bmw800

I agree on Mattison's blitzes, we just got picked up most of the time. And the Saints are ridiculous, but you never know in the NFL. All it takes is for Brees to get planted awkwardly on the throwing shoulder or something, and they'd be in serious jeopardy.

Our O showed some signs of life yesterday, for the first time in a couple weeks. We have to protect the ball a bit better, cut down on the penalties, and protect Flacco better. Kampman and Harris are both out for Green Bay, so that should help. Defensively, we'll be able to get to Rodgers, the O-line is the worst in the league by far. Everyone is getting pressure on Rodgers. Our secondary has played well since the bye and especially since Webb has become more involved. Grant should not be able to run on us. Its going to be a tough game, especially at lambeau, but I don't think its an automatic loss under any circumstances.

1) I don't know how he's missing a lot of throws, what do you expect, him to complete 75% of his passes every game? I don't remember him missing anything particularly easy in the game against Pittsburgh, apart from maybe the throw on which Clayton got called for PI. And even the best QBs miss a couple of easy ones every game. Watching Indy-Houston for about a half yesterday, Manning missed at least 3 wide open receivers. And he's the best QB of the decade. He missed a couple against us as well. To expect him to hit every open receiver is absolutely ridiculous, especially under the pressure he was under. Again he completed 65% of his passes yesterday. That's quite a bit above average, especially against Pittsburgh's D 2) Apart from the point that Pittsburgh is the best team in the league at disguising blitzes, its not on Flacco to make protection calls at the line. That's on Birk. And there's not much you can do when a guy goes untouched. On the first fumble, Timmons comes in untouched. Flacco saw the blitz and went hot, about to throw the ball, but Timmons just got there way too fast. In fact of the 5 sacks, 4 times the guy came in untouched. That says more about the o-line and Pitt's D then it does about Flacco. 3) Again, every QB fumbles (see our game against the Pats for example). I talked about the first fumble already, and the second fumble is similar. The guy comes up the middle untouched and goes directly for the ball. There really isn't much Flacco can do about that, short of staring down the d-line and LBs every play, and he isn't ever going to complete a pass that way.

How, exactly, did this game show Flacco regressing? I talked about this in the gameday thread, but he completed 65% of his passes for 289 yards and a TD with no INTs (and the only play even close to an INT was the one where the umpire got in the way). So he missed some throws. Manning misses throws, Brees misses throws, everyone misses throws. He was getting absolutely creamed yesterday and hurt his ankle, but he still took us down the field to tie, and had us in position to win before Clayton's PI, and again before the fumble. Its also not like he was holding on to the ball too long on those sacks, guys were getting to him untouched most of the time. He made a good throw to Clayton on the bomb (a bit underthrown, but not egregiously so), a beautiful throw to Mason on that fade for the TD, and an absolute bullet to Rice on 4th down that allowed Rice to catch and run (on a similar pattern to the one that got us burned against Indy). He also made a good throw on that deep ball to Mason that should have been PI (Mason's gotta dive for that ball, he may have been able to at least get a hand on it and it would have sold the fact that his arm was being held on) and another one when PI actually got called. Hell, he actually was throwing to other receivers than Mason and Rice (Clayton had over 100 yards!). No way he showed regression during this game.

Actually, we have a game against Chicago also before the Pittsburgh game, so we should try and go into Pittsburgh 9-5. We have to win one of the two games against Green Bay and Pitt, and then hold serve against Chicago, Detroit, and Oakland, to got to 10-6. I think the best chance to do that comes Monday night.

All I know is that working Monday night is going to be torture.

Not taking sides in the overall debate going on about Foxworth, but the fact that we were going against a 3rd string QB is kind of irrelevant to the whole debate. CBs are going head to head against the WRs, not the QB, so it wasn't so much "Foxworth vs. Dixon" as it was Foxworth vs. Holmes and Ward," both of whom are Pro Bowlers. Now I'm not going to say he played great, but I wouldn't term him a massive liability either. They only let up 145 passing yards in 26 attempts, and held him to under a 50% completion rating. What did you expect, that we would pitch a shutout in passing yards? Just think of it like a rookie making his first start, and lets compare Dixon's game to some other recent QBs making their first starts: Dixon: 12/26 (46.2%), 145 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 rushing TD team loses (scores 17 points) Sanchez: 18/31 (58.1%), 272 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, team wins (scores 24 points) Ryan: 9/13 (69.2%), 161 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, team wins (scores 34 points) Flacco: 15/29 (51.7%), 129 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 1 rushing TD, team wins (scores 17 points) The comparisons actually aren't that bad at all, especially considering the last three at at most 1 full training camp in the NFL (in Flacco's case, about a week of it as starter after the injuries), whereas Dixon has had two training camps and a full NFL season of practice to get acclimated with the Steeler's system. He has two Pro Bowl receivers, a very good young third receiver (Wallace is going to give us headaches for years, I have a feeling), a good TE, and a good running game. I don't think the whole "sky is falling" attitude about the D is all that warranted.

How bout because its the NFL, and a win is a win any way you can get one. Or because we beat the Steelers, a rivalry where the score is almost always close regardless of the records involved or who was playing. Or because despite the fact we turned the ball over twice, Flacco was sacked 5 times, we were penalized 9 times for 80 yards (and a very conspicuous no-call on Mason), and we were trailing by 3 in the 4th quarter, we found a way to win the game against a playoff hopeful team Or because we saw some rookies step up HUGE today (Webb all game, and Kruger played well even before the pick) Or because, for once this season when we really needed one more drive, one more play in a must win game, we got it (several times over, in fact). Or because, we're 6-5, and despite all that has happened this season, we are right back in this thing. I don't know if we'll make the playoffs, or if we'd do anything once we are there, but we still have a chance, thanks to tonight's win. And at this point in the season, I'll take it.

Looking at the standings, its going to be a crazy run down to the wire for the wild card spots this year. (Hold on to your hats, I'm going stream-of-consciousness here for a second) The 4 division winners are pretty much locked up, barring a collapse. The Colts have clinched, the Bengals are essentially 3 games up in the division due to tiebreakers, the Chargers are on a roll while Denver is fading a bit (NY really isn't that good this year, I'm not impressed) and New England has a stranglehold on that weak divison. After that though, damn its muddled: Denver is on its own at 7-4. However, they already are down the head-to-head tiebreaker against both us and the Steelers. The Ravens, Steelers, and Jaguars are all at 6-5. That week 16 matchup in Pittsburgh is going to be HUGE, as are both teams' matchups with the Packers (us next week, Pitt in Week 15). The Jags have a -53 point differential on the season and have Miami, Indy, Houston, and NE on their schedule still. I doubt they are a factor by the end. And then, sitting at 5-6, are the Texans, Dolphins, Jets, and Titans(!!!). Of these, I think the most dangerous team is the Titans. I am fervently glad they did not bench Collins sooner, otherwise we could be in real trouble. They still have Indy, Miami, and San Diego on their schedule, but I would not surprised at this point to see them run the table. The Dolphin's schedule is brutal, with New England, Houston, Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh left (how about those for some big matchups?) The Jets close with Atlanta, Indy, and Cincy, hopefully before they decide to rest their starters. Houston plays Jacksonville, Miami and New England. The last few weeks here in the AFC are going to be filled with meaningful games against playoff-aspiring teams (I'm throwing NE in here, since if they lose they'll be 7-4 and have lots of games against the other hopefuls left): Week 13: New England @ Miami Houston @ Jacksonville Week 14: Miami @ Jacksonville Week 15: Miami @ Tennessee Week 16: Houston @ Miami Jacksonville @ New England Baltimore @ Pittsburgh Week 17: New England @ Houston Pittsburgh @ Miami And that doesn't even include all of the games against the elite teams in the AFC and NFC. This is going to be a dogfight. As for the Ravens: the goal has got to be to get to 10-6 (or 11-5, which is obviously what the team is gonna shoot for, but for us 10-6). That means beating Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and either Pitt or Green Bay. We do that, I think we make it in, especially if we beat Pittsburgh. Houston, Tennessee, NY, and Miami will all lose at least once I think, meaning its between Denver, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, and us for 2 spots. I think Jacksonville loses twice, so they would go out. That knocks it down to 3. And anything can happen with tiebreakers at that point, but with us and Pitt having beaten Denver, we'd be in good shape. Thanks for sticking with that excessively long post.

I don't think the D really played that poorly. Dixon was 12/26, with only 145 yds. We only allowed 14 points. The Steeler's were able to run the ball a bit, but they committed to that the entire game. Anyone who watched Dixon at Oregon knew he could run, the play just broke down on his touchdown. Contain bit for the fake in the opposite direction, plus an all-out blitz up the middle equaled a bad play (and Miller did an excellent job calling for the ball to keep Landry covering him so he couldn't get over). Webb almost had (and probably should have had, the ball hit him in both hands) another pick that would have rendered OT moot. I don't see what we would have expected to be better, its not like Pittsburgh lost its Pro Bowl receivers or Mendenhall, who is having a great year.

Rice: 19 carries, 88 yards (4.6/carry) McClain: 4 carries, 28 yards (7/carry) McGahee: 5 carries, 18 yards (3.6/carry) 3 headed monster (neglecting Flacco's last carry before the FG): 28 rushes, 134 yards (4.8 yards/carry) And this against a Steeler's D leading the NFL in yds/game (69.5) and yds/carry (3.4) coming into tonight

I don't understand where the problems with Flacco's performance comes from, at least seemingly from a couple people in this thread. He was 23/35 (65.7% completion percentage), for 289 and a TD. He converted on a big 4th down with a beautiful pass (made even more beautiful by Rice's run, be he had the 1st when he caught it) and threw a couple of nice passes on the bomb to Clayton and the TD. He put us into range for a FG at the end of the half before the sack. And he did all of this while getting beaten to death by Pittsburgh's D (5 sacks, numerous other hits and hurries, and a bum ankle to boot). And you're trying to put the blame for being close on Flacco? Really?

We were in range 3 times during that drive: penalty, penalty, fumble cost us

That was SOOOOO close

Come on D, we need you here

TD here, definitely I don't want to give them the chance to go down the field with 3 TOs and try for a FG to win the game

That's a way to ruin field position

They just rushed 3 and still got to Joe... that's 3 sacks on the last 2 series

I agree, stupid move by Haloti. At least we held them to 3

Good hold D, we need 7 here

And the easiest kick Cundiff has all day he misses

If we're gonna run Mcclain on 3rd and 1, we have to stack the line and run a dive, we can't be spreading out and making him have to dance in the backfield

We're in striking distance, but we're gonna need TDs to win this game

Hmm, I'm down by 7 points as of right now in my fantasy league with Flacco and Mason. Don't let me down guys.

Now that we've had a night to sleep on this game (well except for me, since I'm on the midnight shift this week and sacrificed sleep for this abomination of a game), I was wondering if we could find a little ray of hope in our chances of making the playoffs. Let me say that I don't, personally, believe it will happen, not with how we've played this year. Despite this, I couldn't help but think about how it could happen: We have 8 games remaining, 8 games that I think can be broken down into 3 categories. The 1st is the games that we absolutely should win, against some of the worst teams in the NFL. We have 3 of these games: at Cleveland, Detroit, and at Oakland. These teams are all fairly terrible, and we shouldn't have a problem with any of them. The only twinge of worry I get is about Calvin Johnson, but really, with that game at home, it should be easy pickings overall. If we lose any of these games, we deserve to go 4-12. The 2nd is the games that we will probably be favored, and should win. These are the games against Chicago and Green Bay. They aren't as cut and dry as the 3 above, but we stand to do well with these teams. Green Bay just lost to Tampa, and have no O-line at all. Even we should be able to pressure them. Their defense isn't so hot either. As for Chicago, they have no offense really. No running game, and their best receivers are Hester and Knox, neither of whom scare me. So, if we can take care of business in the above games, that will leave us with 9 wins. Then come the other 3 games, the Indy game and both Steelers games. If we could win just one of those games and hold serve in the rest, we could at least be 10-6 and start calculating tiebreakers. If we could steal another one, we could be 11-5 again. Now the question is, do we really see the Ravens losing to the Steelers 5 times in a row? Can the fact that Indy has lost damn near everyone in the secondary and a starting linebacker make them vulnerable? An optimist might say no and yes to those questions. And if that's the case, we may just yet make the playoffs