[News] Ravens Defense Stunned By Fourth-Quarter Letdown

[BR News]

Baltimore's defense has carried the team for much of the season, but gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter and the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds. Terrell Suggs said the Steelers schemed them up in the run game and Pittsburgh's playmakers simply made plays.

View the full article

[sami]

as soon as Juice scored I knew we had left too much time on the clock.

[mhedge]

No team should be able to go the length of the field in 1:18 to score a TD. Thats Dean Pees. He just has never figured out how to stop anybody ever in the last 2 minutes.

[WordProphet]

Penalties will steal the game right away from you, you have to play the ball and not the man, how many times can be that be said before people will do that, and you can't leave a lot of time on the clock!!! Or you will doom yourself!!!

[Maryland]

If you've watched the Ravens over the past few years, you probably weren't stunned by the TD drive, just disappointed.

[HayintheBarn]

No pass rush all game. 0 sacks, and we only touched Ben maybe twice.

[Crusader]

That's twice Pitts came back on the Ravens with 21 points and knocked Ravens out of the playoffs.

[terpmaniac]

All we needed was one damn stop! With 68 seconds left. Just one. Game over. Pathetic. Just pathetic.

[Warren]

I told my cousin when we scored leaving 1:18 on the clock that the Ravens scored too soon. I have no faith that the Ravens defense will hold up when the game is on the line under Pees.

[Zeus]

Fire pees, please

[jravens1313]

A bunch of soft coverage and easy 1st down conversions that stopped the clock. DBs should have allowed catches to happen in-bounds and made the tackles in-bounds needed to kill clock. Worst case scenario should have been a FG. Bitter let down to cap off a season that was littered with (Not Good Enough Performances). We played 1 complete game the entire year vs the Dolphins. At least our field position improved the last 2 games without Hester! Way to go Harbs!

[DENNYK]

Eliminated, Self destruction. Have watched this all season long. Had these guys down by 10 and still we soften up and let them catchup and take the game and the division. No excuses for it. Time for some house cleaning . Steve B needs to mandate some big coaching changes, Secondary needs some talent now and that is where the focus should be in the Spring. Have to say that Joe played a good game, but the D let the Ravens Nation down again. Have to agree that Pees and Morningwegh need to go. Same old stale game plans

[GageRage]

Our Corners=Suck, Pass Rush=Suck, Play makers=None.

[GageRage]

Fyi dont blame Pea's, our Safetys and corners are boo boo

[Ravens Raver]

This is gonna sound like sour grapes, but I seriously think the NFL has to look at that "break the plane" rule.

To my mind Brown never got into the end zone, just waved the ball in that direction. Some part of the ball or the player's body should have to touch the ground inside the end zone for a score. Otherwise you only have to play to the 1 or 2 yard line, and stretch.

I seem to remember the Steelers doing this to us a couple years ago, with a receiver having both feet in the end zone, but leaning out to catch a short pass at the 1, with the ball never actually crossing the line. Even that was more understandable than that score last night.

[BiggMack91]

fire John marty and Dean Id rather start from scratch then another year of these soft plays

[whobilly]

Being honest, this team was not good enough. Good teams find a way to win these games and mediocre teams find a way to lose them. We have a few impact type players on the roster and a LOT of roster fillers.

[whobilly]

This is gonna sound like sour grapes, but I seriously think the NFL has to look at that "break the plane" rule.

To my mind Brown never got into the end zone, just waved the ball in that direction. Some part of the ball or the player's body should have to touch the ground inside the end zone for a score. Otherwise you only have to play to the 1 or 2 yard line, and stretch.

I seem to remember the Steelers doing this to us a couple years ago, with a receiver having both feet in the end zone, but leaning out to catch a short pass at the 1, with the ball never actually crossing the line. Even that was more understandable than that score last night.

I've been saying that rule and the PI rule where a team can gain 50 yards has to be changed. The players body AND the ball should should/must break the plain. The PI penalty should be 15 yards, the same as college.

[Crusader]

Crap, Kyle is a free agent. Probably will lose him . Paying a man 20 million a year is insane besides "It's just football" Joe

[PalmBayRaven]

If you've watched the Ravens over the past few years, you probably weren't stunned by the TD drive, just disappointed.

Not surprised at all.

[BigUgly]

I think the team had enough talent to make the playoffs this year, but have had dreadful coaching on the offensive side of the ball and a D coordinator who somehow always manages to give up the lead in big games. We knew what to expect from the offensive gameplan, but were mildly surprised at the balance and success. The defense letdown is the dagger here. We should've brought Schwartz in last year. In any event, Harbs needs to overhaul coaching on both sides of the ball, or take he and his buddies elsewhere.

[PurpleDoc]

Our worthless, prevent defense lost us this game. Pees needs to go!!

[Crusader]

If you've watched the Ravens over the past few years, you probably weren't stunned by the TD drive, just disappointed.

Yea, disappointed they could not fix it.

[Rav'n Maniac]

Why would the D be stunned with the final drive? They've done that all year long, every time we go into The Peesvent defense.

[Militant X 1]

The Ravens pass rush, which didn’t sack Roethlisberger, just couldn’t hit home.

^ Time to part ways with Suggs/Doom.

[fusuymada]

Too many times, too many games, over too many years, we have seen this same story at least 3-4 times a year. Take the lead late and the opponent just marches downfield like our defense wasn't even on the field. it has happened now for years and either the scheme needs to change or the coordinator needs to change.

We know the OC has to go, I mean, for 4 weeks he was told to balance the run and pass and it took him all 4 games to do it and 1 game after he almost got fired for that pass in the Eagles game, he finally did it and we almost won. That and the red zone percentage shows he can't call plays. I think Bisciotti needs to go and clean out coordinators, look at Castillo who has underperformed (line was much better with Moller as coach), and like when we got Kubiak, both OC and DC need to be proven commodities and not buddies of Harbaugh who got fired somewhere else.

The season is over, the players say they are up for the Bengals game, but no way, they will phone it in. A lot of ifs in that Steelers game and when we as a team can stop saying if Waller caught this, or Pitta caught that, or if Weddle covered this, or if Orr tackled that, when we can stop saying if, we will be a good team.

[OLD SCHOOL SMASH BALL]

Why do we stick with the Crappy Prevent Zone, when it keeps failing us over and over and over....isnt that the definition of insanity?

[coreyadams]

Suggs is crap now. All he wants to do is bat passes down. No pass rush out of him. D-Ville is old too. Need to invest in 4 d-linemen to pin their ears back and GO!

[coreyadams]

Prevent D, prevents you from winning. Peas is trash!

[ravenpic]

Get new blood.. What a humiliating loss. We are no better with the current roster. Spend some money Ozzie. We don't need injury prone players. The smart players know how to avoid them. Spend to win. Quit trying to lowball the championship. 

Edited December 26, 2016 by ravenpic