Eerily similar on Lake Erie...

by OldBay83 on Nov 17, 2009 10:19 AM EST

Are the Ravens running the risk of turning into the Eagles offense?

It can't be out of the question. A pass-happy first-half offense, piss poor clock management, and horrible timeout management riddled the entire first half. This, to me, had "Andy Reid" written all over it. Hey, that's the guy that Harbaugh learned the intricacies of offense from. How destructive it would be if Harbaugh and Cam Cameron turned the Ravens into the Philadelphia Eagles: passing 60 times a game, neglecting a destructive 3 back system consisting of an up-and-coming grinder in Ray Rice, a 2008 Pro-Bowl fullback (but certainly capable tailback) in L'Ron McClain, and a still-serviceable Willis McGahee.

Ok, ok, a bit extreme. Harbaugh knows better than that. Right? But I think we can all agree that over the past 9 games (including last night on Lake Erie) there were times, ooooh there were times, when it sure looked like the coaching staff forgot what got the Ravens to where they were last year, which I don't believe was a fluke run- it was successful smashmouth football. That's what works. Its so simple, and the personnel is there for a ball-control, grinding offense. Sure, Flacco has the ability to send a rocket downfield, but why expose that asset with play-action fakes that no one bites on the entire first half? Pound the ball down people's throats for 30 minutes, then try play action in the 3rd quarter when everyone is tired and looking for Ray Rice to get the rock. The benefits of this are two-fold as well. Running the ball and controlling the clock will keep an over-exposed secondary off the field, and keep an aging squad of blitzing linebackers and tackles fresh.

But, in the words of Dennis Miller, "that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."

The opinions posted here are those of the administrator of this blog and his loyal readers. They are in no way official comments from the team, and should not be misconstued as such, even though he thinks he could do just as well or even a better job!

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Comments

Yeah, those time out call were horrible

We’re real lucky we didn’t need to challenge a call, as w/o a timeout you can’t. Belichick certainly learned that Sunday night!

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 17, 2009 12:38 PM EST reply actions

You quoted Dennis Miller. As much as I like your blog name, I cannot respond to you.

by raven on Nov 17, 2009 1:08 PM EST reply actions

Dennis Miller quote

I won’t do it again as long as you promise never to quote Bill Maher or Keith Olbermann.

by OldBay83 on Nov 17, 2009 2:45 PM EST up reply actions

But I will because I have nothing better to do. This O has 3 faces. The No Show, The Vinny and The BIllick. In ranking these I would take:
1. The Vinny
2. The No Show
3. The Billick

I hope Rex Ryan doesn’t come back for Ray Rice with a sack of cash.

by raven on Nov 17, 2009 1:12 PM EST reply actions

He might after last week

Reportedly Rex was crying like a baby in a team meeting.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 17, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions

The Ryan family. What a train wreck. See Rex’s brother with his wild gray hair getting chewed out by Mangini for the 10 guys on the field. That was a funny site. Long hair is cool until you f-up.

by raven on Nov 17, 2009 4:42 PM EST reply actions

hey don’t diss Buddy Ryan. He was the architect of that bulletproof Raiders defense last year…

"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden

by jackmca on Nov 17, 2009 10:33 PM EST up reply actions

Rob not Buddy

and his Raiders pass defense was pretty good, especially with the best CB in the game.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 18, 2009 10:05 AM EST up reply actions

wow my bad.... dumb mistake there

obviously not Buddy nor half of what Buddy was…

All he did in OAK was blitz and leave corners in man coverage. While there is nothing that Asomugha can’t do in man coverage (I know because I was dumb enough to start Andre Johnson against him who got one fantasy point), i still don’t give him many points for that. His body of work still lacks a really tough defense that he can be credited with creating…

then again… so does Rex’s… since he didn’t build the ravens D he just continued it…

"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden

by jackmca on Nov 18, 2009 12:59 PM EST up reply actions

personally

i just think its understandable to be tempted to throw when you have flacco. You want the early lead. You want the other team to play from behind. the fastest way to do that is to pass.

You also need to look at Rice’s total touches, not just his carries. The pass-to-run ratio is deceiving in that a huge percentage of our passes are screens to rice that are ball-control throws and put the ball in our best player’s hands.

I’ll say this: if we come out pass-happy against Indy, we’ll lose, plain and simple. Their weakness is the interior D-Line, so I want to run the ball. But lets be honest here, we probably won’t have the option of sitting on the ball against a Manning offense that will almost certainly have us playing from behind at some point. If they get an early lead, we have to pass because the bleeding will continue.

"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden

by jackmca on Nov 17, 2009 10:39 PM EST reply actions