Ravens Come Up Short vs. Rams, 27-21
by Bruce Raffel on Sep 2, 2010 11:38 PM EDT
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The Baltimore Ravens lost to the St. Louis Rams 27-20 in the team's final preseason game, ending their exhibition slate at 3-1. The next day or so will be the toughest for a lot of the players, as coaches and Front Office people pore over the task of cutting around 20 players in order to get down to the league maximum 53 man opening day roster.
The St. Louis Rams started most of their first stringers against a Ravens team that sat most, if not all of their starters for the entire night. Sam Bradford picked the Ravens reserves apart in his short stint, driving the Rams down the field with the opening kickoff and throwing a short TD pass. The second Rams drive resulted in another TD pass, this one from backup Keith Null. The Ravens defense looked lost and a step behind the Rams first stringers. However, the Rams first team needs all the reps they can get with a rookie QB and a whole slew of new players.
Don't read too much into this loss, as the final score meant nothing to the Ravens coaching staff tonight. All they wanted to see was how the reserves played in their final attempt to earn one of the very few roster spots on this team. For the most part, there were no surprises and no one single player seemed to stand out amongst the other competition. The guy who impressed me the most was when he put out a great effort on what was looking to be a length-of-the-field interception return at the end of the first half. RB Jalen Parmele never quit hustling and ran down the Rams linebacker who intercepted Troy Smith's pass and was well on his way to the house with the ball when Parmele caught him before the end zone and saved the Ravens an embarrassing reversal of fortune.
Unfortunately, the placekicking competition between Billy Cundiff and Shayne Graham proved to be non-existent, as the team attempted no field goals, leaving the final decision to nothing more than what will almost be a random flip of a coin.
Friday morning will open with a story here on Baltimore Beatdown discussing the final 53 man roster, so check back to see my predictions, comments and thoughts on how Saturday's 53 man roster will look like after the difficult decisions are made.
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Not a lot of heart in this game. Troy must really like his B-more duplex because he sure put on a sorry audition for any other teams needing a number 3. He wasn’t even close on 3/4 his deeper balls. His 2 minute drill had to be the worst one ever in Raven history- including anything Boller Butters could fart up.
Ellerbeasts best move was holding the ball in the air at the 40 as he ran before realizing he is a linebacker and he is 120 feet from the goal line. But, he did manage to have a couple seconds to do a lame linebacker shimmy. A pre-season game against scrubs and it was the greatest day in his life. This Buds for you Beast. Don’t listen to Harbs, he just wants everyone to watch YoGabbaGabba and hug it out.
Troll troll troll....
The Rams? Oof….
I love the smell of burnt O-line in the morning!
-Me, ripping off Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now
Yeah, and we got a load of shit from you guys then.
Ain’t it a bitch?
I love the smell of burnt O-line in the morning!
-Me, ripping off Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now
I know, not very creative.
Had you lost to the Rams in the regular season, it would’ve been much worse, believe me.
I love the smell of burnt O-line in the morning!
-Me, ripping off Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now
I expected more...
The second team defense especially the linebackers had a horrible game in coverage & stopping the run.Those guys have been around and you expect more from,Gooden,Ellerbe,Barnes,Burgess.Oh and Ellerbe,get your ass in the endzone before you celebrate,until you do,you’ve done nothing ,no doubt he’ll get lit up for acting a fool.As for the Offense,I expected more ,Troy needs to go after 4 years and he played like he was lost and uninspired,Williams and Reed looked good,Parmale looked good the rest,not so much,but for those who say its pre-season and doesn’t mean anything,alot of dudes just lost the chance at a great job,but they didn’t step it up,Bring on the jets!!!!
the guy threw for 237 yards how is that uninspired? Williams, Reed, and other wideouts
didnt throw the ball to themselves. The offensivelinemen were not protecting or giviing troy smith much time to throw the ball if they did we probably would had one in the last minute we had left
yeah
i wonder how good troy could be behind a line that can protect him longer then 2 seconds. He made some really nice passes. True, some of his deep balls were over thrown, but damn they looked pretty in the air.
I agree but some people making it seems like did bad and didn't do nothing at all
yes he did overthrow some passes but it happens Joe Flacco has done it before more then once. I think Troy Smith did great we didnt win but it was a good game to me
He made terrible decisions all night. Lots of passes could have been picked off but weren’t. He had no touch on the ball in the first half. I’d be scared for us to actually use him in a real game.
You might need to get a lighter tint of purple on those glasses. It’s got to be hard to see clearly out of those.
How many times
did Troy get his passes knocked down at the line? Ouch, not good at all.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Sep 3, 2010 10:33 AM EDT up reply actions
Never seen such a terrible 2 minute drive. The Troy Smith poster is officially coming down.
For a split second, I was ready to cut Ellerbe. Why do that? Good to see Harbaugh chew someone out for the first time in his career. I bet the conversation went something like this.
John: Hearts of Lions! Hearts of Lions! Hearts of Lions! Hearts of Lions!"
John: Don’t make me get my Dad to come over here!!!"
wow Malor so it was Troy Smith fault that we lost I mean if I'm correct Troy Smith was
moving the ball in the 2 Minute Drive and if I’m correct the Offensive Linemen were not protecting Troy Smith like they should. I think Troy Smith did good for him to throw for 237 yards and being protected by a bad offensiveline thats good in my eyes
so throwing for 237 yards isnt good? I'm not saying Troy Smith look like peyton manning out
there but give the man some credit you talking like he didnt throw good the whole game.yes he thrown for two interceptions and in the two minute drive he did move the ball when he threw it to eron riley and david reed if I am not mistaken.I dont know what game you was watching but I want deny that Troy Smith had his bad moments and his good moments doing that game I think he did good for him to throw for 237 yards that isnt easy to
Completed 47% of his passes with 2 turnovers and no passing TDs when he had clear opportunities for an oh so great 45.6 QB rating, so no Troy throwing for 237 yards isn’t good.
There were 12 running plays called the entire game. All of Troy Smith’s 38 passes came against the Rams’ trash; Troy Smith’s mother could have put up 237 yards last night. The fact is that Smith had way too many inaccurate throws and bad decisions. Like Mr MaLoR said, the 237 yards Troy did throw are completely overshadowed by the horrendous completion percentage, the two picks, and abysmal QB rating.
I don’t see how Smith makes the team this year. Since we’re pushing for the Super Bowl this year, we need to use each roster spot for somebody that will help us on the way to the big game. If both Flacco and Bulger go down, there’s no way that Smith is going to be able to win one playoff game against an AFC contender, let alone take us all the way into February. Use that roster spot for somebody useful. The best that can be said is that if Smith is on the roster, opposing defenses will have to spend 10 minutes talking about a Wildcat play they know we’ll never run.
Smith didn’t do anything to improve his trade value last night, either. At this point, I won’t be surprised to see him throwing checkdowns to Maurice Clarett in Omaha.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
troy smith made plays yes he threw bad throws but he threw plenty of
good throws as well. some throws he threw the player should had caught it and having a unstable offensiveline doesnt always help you feel comfortable in the pocket I saw troy smith throw good passes no he didnt make any passes for a touchdown but he sure did get one close to endzone more then once.
jazz-
if troy smith wants to be a running back, he had a great game. unfortunately, he can’t throw worth a lick. 47%, 45.6 passer rating. 2 ints overcome the 237 yds. 200+ yards a game is average, but 2 int’s and no passing tds make it below average.
by Rayisyourdaddy on Sep 3, 2010 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah...
For a split second, I was ready to cut Ellerbe
Right there with you. If I didn’t think he was a pretty good LB overall, I think I would have cut him right then in there. I know they were only playing with like forty some players, but I think I would have ended his night right then and there.
Well they don’t want to cut Ellerbe, he is a good player. But I guarantee if he did that again, he would be gone.
i missed what you’re talking about. What happened?
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2010090257/2010/PRE4/ravens@rams#tab:watch
Look for the Ellerbe interception for a TD and watch the end of it.
What Ellerbe did was obnoxious. Harbaugh didn’t do himself any favors either though. Sprinting up to him like Ellerbe’s a child and grabbing his neck. Harbaugh better check himself too. Acting like a professional has to be applied to the coaches as well. I was annoyed by both of em.
I wasn’t annoyed by what Harbaugh did at all. That is what coaches do in football. If you are a young guy and you made a mistake that hurts this team’s image or performance, I expect the coach to give him some shit for it. What Ellerbe did was classless and we are a high class football team.
That was the first time we ever saw John do what he did, and it was great to see.
I was fine with Ellerbe getting some shit too. Harbaugh could have done it in a better way though. Let the guy come over to the bench and sit down. Harbaugh then walks over to him, so the camera’s aren’t focused on the interaction, and reams him out without making a big show of it.
Players will remember that kind of thing when they’re up for free agency and they have to decide which coach they want to play for.
Players will remember that kind of thing when they’re up for free agency and they have to decide which coach they want to play for.
Excuse my language, but I call bullshit on this one. Coaches all over the NFL do this stuff all the time. Man, Gruden used to cut you right on the spot if you screwed up…..after he reamed you out. I bet guys still want to play for him though. Do you really think players won’t want to come to a Superbowl contender because they are intimidated by Harbaugh for yelling at players who make decisions that hurt the team? Come on man…
I agree that players will make free agency decisions based partly on the reputation of the potential coaches, but I don’t think that Harbaugh yelling at someone in pre-season game four for doing something stupid is going to create that kind of reputation. Harbaugh never bitched at Washington last year for the stupid first down dances because those happened after the play was dead; Ellerbe potentially endangered the play, and Harbaugh was in the right for putting his foot down.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
“Do you really think players won’t want to come to a Superbowl contender because they are intimidated by Harbaugh for yelling at players who make decisions that hurt the team? Come on man…”
It’s not about being intimated. It’s about treating players with respect and as a man. Even if the player is acting a little childish, you don’t treat him that way.
In any other profession, if Harbaugh treated you that way, you’d quit. I get that football has a different set of rules for workplace interaction, but in my eyes Harbaugh crossed the line.
I admit, since this was a preseason game and not nationally televised, this most likely will have no future impact on free agents coming here. If this type of incident happened on MNF though, it’d be a different story.
(Lots of players didn’t like Gruden. Google articles about the players reactions to his firing. They, for the most part, were happy to see him go.)
You just have to admit
Troy could have done a WHOLE lot better to impress the Ravens, their fans and a lot of other teams. He just did not play that well, regardless of the circumstances and his lack of a supporting cast. Mind you, he played better the past three games with that same group of scrubs.
aka 'Rexx'
Troy is staying.
He did as expected he.moved the ball. Gave them a chance to win the game. The defense did horrible. But yaboi Jason Phillips is gone like the wind. We need linebackers that can cover. Only way I see us keeping him is if he moves to DE.
by Raven_all_day on Sep 3, 2010 11:10 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
All I got to say is go Troy Smith he did good not great and he wasnt crappy
to me. Troy Smith has alot to work on so does Joe Flacco and Marc Bulger
Read through this please. One of the few things I agree with the Baltimore Sun.
1. Troy Smith’s tonsils aren’t the reason he didn’t end up the Ravens’ starter three seasons ago.
We’ll probably never know how things would have played out had Troy Smith not gotten a tonsil infection when he was fighting for, and possibly winning (depending on whom you believe), the Ravens starting quarterback job. Let’s be fair, though. Some players develop differently. The NFL is often as much about luck and opportunity as it is ability, and maybe it would have unfolded differently had Smith not gotten sick and conceded the job to Joe Flacco by default.
But we can only evaluate the reality of the situation, and with respect to Smith, this is the harsh truth: He is a very average backup NFL quarterback. This was his chance to showcase his talents, and it was fairly uninspiring, especially against the Rams’ first-team defense, which is really the measuring stick that the Ravens’ coaching staff has to use to evaluate him.
Smith has a strong enough arm to play in this league, but he still holds the ball too long on some plays, or dumps it off too quickly on others. His accuracy, his greatest strength in college, isn’t consistent enough, especially when he drops back and tries to throw the ball with timing. (He’s more accurate on the move, when he doesn’t think too much about things.) His footwork, even after three years, is subpar. He has agility, but he seems almost reluctant to run most of the time because he wants to prove himself as a passer. Cam Cameron seems to be a big believer in Smith, so it’s possible that the Ravens will keep him. (They did keep three quarterbacks last year, after all.) But fewer and fewer NFL teams are keeping three quarterbacks these days, and it’s going to be a difficult decision for Ozzie Newsome, Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh. Is there a linebacker who could occasionally be active in games and help this team more than Smith being inactive? Is there a cornerback or a defensive lineman? I think there is, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’d lean toward Smith making the team.
The suggestion that the Ravens trade Smith is, and has always been, a message board, blog comment fantasy. Teams do not trade anything of value for third-string quarterbacks, period. Smith did make several nice throws in this game. In the first half, he moved well in the pocket, avoiding pressure, and hit Demetrius Williams on a nice crossing route. He followed it up with another nice throw to Williams where Williams went high in the air to make a great catch. But the interception right before halftime showed you Smith’s limitations. When you’re not very tall, you have to create passing lanes and you have to be decisive. On that play, Smith hesitated on his throw, then spiked it right into the pass rush.
If this was his “Showcase Game” then I’m not sure what exactly was showcased, other than some very average to below-average quarterback play.
Written by Kevin Van Valkenburg
I got some negative feedback when I said this last year, but Kevin Van Valkenburg is my favorite sports writer for the Sun. He actually provides analysis with his opinions. And he’s the only one that I actually learn something new/useful when I read him.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate."
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