tsylvester

There are ways to pay a player large sums of money that are easy on the cap. Yes, the money still counts, but it can be done in a way to help the organization.

No surprise, it is everything that we have talked about, including much of the same wording, hmmm

Yes, while the purple world of Ravens fans are wondering if Lamar will play this week end, the real name lurking in the backs of their minds is that of team president, Sashi Brown. He was brought in because of his ability to massage the salary cap, get deals done that won't adversely hurt the team down the road. However, two major players currently on the Ravens roster who we have seen transform this offense and defense into something to be feared, will test Mr Brown's whits, his cunningness. Smith and Jackson both want and deserve to be paid amongst the highest at their respective positions, but how those numbers are worked is as vital to keeping the Ravens in the playoffs for years to come just as much as those two players. Both players combined could eat up as much as 50% or higher of the cap. Front loaded, back loaded, easy outs, how much is guaranteed for these relatively young players is what Mr Brown has to work his magic on.

I'm gonn be lazy and copy/paste what I said in the Sunday's game thread Overall, very good pressure on Burrow from the front four, they should have had five maybe six sacks. They just have to contain and relax when they get to him. If they can do that, stop the turnovers, the Ravens have a chance to beat the Bengals next week. They played a simple defense, I expect something more this week. They also did not use a lot complex route combinations on offense, that too, I expect to change. Will the defense be able to keep the pressure up? Provide the same coverage, break up those passes? Will the Bengals drop those touchdown passes? Burrow over throw one? As much as we like to credit the defense, and we should, the Bengals also missed on a wide open touchdown & dropped two others that were in their hands, granted with tight coverage.

What rest? All of the defense played, played hard, worked their butts off, they will be tired from pushing to get to Burrow, then chasing him. The only players who rested was a guard and JK, Gus got a buttcusion, Lamar if he plays will be rusty. So Mike, have another donut and take a break from writing drivel, the rest will do you good buddy.

No way of knowing right now. Too many questions at qb not just for us, but for many of the teams on the schedule. We should have a better idea after the draft. With this defense, which should remain mostly in tack and healthy, same for the running game, I expect a good year pending who is at qb. I could see as many as 11 wins and as few as 6

I tell ya, Worley really impressed me with his speed & ball skills. May be his best game to date. With his speed and size, if Queen leaves in the off season, I would love to see Worley take that linebacker spot. He struggles covering speedy, shifty wide outs, but he has the size, speed and ball skills to cover tight ends, certainly better than our highly touted rookie safety. His size and speed make him ideal to roam side line to sideline and to get to the qb quickly on blitzes. Overall, very good pressure on Burrow from the front four, they should have had five maybe siz sacks. They just have to contain and relax when they get to him. If they can do that, the Ravens have a chance to beat the Bengals next week.

The Bengals played a simple defense today, zone mostly, especially in the first half, man later. They rarely blitzed until the game got "close", even then, the line had trouble holding up to 4 rushers. Brown had trouble KNOWING, who to throw to based on the coverage. In the 2nd half, the Bengals left the middle wide open, going with a single high safety or split safeties, leaning more on covering the underneath routes. It is why Sammy was able to take advantage of single coverage down the sidelines with those stop/back shoulder throws we have been waiting for, for years. Because of the coversge, a look to either side left the tightend wide open down/over the middle, Brown never saw it. He should have, if he knew the routes and saw the single high safety; big plays. With all of that said, next week I expect more complicated coverage, & blitzes. Huntely can't throw deep because of his shoulder, and perhaps that is why he never took advantage down the sidelines like Brown had. For that matter, Lamar has only tried that throw a few times over the years, only hit 1 or two. Usually his pass sails out of bounds. Speaking of Lamar, yes, I said Huntely or Brown, I don't expect Lamar to play, I would be pleasantly surprised if he did, but what can we expect after 6,7 weeks off? Maybe this game taught Brown something, his arm is stronger, he had a lot of drops, 2 picks, one his fault, the other not. His fumble, while a stupid decision to have him throw down there, was his fault, 7 big points before half. You have to get rid of the ball quickly down there, a holding call in the endzone is a safety, linemen can only hold up for so long, feel the pressure. Me, I would go with Brown, he has the better arm and is willing to stretch the field.

Well not sure Burrow over throws a wide open receiver for a touchdown, nor two receivers drop sure tds. But one things is for sure, the Ravens were hitting harder today than I've seen in a while. Hope they keep it up next week

Yeah, how did they get a safety? Fix was in I tell ya. No bath bombs for you

10 seconds left. Next week is going to be intersting.. game over, 27-16

Drake bobbles but hangs on for 11

Kolar with his 3rd catch, for 6, Drake drops one over the middle. I know it was only his first game, but, Kolar with another catch for 14 on 3rd and four. But Kolar does not seem very fast

4 turnovers, one turnover on downs, and they still only gave up 27 pts, most in the first half when the Bengals had short fields. Very, very impressive performance by the defense to only lose by apparently, 11..

Smith with another tackle along with a few others, 4th down

I bet crav is a bath bomb, jazz bath guy, not that there is anything wrong with that....

2 mins

Robinson and Watkins are two players who rarely run with the ball high & tight. Still, I feel bad for Sammy, how I love ya, how I love my dear old Sammy...

3:10 left, Bengals have 12 yards of offense this quarter. Deep pass to Watkins who runs for more yards then is gang tackled, stripped, Bengals ball

4th down, Smith, Queens and Hamilton on the stop. Smith appears fine, just dinged, more smelling salts, man I miss those things, talk about clearing out the sinuses

Williams streaks in to make a tackle for a 2 yard loss, 3rd and 18

Timeout Bengals. Hats off to the defense, they got lucky a few times with an over throw on a wide open receiver, two dropped touchdowns, albeit with tight coverage. Still, major pressure on Burrow just from 4 rushers, leading to errant passes, a sack, fumble, short throws

Brown rolls right, throws it low and out of bounds. Middle of the field was wide open, as was Likely. His crossing route based on the coverage should have had him as the first read. Turnover on downs

Robinson hit right in the chest, he drops it

Phins win, Stillers are out of the playoffs, refs stay with call on the field, Ravens out of time outs