"Who Powered Through?" Ed Reed

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 3, 2010 12:01 PM EDT in Who Powered Through

BALTIMORE MD - OCTOBER 24: Ed Reed #20 of the Baltimore Ravens returns an interception against the Buffalo Bills at M&T Bank Stadium on October 24 2010 in Baltimore Maryland. The Ravens defeated the Bills 37-34. (Photo by Larry French/Getty Images)

When Baltimore Ravens All-Pro free safety Ed Reed was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) List just before the beginning of the 2010 regular season, many Ravens fans held their collective breaths for the first six weeks, wondering when, much less if he would ever return to play football again.

Reed underwent hip surgery during the off season and rehabbed it through OTAs, Training Camp and the six games he sat out as he watched the team race out to a 4-2 record. Over Reed's nine year career, the guy many say might be the best safety to ever play the game has always fought serious injury, from his neck to the hip injury he played through in the 2009 season until he could no longer stand the pain and succumbed to the surgery earlier this year.

These injuries are not your "typical" run-of-the-mill NFL injuries players around the league have to deal with on a regular basis. Alone, each of them were serious enough to end playing careers. Together, the fact that Reed even tried to return, much less did so with such a bang two weeks ago, makes one wonder if Reed is wearing a big "S" uniform under his Ravens' jersey!

The Ravens considered not even playing Reed against the Buffalo Bills in week seven, thinking the winless Bills would not require his services and therefore, combined with the Bye week this past Sunday, he could get another two weeks of rest and rehab to prepare for the remainder of the season.

Not so for Reed and the Ravens. Buffalo took Baltimore deep into overtime before winning 37-34 on a Billy Cundiff field goal after a defensive turnover. In fact without the services of Reed, odds are that the Ravens would have lost that game and been the Bills' first victory of the season. Ed picked off Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick twice, returning both interceptions a combined 46 yards deep into Buffalo territory to turn the tide. Reed finished his first appearance of 2010 with four tackles, a forced fumble and those two picks. Not a bad way to "power though" in the face of adversity, eh?

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there was some thought that Ed Reed coming back might have thrown the secondary’s rhythm with each other off, not through any fault of his own but because he was essentially a new cog trying to mesh with everyone else, and that this is why the secondary struggled so mightily on Sunday.

personally, i think there may kernels of truth to it, but that doesn’t explain some of the outright beatdowns our corners took, especially fabian washington but also lardarius webb. also, while ed reed may be new to the secondary this year, he played with most of these guys last year as well (when they also were getting beat regularly… hmmm).

on the other hand, it’s great to see someone back there with the ability not only to sniff out a ball but actually to catch it as well.

anyone with actual x&o scheme knowledge of football and secondaries in particular have an opinion on this?

by Luke E on Nov 3, 2010 6:43 PM EDT reply actions

I think that even with the two picks

Reed was way out of place a bunch of times and late getting over for help to Fabian and Webb, leading to those long TD passes. I love his ability to take over a game, but he just can’t freelance with this grop of CB’s.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 3, 2010 10:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Reed was way out of place a bunch of times and late getting over for help to Fabian and Webb, leading to those long TD passes. I love his ability to take over a game, but he just can’t freelance with this grop of CB’s.

Filmstudy disagrees.

It’s amusing to me that folks are saying that Reed’s "gambling" might have hurt the Ravens on these [touchdown] plays. In point of fact, aside from contact, the only way to stop these plays would have been for Reed to gamble and pick a side to defend at the snap like a soccer goalie trying to defend a penalty kick.

I suggest taking the link to read his analysis of the plays you’re talking about. Those passes were designed to remove Ed Reed from the equation. Blaming Reed’s “freelancing” for those touchdowns is misguided at best. Videos of those Bills touchdown plays are available at NFL.com.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Nov 3, 2010 10:55 PM EDT up reply actions

Agree to disagree

Reed was out of postition on a lot of plays because he should have been “cheating” to Fabian’s side of the field regardless of the defense. Everyone in the stands knew Fitzpatrick was targeting Washington so no reason Reed shouldn’t have been giving him more help rathe rthan playing centerfield that certainly resulted in those picks but on those TD passes and other over the middle ones, Reed was slow to react, but understandable to a degree based on missing the first six game.

Thanks, but I did see the videos and I also was at the game, where we were saying “why is Reed setting up there, so far back, so far away from Washington.” That view was NOT part of the videos. It was pretty obvious to us up in the stnds and we were commenting about it all day long.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 4, 2010 9:03 AM EDT up reply actions

Football's a team sport

Adding or subtracting one player from the equation only makes one eleventh of a difference as far as I am concerned. The Ravens just had a bad game and I am conviced of two things: they were looking past the winless Bills as “walkovers” and knew that the bye week lurked just around the corner. I was sorely disappointed that they didn’t bury the Bills but in retrospect, I guess the Bills are a better team than their record reflects.

I hope this time off reinvigorates the Ravens. The schedule ahead is tough but most of our remaining season will take place on our home field giving us a little advantage anyway. Go Ravens!

by Smiley4660 on Nov 3, 2010 7:48 PM EDT reply actions

If we can't protect this house

and beat a team that we took care of the past two seasons and got destroyed by the Jets and Pats, then we don’t deserve to be in the playoff race. We should outmuscle them like we’ve done the past coupe of times we’ve played them.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 3, 2010 10:27 PM EDT up reply actions

… we don’t deserve to be in the playoff race.

You talk a lot about the team not deserving accomplishments when things don’t go perfectly. We don’t deserve to go to the playoffs because the Bills played us strongly. We don’t deserve a win if we don’t convert 3rd and short. Football isn’t a pretty game, Bruce. On any given Sunday, even the Browns can beat the reigning champs. I’m sure it seems like a great sound byte to throw out platitudes like that, but you take victories where you can in this parity-based league. We’re very likely to go to the playoffs this season, whether you think we deserve it or not.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Nov 3, 2010 11:02 PM EDT up reply actions

but you take victories where you can in this parity-based league.

Can’t tell you how many people I tell this to. My favorite is when people say Flacco doesn’t win playoff games for us, I tell them that if he is going to be 4/10 for 34 yards and an int in a win, then I will take that stat line EVERY game.

"Audibles Are Overrated" - Cam Camoron

by Mr MaLoR on Nov 3, 2010 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

I agree, and you might have mis-interpreted me

We will be in the playoffs but if we can’t beat Miami at home off a Bye after coming close to losing to Buffalo, we will not go far I want to see this team win the Super Bowl.Anything less will be disappointing to me as I think we have the talent to do it. Yes, we will win games we should have lost and lose games we should have wn. But if you lose more that you should win and especially against the tougher teams, it will prove that you will not go far in the post season.

Amp- for some reason you seem to have it out for me lately. Your choice but while we both are passionate about our opinions, your targeting of picking apart my comments is getting a bit tiring.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 4, 2010 9:08 AM EDT up reply actions

Amp- for some reason you seem to have it out for me lately. Your choice but while we both are passionate about our opinions, your targeting of picking apart my comments is getting a bit tiring.

I don’t have it out for you so much as I have it out for people who make ridiculous and unsubstantiated comments about the team I love. I think my post history is indicative of that. You just happen to be on a Favre-like streak recently.

I went into it in more depth here, although I’m still waiting for a response.

Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.

by Ampallang on Nov 4, 2010 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions

I have to agree with Amp, those first two weeks you were absolutely brutal.

It seemed as if you went to the dark side at times and were saying things that people would react more to. You’ve calmed down a bit more, but you still have your “burn the witch” moments. That shit spreads like wildfire and I come to this blog to escape that type of stuff. While it may get you more clicks, it degrades the respectability of the blog as a whole.

It’s frustrating when, as a fan that actually knows a thing or two, has to argue with other less informed fans that believe everything they read written by someone that is writing things just to get people “fired up.”

by Mayne_Event on Nov 4, 2010 11:50 AM EDT up reply actions

and now I just read the more in depth response.

still stand by with what i said, but it really doesn’t belong on this thread.

by Mayne_Event on Nov 4, 2010 12:13 PM EDT up reply actions

I did reply

and feel free to continue to challenge me, which is cool and does not bother me that much. You have a lot of knowledge of the game and you make good points. I write a lot of my thoughts right off the cuff and others after careful research. My opinions may not follow the masses but I stand behind them and if it appears I am targeting Flacco all the time, it is only because I expect more from him and as QB he is constantly under the microscope. Is he a top 10 QB in the league right now in my opinion? No way, but I’d defend him as a top 15 one. Is that good enough for many of his loyla fans? No, but to me that might still be good enough to get us to the Super Bowl.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 5, 2010 11:17 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm Sorry

Flacco is a top ten QB. There are not ten better QB’s in the league right now. We had this discussion already. We agreed he is not top five but he is definitely in the top ten.

by vlad755 on Nov 8, 2010 1:24 PM EST up reply actions

actually, the pats didn't destroy them.

the bills were leading well into the third quarter and only lost by a score.

by davver on Nov 4, 2010 12:35 AM EDT up reply actions

I wasn't talking about the Bills

I was speaking about how the Jets and Pats destroyed the ’fins in Miami.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 4, 2010 9:09 AM EDT up reply actions

the jets didnt destroy us?

we were down 8 in the fourth quarter and almost tied the game. new england was the only team to “dismantle” us

by Tison M on Nov 5, 2010 9:00 AM EDT reply actions

Perhas "destroyed" is a big harsh, but

losing at home, giving up 31 points to a division opponent is just not good. At the same time, if the Ravens had lost to the Bills in OT at home, I could accept the term, “destroyed” as we should have destroyed them.

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Nov 5, 2010 11:21 PM EDT up reply actions