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

[n#7]

1. On Joe: It’s time to start thinking about the Ravens future QB. Joe is not accurate, he does not read defense very well, and he is turning over the football. He needs everything around him to be in place in order for him to be successful (A good O-line, a good run game, a good OC, good receivers, vets to provide emotional spark, and a great defense to minimize the impact of his mistakes).

The issue is his salary prevents the front office from having all of that in place at the same time. Either through draft or free agency, bring someone in to push him and look to the future.
9 years, 5 OCs, 0 excuses left.

2. On Coaching: I think Marty play called his way out of being the OC for next season. When your coach goes in front of the press and says ‘worst call ever’, then you are going to lose your job. I don’t give John credit for taking responsibility because he threw Marty under the bus while doing it.
He talked about vetoing the play call. His staff should be smart, aware of the situation, and in sync with the game plan.

3. Defense: Eagles front man-handled the Ravens defense in the run game. That’s our strength and they shredded us on the ground.

Williams, Guy, Jernigan did not make a case for breaking the bank to keep them after that butt whipping. It had nothing to do with play calling. Eagle’s offensive line just pushed them around. They need to turn it around.

Teams that break the bank on DT do not do well (JJ Watt- Texans, Haynesworth-Skins, Suh-Dolphins). None of them managed to be a perennial playoff team or win a Superbowl.

I hope we keep at least Williams, but Front office is already overpaying too many guys.

4. Front office: Too many 1st and 2nd round guys not making an impact on this team. OZ always rely on vets to keep team competitive to cover-up the poor drafts by him and DeCosta.

First it was injuries, then lacking playmakers. This season makes me believe it has been the coaching all along. If the Ravens miss the playoffs, what will they say?


5. Ravens vs Steelers doesn’t get any better with playoffs on the line. Better coaching and QB play would have prevented this situation, but it is what it is.

Pretty much agree. There are too many players in key positions getting "too long in the tooth" for football and the drafting has been a weak point for some years. There must be at least a partial rebuilding and the sooner the better. Just don't know if the current FO is also getting "too long in the tooth" to pull that one off. If they don't make the playoffs this year one could expect some big changes up and down the team chart although Harbaugh should be one of the few that should be safe.

[sizzlingdoom]

OBVIOUSLY we should've run on that play. But Flacco, how about a WIDE OPEN waller instead of a triple covered Smitty?????????jeez

[steelraven]

  4 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

Amen!! I can not remember a time when someone said the Ravens have a hire power offense. This team has been about one thing since they moved to Baltimore and that is winning ulgy games and doing it with defense!

Then why pay Flacco all that money instead of spending it on the defense? Flacco should be put in jail for stealing all that money he's being paid. You don't get paid for what you did in the past, you get paid for what you should do in the future and since being paid twice after the super bowl and the extension he's done nothing but collect a check every week. But I can blame him though, I blame Ozzie. He gambles too much and now it's costing them.

[BigUgly]

In 2012, the team was on the brink of collapsing; the veteran players saw it and voiced their concerns in the "mutiny". Seems like something similar may be brewing as many vets are questioning the schemes and decisions of the coordinators which, at this point, is Harbs' responsibility. Old slogans out of your Dad's book of game-day speeches aren't enough to fix what has been broken on this team for the past 4 years - it requires a strong and knowledgable coach to take control.

[TheRavengers]

If your own HEAD COACH thinks a play is a bad idea but allows it anyway, then that's on you. Also on Joe for not switching up at the time and just blindly agreeing with it, especially since we were actually running the ball all the day and our offense actually moved a bit better than last week.

Think back to the Seahawks-Pats Superbowl if you wanna see how throwing that close to the goal line near the end of a game worked out....

[bioLarzen]

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

There's only one - IMHO fatal - flaw about this: NFL has been steadily shifting towards the offense. The O has been getting more and more protection, the D is allowed to do less and less without a sea of laundry landing on the grass. Therefore teams relying on their D are getting obsolete real fast. We're nearing - or maybe already at - the point where no matter how good your D is, the rules make it impossible to flourish and survive on the production oif your defense. Hate to bring it up as an example here, but the steelers seem to have understood this, turning their D-heavy team into an O-driven one. And, even if it sounds like a blasphemy here, I still think that's what the Ravens should do too. And it wouldn't even take an awful lot IMHO: a serviceable OC and a HC that doesn't hate - OK: neglect - the O as much, and understands it better than Harbaugh apparently does. I believe we have the rostrer to be a much, much better team than we currently are -. and to have a much, much more productive O than we currently have.
The problem is at the sidelines.

[J.O.14]

  5 hours ago, Ravens8383 said:

  8 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

Amen!! I can not remember a time when someone said the Ravens have a hire power offense. This team has been about one thing since they moved to Baltimore and that is winning ulgy games and doing it with defense!

Then why pay Flacco all that money instead of spending it on the defense? Flacco should be put in jail for stealing all that money he's being paid. You don't get paid for what you did in the past, you get paid for what you should do in the future and since being paid twice after the super bowl and the extension he's done nothing but collect a check every week. But I can blame him though, I blame Ozzie. He gambles too much and now it's costing them.

But you do pay QBs for what they do in the past. You can complain about Flacco's pay all you want, if you have a DECENT QB, they are going to get paid a lot of money. You don't let a QB go after he just had one of the best post seasons ever. The going rate for QBs is ridiculous, and it's only going to get worse. Imagine being the Texans right now.

[bioLarzen]

  12 hours ago, bioLarzen said:

So, we're at the point when our beloved Ravens can't even win in a way that leaves us happy. Yep, a W is a W - but we are not the Browns or Jags to be happy about any W, no matetr how it was achieved... Yep, there are some games where the W is the ONLY thing (the Super Bowl, any palyoff game, any steelers game, any Pats game) - but other times the game is also important. And today was just disheartening. When we hoped the O would maybe play something as good as the D - the D tried to play as bad as the O... and all this before the steelers game... If things don't change radically in a week, it's gonna be a whitewash in Pittshburgh... and not in our favor. So far we had an O that faltered, playing frighteningly inconsistently, but at least we had a D to rely on. Today we had the same O - with a D that didn't resemble the one we've had so far...

This was the game I've given up on Harbaugh. I simply can't believe in him anymore, sorry. And even if we end up winning the Super Bowl (yeah, I know...) I won't ever believe in him. This season was about his unraveling. Last season there was all the injuries to put the blame on - this season it's become painfully obvious that it's not the roster to blame. I'm convinced we have the players to be much, much better a team than who we currently are. I'm more than sure that if we had the coaching staff half as good as the Pats have, we'd long be in the playoffs...

But we have Harbaugh and Mornhinweg... and a team that's simply no fun to watch, but 3 hours of mostly agony. Please, Steve... give us back our entertaining Ravens.

We can be thankful we have Pees and a lot of great players who are somehow able to counter all the coaching nightmare we've seen so far...

What is Interesting about this is that Not Only Flacco is dealing with a new OC each year for the last 8 years but so is Harbaugh. And to boot he fired one at 6 games into the season this year. So not to disagree with all the pundits here but i think there is some relevance to the situation. Actually we should be quite surprised, many teams that change coaches and struggle fall flat on their faces. At least the Ravens scratch and claw, fight and screw up.

I've been saying it all along: there are certain positions that the current Ravens FO seems to be unable to correctly gauge and understand: we don't seem to have scouts to spot WR talents - what was the last time the Ravens picked a really good - and I mean Pro Bowl or HOF caliber - WR? The correct answer: never. Not once in 20 year. Safety seems another spot the Ravens scouts don't seem to be able to correctly identify talents of - Reed seems much more an anomaly than the trend.
Also, there are couching positions that seem to baffle our FO - OC being the most obvious one. With the sole exception of Kubiak - who was indeed a bullseye - every single one of our HC's of the last 10 or so seasons proved to be painfully and spectacualrly inept. We're at the point where bringing back Cam Cameron would seem to be an actual upgrade over what we've had the past two seasons... and that I think tells the story for any Ravens-fan.
Many people criticize the player - I, on the contrary, think it's the players who make Harbaugh and our OC whoever he is, look bad instead of catastrophic. but a good roster will never be successful in spite of a bad coaching staff. That's not how the NFL works.

[ellicottraven]

If we play the way we played and coach the way we did, this may very well be the end of the road for us. I can't see us beating the Steelers and Cincy on the road, especially given our road record this season. Unless, of course Flacco goes on another magical 4 game run like 4 yrs ago.

[sizzlingdoom]

  3 hours ago, steelraven said:

  6 hours ago, Ravens8383 said:

  8 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

Amen!! I can not remember a time when someone said the Ravens have a hire power offense. This team has been about one thing since they moved to Baltimore and that is winning ulgy games and doing it with defense!

Then why pay Flacco all that money instead of spending it on the defense? Flacco should be put in jail for stealing all that money he's being paid. You don't get paid for what you did in the past, you get paid for what you should do in the future and since being paid twice after the super bowl and the extension he's done nothing but collect a check every week. But I can blame him though, I blame Ozzie. He gambles too much and now it's costing them.

But you do pay QBs for what they do in the past. You can complain about Flacco's pay all you want, if you have a DECENT QB, they are going to get paid a lot of money. You don't let a QB go after he just had one of the best post seasons ever. The going rate for QBs is ridiculous, and it's only going to get worse. Imagine being the Texans right now.

dead on

[Crusader]

  3 hours ago, steelraven said:

  6 hours ago, Ravens8383 said:

  8 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

Amen!! I can not remember a time when someone said the Ravens have a hire power offense. This team has been about one thing since they moved to Baltimore and that is winning ulgy games and doing it with defense!

Then why pay Flacco all that money instead of spending it on the defense? Flacco should be put in jail for stealing all that money he's being paid. You don't get paid for what you did in the past, you get paid for what you should do in the future and since being paid twice after the super bowl and the extension he's done nothing but collect a check every week. But I can blame him though, I blame Ozzie. He gambles too much and now it's costing them.

But you do pay QBs for what they do in the past. You can complain about Flacco's pay all you want, if you have a DECENT QB, they are going to get paid a lot of money. You don't let a QB go after he just had one of the best post seasons ever. The going rate for QBs is ridiculous, and it's only going to get worse. Imagine being the Texans right now.

But did they have to pay him so much that the team suffers for years? Ravens won both Superbowl's not paying a Kings Ransom. Joe's not worth being the 4 highest paid QB in the NFL.Notice how quickly the Ravens fell out of serious contention when he got paid?

[DENNYK]

Here is a breakdown for you. Take a look at the names of the coaches that Harbaugh has managed to hire to his coaching staff. Names that he was very familiar with while he was Special Teams coach up in Phila. To date they have not shown any long term improvement to the team. Looking back now, one can see that they may have actually taken the team a bit backwards. As I see it, I now know where South Philly is. Right here in good old B-more. Time to get out the broom Steve.

[Edgar]

Swell of the HC to throw his staff under the bus. Flacco never even thought to see the linebacker. 

[DENNYK]

Mike Preston has hit the nail on the head this morning in the SUN. His article and his report card on dead on. I don't always agree with his views, but today he nailed it.

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

“Even if we’re up 10 points, or 21 points, I’m thinking, ‘It’s going to come down to the nitty and gritty,”

Why, why - if we are up 10 or 21 points why must it come down to the final possession or final play? Why can we not put teams away and close the game? I could see if the defense was ranked below 20th but when you supposedly are the #1 defense in the league why are you giving up so many big plays and putting the team in this position? Is it coaching, the bend but don't break mentality that the current DC has - whatever it is it needs to stop immediately because the Steelers and Bengals game won't have the same outcome!!

[Crusader]

The Ravens will be out coached in the Pittsburgh game. Pitts made second half adjustments that shut down Bengals and won the game. Something I have not seen the Ravens able to do.

[TheRavengers]

13 minutes ago, ibleedpurpleandblack said:

“Even if we’re up 10 points, or 21 points, I’m thinking, ‘It’s going to come down to the nitty and gritty,”

Why, why - if we are up 10 or 21 points why must it come down to the final possession or final play? Why can we not put teams away and close the game? I could see if the defense was ranked below 20th but when you supposedly are the #1 defense in the league why are you giving up so many big plays and putting the team in this position? Is it coaching, the bend but don't break mentality that the current DC has - whatever it is it needs to stop immediately because the Steelers and Bengals game won't have the same outcome!!

I'm starting to think the team just like creating drama for drama's sake and making things "interesting" but for all the wrong reasons. The Dolphins game was an example of a day where fans could sit back and relax as the Ravens thoroughly curbstomped them, but every other game is just making the fans bite their nails and sweat in the hopes that they make the right play at the right time.

[JacktheRaven]

The Ravens will be out coached in the Pittsburgh game. Pitts made second half adjustments that shut down Bengals and won the game. Something I have not seen the Ravens able to do.

I didn't see any " 2nd half adjustments" by the Steelers. I did see the Bengals commit penalties on 4, FOUR, consecutive snaps in the 4th qt. to give the Steelers the lead.

[lowcountryraven]

As a Raven's fan, after 14 games and all the good and bad plays and injuries of a season, our team still controls its own destiny. If you told me at the beginning of the season that on Christmas day we would be playing the Steelers for the AFC North crown, most of us fans would of taking it. Who cares if we go 10-6 or 13-3 to win the AFC North and get a home playoff game. It is all or nothing. There will be no wild card in our control unless we get a lot of help, so Christmas day is it. Let's all get behind our team and root for them to play good mistake free football. Let's be thankful our team as a chance,. Let hope our players give us fans a great Christmas win! Go Ravens!!!

[hereweare]

1 hour ago, Crusader said:

But did they have to pay him so much that the team suffers for years? Ravens won both Superbowl's not paying a Kings Ransom. Joe's not worth being the 4 highest paid QB in the NFL.Notice how quickly the Ravens fell out of serious contention when he got paid?

That's not true. Ravens didn't fall out of serious contention when he got paid...?
2013- half team retired or left via getting overpaid in FA,
2014 we were damn good and a BB scheme away from being in the SB again
2015 everyone is hurt.
2016...two future games away from being division champs

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

  57 minutes ago, J.O.14 said:

  4 hours ago, steelraven said:

  6 hours ago, Ravens8383 said:

  9 hours ago, bigcatfrank1 said:

What Ravens have you been watching for the past 20 years? This team is about nose to nose, down to the wire, fight to the end, never say never football!
The Ravens have always been a fiery, defensive, in the trenches, competitive team that did one of two things, either they rise to the level of play of their opponent or the bring out the best in the level of play of the opponent that they face! That is Ravens football and I for one respect it and enjoy it.

Amen!! I can not remember a time when someone said the Ravens have a hire power offense. This team has been about one thing since they moved to Baltimore and that is winning ulgy games and doing it with defense!

Then why pay Flacco all that money instead of spending it on the defense? Flacco should be put in jail for stealing all that money he's being paid. You don't get paid for what you did in the past, you get paid for what you should do in the future and since being paid twice after the super bowl and the extension he's done nothing but collect a check every week. But I can blame him though, I blame Ozzie. He gambles too much and now it's costing them.

But you do pay QBs for what they do in the past. You can complain about Flacco's pay all you want, if you have a DECENT QB, they are going to get paid a lot of money. You don't let a QB go after he just had one of the best post seasons ever. The going rate for QBs is ridiculous, and it's only going to get worse. Imagine being the Texans right now.

But did they have to pay him so much that the team suffers for years? Ravens won both Superbowl's not paying a Kings Ransom. Joe's not worth being the 4 highest paid QB in the NFL.Notice how quickly the Ravens fell out of serious contention when he got paid?

No, it is not because Flacco got paid as to why they fell out of contention. Two of the all time greatest players also left the defense!!!

[ibleedpurpleandblack]

If your own HEAD COACH thinks a play is a bad idea but allows it anyway, then that's on you. Also on Joe for not switching up at the time and just blindly agreeing with it, especially since we were actually running the ball all the day and our offense actually moved a bit better than last week.

Think back to the Seahawks-Pats Superbowl if you wanna see how throwing that close to the goal line near the end of a game worked out....

That is not the way the offense is run - not sure what you people don't understand - JOE RUNS THE PLAY AS CALLED - this offense has always done that and will continue to. The only time Joe seemed to have the decision making authority was in the 2012 playoffs. Other than that, the play that is sent in is the play that is ran. That's not up to Joe, that's up to the head coach!!

[hereweare]

1 hour ago, bioLarzen said:

I've been saying it all along: there are certain positions that the current Ravens FO seems to be unable to correctly gauge and understand: we don't seem to have scouts to spot WR talents - what was the last time the Ravens picked a really good - and I mean Pro Bowl or HOF caliber - WR? The correct answer: never. Not once in 20 year. Safety seems another spot the Ravens scouts don't seem to be able to correctly identify talents of - Reed seems much more an anomaly than the trend.
Also, there are couching positions that seem to baffle our FO - OC being the most obvious one. With the sole exception of Kubiak - who was indeed a bullseye - every single one of our HC's of the last 10 or so seasons proved to be painfully and spectacualrly inept. We're at the point where bringing back Cam Cameron would seem to be an actual upgrade over what we've had the past two seasons... and that I think tells the story for any Ravens-fan.
Many people criticize the player - I, on the contrary, think it's the players who make Harbaugh and our OC whoever he is, look bad instead of catastrophic. but a good roster will never be successful in spite of a bad coaching staff. That's not how the NFL works.

We are consistently in the playoff mix because the FO can gauge the men in the trenches. Classic TV talking point - games are won in the trenches. So, credit to the FO for nailing the most important aspect of building a competitive team. But yes, WR is a serious issue and safety drafts have been bad for years now too.
As for OC, lets judge him after the steelers game! I remember hearing Cam Cameron slept in the office the week leading up to a big Pitt game, hopefully Marty is doing the same

[PurpleRainBlackVeins]

  2 hours ago, TheRavengers said:

If your own HEAD COACH thinks a play is a bad idea but allows it anyway, then that's on you. Also on Joe for not switching up at the time and just blindly agreeing with it, especially since we were actually running the ball all the day and our offense actually moved a bit better than last week.

Think back to the Seahawks-Pats Superbowl if you wanna see how throwing that close to the goal line near the end of a game worked out....

That is not the way the offense is run - not sure what you people don't understand - JOE RUNS THE PLAY AS CALLED - this offense has always done that and will continue to. The only time Joe seemed to have the decision making authority was in the 2012 playoffs. Other than that, the play that is sent in is the play that is ran. That's not up to Joe, that's up to the head coach!!

So we're paying 120mil for a puppet? He should have autonomy at the line to some degree, you know being as though he's a 9 yr QB

[eze17]

Here is a breakdown for you. Take a look at the names of the coaches that Harbaugh has managed to hire to his coaching staff. Names that he was very familiar with while he was Special Teams coach up in Phila. To date they have not shown any long term improvement to the team. Looking back now, one can see that they may have actually taken the team a bit backwards. As I see it, I now know where South Philly is. Right here in good old B-more. Time to get out the broom Steve.

Get the broom out? Why? We're playing for the division title next week, you don't consider that exciting football? Yeah, I know where South Philly is: On this web site, moaning and groaning like all the Beagles fans that Iv'e known have done for years. Shame that some fans have gotten so jaded with having a winning football team that they scream bloody murder if things don't go exactly how they want them to. You know, not everybody has to drink purple kool-aid to support this team. Anyone who watches the games know the Ravens have flaws; but anyone who watches the NFL should realize that so do the other 31 teams. Til we're mathmatically eliminated, I'm pulling for the Ravens, and am proud they are still playing meaningful games in late December.

[TheRavengers]

1 hour ago, ibleedpurpleandblack said:

That is not the way the offense is run - not sure what you people don't understand - JOE RUNS THE PLAY AS CALLED - this offense has always done that and will continue to. The only time Joe seemed to have the decision making authority was in the 2012 playoffs. Other than that, the play that is sent in is the play that is ran. That's not up to Joe, that's up to the head coach!!

And all 3 of them deserve blame for that, because we saw how well that worked out.

[Rav'n Maniac]

We should have won this game easily. Where were the in game adjustments from Pees to slow their run game. When you don't or won't adjust, this is exactly the kind of results you're going to get. We were lucky to escape with a win.

[Crusader]

  2 hours ago, Crusader said:

But did they have to pay him so much that the team suffers for years? Ravens won both Superbowl's not paying a Kings Ransom. Joe's not worth being the 4 highest paid QB in the NFL.Notice how quickly the Ravens fell out of serious contention when he got paid?

That's not true. Ravens didn't fall out of serious contention when he got paid...?
2013- half team retired or left via getting overpaid in FA,
2014 we were damn good and a BB scheme away from being in the SB again
2015 everyone is hurt.
2016...two future games away from being division champs

Maybe "contention" is a little harsh but there are articles on this topic. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/7/6/8900803/nfl-quarterbacks-contracts-salary-cap

[hereweare]

4 minutes ago, Crusader said:

Maybe "contention" is a little harsh but there are articles on this topic. http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/7/6/8900803/nfl-quarterbacks-contracts-salary-cap

Don't disagree with that argument. If we don't win SB flacco gets 80mil. But, can't complain about winning it all and still being a playoff team after

[Crusader]

I don't blame Joe but this is insane.
Sep. 27, 2016
3tied. Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens — $29,000,000
Position: Quarterback
2016 earnings breakdown: $4.0 million salary, $25.0 million signing bonus
One thing to know: Flacco restructured his last contract, basically turning his 2013 contract into a nine-year, $187 million deal with six years remaining.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nfl-highest-paid-players-by-team-2016-9/#5-tom-brady-new-england-patriots--28764705-28