TBird

Steve Smith SR has already said he wants to come back after a great year posting over 1,000 plus more in the POs. He desperately wants a ring having lost in the SB with the Panthers. Ozzie and HARBs talked to him after he said that and HARBs said take a nap before deciding for sure. Ozzie said to take 3 weeks to think about it and where you want to be next year. It almost sounds like they don't want their best receiver to come back but they are thinking about his old body which will be 36 next season and the abuse it will take playing every down. They don't think he can. HARBs and Oz are saying he might not play as much even if he comes back to save wear and tear on his body and they have those young receivers like Marlon,Aiken and Campy to groom. That have got to be kidding. I understand the old man part but SR is the best receiver on this team and his been since the day he showed up. No one else on the team will be as good as SR. Fans are still crying for a blue chip WR in the upcoming depth. It's not coming from these young guys. I can see using SR less to preserve his body but it only gets worse if Torrey Smith doesn't return, Ravens site says they want him back but does he want to come back? If not, it only get worse for the Ravens. http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/article-1/Ravens-Invite-Steve-Smith-To-Think-Over-Return/2fc42a94-1f40-4c94-9d1f-2d23a367fec1

And something tells me our first draft pick will be another pass rusher-lol. Like pitching in baseball, you can't have enough of them. ;)

Congrats.

I remember Elam's first pre-season game when he was like a heat seeking missile then he just stopped. He's too busy learning the pro game. It takes time. The pro game is so much faster as we saw last night with BRady's quick snap count. He was throwing the ball in less than 1.5 seconds in the 2d half. That's why the sacks and pressures stopped. It made the game faster an SD beat the pressure the same way. They saw the tape. Elam just needs more time.

Hurst was quite a find and so was Urschel. What depth. Mosley made some plays last night. Look at the tape. He was in on some tackles, last week two. Coverage has been a weakness and was written up in his scouting report. Stan White said there were a couple of plays where both he and Smith were confused but for the year overall, Mosley was a great. He won DP of the month twice and made pro bowl as a rookie so you cant knock him too much and those coverage probs can be coached up. We went deep in the POs. He was hardly the reason we lost.

The silver lining of this game is that it shows how close Ravens are to the best, a team likely to be in the Super Bowl. It was just 1 play short and a trick play at that of going to the AFC Championship game. Fans are crying about lack of defense and lack of a WR but think about this. When Ravens started camp this summer they had the most talent on paper this side of Seattle. Our secondary was set with two good corners until Webbie went down and then Jimmy followed by a ton of guys that replaced them and at other positions. They pick up a guy off the street who wasn't even playing football and almost went to the AFC Championship game while beating Piss for the first time in the POs and in Pissburgh. It took a trick play to win in the end. The future looks bright as Ozzie will add even more depth in the next draft as Ravens go for 7th of 8 playoffs and the Super Bowl.

I sure expected a win til the very last play. Plenty of time but Joe over threw Torrey who was open It still took a trick play and a lot of deception and cheating for NE to win on a play the NFL had never seen before - a quick snap on a substitution before the REFs could inform Ravens of the substitution. Thats why we call him Bellicheat.

NE hasn't won a SB in years while Ravens have recent trophy including 5 POs in a row which no other team did during that time. Ravens get back in this year for 6 of 7 years. One reason might be NE is in a candy bar division and so they flop in the POs or in the SB when they do get in. Ravens have more playoff wins on the road than any other team including GB which has been in league since 1921. Flacco has more PO victories than any QB including road games and a QB rating of over 100% Ravens have had success in NE. It would be near perfect record if not for,um, Lee Evans and a rigged clock. That's why we call him Bellicheat.

OOPS. DOUBLE POST. PLEASE DELETE. SORRY

Gary Kubiak spoke up the the war room on draft day after seeing Ozzie draft defensive players in the first 3 rounds. So on the 99th pick Ravens selected Crockett Gilmore, TE. Saturday in Pittsburgh he scored a 21 yard TD that clinced the game draing praise from NEs D-Coord. Before that he was blocking well and assisted Hurst with blocking Harriosn. http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bs-sp-ravens-next-man-up-0108-20150107-story.html in

Yup, that play would have iced the game. Remember earlier in the year it was the last play of the game and Joe threw Torrey a long one and he dropped it. DB got his hand on it. That was another elementry play where Qadry Ismail explained on TV to John Sandusky that you have to jump up to the ball at it's highest peak, not wait for it to come down. It would have been a TD but Torrey waited for the ball to descend and DB got his hand on it. They called it a drop but it wasn't. Guy got his hand on the ball because Torrey didn't go up for it. This is what Boldin did so well and Torrey should have been paying attention. Qadry knew but Torrey didn't. These are fundamentals that Torrey isn't getting and that cost us the game.

Ravens have had success in NE minus the one disaster with Lee Evans and Bily Goat but they win more up there than anyone else including the last time on way to SB47 but I give most of the credit to Ozzie for feeding all those players to HARBs. Ozzie loses guys like Art Jones, Ellerbe and Kruger every year and replaces McPhee, Jernigan, Brandon Williams and Doooooom. Ozzie should have a couple more rings with all the talent he gave Billick and HARBs. I blame the coaching when Torrey Smith doesn't put his second foot down for the TD. Every little leaguer knows you gotta drag two feet across but the Raves never told Torrey. He even said I'll have to improve to get that foot down the next time. Every little leaguer knows you have to secure the ball when catching it but the Ravens didn't tell Lee EVans about it although he was around long enough to know. But HARBs still has more POs than just about anyone.

Here's his rookie highlights. Pretty impressive. Big rap vs him was his short arm length and gets stood up and bulled rush. That happened in NO but he's improved. http://www.ravenspr.com/player_bios/john_urschel.pdf

I was looking for the DeCosta quote but found this. Urschel is listed on the roster as a OG/C. By the end of camp he rose to first backup as OG and C as Jensen went to the practice squad with sleep apnea. He was promoted for the POs and activated. Urschel is also a math scholar who taught calculas and trig 3 days a week at Penn St in addition to his football duties. He graduated with a 4.00 gpa which he transfers to the football field as everyone can see. Here's the Ravens site. http://www.baltimoreravens.com/team/roster/John-Urschel/69bcc60c-a54b-460f-aa91-afc2d0a2ecee

Yea, Hurst and Wagner would have been high draft picks, top 3 at least but they were both injured during the draft. About a dozen teams tried to sign Hurst but he picked the Ravens because it was the best chance of making the team. Man, did he do his homework or what. He was the first undrafted LT ever to start a playoff game. Wagner was injured too and comes from those big Wisconsin lines like Joe Thomas but Ravens signed him.

Exactly, it's the system here why they do so well here. Look at Bart Scott and ED Hartwell too going to new systems. Thanks for explaining about the smaller conference for Brandon. I wondered how he dropped to the 3rd but someone else besides Oz should have known about him. Ozzie gets these unknowns and develops them every single year, offense too like Hurst and Urschel and Wagner who became the 2d best RT in only his second year - same as Brandon at NT. Ozzie then signs a bunch of new faces like Melvin, Hill and Stewart. Just think of our secondary next year whe Jimmy return and WEbbie is completely healthy.

Everyone complained about losing Boldin from the SB47 team but I was pissed about Pollard the Bone Crusher's departure as HARBs cleaned house after the SB win. I'm sure Gronk sent HARBs a big thank you note to as he won't have Pollard to mess him up anymore. Pollard had his way with Gronk on other teams before joining the Ravens but now he might have to worry about our new Bone Crusher - WILL HILL. What another great signing by Oz. He knew we'd need Hill in the middle of the season when he came back from suspension. Looks like he'll be here for a while. He still has areas to improve on but not his hits on Miller, Bryant and Wheaton. From Film Study's notes: Will Hill imprinted himself physically on the Steelers. He plastered Miller immediately after he dropped a 5-yard pass on 3rd and 13 (Q1, 8:45). He was positioned for a pick behind Miller before the Steelers TE got his fingers on the football (Q3, 7:51). He did not provide over-the-top help versus Brown on the 44-yard play that immediately followed Forsett’s fumble (Q4, 11:51). He again arrived after Miller failed to haul in a pass (Q4, 8:14). He separated Bryant from the football in the end zone (Q4, 3:09) with a big hit. He finished his night with the whiplash hit on Wheaton, who had difficulty getting back in position for a snap after his 17-yard reception (Q4, 1:43). Hill has contributed significantly in run support as part of his fine season, but the Ravens will need him to contribute off the LoS for as long as their season continues.

Overnight bus trip with Nasty and some others available here from $50-500. http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2015/1/5/continue-the-ravens-celebration-this-week

Not to get pessimistic but Bruce Laird was just on MASN and said that. NE went after REvis and those corners are pretty good. They can shut down about anyone. It will be an interesting chest match for sure but Bellicheat usually gets the best of Kubes but our front 7 will be the difference. It's better than theirs and if they can do to Brady what they did to Jen with 5 sacks and a ton of hits he will be rattled enough to blow it. Kubes has to get the run game going so that will be an important part of the chess match.

DeCosta said he would be our future Center on draft day selected on the 5th round out of Penn State. He's playing RG very well recently allowing Yanda to move to RT in Wagner's absence. He made a big block vs Piss' #2 draft pick, pass rusher Truitt. He's not the struggest blocker on the line but strong enough to hold them back and open some holes displaying quick feet. He's done well at other times in the regular season but has shined in the POs. If Monroe returns, Urschel and the right side will probably stay the way it is with Urschel and Yanda. What another great draft for Ozzie picking up a 5th rounder not to mention winning being the only Wild Card winner over the weekend with an undrafted rookie playing LT for the first time in a playoff game. Gilmore another pick @ #99 scored a big TD and MOsley and Jernigan have been two of the best players in the entire 2014 draft. But for this post - it's all Urschel. http://russellstreetreport.com/2015/01/06/tale-of-the-tape/urschel-stands-playoff-debut/

Yea, but this year is different with his suspension. He'll have to consider it if he wants to stay. Yea, it's a lot of money but we got into the POs with his and Joe's CAP hit.

Squeelers sure did. What a draft pick this dude has been starting in his second year. What a great draft 2013 was with 4 starters - Brandon, KJ (made first team alternate for pro bowl), Wagner - 2d best RT in game and Elam who made big play with INT on conversion pt attempt. Ozzie picked up all these starters plus Mosley, Jernigan and Gilmore from this years draft - all have started at various points in the year. Gilmore filled in for Pitta with a big Td. But Back to Williams who was a wrecking ball in the middle of Piss' line. We won this game in the trenches with Bradon and Ngata crushing their line. From Film Study's notes. Williams outplayed all 3 interior linemen and Pouncey in particular. In addition to a number of disruptions which supported other tacklers, he was party to 6 tackles on Saturday on which the gains were 2, 0, -9, 3, 3, and 2 yards. NTs don’t typically make many tackles, but when they do, it’s a good thing for the defense.

He probably will if asked. Oz made the point trading Boldin. Then Suggs re-signed and Ngata will too if he wants to stay. He had a sack and was responsible for Brandon's sack too. He pushed two guys back into Jen all night long and so did Brandon. Jernigan requires two blockers also but is more of a finess and moves guy.

Are you guys going to draft a corner?

Thanks Preach and halleluah baby.