thundercleetz

I don't get it, what's everyone worried about? Last night we had three offensive touchdowns, a special teams touchdown, a defensive touchdown, no turnovers, and most importantly, a win! A complete game, right? Why is everyone so tense?

No doubt Koch was the MVP last night. His punting skill inside the 20 are insane. That punt in overtime won us the game.

Everyone wants to blame the secondary, pass rush, Cam Cameron, or Joe Flacco for our struggles on offense or inability to close out games, but I believe everything traces back to the offensive line. - Ravens are 11th in the league in rushing attempts with 359 (about 28 attempts a game) but 31st in the league with 3.6 YPC (Colts are last at 3.4) - Joe Flacco has been sacked 32 times this season, 4th most of any QB Blame Cam all you want for some questionable play calling, but when the offense gets 1-2 yards per rush on first, the guy is constantly working with 2nd and 3rd and longs. Is Cam to blame for passing on that last third down in the third quarter? I think that tells me Cam himself has no confidence in our offensive line to pick up two yards in the power run game. That's not Cam's fault, that is the inability of the big guys up front to do their job earlier in the game to instill confidence in the run game. I am starting to question Michael Oher's football instincts. The Bills did three safety blitzes in the fourth quarter, each time Oher did not pick up the free man, instead he blocked down on the end who stunted inside anyways. After last week, there is no excuse for this. Flacco is going to get killed. Because we are constantly in second and third in longs, the defense knows they can dial up the blitz because our guys up-front are not going to pick it up. Flacco is constantly running for his life, and has NO pocket to step up into. How does this relate to our defensive troubles? Obviously the defense is getting tired because the offense cannot run the ball and sustain drives. As we saw, we are limited in what we can do in the pass rush because we do not have the energy to blitz, and in the secondary we have to play a soft zone not to give up the big play. Blame Cam for playcalling, Flacco for not making the throws, or the defense for giving up points all you want, but it all traces back to the offensive line. The fact that we are 9-4 with this offensive line and run game is amazing. Look at the teams that average less than 4 yards per rush there are a lot of bad teams in that bunch.

Defense was too tired, simple as that. When the offense can't run the ball that's what happens.

The weakness of this team is not the pass rush, not the secondary, not Flacco, it's the offensive line. The offensive line can't allow us to run the ball, they can't block for Flacco, and God forbid a safety comes to the line to blitz. The secondary and pass rush are tried because Rice can't run and Flacco is running for his ass 90% of the time giving us 8 play drives.

*** I'm stupid for thinking this game is easy ***

I love the moves we have made! Sure, they are nothing compared to getting A-Gon, Crawford, or Lee, but the are smart, cheap moves that will have an impact on this team. Add Adam LaRoche or Derreck Lee and some relief pitching and I certain believe Buck can have this team over .500. A breakout year from Wieters, a rebound year from Markakis, a healthy B-Rob, and continued success from Berge, Matusz, and Arrieta under Buck and who knows where this team could go (maybe not playoffs, but maybe 90 wins?). Reynolds is going to be great for us. He is moving to a more hitter's friendly park and finally gives us a bat against LHP. Reynolds smashes LHP with a career OPS of .932, something we desparately need. More importantly he gives us a right handed bat to put inbetween Markakis and Scott. Markakis can hit second with Reynolds third and Scott clean-up. Sure, the strike out numbers are big, but he walks 75 times a year and has a .340 OBP. A return to 40 homers is a real possibility. Hardy is a huge upgrade of Izturis. There is no defensive drop-off and you have a guy who has a career .746 OPS from the shortstop position. In an off, injured-year he had a .714 OPS. Izturis has a career .619 OPS and has never had an OPS near .714. Simply put, Hardy was the best SS available on the market. Huge upgrade. And if Hardy can return to 2007-2008 form when he was healthy, its an even bigger upgrade. You have a good 5-6 hitter. If he can't return to form, you have a much better 7-8 hitter than Izturis was. Plus, Hardy is a good looking guy so he should be a marketable player. He was very popular in Milwaukee. We didn't have a chance at Crawford or A-Gon. No chance A-Gon would have signed an extension here. We are doing the best we can do, that's all you can ask. I'll be happy with .500 baseball!

Coach should have called a time-out on the sidelines.

First, don't compare Flacco to Dilfer. There is simply no comparison. Second, while Flacco has left a lot of points on the field, how about the receivers? Mason dropped a TD pass in the Pats game, Boldin dropped one as well on a PI penalty, and he's had a couple of other passes dropped in the endzone as well. Flacco has had multiple third down passes dropped that killed drives, and plays where he has been running for his life on poor pass protection. Don't forget the beautiful redzone drive last week where Cam called two fade passes back-to-back. Flacco deserves some blame, but definitely not all of it. Also, look at Flacco's two minute drills this year and his numbers when blitzed (I believe he has the highest QB rating when blitzed). Flacco clearly works better when he's in an uptempo, no-huddle offense. Matt Ryan gets to work a no-huddle offense, why doesn't Flacco? Preston is right, Flacco will never be a Brady, Manning, or Unitas, but neither will 99% of the QBs in this league. What we need to do is build an offensive system around Joe's strengths, something we are currently not doing well. The fact that he has still been able to have this much success says a lot about his talent. Last year we simply did not attack the middle of the field. This is something Flacco has done very well this season. His touch has been much improved, as has his deep ball putting the ball where only the receiver can catch it. This is evident by the amount of PI penalties we have gotten downfield. Flacco is not making boneheaded decisions he has made last season. Rarely do you see him make a throw and you think "what was he thinking?" He still has trouble reading the field, but he is very good at getting the ball out quickly when in an uptempo offense. Here is the most important point: Since the Bengals game teams have tried to attack Flacco with a Cover-2 defense. It hasn't worked, he has done very well against these defenses. Bottom line, Flacco is an asset to this team. He makes us better. Dilfer, Boller, etc. hindered this team. Flacco isn't a Manning or a Brady, but he certainly makes us better and is a good QB who can one day be great.

I am not worried about this game at all, I'm calling a *** I'm stupid for thinking this game is easy ***

To anyone who is interested there is an insider over on the OH Ravens board who says Cam offered to resign on Monday after the game. The guy is legit, he has broken many stories before (he broke the Boldin trade a couple of hours prior). He said Cam was probably emotional when he did it, but he made the offer regardless. The same guy is saying that this is without a doubt Cam's last season in Baltimore and a lot of people are frustrated with him. Apparently Flacco is under strict order not to change the play at the line and a lot of guys on offense are very angry about this. Willis McGahee nearly said as much on his radio show the other day.

I don't see where all the blame on Flacco goes.

That loss is about as tough as they come.

I was scared to death when Landry came up for that tackle. I thought for sure that was going to be a missed tackle for a first down. I know you were scared too papa haha.

We MUST take advantage of this field positioning and get at least a field goal.

Haruki in that situation has to keep containment on Ben. Ben can't get to the outside on that play. Either force Ben upfield for a scramble or back to the middle of the field, lunging at him is the worst thing you could do.

Suggs is a beast!!!! Earning his pay!!!

Anyone see Flacco change the direction of that run play to Rice when he saw Polamalu creeping up to blitz? Good stuff!

Apparently it's a business decision.

I'm a big fan of Al Michaels as well. I like Collinsworth a lot too.

Speed kills.

Suggs has really stepped his game up the past month or so.

No McClain, no problem so far. I am liking the spread sets and the use of Ed Dickson. The guy has some wheels.

According to what Heap and Harbaugh are saying it seems like we are going to try and replace McClain in the gameplan instead of adapting and using our other formations that utilize other players, such as Dickson and Stallworth. Bad idea in my opinion. Look what the Eagles did when All-Pro fullback Leonard Weaver went down for the season. Weaver is a similar player to McClain in that he does all the things that Harbaugh described in that article you posted. Sure, the Eagles signed a new FB, but they adapted by using a variety of different sets utitilizing their other players. In other words, it forced them to use other plays in the playbook that they had not used very much before. That is all I am saying, having McClain out might force us to use different formations and plays that we have not used before, possibly keeping the defense guessing. If we attempt to run the same plays and personel sets by having someone else try and fill McClain's role, then yes, it is going to hurt us a lot.

See, I think it is as easy as I make it. The only thing that is changing is the gameplan, there is no need to change the personel. These are sets and plays we already have. McClean isn't in the game on single-back four wide, or one tight-end three wide sets. He isn't in the game on empty backfield, five wide sets. McClain wasn't in the game on the Heap TD last week, he wasn't in the game on the TD drive ending with the Mason TD. All I am saying is that this is going to force us to utilize other packages we don't use as much. We could see more Stallworth or more Dickson. Sure, it might not work, but I think it will give us an advantage in that the Steelers will see plays we haven't run before and it will give us opportunities to exploit mismatches by getting more speed on the field with Stallworth and Dickson.