco over Waller. Waller is an inexperienced player who wasn't on the active roster for a significant portion of the offseason & season, so him running the wrong route seems more likely to me. But this is why football is such a difficult game to analyze. How are we as fans supposed to know what happened on that play? But after trying to figure out why Flacco threw that horrible looking pick, it appears to me that if Waller had cut directly horizontally across the field rather than diagonally, it might have been a completion, and that the only explanation that makes any sense to me is that Waller ran the wrong route.

I don't buy your attempt at one more excuse for an underachieving QB

Thank you. Granted, Flacco played pretty well. But man, he, for the most part, will do one or two incredibly stupid, unnecessary things each game. Sometimes he looks freaking incredible. At other times, he's terrible.

[The Mom Gene]

1 hour ago, billiejean said:

The play calling towards the end was baffling. We must have had a lot of confidence in our defense (I am not sure why) the way our last offensive drive was called. I get that we were trying to be safe run the clock and try not to turn it over, but we really didn't make any legitimate attempt at getting that first down. It would have made more sense to me if we were on the 50 but we were pinned back and gave them good field position which they capitalized on.

Of that, I do agree.

[billiejean]

21 minutes ago, The Greek said:

u r clueless man. stop posting when u r drunk. offense sucks and deal with it. smh

I wasn't saying that the offense played lights out.  I said they played poorly or that they "suck".  So I am not sure where our opinions differ.  It is totally reasonable to be angry about the game.  We played a terrible game, but it doesn't mean that every single person on the team played terribly.  You seem to be inferring things from my comments that I haven't come close to saying and you are making less sense than you usually do.  Either way I would suggest that you have a snickers and relax its almost Christmas.

[The Mom Gene]

36 minutes ago, law215 said:

Oh stop it! I see 3 defenders converging on the route.

Joe is a dumb QB. Just because it was a bad call does not excuses his poor execution. Marty did call interception as the play.

Joe is dumb and only looked good with vets surrounding him. He's the same guy that on 4th and 29 with the playoffs on the line, he threw a 6 yard pass to Rice. Same guy that consistently saw Polamalu line up on the outside and did not adjust protection.

After 9 nine years and 5 OCs he's run out of people to blame.

Ummmmm, it was a schemed play, called by Morninhweg.  Even Harbaugh admitted he should have vetoed it.

[JamesA119]

Harbaugh will coach next weeks game as though his job were on the line. He feels really bad about how the game almost ended and I can assure you that he will do everything in his power to make up for what happened.

If there is any silver lining in the way we struggled today against a sub 500 team, it's that we will go into Pittsburgh on edge. What worries me is that nearly the whole team would be playing with a chip on its shoulder except the QB.

[metalraven]

  44 minutes ago, TheConquerorWorm said:

  58 minutes ago, JamesA119 said:

  1 hour ago, callahan09 said:

  1 hour ago, JamesA119 said:

I don't buy your attempt at one more excuse for an underachieving QB

It's not an excuse, it's a search for an explanation on a ball that had no chance of being anything other than an interception.  And if you were to think honestly and look back at history, you'd have to acknowledge that this not a typical Joe Flacco type of interception.  He'll throw interceptions where a route got jumped, or he'll have an over/under/behind/in-front of off-target throw, right?  But this throw was none of those things.  It was just completely targeted to a spot where no receiver was running a route to.  These are typically what we call "miscommunications" so that's the most obvious explanation, right?  If you re-watch the play, you can see how if Waller ran a horizontal cut on that route instead of diagonal, then the throw actually starts to make sense.  So, that's *a possibility* for what happened on that play.  Rather than just calling it an "underachieving QB" why don't you watch the play and come back at me and explain how there is no possibility that this was anyone's fault but Flacco's, for X/Y/Z reason(s)?  I'd love an actual discussion, rather than dismissal with no actual argument.  I think that's fair.

I appreciate your view. On the replay it appeared that he had made up his mind that he was going to Steve Smith. The problem was that that route that Steve smith ran was sniffed out pretty early and he had no chance, and yet Flacco threw it.

SSS slipped on his break, otherwise he was open in the endzone. Timing play that would have been a TD but Joe should have seen the LB falling back. It's a hard read for any QB in under 2 seconds.

 

 

Oh stop it! I see 3 defenders converging on the route.

Joe is a dumb QB. Just because it was a bad call does not excuses his poor execution. Marty did call interception as the play.

Joe is dumb and only looked good with vets surrounding him. He's the same guy that on 4th and 29 with the playoffs on the line, he threw a 6 yard pass to Rice. Same guy that consistently saw Polamalu line up on the outside and did not adjust protection.

After 9 nine years and 5 OCs he's run out of people to blame.

Yep

[The Mom Gene]

23 minutes ago, bluehen said:

Just what is Perriman's roll on the team? Second year No. 1 draft pick, gets targeted once and drops a ball that hits him right in the hands!

Quasi Rookie