Dissecting The Ravens Loss: What Went Wrong?
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 12, 2009 10:51 AM EDT
52 comments
Where do we start? Perhaps this story might be a lot shorter if we just talk about what went right. The Baltimore Ravens Lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 17-14 yesterday and there were so many things that went wrong that my fingers might give out before we list everything.
So let's just summarize and break it down by offense and defense. Offensively, the Ravens could only muster 257 total yards, easily their lowest output of the 2009 season. Joe Flacco threw for 186 of those yards but it was another Red Zone interception on a poorly thrown ball off of a bad decision that cost the Ravens points for the second straight week. Without the amazing run after the short catch by Ray Rice, the offense would have been shut out by the Bengals surprising defense. After throwing what seemed too much last week in the loss to the New England Patriots, the Ravens made so many questionable choices to run at inopportune times in key situations, most notably a three and out in the third quarter when they ran the ball three straight times including a third and four. The subsequent series gave the Bengals their first score on a long Cedric Benson run. The playcalling was boring, the execution inefficient, and the field was reduced to sideline passes and dump offs, resulting in lost opportunities.
Where was Derrick Mason all day? Until the last drive, where was the over the middle throw to Kelley Washington? Was Willis McGahee playing at all? What about L.J. Smith? So many key contributors from our three wins were absent either physically or spiritually from yesterday's gameplan. How many times did it seem like both Brian Billick and Matt Cavanaugh were calling the plays? I heard a unnamed newspaper columnist say after the Patriots loss that our offense has to take what the defense gives it. I totally disagree with this as good offenses force the defense to compensate, not the other way around. Perhaps this team has such a long history of a weak offense that even they believe that they can't determine what the defense is doing and it must stay the other way around, which is never what you hear from the better offenses in the league. I guess we're still just not up there with them despite our early success this season.
Defensively, you can say that we held them to ten points for the first 59+ minutes of the game and even I predicted they would only score ten points yesterday. Of course, all Ravens fans would have walked away real happy if that was all the Bengals scored. However, when the opposition can roll 80 yards for the game winning score with seconds left in the game on what is supposed to be an opportunistic defense, as it was for one play in the first half, then nothiong else needs to be said.
Blame the refs, the poor penalties, the offensive shortcomings, this team had the lead and where they wanted the Bengals with two minutes left in the game. Our cornerbacks couldn't cover a sleeping homeless guy with a blanket. At the same time, the lack of a pass rush makes it so difficult to cover a guy for that long. Notice that a lot of Carson Palmer's completions came after he had a long time to sit back and wait for his guys to get open for the catch. Until this team (and it's fans) stops whining about the refs and stop causing so many inopportune penalties, the league will continue to sit and wait for us to screw up so they can throw the flag. That is not targeting us in a league conspiracy, it's just knowing that this team is prone to committing penalties and are among the league leaders year after year.
Our cornerbacks remain a huge issue this year as we cannot match up much less cover the opponents receivers. The key mismatches are seeming to come on the nickel and dime packages as the opponents' #3 receivers are burning us over and over. We saw this yesterday when third option Andre' Caldwell caught the game winner with, who else, Chris Carr lying on the ground watching his cross the goal line. Carr has not played anywhere near the guy we thought he would be when we signed him as a free agent in the off season, as a DB or in the return game.
Face it, the days of the Ravens dominating defense appear over. While we still have some great players, this team is not going to win games by themselves and other than the occasional amazing play, do not expect us to shut down the better teams and win the close games unless the offense picks up the slack. That certainly did not happen yesterday and you have to give partial credit to the Cincinnati Bengals who proved you can win all your games in the last seconds as long as you win,which is why they sit at 4-1 and atop the AFC Norht, while we are in what Tom Petty sings in his hit "Free Fallin'" and are now headed for Minnesota and a real tough game against an undefeated Vikings team next Sunday.
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great points
Next week is HUGE. If we can win in Minnesotta, we go to 4-2 and regroup in our bye week. We are just a few poorly executed plays away from still being undefeated. Everyone needs to stop jumping freaking out. With as angry as they are and the fact they are not blaming anyone else but themselves is a great step. We simply did not show up yesterday. Lets hope they learn something from these last two games and step it up next week against an overrated vikings team
by ryantz on Oct 12, 2009 11:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
These are great points
But I wouldn’t get my hope up for next week. If Carson Palmer – coming off an arm injury and who hasn’t thrown much over 20 yards this season (according to a Bengals fan who posted on this forum last week), and Cedric Benson (yeah, he’s up there with the elite RB’s) can carve our defense up like a bunch of old ladies trying to stop the running of the bulls, what do you think a 5-0 Adrian Peterson and Brett Favre are going to do to us? It’s not gonna be pretty. Somebody on the game thread yesterday predicted that it was gonna look like our meltdown game in Detroit a couple seasons back. I think it could put that to shame…
"Talk’s cheap. Let’s go play." - Unitas
by D-Fensive on Oct 12, 2009 12:19 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Patriots Time of Possession=34:56
Ravens Time of Possession=25:04
Bengals Time of Possession=34:19
Ravens Time of Possession=25:41
This is going to have to change. Run the ball, grind the clock, and please, stop taking stupid penalties.
by bigmac1124 on Oct 12, 2009 1:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
what went wrong
First the Ravens played against an inspired defense of the Bengals ,Secondly the Ravens defense is not that good any more. The corners cant cover and the team doesnt pressure like it once did. If other teams follow suit and run the ball instead of being afraid to the Ravens will be very ordinary with an extradinary player in Reed. The biggest reason the Ravens lost that game is Ray Lewis trying his best to copy Jack Tatum who always thought the hit was more important than the game. Way to go Ray WHO-DEY.
by speedwaymgr on Oct 12, 2009 1:38 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Can't argue w/ any of the above comments.
and hope we do to Brett what we did to him last time we played. However, it doesn’t look good and while we’re just a few plays away from being undefeated, we’re not and can’t seem to ever win the tough games against the tough teams!
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 12, 2009 1:49 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
The blueprint
In each of our previous games, we managed to score 20+ ponits. What the Bengals did yesterday was to provide the rest of the NFL with a blueprint on how to stop our offense.
by RAVENS-FAN on Oct 12, 2009 2:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
good game on sunday and good luck against the steelers. i dont mind the ravens but i really hate the steelers. i expect baltimore to recover after yesterday
by WhoDeyDerek on Oct 12, 2009 4:13 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Not that much to say
To dissect this game, you don’t need to write paragraphs upon paragraphs. While I cant vote on the question of who played worse, the defense and offense played equally as bad. The Ed Reed Touchdown and Ray Rice touchdown were the only good things we did all game, one came on defense one came on offense. To sum this game up, the Ravens came out with their heads up their asses at home, played terrible everywhere on the field and have now set themselves up for a season of disaster. We are pretenders who can only beat average to below average teams. Vikings, Broncos and Bengals are above average so I see us losing all three games and being 3-5 at the halfway mark through the season. I hope it doesn’t pan out that way, but thats what the odds are.
by ShaneOmacDaddy on Oct 12, 2009 4:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Oh yea
by the way, Chris Carr sucks.
by ShaneOmacDaddy on Oct 12, 2009 4:44 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
+1
to be fair he did have a groin injury earlier in the week, not that i think it makes a difference
by sam_ravens on Oct 12, 2009 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
If we couldn't stop Cedric Benson
then how are we planning on stopping Adrian Peterson? While Benson is having a great turnaround year and all, Peterson is far and away the best tailback in the league right now. Benson pretty much ran through us all day, and if we let AD do the same, this game could get ugly.
On another note, we have to do a better job of possessing the ball. Take the first 3 games of the season, all victories:
Week 1 vs. KC: TOP 39:49
Week 2 vs. SD: 31:19
Week 3 vs. CLE: 31:18
As bigmac pointed out, the Ravens have possessed the ball for just over 25 minutes in the past two games, which are, not coincidentally, both losses. In yesterday’s game, the Ravens had 10 possessions, with an average TOP of about 2:32. On the other hand, the Bengals had 11 possessions (including the kneel at the end of the game) with an average TOP of 3:10ish. For comparison’s sake, the Bengals also ran 15 more offensive plays than the Ravens, 66-51.
The defense actually didn’t play particularly poorly. They weren’t great (other than the Ed Reed pick-6), but they didn’t really make too many bad mistakes. I do feel that Foxworth is outmatched most of the time. Every week, I see him lose his footing, like he’s trying to run too hard, and he just corkscrews himself into the ground- it happened against Dwayne Bowe with the Chiefs, against all of the SD receivers, against Braylon Edwards when he was with the Browns, against Randy Moss when he caught that TD, and this week, multiple times against Ochocinco. The penalties are really beginning to hurt this defense too, keeping them on the field for 5, 6, 7 minute drives.
by justlaxn0 on Oct 12, 2009 4:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Surprisingly, with under a minute left in both games
we were still in position to win. If you want to take anything positive out of this, it is that as poorly as we played in NE and vs. Cincy, we could have still won both games. Imagine what we can do if we play well. I wonder if we’ll get that chance?
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 12, 2009 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I couldn't agree more
your thoughts on the subject are spot on. If we look at the bright side, even with the terrible play we had a chance to win in the end. Now we just have to take advantage of those opportunities instead of, as many players said yesterday, leaving it in the hand of others to decide the outcome.
by sam_ravens on Oct 12, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Bengals played pretty poorly too.
Pick-6 was an awful decision/staredown, Chad had an untimely fumble, no one fell on Ray Rice on his TD catch and run, and Brad St. Awful is awful.
by jsl413 on Oct 12, 2009 10:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
While all that is true,
the Ravens definitely did not play like they deserved to win that game. Other than the pick-6, Palmer played a pretty solid game, throwing for 271 yards and spearheading that excellent 2-minute drill that ultimately won the game. The Cincy defense was also pretty good- especially the corners Joseph and Hall. They really took away the deep and intermediate throws for Flacco, which resulted in very little yardage for the Ravens’ offense.
by justlaxn0 on Oct 12, 2009 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
why wasn't McGahee playing
I like ray rice a lot but the way the bengals were playing defense yesterday, i thought maybe they should have tried their hand running with mcgahee. He’s proven in games earlier this year he can pound the ball. Maybe its just me
by sam_ravens on Oct 12, 2009 5:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
just to note
I’m not saying rice did poorly at all, I was just wondering what the deal was.
by sam_ravens on Oct 12, 2009 5:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Bengals-Ravens.....lack lustre offense cost us the game....penalties didn't help
The Raven whose been in the end zone the most so far this year is Willis McGahee.
The Ravens lose by 3 points & McGahee is on the sidelines for just about the entire game. Someone, please tell me why WiILLIS DID NOT PLAY?!!
So far as I see it, we lost that game on offense.
The Ravens went to Rice mostly so there was no guesswork needed by the Bengals as to who was going to get the ball on running plays.
Combine no McGahee with a red zone interception, scarce use of K. Washington, Leron McClain not being able to get it going, Joe Flacco overthrowing an open Mark Clayton & that’s what convinces me it was more the offense, or lack thereof, that lost us the game. One more touchdown & we’d have won. We’d still be saying the penalties have got to cease, but we’d be happy with the W.
by O's Fan in BMO on Oct 12, 2009 5:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
what went wrong?
That last drive we played nothing but prevent. Common football wisdom says that prevent prevents you from winning.
Ray Rice is so agile. He's a whole new breed for agile you need a new word to describe his agility... UBER-AGILITY!
by BaltimoreSportsFan on Oct 12, 2009 6:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
is it just me or everytime we play prevent defense, the opposing team always scores a TOUCHDOWN on us?
by mookie_20 on Oct 12, 2009 11:25 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
its not you
Ray Rice is so agile. He's a whole new breed for agile you need a new word to describe his agility... UBER-AGILITY!
by BaltimoreSportsFan on Oct 13, 2009 7:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Am I the only one starting to miss CMAC
Say what you will about the guy, he was getting slow, but he was physical and also had great hands. I also think our secondary had better communication when he was apart of it.
Idk, im just starting to miss him, he generally played well against any receiver whos name wasnt Marvin Harrison (or any other Colts Receiver, lol)
Life is nothing but Beats & Rhymes
by Matchz Malone on Oct 12, 2009 11:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I miss having a player like him for sure.
I don’t miss McAlister with his large contract and all, but I sure miss having a shutdown corner back.
by mlb32001 on Oct 13, 2009 12:00 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
ravens secondary
i dont know if theres already a reply about this but…….i think that the secondary is not the MAIN problem. the d-line hasnt generated that much pressure all year. we dont seem to blitz much. we always seem to rely solely on our dline to get pressure but its not happening. we need those varieties of blitzes rex used to do. i dont care if our corners are nnamdi and revis, as long as we dont get pressure, they will get torched.
by mookie_20 on Oct 12, 2009 11:19 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
It's not that we're not blitzing,
it’s that we’re not blitzing from the crazy angles and schemes that we did when Rex Ryan was here. Statistically speaking we’re blitzing more or less the same amount as we generally have. The difference is simply that the extra guys are coming more from where they’re expected to come from.
When Rex was here, he made it so difficult for opposing offenses because he brought guys from pretty much all over the field, and it was different every time.
by justlaxn0 on Oct 13, 2009 12:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Just plain wrong
not true, remember Rex played prevent in close games that we lost just like this week. We complained like crazy then and are doing the same thing now.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 13, 2009 9:38 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yeah but he's right about the blitzes
when I can read the blitzes from the couch in my apartment, chances are Carson Palmer can too.
"I know where you're at, man. You had it all, and now it's gone. It's torn a hole in your soul bigger than my Escalade. So you turned to the drugs, the alcohol. Pornography, free-basing with OJ, human trafficking, dog fights slash orgies... darkness."
-- Craig Robinson as Reg Mackworthy in Season 1, Episode 5 of Eastbound & Down
by jackmca on Oct 13, 2009 11:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
coaches are just dumb guys who decided that spending every sat and sunday of their families lives was what they wanted to do. it aint hard and frustrating to watch these dumb guys make the same mistakes every week. 4 man rush on final drives. trying to rush Nakamura up the middle against a 6 man front while dropping scarecrow ray into coverage. LOL. no wonder Tomlin and this goofey Denver kid are kicking ass out of the gate. these coaches are stupid.
everyong marvels at the Wildcat. GEEEE> Snap it to a runner who then runs. the nfl talks about it like the discovery of black holes. i swear i could take a scrap piece of fn’ paper walk onto the field and whip some these moron’s asses.
by raven on Oct 13, 2009 12:31 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
the reason we lost is no pressure plane and simple. the prevent or dime or whatever this minor league D-coord calls it had our tails between our legs again. chicken shit. RAY IS TERRIBLE IN PASS COVERAGE so you may as well rush him. SIMPLE! Farve is going to really REALLY embarrass Ray Sunday.
by raven on Oct 13, 2009 12:35 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Vinny Flacco needs to improve. He’s missing some huge op’s. He is just as guilty as anyone.
by raven on Oct 13, 2009 12:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
As much complaining as there was last week about the refs you would think that we would know better not to do things that are going to get called every time. Ray’s hit will get called every time and he should know that – go for the ball in that situation. Same goes with the defensive holding. I didn’t think the PI was such a bad play but it wasn’t a bad call either. These are things that, if you don’t want them called against you, don’t do it.
The Bengals defense is actually pretty good, but we did not do enough on offense. As Bruce said, too many components of our offense simply were not used, and I really can’t explain why. McGahee’s one carry particularly bothers me because I prefer a run first offense. I have said before that I didn’t mind it when we were 3-0 because it could help to keep McGahee and McClain fresh for later in the year, but that won’t matter if we don’t win games. Twenty-one touches for Rice is good but McGahee should probably get close to that too, If I’m not mistaken he was the leading scorer (non-kickers) in the NFL going in to this week. No catches for Mason is also disturbing, but I think Cinci really tried to make sure they eliminated him to throw Flacco off, and that was pretty smart of them.
by klunker18 on Oct 13, 2009 12:46 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
no doubt they kicked our ass. the proof is in the stats. i haven’t really commented on the Bengals because I’m just chalking this loss up with all the other knuckle headed loses. just the makeup of this team. i am not sure it can be overcome without a some major changes.
by raven on Oct 13, 2009 1:13 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Hey don't despair just yet
Looking at the schedule before the season, we porbably chalked up the NE, SD and even the Minn. games as possible losses but still saw the team as a playoff contender. We still are but now need to win a game that perhaps we might have earlier thought we would lose. That can happen this week or even one of the other road games in Green Bay, Pittsburgh of return the favor in Cincinnati!
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 13, 2009 9:42 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
But most of us probably also considered the Bengals at home as a win, so even if we had gone 1 of 3 against SD, NE, and MINN, we would still go into the bye at 4-2. Now we have to beat a tough Minnesota team on the road to do that, where if we hadn’t made some critical errors in the past two games, we would be going into Minnesota 5-0.
Looking at the rest of the schedule, we have:
@ Minnesota
Broncos
@Bengals
@Browns
Colts
Steelers
@Packers
Lions
Bears
@Steelers
@Raiders
Browns, Lions, and Raiders are really the only three definite wins. Now @Bengals basically becomes a must win situation because otherwise they will take the tiebreaker against us outright on top of just the +2 in the win column. I think we should definitely beat the Packers and Bears, so that gives us 8 wins, and we would have to get some more from tough games against the Broncos, Steelers twice, Colts, Vikings, and the Bengals. Last year 11-5 was needed to make the playoffs, so we would have to go .500 in those games.
by klunker18 on Oct 13, 2009 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Winning at Lambeau
on Monday nigh in December, the first night game in December EVER in Greeen Bay history (gee, I wonder why—it’s friggin’ freezin’!!??) will be really tough for us southerners in Baltimore.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 13, 2009 12:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
yeah that game will be brutality
it will probably be so inhumane that we will be sanctioned by the UN for violating the geneva conventions…
but at the same time, we do have a good cold weather recipe with our ground attack… and GB just seems to be in a funk… we’ll know more as October and November pass.
"I know where you're at, man. You had it all, and now it's gone. It's torn a hole in your soul bigger than my Escalade. So you turned to the drugs, the alcohol. Pornography, free-basing with OJ, human trafficking, dog fights slash orgies... darkness."
-- Craig Robinson as Reg Mackworthy in Season 1, Episode 5 of Eastbound & Down
by jackmca on Oct 15, 2009 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Not giving up...
…but 3-3 going into the bye week is looking more and more like a reality. Sucks since we should’ve been no worse than 5-1.
Let’s move on and get the entire team involved in the game. I didn’t buy that McGahee jersey to cheer for a guy sitting on the bench!
I still loved Ray’s hit on Chad Johnson! Bet he bent his grill!
by Smiley4660 on Oct 13, 2009 10:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Survey Results
Surprisngly, more are saying the offense was to blame for the loss to the Bengals, even though they put us in the position to win and the defense couldn’t stop the Bengals when they needed to. I guess Ray and his boys still get a pass from the fans, eh?
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 13, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Neither
Neither played worse, they both played equally as bad…defense had one good play as did offense..whole team had thier heads up thief asses.
by ShaneOmacDaddy on Oct 13, 2009 8:28 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions 0 recs
not a chance..your only as good as the Last Drive.
by raven on Oct 13, 2009 4:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
What happened was you weren't playing the Chiefs or Browns
I don’t want to ruffle feathers, but the Ravens looked like the worst team the Bengals have played this year other than the Browns. Flacco couldn’t throw the ball down field, Rice had trouble finding holes and your secondary was the worst we’ve played yet. Tons of stupid penalties that were justified in every case by the way didn’t help. If you guys beat the Vikings I’ll come back on here and eat shit.
by St. Esiason on Oct 14, 2009 3:20 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Each game is different
We did play horrible but as bad as you (and I) say we were, we were still in position to win that game, so that must mean that as bad as we are, you’re just one little tiny bit better,…for now. Right?
PS- Might just see you here to eat after Sunday….
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 14, 2009 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
We are always just a tiny bit better than every team we play
The Bengals have played down to or up to every team’s level we’ve played since 2005. That’s our problem, we can’t put games away, but the difference this year is we’re finally winning the close games instead of letting them slip away. I hope you guys are better than you played Sunday, at home, because I want you to beat the Steelers, so good luck.
by St. Esiason on Oct 14, 2009 6:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
The Bengals have played down to or up to every team’s level we’ve played since 2005.
I think that the Bengals’ recent (and moderate) success has affected your long-term memory. Your team has played up or down to the level of every team they’ve played since 2005? Think again. 64% of the Bengals’ losses from 2005-2008 (a span of time encompassing 33 losses) have been by more than a touchdown. In nearly two-thirds of their losses in those four seasons, they were not, in fact, “a tiny bit better” than every team they played. Here’s a breakdown:
2005
27-13 Pittsburgh
45-37 Indianapolis
37-27 Buffalo
37-3 Kansas City
2006
38-13 New England
49-41 San Diego
34-16 Indianapolis
2007
34-13 New England
24-13 Pittsburgh
33-21 Buffalo
35-27 Arizona
34-10 Pittsburgh
2008
24-7 Tennessee
20-12 Cleveland
31-22 Dallas
26-14 New York Jets
38-10 Pittsburgh
35-6 Houston
27-10 Pittsburgh
34-3 Baltimore
35-3 Indianapolis
I went ahead and bolded games the Bengals lost by two or more touchdowns.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
by Ampallang on Oct 15, 2009 12:18 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
A lot of those games were closer than the score
Yeah yeah, every team loses a few games by more than ten in a year. A lot of those games slipped away in the end, but they aren’t now that is my point. And it’s clear they play down to bad teams levels otherwise we would have smoked the Ravens by three scores.
by St. Esiason on Oct 15, 2009 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Look I can list a bunch of games too
2005
W 16-10 Houston
L 20-23 Jacksonville
W 31-23 Tennessee
W 21-14 Green Bay
L 37-45 Indy
W 38-31 Pittsburgh
W 23-20 Cleveland
2006
W 28-20 Pittsburgh
L 13-14 Tampa Bay
W 17-14 Carolina
L 27-29 Atlanta
L 20-26 Baltimore
L 41-49 San Diego
W 13-7 Baltimore
L 23-24 Denver
L 17-23 Pittsburgh
2007
W 27-20 Baltimore
L 45-51 Cleveland
L 21-24 Seattle
L 20-27 Kansas City
W 38-31 New York Jets
L 27-35 Arizona
L 13-20 San Francisco
W 19-14 Cleveland
2008
L 10-17 Baltimore
L 23-26 Giants
L 12-20 Cleveland
W 21-19 Jacksonville
T 13-13 Philly
W 20-13 Washington
I don’t know if you realize this or not but a touchdown can be 8 points too, so if a team is within one score I consider that a close game. Maybe the Bengals don’t play anymore close games than the next team, but when you watch all the games it feel like most of them are tight when they should or shouldn’t be in your mind.
This is 45% of all the Bengals games since 2005 that have been settled by a touchdown or less, you throw in all the games this year and it’s above 50%. But these listings still don’t disprove or prove the Bengals were playing up or down to a teams’ level, it was just my perception when I watched the games.
by St. Esiason on Oct 15, 2009 1:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
still
we owned the Browns 34-3 and they needed overtime to win. The Bengals, though good, are still a bit of a mystery and I wonder if this success can be sustained. What I do know is that they match up very well against us in particular, due to their specific strengths in passing vs. our glaring weaknesses in the secondary.
But the loss to the bengals does not imply that now the Ravens 3-0 start was a complete mirage. We’re still going to see Flacco develop further throughout the course of this season, and you have to think that Foxworth will get his game together (somewhat) as the year progresses. The question is, will said progress come in time to get the wins we need, or will we fade into the abyss of 8-8 and 9-7 teams who don’t make the playoffs.
"I know where you're at, man. You had it all, and now it's gone. It's torn a hole in your soul bigger than my Escalade. So you turned to the drugs, the alcohol. Pornography, free-basing with OJ, human trafficking, dog fights slash orgies... darkness."
-- Craig Robinson as Reg Mackworthy in Season 1, Episode 5 of Eastbound & Down
by jackmca on Oct 15, 2009 4:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
if chad doesn’t tackle our DB on the last drive you lose
by raven on Oct 14, 2009 6:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
How?
There was still 1:14 left in the game when that happened. There was plenty of time for the Ravens to commit many more penalties and help us roll to victory.
by St. Esiason on Oct 15, 2009 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
don't worry about raven
dude let’s just accept the fact that we lost. We lost to due ineptitude on defense, lack of aggression on offense, and penalties. You can’t just blame the refs for those calls—we’ve established a pattern of playing dirty late in the game and the refs know that and are looking for it. Like Bob Ryan said, it’s time that we learned to play by the rules as they are.
"I know where you're at, man. You had it all, and now it's gone. It's torn a hole in your soul bigger than my Escalade. So you turned to the drugs, the alcohol. Pornography, free-basing with OJ, human trafficking, dog fights slash orgies... darkness."
-- Craig Robinson as Reg Mackworthy in Season 1, Episode 5 of Eastbound & Down
by jackmca on Oct 15, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
We met Chad Ochocinco in Baltimore
I hope you don’t mind, but I am excited to share this. Chad Ochocinco has been on twitter and he gave my wife and I tickets to the Ravens Bengals game. I thought it was worth sharing.
by Winravens on Oct 29, 2009 3:30 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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