well well well

by jackmca on Nov 9, 2009 1:00 PM EST Comment 12 comments

Back from a party weekend in NYC, which is why you didn't hear from me. While there's a lot you can say about this game and a lot you can point to for improvement, I tend to take a simpler view of things. Not "we should have kept Gano" or "Once again we didn't rush the passer" and so on... Sure all of these points have their validity, but the big picture is what we need to be looking at.

We can get over our "the refs are out to get us" complex because this one (like all of the other games but in this case quite obviously) was our fault and we got very very outplayed.

We are essentially a middle-of-the-pack team. Winning the AFC North is obviously out of the question at this point. Although it's possible that we somehow make the playoffs at 9-7, that's doubtful, considering that either Pittsburgh or Cincy will win the AFC North and the other will get a wildcard spot. That leaves one wildcard spot for teams like Houston, San Diego, and us to compete for (and even Jacksonville and the Jets are hanging around at 4-4 too).

Of all those teams who has the toughest schedule? We probably do. We have upcoming games against Indy, in Green Bay (on a monday night in december--yeah thanks that's gonna suck), against Chicago, and the two games against Pittsburgh. I'd say 8-8 is most likely, although 9-7 isn't impossible.

The obvious fact is that the "remodeling" that Harbaugh spoke of when he came in isn't yet complete. We have an offense that CAN be explosive, but isn't the sort of "any comeback is possible" offense that the Peyton Mannings, Drew Breeses, and Kurt Warners of the world can offer. We have a defense that CAN be aggressive and stalwart, but has discipline issues, fails to rush the passer at times, and has a closing window of time with Ray Lewis.

While we've got many years of stability ahead on offense with Flacco and Ray Rice, you have to wonder how soon they'll be able to put together a team complete enough to really contend for a RING. It's amazing--if you had this year's offense with last year's defense we'd be unstoppable. But it just doesn't work like that. We have this year's offense and this year's defense and both of those seem to be in the "good-but-not-great" echelons of the NFL.

In short, while the Playoffs aren't impossible, you can consider my hopes tempered. We have a lot of work to do and the only good news at this point is that we won't have to play the Bengals again in the regular season.

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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Playoffs

I don’t think the playoffs are as far fetched as everyone else seems to think. If the Ravens are a playoff caliber team – and the jury is still out – then there are really only 3 games left to worry about. Oakland, Cleveland and Detroit are wins. Green Bay just lost to Tampa Bay, and Chicago has looked awful in their last few games. So if the Ravens want to be playoff contenders, anything less than five wins from those games is simply unacceptable. Any loss means that we are not playoff contenders.

That leaves us with three games: Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and at Pittsburgh. Assuming the other five games are wins (because this is all pointless otherwise) that leaves us at nine wins. Last year 11-5 was necessary to get into the playoffs (and an 11-5 patriots team missed out), but historically speaking ten wins is enough with tiebreakers. So one win out of these three games would give us ten wins, and a conference record of 7-5. Personally, I don’t think the Chargers are that good and we also have the head to head tiebreaker with them, so that leaves us fighting with the Texans. Luckily for us, the Texans face the Colts again, but more importantly they also face New England in the final week of the season, and they will probably be trying because the race for first in the AFC looks like it is going to be very close.

by klunker18 on Nov 9, 2009 2:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

green bay may have lost to TB, but they’ve also shown some real good looking games and that will be a monday nighter in lambeau, in December. I don’t care what anyone says or how bad of a year GB is having, unless they’re a 3-win team at that point I say that’s a tough game.

Bottom line, is we no longer control our own destiny and our margin for error is zero. We can afford to lose to Indy and at pittsburgh to be 10-6, and even that might not cut it if San Diego goes 11-5.

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

by jackmca on Nov 9, 2009 5:26 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Playoffs

Playoffs? Dont talk about playoffs, are you kidding me? Playoffs?…Im just hoping we can win a game….Jim Mora summed it up people.

by ShaneOmacDaddy on Nov 10, 2009 3:00 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Which team will we be from here on out?

I guess it looks like that is still TBD, on a game by game basis. The one that beat the Broncos would beat just about anyone but something tells me the Steelers will prove the Broncos are pretenders tonight!

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 9, 2009 7:23 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Hait to say it Bruce but we’re toast. We make the same mistakes game after game. Every blue moon we get a good win but top that off with a sweep by Pitt and this year- THE BENGALS. Palmer is 8-3 vs. us. What’s Ben’s record against us. I bet we are not much better than the Browns vs. these 2 teams. That’s pathetic and embarrassing.

by raven on Nov 9, 2009 9:19 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

10-6

I say we get our act together and actually beat pitt in bmore. We lose to indy (cause we always do) pitt at heinz field (again, cause we cant win there). We beat GB (they were pathetic vs the bucs) and everyone else (Browns Lions and Raiders all just suck, Bears aren’t that good,)

by On3 Man Army on Nov 9, 2009 9:28 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I’d rather just get the draft picks because we will tank against the Steelers or whatever team we would play in the playoffs. This team is a mess. Our entire D hasn’t a clue where they are supposed to be playing. Just when I thought they ‘got it’ they…don’t.

We are out coached, out classed and out motivated. Harbaugh is supposed to be this football family dude but his team leads the league in penalties. His players don’t tackle properly and someones out of position every other play. I hang the bulk of this on Ozzie who took it upon himself to make sure Rays last 2 years are worthless.

Everyone and their mother knew our DB’s stunk or were injured. He unceremoniously let Stover go without securing a seasoned kicker-when the bulk of our games come down to FG’s- or used to. He knew Rolle was all but done but let him limp around the pracitice facilities as if he could play tomorrow. Day to day Rolle has just delayed our hunt fot professional starters. Reed is playing for himself, which I can’t totally blame him, after barely sniffing a SB after all these years of futility.

We were fortunate to snag Kelly Washington but don’t get him the ball when we need to. So far we have 3 weapons that hardly see the light of day even when we’re struggling. Kelly, McGahee and McClaine. Most of their posessions go to prayers to Mason.

by raven on Nov 10, 2009 12:04 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Harbaugh is supposed to be this football family dude but his team leads the league in penalties. His players don’t tackle properly and someones out of position every other play. I hang the bulk of this on Ozzie who took it upon himself to make sure Rays last 2 years are worthless.

agreed until the last sentence. It’s not like Ozzie doesn’t try to draft well, its just that every so often even a good GM will have a few bad years. Besides, this was a penalty-prone team before Harbaugh and since. I think a lot of it has to do with the NFL’s changing rules and how it conflicts with the raven identity. we just want to play rougher than we’re allowed to.

I do agree though about how the players no longer tackle well nor understand their responsibilities well. It’s really hard to watch man, it really is.

This again goes back to my case for the 43. It’s a simpler system and the depth of understanding that is required per-player is much less complicated than our varied-front 34 scheme, which is experts-only schematics. We are clearly not experts anymore.

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

by jackmca on Nov 13, 2009 5:36 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Most waisted Pro-bowl players of all time (please add to list)-
1. Ray Lewis
2. Ed Reed
3. John Ogden

by raven on Nov 10, 2009 12:08 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

4. Dan Marino

Ray and john have won a Super Bowl, so I definitely wouldn’t include them. The truth is sometimes all time greats just don’t win a Super Bowl, because it is very difficult to win a Super Bowl. That doesn’t diminish their individual careers because football is a team sport. Basically what I am saying is that I don’t agree with the phrase “most waisted” especially when Ed’s career isn’t over.

by klunker18 on Nov 10, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs