thundercleetz

I was just thinking about this, if releasing McGahee frees up room for us to get a true #1 receiver, then it might be a move that has to be made. Of course, if it is an uncapped year it all comes down to how much Bisciotti wants to spend.

We have no receivers under contract this coming season. Lets face it, getting a #1 receiver is going to require a pretty big contract. If you want a #1 receiver, you have to pony up. We have spent money at every position except receiver, I think it is about time we spend some money there. Of course, the cap will not matter if there is not a CBA. BTW, I believe Jackson, Floyd, Marshall, and Austin are all UFA if a CBA is agreed upon. If not, they are all RFAs. Ozzie has to get someone, we cannot waste Joe's prime years. Guys like Bolden and Bowe should also be available via trade, Ozzie will have options.

Joe certainly deserves his share of the blame. That missed pass to a wide open Heap was inexcusable, Heap had days to run streaking wide open across the field. Flacco was also late on the pass to McClain down near the goaline, that would have been a TD had that ball been out quicker (granted, McClain was probably the last read). Ever since the Packers game Flacco has been very conservative. Like you said, he seems more than willing to take the sack than force the ball to marginally open receivers. If we are running the ball like yesterday, I am fine with that. Against the Pats we will just have to see how our defense holds up. I would much rather Joe not turn the ball over, but if our defense is having trouble, he might need to air it out a little. Cam and the receivers deserve just as much blame. Cam needs to have Joe go on different snap counts to give the offensive line a chance to pick up a blitz. A corner should never have the snap count perfectly timed and be able to run in full speed on a blitz, that just cannot happen. It is also inexcusable to have three receivers clustered in one area to the point where one defender can cover all three guys when the defense blitzes more defenders than we have blockers. And finally, Clayton and Mason need to do a better job of getting off of the press. Granted the Raiders have two of the biggest and most physical corners in the league, but if that is the case get Washington and Williams in there. One more thing, having a max protect and only three receivers in routes on third and seven-plus is basically punting. It is even more sad when Flacco still manages to get sacked in these scenerios.

Do not let those numbers fool you, Marshall is a complete receiver. He can stretch the field, go over the middle, take a slant 70+ yards for a TD (he may be the best YAC receiver in the league, and at 6'4" 235 pounds that is very impressive), the guy does it all which is why his catch totals are so high. He was the center piece of the Broncos offense, and teams still could not stop him. His stock is going to be sky high this offseason, I do not think we will trade for him. I would much rather go for UFAs Vincent Jackson, Malcolm Floyd (the Chargers will probably only be able to keep one of these guys), or Miles Austin.

Long snapper is too critical of a position to have a guy playing hurt. It is all about precision and consistency, put Katula on the IR. Not only is he giving bad field goal snaps, but he is giving bad punt snaps as well making Koch rush his punts (the 24-yard punt in the Pittsburgh game is inexcusable). I am sure there are numerous long snappers on the street right now. I'll take my chances that a rookie gets nervous and botches a snap over a snapper who has elbow problems and has screwed up 75% of his last snaps.

I don't think Willis is going anywhere. The cap hit for releasing him would be too big, and he has been too good to just release him. He has been an excellent team player this season, and I think he has finally gotten the message that hard work pays off in this league. Those were some wheels on that long TD run! The 2008 Willis would have been caught on that play, the 2009-2010 Willis is a homerun threat!

Good stuff geo! We certainly have an uphill battle in the playoffs. If we beat NE, we would have to travel to Indy. Those are two brutal places to play back-to-back. I am not sure if you could choose two teams over the past decade that you would least likely to face back-to-back on the road. I would love to return the favor to Indy for beating us in the divisional round at M&T back in 2006. Then if we beat Indy we would most likely face the Bengals or Chargers on the road as well. Is it tough? Yes. Is it impossible? No way. Our defense has been getting major turnovers that past four or five games and our running game has been unstoppable. That is a good combination. If we can keep the penalties low, we can beat anyone in my opinion with this formula. I'm ready to knockout NE!!!

We already know the answer to this question, we have played Manning, Brady, Palmer, and Rivers. None of these QBs tore us up to the point where we were blown out of the game. We managed to contain all the QBs on our schedule, save Rivers and Favre, pretty well. This is the NFL, results are not transitive. Just because team 1 beats team 2, and team 2 beat team 3, does not mean that team 1 will automatically beat team 3. We are the number three defense in the league and tied for 8th against the pass, we will be in the game when the fourth quarter rolls around, and that is all what matters.

Good point on the huddle situation. Today was a day to slow the clock though, so I cannot blame them for that. I trend I have noticed with Flacco is ever since the Green Bay game he has been extra conservative throwing the ball. Maybe he still has that game in the back of his head and is trying extra hard not to turn the ball over. I would rather him go back to the old Joe and try to make some plays.

And no Wes Welker as well. I hope our offensive line comes out ready to run the ball down Pats throats.

And we thought we had problems!

This team has been through a lot this season but never once has there been a negative peep out of that lockerroom. That really says something about the coaching, the leadership, and the respect the players have for Harbaugh. Even if we go one-and-done, this team has a lot to be proud of.

I certainly think Flacco has the ability, he is a smart guy. He demonstrated the ability to read the field when our offense just let it rip in the first half of the season. We have just been protecting him too much these past few weeks because of our banged up offensive line. There is really no excuse to have only three receivers in a third and seven-plus situation. I understand this week the gameplan was to not turn the ball over and just run the ball. Nevertheless, if we can run the ball next week like we did this week, I have no problem with Flacco not taking any risks.

True, but remember that Scott was not always a banger. He started out as a weakside linebacker playing the backside pursuit in a 4-3 scheme replacing Tommy Polley back in 2005. I like Ellerbe's potential a whole lot. He has speed, size, and is not scared of come up to fill against guards and fullbacks (cough... Gooden... cough).

He had some jets though. Have we found the next Bart Scott?

Definitely agree max. It is a combination of a lot of things: receivers not getting off of the press, poor route planning by Cam, and Flacco not releasing the ball quick enough when someone is open. Some plays there was no outlet, other plays Flacco just did not get rid of the ball. I will give Flacco some slack, he knew in a game like this not to turn the ball over, and probably thought it would be better to take the sack than to force anything. But next week that will not be the case. It is pretty pathetic when the defense blitzes more defenders than blockers and one defender in the secondary is able to cover three receivers becaues the receivers are too bunched together in their routes. That needs to change. As for Clayton being on the field, why does it have to be either Clayton or Williams. At the very least we now have four quality receivers in Mason, Williams, Clayton, and Washington (five if you add Heap). Lets use them all! Four or five wide sets, spread the defense, let Joe make a quick read to counter the blitz. This is what we need to be throwing in there every once and awhile.

Good call! NE here we come! I am sure the boys have been waiting for this rematch all season!

Not so fast, the three seed is still up for grabs if the Bengals win. In which case we would play the Bengals next week.

Joe, Cam, and the receivers need to do a better job of coming up with plays when the defense blitzes more defenders than we have blockers.

Or if the Bengals win...

If Cam gets hired I would be more than comfortable with Hue Jackson taking over as our OC. I just do not see Cam getting a head coaching job in this league again. From everything I have heard he is not very outspoken or commanding and is more of a behind the scenes type of guy.

We will also have had the advantage of playing all the AFC playoffs teams during the regular season, and we were in it until the end with all of these teams (except we beat the Chargers). We know we can compete, which is like you said, all we can ask for. I felt we had a gimme game in the playoffs last season with the Dolphins, there will be no gimmes this year. What encourages me is the win in the playoffs against the Titans. That is a team we lost a close game to during the regular season and came back and beat them in the playoffs. Who says Harbaugh and co. cannot do the same against the Pats, Colts, or Bengals?

This is no different than the Jacksonville game for last season's finale. We needed a win against a struggling, but dangerous team and we got it. I do not expect anything to be different today. Harbaugh dominates inferior, sub-.500 teams.

Every team plays their share of cupcake teams that boost the stats. It is not fair to take that into consideration. The bottom line is that we dominate the teams that we should.

I think that is a little unfair of a comparison. Berkman got a six-year, $85 million contract back in 2005 at the age of 31 ($14.17M/yr.), Howard broke into the majors late and still has not hit free agency, and Justin Morneau is another guy who had his salary abritration years bought out. Morneau signed a six-year, $85 million contract as well back in 2008 at the age of 27 ($14.17M/yr.) and Howard signed a three-year $54 million extension in 2009 at the age of 29 ($14.33M/yr.). My point is that if any of these guys hit free agency they would have easily gotten Tex-money. You cannot compare the contracts of players who had their arbritration years bought out by their own team to players that signed free agent contracts. If we had the stud at first, then yes, a contract in the $13-15M/yr. range is fair. But when you have to get the guy in free agency, you have to pony up. Lets see what the Phillies, Cards, and Reds do when Howard, Pujols, and Votto hit free agency. To get Votto or Gonzalez would require giving up the farm (remember, Cincy wouldn't give up Votto in a potential Bedard deal). It does seem like everyone else has that power hitting 1B, but how come we don't have one? And it is not just about power either, Howard, Tex, Fielder, Votto, Gonzalez, Berkman, and Morneau all post an OPS north of .900. So not only are they hitting for power, they are getting on base. Could Reimold post a .900+ OPS? Maybe, I wouldn't put it past him. Then comes into the question, how much do you value solid defense? Tex, Votto, Gonzalez, Berkman, and Morneau all play very good defense. Sure we could put Reimold at first, but that is not as easy of a position as everyone thinks it is. After seeing Scott, Wigginton, Millar, Huff, Segui, Gibbons, etc. stink it up the past five years plus, I want someone who is solid on the bag. Yeah, I cannot criticize the Loewen pick as he was seen as a stud. Nevertheless this reinforces my point about how getting a stud first baseman through the draft is luck. In 2001 we sweep the last three meaningless games against the Yanks and lost our inside track on Tex in the draft. We go Wade Townsend in the 2004 MLB draft then Billy Butler gets picked seven picks later. In 2008 we go Matusz in the first round, which is now seen as an excellent pick, but two stud first base prospects were on the board in Smoak and Alonso. In 2009 we hold the fifth pick again and there is nowhere near the amount of quality hitters on the board as there were in 2008. There have only been two All-Star first base prospects taken in the first round of the draft this decade, Tex and Gonzalez. Even in the draft can't miss first base prospects don't come around every year. So here is my main point, getting a stud first baseman through the draft is a crapshoot and getting one through trade requires giving up the farm for a couple year rental if you are not willing to overpay. Thus, overpaying in free agency is the easiest way to get one of these studs. But even then a guy like Tex only comes up once every five years or so.