The Only Rankings That Matter
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 1, 2009 9:42 AM EDT
13 comments
Of course most people are just going to say the answer to the title of this story is wins and losses. Of course, that might be the only thing that truly matters but when we're talking about rankings, I'm looking at stats that go into a team's rankings in the individual offensive and defensive categories. Most teams, including the Ravens, take pride in their high rankings in a particular category. For the most part, these categories are a sign of a team's strength, but they can also be a result of the type of team that they are.
On one hand, let's take our Baltimore Ravens. Teams try as they may, but they just cannot run on this defense. The streak of not allowing a 100 yard rusher has reached 38 games, and although that streak has been challenged and might have been snapped a couple of times last season, it wasn't and is still intact. Now teams just don't try as much as therefore the ranking is always among the top couple in the league.
Then there's the complete opposite.
(Click on the 'Jump' to read more about "The Only Rankings That Matter")
Go back to the 1999 St. Louis Rams, who came out of nowhere to win the Super Bowl in January of 2000 behind a former Arena Football League QB that no one at that time had even heard of. Kurt Warner was a passing wizard and with his great receivers in Torry Holt, Isaac Bruce and RB Marshall Faulk, scoring almost at will through the air behind a pass-first offense, The Rams opened the season by beating the Ravens and never looked back, winning the Super Bowl over the Tennessee Titans. Their passing game was so prolific and they jumped out to early leads in most of their games. Therefore, teams had to abandon the run and throw the ball in their fruitless attempts to play catch up, which continually failed to happen. Without their opponents focusing on the running games, the St. Louis Rams ranked #1 against the rush in 1999.
Who really knows how good the '99 Rams were against the run? We do know that teams do indeed try to dent the run defense of the Ravens but also find it difficult to pass against the team as well. The Ravens passing attack in past years, including 2008, has ranked near the bottom of the league. While that may have been the case of just having poor personnel in that area of the game, it wasn't the case in 2008. The Ravens had a rookie QB and did not want to put this young kid under the pressure of putting the outcome of the games on his shoulders. Their running game was the best in the NFL so why fight the battle in the air when you could win it on the ground? So run the ball they did and with such success, they only needed to pass it enough to keep the defense honest, which still didn't matter as their ground game usually overwhelmed their opponents regardless of how many men the defense stacked in the box. The few times they needed to pass ended up either looking decent against the weaker teams and pretty poor against the stronger ones, due to the lack of experience of the QB among other things.
But head coach John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron weren't concerned with statistics, they were just concerned with getting the wins. However, it you want to get the wins, you need to score more points than the opposition. Hence, the only rankings that truly matter are only points scored and points allowed. Offensively, if you put points on the board, which the Ravens are doing at a franchise-record pace, you put yourself in a good position to win every game, even if your defense doesn't always do their jobs (see San Diego game). At the same time, if your defense, regardless of how they're doing against either the run or the past, limits the points of the opponents, then the pressure is off the offense to have to win a shootout every week (see Cleveland game).
Having a high scoring offense and a point-stingy defense is a great combination, usually a rare one, but one that should go deep into the playoffs on a Super Bowl run. The Baltimore Ravens seem to have both this season. Sunday's game at New England versus a tough Patriots team should go a long way in determining if this is a team with that rare combination.
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You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
by Mr MaLoR on Oct 1, 2009 3:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Any ESPN Insider members here?
If so, please copy and paste the story that has the title “Joe Flacco’s hot start is a mirage.” I am highly upset by this headline already.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
by Mr MaLoR on Oct 1, 2009 4:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
This all makes me nervous
A few of my friends for years always lamented the fact that the Ravens won low scoring, tough games; all the while wishing they had high octane offenses. I always pointed out that those teams never went far (i.e. Colts and Chiefs teams of this decade, etc.) I know it’s only been 3 games, but I’m wary of our passing D and am waiting to hop on this style of winning.
When you have to shoot, Shoot! Don't talk - Tuco
by ravoriobulleterpitals on Oct 1, 2009 4:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
No need to worry
The Ravens still have the ability to win a grind out game. Wait until the weather gets cold in Nov & Dec, and I think you will see the Ravens transitioning to this style a bit more. The main difference this year is that we can now win a shootout against an elite team, which was not really the case in the past. It’s all good.
by DT711 on Oct 2, 2009 9:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Focus on the red zone.
No NFL team is keeping opponents from going red zone to end zone at a higher rate than Baltimore: Just two of the eight drives into the Ravens’ red zone have resulted in touchdowns. If you watched the Ravens games closely, the Ravens were far more better when the field was shorter. I think we even got most of our interceptions when the field was shorter. I saw the Ravens blitzing better and the corners were actually playing very well.
I think what the main problem is as a fan, we were never use to an offense putting up large amount of points, heck I was happy enough to see stover score, mostly because I knew the defense will pick up the slack. The defence will be fine. Its still early in the season to judge or predict anything, lets take it one day at a time. The Patriots game will give us huge answers to all our questions.
by Ponce-Jimenez on Oct 1, 2009 6:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The key is
that the team has proven it can win the games it is supposed to. However, until we win the games we should lose, like the Pats, Colts and Steelers, we will never get our just due. Let’s start by changing things this Sunday.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 1, 2009 8:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Lets's wait
Nah, let’s wait a couple weeks. I want to see the Ravens play so well that they are supposed to win.
by Bman21212 on Oct 1, 2009 11:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Interesting thing about Points Allowed/Points Scored
Is that the statistic is not Points Allowed By The Defense or Points Scored By The Offense, but when this stat is talked about people will always say, “Team X has the best (Worst, 9th place, etc.) scoring defense/scoring offense.”As Ravens fans I think we all know that a defense can score point and therefore that statistic can be misleading if used in the wrong context. And to go farther than that, scoring statistics are influenced by several factors in a game, like field position, style of offense, etc. Just take a look at the Chiefs game – did the Ravens defense give up 24 points? When you look at it from a situational standpoint, the answer is no, not really. So while scoring points and not allowing points are definitely the most important aspect of a game, they are not necessarily the best measure of an offense or defense.
Personally, I think the best way to gauge offenses and defenses is yards per play, or broken down to yards per rush and yards per pass (yards allowed for defense). I think for the most part eliminates things like time of possession and score of the game – it is simply how far did you move the ball on average on any given play on offense (or how many you allowed on defense). The only thing that really impacts this is field position, and only slightly – if you are at the opposing two yard line you can’t get a three yard play.
by klunker18 on Oct 2, 2009 2:10 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
ahhh
if anyone needs to see a good celebration video after we beat the titans in the playoffs, check this out.
http://www.facebook.com/video/?of=527165283&s=30&hash=91133ceddfe7e55cfbc7326775f0bcf0#/video/video.php?v=546638230753&subj=568073265
Me in the McGahee jersey. Going crazy.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
by Mr MaLoR on Oct 2, 2009 3:43 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Actually that link wont work.
It went to one of my friends videos for some reason. He is actually the cousin of Frank Walker. Lol.
CLICK HERE FOR A GOOD CELEBRATION AFTER THAT TITANS PLAYOFF WIN. ME IN THE MCGAHEE JERSEY!
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
by Mr MaLoR on Oct 2, 2009 3:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Good times. I need more!
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
by Mr MaLoR on Oct 2, 2009 3:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
There is an interesting quote
from John Harbaugh that I heard I think during the Cleveland game in which he explained how he expected the defense to give up more yards per play with the newer offense backing them up. Basically the D doesn’t have to put up insane numbers to just try and keep the Ravens in the game. Going back to last year, in particular the game in Cleveland in which Flacco and Ray Rice led the team to a come from behind victory, the Ravens are no longer a team that can’t come back from a deficit. What I have also been enjoying from Harbaugh and Flacco is that they put up great numbers in the second half. It tells me that not only do they make good adjustments, but also that they don’t sit back and expect the defense to hold onto a lead.
Looking at our upcoming battle with the Pats, I don’t see how the Pats can consistently run the football. They may put up a lot of aerial yards, but without a consistent running game, the Pats offense will be on and off the field rather quickly, whether or not they score. The more plays that their defense in on the field, the more it will breakdown. Our O-Line is just amazing right now. Flacco could balance his checkbook back there and Ray, Willis, and McClain are just eating up yards. This could be one for the ages people….
"The ball always seems to find Ed Reed...The man is a menace"
by UMBC Oriole fan on Oct 2, 2009 9:06 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The Pats will get smoked in the razor bowl.
by raven on Oct 3, 2009 12:05 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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