oldno82

Comment From Tyler] Ken, Trent Dilfer was on 105.7 the fan recently and said that Cam's offensive scheme doesnt involve progressions for the Qb its just 2 options or so followed by a checkdown. Is this true? Because the more i watch the more it looks to be true plus that would explain why Rb's in Cams offenses always have so many catches. 12:08 Ken Murray: Trent knows better than I know, Tyler. That's not what we're led to believe, though. I think with the offensive line struggling to protect Flacco, he's had to short-circuit the reads to get the ball out. He still has some hesitancy, and we saw that again yesterday. He's not a finished product. But you make a very valid point in how Cam's running backs are usually favorite targets. Clipped from the Sun's Raven Insider website.

You hit the nail on the head!

I agree with everything thats been said here. We failed to properly utilize Boldin, Housh, and Stallworth and the latter 2 have contracts, I think, that were only 1 year deals so why should they come back? The pass protection is weak and the passing scheme is weaker. And sometimes Joe has time to throw and either no one is open or he doesn't see them. What the heck is going on here? We need to use the weapons we have and there are many. After the season, I expect the Ravens to do SOMETHING to remedy this offensive mess we have and I want to hear Harbaugh tell the fans what that is.

The offense definitely sucked, looking as bad as it did on several Sundays this year. All that talent and so few points. Still, a win is a win. We're in the playoffs. We beat the Bengals who destroyed the Chargers last week. So, it looks like its going to be a game in KC next week if Indy wins.

Cool...sounds like something from Star Trek.

Good Grief Max! Are we on the same brainwave channel? I just posted the same topic as you did.

Hey guys, lets not overlook the fact that the Bengals are coming to town this Sunday and would love to hang another loss on us. Carson Palmer destroyed the Chargers last week without the 'mighty' TO and Ocho and the Chargers were arguably the hottest team in the NFL. Lets take care of this Sunday's business and then we can concentrate on the playoffs.

A decent win and we're playoff bound. We might even beat Manning what with the Colts' decimated O-line.

This is a sad development on many levels. Most importantly, a talented kid may lose out on his God-given ability to make a great living and have a super career. After that, its true he could have really been a plus for our defense. I'm holding out hope that maybe he'll still play in 2011.

Joe's soft touch TD pass to Rice was a thing of beauty too.

Couldn't ask for much more from the O-line other than fewer procedure penalties. Joe's protection was good. Ray, who was superb, had holes to run through. Joe had some excellent throws and should have had a third TD pass that McClain dropped. We still need to play a whole game on offense and defense didn't shut them down but damn it was a good, team win.

Also well said. We have a franchise qb and they need to protect him better. Mike Preston had a blog post where he said Joe is reminding him of Testeverde. I beg to differ. Vinny wasn't a bad qb but he was interception prone at crucial times. Flacco definitely has his head together more.

Yes! We do agree. The problem is offensive playcalling and coaching. Papa is right too that we need to look at what other teams did with similar talent that we have. On the offensive line we have two number one draft choices, Oher and Grubbs, a third round pick, Chester, and Yanda does a good job. Birk, I don't know if he's history or not---just haven't watched him enough to know for sure but there is talent there and that is what leads me to say offensive line coaching needs a lot of work.

While I don't think he's quite toast yet, Cousins is very close to being a complete bust if he doesn't show a great deal of improvement in these last 3 weeks.

Dee, as I said, I'm not knocking Ray Rice but he just isn't a power back like Jamal. Many times I've seen JL hit a solid wall right at the line, bounce off, and run off tackle down the field breaking tackles as he went. Plus, Jamal had the size and strength to carry the ball all those carries in a game. RR doesn't appear to have that kind of durability given his size. Ray is more of a back who hits a hole very quickly and moves downfield with great quickness, but I don't think we can 'pound the ball' with him given our offensive line's lack of charge off the ball (to say nothing of how the line has so much trouble pass protecting). Thus its hard for our offense to tire out an opposing defense like we used to do when Jamal was here. We need to take advantage of RR's elusiveness in the open field; use him more on swing passes out of the backfield, run more sweeps, and get him more away from traffic because it looks like this line just can't open up enough lanes on a consistent basis for him.

I don't think this offense can 'pound the ball' anymore like it used to. Not only is the offensive line not as powerful on the run but Ray Rice is not Jamal Lewis who bowled over defenders even when they were stacked 8 and 9 in the box. Don't get me wrong---Ray is a great multipurpose back, but he doesn't have the power Jamal had to make something happen when there is no hole. Again, Cam needs to adapt his system to the talent available not the other way around. More slants, more Boldin screens, more use of Stallworth and Housh, and use Ray Rice to keep defenses honest. I am beginning to think Cam is the biggest problem. He's definitely talented, but he micromanages Flacco too much, doesn't use the shotgun and no-huddle enough, and doesn't use Ray Rice properly. He has to change---be changed.

100% right!

Excellent points! Plus, I don't know how many noticed but when Housh was ragging on the officials for a non-PI call and going on too long loud and loud with it, Joe yelled at him to get back to the huddle.

Hey! Funny and accurate at the same time...this post gets a 10!

I absolutely agree. And it wasn't just once, there were numerous blitzes off the edge we didn't even block. Joe is going to get killed one day.

Joe is a good quarterback. The problems are with the O-line as has been stated on this board. I'm not sure about Cam's playcalling and micro-managing of the offense either. We could certainly use O-line help in the draft, but the defense needs someone else to pass rush---and its time we found a LB to eventually replace Ray Lewis. All in all we have more needs than I thought we would when the season started. Its been a disappointing season to see us waste valuable resources like Boldin, Housh, and Donte.

Well, I know Joe can throw a slant because that used to be one of his specialities with Mark Clayton in his first year. For some reason, Cam has gotten away from it.

You simply can't blame Joe for that play. I saw tape of the Jets first game against the Pats and the same thing happened to the mighty Tom Brady--Hit from the blindside and fumbled. I also saw two other plays just this past weekend in the NFL when the same thing happened. I think the offensive line blew its line calls on that play.

I think Max and Crav are right. This goes just beyond Joe or Cam. Joe seems to have what it takes. I watched some tape of this throws to Boldin last week and they were just beautiful. He is the franchise quarterback we're looking for BUT he's not completely there yet. The last pass that bounced to Dickson was poor and important. He did take the blame for that and his explanation was reasonable. No qb is perfect, not even Manning as the last several games have shown. The play were Joe was sacked/stripped by Polamolu was beyond his control and was due to a foul up in pass protection by the line. The line has had problems being consistent this year. The running game needs a some more emphasis when Ray Rice is in there. Run blocking seems fine at times and horrible at others. Pass protection is inconsistent and hurts Joe and the passing game. I think we may need a coaching change on the OL as they don't seem to be progressing but this is just a guess. Or perhaps the talent on the OL is overrated?? Cam does a lot of things right and a some things very wrong. Again, consistency is what's missing here. If Boldin is double covered most of the time, and it seems he is, we've got to be able to get the ball to Housh and Stallworth. I'd like to see us try a spread formation as that seems to give teams like both the Pats and Jets fits. We've got the quality receivers to spread out the defenses. It would be neat to see a 3-4 wide receiver set and Joe in the 'gun but Cam hasn't been doing it. Maybe he doesn't trust the pass protection. Anyway, I appreciate the thoughtful answers. Lets beat the Texans!!!

I can only see what's on the TV so its hard for me to tell what is going on downfield. So, I'm asking for your guys opinion. Do you think the inability of the passing game to really take off considering the wealth of talented receivers we have is more on Joe or on Cam? Are receivers really wide open downfield and Joe doesn't see them? Is he limited to going with just his first read and then a dump-off because Cam has him on a leash? Do we have any WRs ever get open over the middle and then fail to get the ball to them or is sideline passes the only way Joe can go? Is our pass protection suspect and why? Just what the hell is going on out there, guys? Especially, you all that have been to the games. And why the hell doesn't the media give us some insights into this? Isn't that their job?