Any Given Sunday...or Monday...
by lastcallbmore on Oct 25, 2011 9:10 PM EDT
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PrintIt is hard to stomach what happened to our beloved Baltimore Ravens Monday night in Jacksonville against the Jaguars. The coaching was suspect. Ray Rice had his worst game as a Raven and our receivers couldn't get open to save their lives. Worst of all it was done on a national stage for every one to see. I feel what you all feel, embarrassment.
Over the past few years, in the John Harbaugh era, the Ravens have done one thing very well, which is to beat the teams they are supposed to beat. This year things seem to be a bit different. Maybe it is the youthful ignorance of our players and coaching staff or maybe it's just this year's Ravens inexperience on offense. In the past, however, when faced with adversity on the road, against an inferior opponent playing above expectations, we have had crafty veterans like Derrick Mason, Todd Heap and Willis McGahee out there to calm things down and get everyone back to the basics of playing football. We have veterans now but they just don't have the chemistry of a football team that has been through war together. This team for the most part is still figuring out who they are and how to react as a group to these tough and confusing situations.
There is nothing easy about playing on the road in the NFL. Especially on Monday Night Football. On Monday night the Ravens played a team that had their number on the offensive side of the ball. They knew our formations and they knew the plays we could run out of those formations. There is plenty of blame to be passed around but let's give credit to Jacksonville, they came in with a great defensive game plan and they executed it to perfection. The Ravens have two losses on the year and in each one the offense has been manhandled at just about every position. It seems that when the chips are down and the other team has their crowd behind them our Ravens just do not have what it takes to turn it up a notch and push back. To me, that shows a group that has not fully come together yet. These Ravens are young on offense and still need to figure out an identity. Players like Ray Rice are trying to change that and hopefully they will but right now they, as a group, are lost. By no means however does that mean they will not figure it out.
The biggest problem our offense has is that we can not make in-game adjustments. Last week against Houston the Ravens adjusted their running game in the second half. This was brought up in the after game press conference as if it would be a big turning point in the offensive scheming of Cam Cameron. I could be wrong but shouldn't in-game adjustments be something that happens every game and a normal part of NFL football? Our problem against Jacksonville and Tennessee was that once they figured out how to stop our offense, that was it. We were done. What happened to the trick plays? At some point last night they had to think that the plays they were running just weren't getting it done. How is it so easy for others to look at us and read us like a book but so hard for us to look in the mirror?
On the other side of the ball, Baltimore has the best defense in the NFL by far. There were a few questionable penalties that kept key drives going for the Jaguars but other than that our defense was lights-out. There is no question about it the Ravens have a Super Bowl-caliber defense. Paul Kruger seems to be coming into his own and Bernard Pollard has been a great addition. Add that to our core of Pro Bowl veterans and young players like Terrence Cody, Pernell McPhee and Jimmy Smith ready to blossom, Ravens fans have much to look forward to.
The NFL is gearing their league towards parity and that is exactly what they are getting. These same two and five Jaguars almost beat Pittsburgh at home a few weeks ago and so did the hapless Colts. Anybody can beat anybody in today's NFL, lets just hope that this week was our last reminder of that. It is a game of inches and this week the Ravens came just a few short on multiple occasions. That is good enough to lose you a game on any given Sunday...or Monday.
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It was def. a game of inches on that onside kick..
Still don’t know why they did that?
Peace, I am not here to wallow in your disapointment
Guys, almost every team plays two or three sub par games in a season. Sometimes they get away with it. You guys just played a bad game against a team that played a good one. I would put it behind me and move on. I am pretty sure that things will get fixed quickly and I still believe the Ravens win the division. Yes, I am a Bengals fan, but if I didn’t suffer from that rather permanent condition, I would be a Ravens fan. But alas, I do bleed Orange and Black. Hold your heads up guys.
"If we always agree, one of us is not necessary"
Well said
and appreciated. Thanks, John
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 25, 2011 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions
bwahahahaha
"We'll do whatever we have to do to win, We like catching the ball, but the big thing is getting that 'W'every week. I'll take that over anything else,any day." Hines Ward
Every team's fansbase
have been in the same place as this. Even the Steelers.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 25, 2011 10:57 PM EDT up reply actions
the team hates their starting QB. flacco is a goof. him and cam together are a cartoon skit. you could take a flacco rookie game and a game this year and their would be very little difference.
you could take a squirrel brain and your brain and…
by Evan Skev on Oct 26, 2011 12:22 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
come on evan, say it- flaccos GREAT. ill take the John Miller approach and be honest. you take the angelos approach and run me out for not being a homer.
Angelos isn’t the type of guy the Baltimore media portrays him to be. He’s a hometown homer and philanthropist who is loved by people in the orioles org. Don’t believe everything you read in the Sun. Believe me… I know him personally.
Come here and ill give you a hug… I can tell you’re hurting
by Evan Skev on Oct 26, 2011 10:56 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
You guys are really the better team talentwise
In terms of a direct comparison you guys overall have the better team. As the game wore on i was stunned that your offense didnt do anything. Torrey Smith had his one catch but that was really a perfect throw, flacco just seemed out of sorts. What was up with him? I mean im glad my jags won but you guys by all rights should of steamrolled us. Good game and maybe the jags defense will finally get some darn respect. Final comment Ray Rice seems to be a MJD clone with maybe alittle more speed while MJD has alittle more power
If you've made enemies then you've stood up for something
I think its true if the ravens still had their veterans like Todd Heap,Derrick Mason and etc
we probably would had won that game. Im not saying it was a wrong decision to depart from the veterans but i think its crazy to expect the ravens offense to be dominate right away with so many rookies/first time players/second year players on offense.
The veterans the ravens had may not have the speed like the guys the ravens have now but i think the intelligence they had really shows it’s not all about speed alone but the young guys will learn eventually
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
I think its true if the ravens still had their veterans like Todd Heap,Derrick Mason and etc we probably would had won that game.
Thanks jazz. I needed a good laugh.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions
I glad you found humor in it but what i said makes sense. the ravens offense have plenty of young guys that are inexperience
and they are still going through a growing phase to understand what to do in certain situation on the field
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
the ravens offense have plenty of young guys that are inexperience and they are still going through a growing phase to understand what to do in certain situation on the field
See that point I have no argument with. It’s the concept that Todd Heap or Derek Mason would have changed the game on Monday that had me rolling on the floor. We had plenty of young people who missed passes or caught balls and fell down. A couple more “mature” ones wouldn’t have changed anything.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
You shouldn’t distill Jazzy’s comment until the meaning is simple enough to mean what you want it to mean… And then say that it has you rolling on the floor
It may be convenient for you but it takes away from the discourse…
by Evan Skev on Oct 26, 2011 12:56 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Ha ha. Funny little man.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 1:21 PM EDT up reply actions
Also— how can you say Heap catches balls and falls down? If anything is funny…
by Evan Skev on Oct 26, 2011 1:00 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
It’s the concept that Todd Heap or Derek Mason would have changed the game on Monday that had me rolling on the floor
I look at it in this way: Last year when The Ravens had the veterans They won games that they should had won and loss games to only play off contender type teams.
Now with the rookies/young guys we are losing games we should win and wining games against play off contender type teams.
Its funny how things are working out like it is now but it makes me think what if the veterans we had were used along with the young talent. how would things be?
Overall I dont think the ravens made mistake in letting the veterans guys go but I think the Jaguars defense intimidated the young guys and that can really mess up the chemistry of the offense. The Ravens offense lacks leadership which is what keeps the offense together and yes Boldin is a leader but its good to have more than one leader.
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
No, I don’t think he is. Great player, yeah – leader, no.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Rice is a leader Grumpy ass donkey. Wake up.
by Evan Skev on Oct 26, 2011 10:57 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Tiny, tiny man.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 11:41 PM EDT up reply actions
I won’t disagree with you on the rookies being intimidated. I’m sure they are – although why’d they be more intimidated by the Jags than by the Steelers, I wouldn’t pretend to understand.
But I really haven’t seen any evidence that we’ve won or lost more games because of veterans or because of rookies. I seem to remember lots of comments last year – especially from Bruce – about how we couldn’t beat the teams we were supposed to beat. So I don’t think that’s a new phenomenon.
As far as the hypothetical of what if we had our old veterans and the new rookies playing together, the idea is nice but actually not possible. If we had the old veterans, we would not have signed half the rookies we did – probably no Doss or LaQuann. Pitta and Dickson would mostly be sitting on the sidelines or more likely one of them would be gone. Evans, even though he’s had no impact for us this year (yet – hopefully), would not be here. Cody would still be riding the pine most of the time. We’d still be depending on Mcclain to open holes for rice. No Pollard big hits if we still had Landry. Oh, and with less freed caproom, we probably also don’t sign Ngata. So, I’ll take the rookies over the ancient warriors any day.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions
I wasnt talking about keeping the departure veterans on defense or keeping Leron McClain because
it obvious needed to be change in that area but my focus was more on the offensive leaders such as Heap and Mason .
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
But the same point goes – you can’t have Mason and Heap - AND Pitta or Dickson, Doss, Evans and LaQuann. It has to be one or the other. There’s only 53 spaces on a roster and this team has always given a majority of those spaces to defensive players, so it’s impossible to have multiple offensive players at every position beyond the obvious few.
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
you are right but the ravens offense still needs some kind of intelligence/leadership and right now it's not there with these young guys.
I think Ozzie Newsome expected Joe Flacco/Anquan Boldin to lead the young guys which isnt a bad idea but it still doesnt take away the fact that these young guys are inexperience and are going through a growing phase.
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
Agreed. And Joe is certainly not providing it. I’m not sure Anquan was supposed to – I don’t know enough about his locker room history to know if he’s ever been a leader in the sense you’re looking for. But I don’t think Heap was ever regarded as that type of leader either. And Mason – well, let’s just say you don’t embarrass your boss in public if you want to be considered a leader by the rest of the gang. Not a lot of KFC employees grabbing their manager by the lapels and screaming in their face that, “WE NEED MORE WINGS!!!”. ;-)
Monkey Feces for OC.
re: Big Ben - "God can have his soul. His ass is mine." - Terrell Suggs
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 26, 2011 7:22 PM EDT up reply actions
For once
You and I are on the same page Jazz. Ray Rice is trying very hard to be the new leader on the O but he just doesn’t have the battle tested formula built up between he and the other players that we had with our former squad. They need to go through what they are going through now TOGETHER! They need to come out on the other end stronger and smarter as well. It’s just like in boxing. You are going to get hit but it’s about what you do after you get hit that makes you a man… or a team. This team can be great, they just need to grow through these hard times. It was going to happen sooner or later.
Don't let my defense dictate your offense..
by lastcallbmore on Oct 26, 2011 10:53 PM EDT up reply actions
jazz makes some great points. This offense is definitely lacking the experience. Has the talent, just not the smarts right now it seems.
Flacco has to trust his receivers to make catches, but shouldn’t throw towards coverage. He needs to attack deep more often, but shouldn’t hold onto the ball so long. He needs to show more awareness in the pocket and move to extend plays, but nothing good comes of him leaving the pocket. He should run with the ball if nobody’s open, but he definitely can’t run with the ball.
Flacco should have the awareness of Roethlisberger, the elusiveness of Vick, the control of the offense of Manning, the leadership of Brady, the accuracy of Brees, and the arm strength of … Flacco? - Ampallang
That's what I said last year
Harbaugh had experience last year and he never left the bench. Flacco needs to be benched for a more experienced quarterback. Joe is like that annoying little kid you see when you are out somewhere that you just want to smack the shit out of but the parents keep just ignoring his or her behavior. You know, the ones that grow up calling you names on the internet because the parents never benched them.
Shadow there isnt any more experience quarterback atleast not better than
Joe Flacco.. I dont think Flacco needs to be benched i think its good he is experiencing games like this and it should make him better. the veterans that were here did make it easy for Joe Flacco to adjust and they had intelligents and leadership.
I dont think Flacco is comfortable right now with his surrounding because it so many rookies and inexperienced young guys but with time it should get better as the group grows together.
The need for Lee Evans and Ben Grubbs is getting bigger, so hopefully they return this week.
"if you really want to know what people think about you listen to their jokes" -N.Moore
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