Big Test for Mattison

[dc.]

This game is going to be a huge test for Mattison and our defense. As we have discussed before, this is his first year as an NFL coordinator and only his second year in the NFL, after so many years in college. Part of our defensive struggles may be attributable to that fact. While other teams have been able to carve us up, it's taken him a bit of time to really adjust his schemes to fit this group.

 

This week we get to see a REAL test for Mattison. Rematch time. He gets to face the same offense, same players, etc etc... what has he learned from last time?

 

While the big game against Denver last week was great and show that he's getting us back on track, it is not a final conclusion yet. I will be far more confident in Mattison and this defense if they show significant improvement this week, against a team that we should "know" a little better.

[thundercleetz]

His job is going to be even more difficult as Ngata is likely out.

[Guest BallTMore]

First half grade. Z. That's right...Z.

[OutsideRzAcE]

lol....he needs to be gone. Dont even waste another season with him.

[deeshopper]

Fail.

[52isUnstoppable]

Fail.

[thundercleetz]

Fire his old ass.

[geo]

17 points is not failed, 7 is.

 

And more I think Cam and our offense did lose this one so much more than any mattison, who at least did try to things and gave our offense lot of opportunities.

[Spen]

17 points is not failed, 7 is.

 

And more I think Cam and our offense did lose this one so much more than any mattison, who at least did try to things and gave our offense lot of opportunities.

 

 

In some ways I kind of agree. Its odd. At time the Bengals moved the ball at will and to me it doesnt seem like the defense really played well at all during any part of this game. Yet they only gave up 17 points.

[thundercleetz]

Yeah, and our cornerbacks continue to get burned while playing 20 yards off of the line of scrimmage. Hey, I guess our corners had a pretty good game considering we did not give up the big play. Mattison's blitzes are pathetic as well. They are dead give-aways taking our players out of the play most of the time. Today I saw some of the most undisciplined defensive line play I have every seen from a Ravens team. I will say it again, fire his ancient ass. He can take Foxworth, Washington, Carr, and Hauschka with him as well. I would rather see free agents play than the garbage we have out there in the secondary right now. Other than Webb, our DBs have absolutely no attitude or physicality. It kills me that we are stuck with Foxworth for the next three years and Carr for the next two. At least free agents off of the street would play with some passion. Where are Evan Oglesby and Anwar Phillips? These guys are no worse than what we have already, and at least they play with passion.

[vmax]

Yeah, and our cornerbacks continue to get burned while playing 20 yards off of the line of scrimmage. Hey, I guess our corners had a pretty good game considering we did not give up the big play. Mattison's blitzes are pathetic as well. They are dead give-aways taking our players out of the play most of the time. Today I saw some of the most undisciplined defensive line play I have every seen from a Ravens team. I will say it again, fire his ancient ass. He can take Foxworth, Washington, Carr, and Hauschka with him as well. I would rather see free agents play than the garbage we have out there in the secondary right now. Other than Webb, our DBs have absolutely no attitude or physicality. It kills me that we are stuck with Foxworth for the next three years and Carr for the next two. At least free agents off of the street would play with some passion. Where are Evan Oglesby and Anwar Phillips? These guys are no worse than what we have already, and at least they play with passion.

 

 

The Ravens are screwed for at least a year or more if they can't get a legit #1 corner this off season...just forget any playoff talk.

[geo]

Yeah, and our cornerbacks continue to get burned while playing 20 yards off of the line of scrimmage. Hey, I guess our corners had a pretty good game considering we did not give up the big play. Mattison's blitzes are pathetic as well. They are dead give-aways taking our players out of the play most of the time. Today I saw some of the most undisciplined defensive line play I have every seen from a Ravens team. I will say it again, fire his ancient ass. He can take Foxworth, Washington, Carr, and Hauschka with him as well. I would rather see free agents play than the garbage we have out there in the secondary right now. Other than Webb, our DBs have absolutely no attitude or physicality. It kills me that we are stuck with Foxworth for the next three years and Carr for the next two. At least free agents off of the street would play with some passion. Where are Evan Oglesby and Anwar Phillips? These guys are no worse than what we have already, and at least they play with passion.

 

I am not going to defend Foxworth, who is obviously not ready or carrless. What I am saying is our offense did not change a damn thing against one of the worst pass defenses in the league, why are we giving up the runninggame? Where is McGahee? Where is two TEs, Where is D-Wil?

 

We lost TOP 20-40, and except for the first Q, its very hard to blame the defense for that stat.

 

What happend in the first bungles game, same thing and we did not even try to run, we did never try to change the games pattern on O why? As much as I love Rice, he has basically not won a single football game yet. Last game he had his first score in a win, when we already had the game in control.

 

And it is a pain to see the bungles having the best runninggame in AFC North, if we had insisted on the runninggame in both games, benson would never ever had time to get 2 games with + 100 yds.

[thundercleetz]

I am not going to defend Foxworth, who is obviously not ready or carrless. What I am saying is our offense did not change a damn thing against one of the worst pass defenses in the league, why are we giving up the runninggame? Where is McGahee? Where is two TEs, Where is D-Wil?

 

We lost TOP 20-40, and except for the first Q, its very hard to blame the defense for that stat.

 

What happend in the first bungles game, same thing and we did not even try to run, we did never try to change the games pattern on O why? As much as I love Rice, he has basically not won a single football game yet. Last game he had his first score in a win, when we already had the game in control.

 

And it is a pain to see the bungles having the best runninggame in AFC North, if we had insisted on the runninggame in both games, benson would never ever had time to get 2 games with + 100 yds.

 

I am tired of this why did we give up on the run game. The Bengals were stuffing us on every first down leaving us with 2nd & 10+. Don't look at the stats, they are misleading. All of Rice's yard came from two shotgun draws when the Bengals were in prevent defense. Our running game was amounting to squat jack today, the Bengals defensive line punched our offensive line in the mouth, and there was nothing we could do about it. If we stuck to the running game we would have been shutout. It is not Cam's fault that Clayton cannot jump up for a deep ball, or Mason stops running on a corner endzone route, or Joe was making inaccurate throws, or that Mason dropped three first down passes. Bottom line, our run game was shutdown today, and running the ball a few more times on 2nd & 10+ or 3rd & 10+ was not going to change that.

[geo]

So our OL is pathetic, and/or Bungles Defense is elite? I am not buying it.

[vmax]

To open the game, the D let the Bengals convert on something like 4 out of their first 5 3rd downs. That ate up clock, kept the O off the field and got them exhausted.

 

I have serious doubts about Mattison now, and I respect and understand those of you that want him gone (I'm almost there myself)

but...

Let me remind you that Art wanted Marvin Lewis fired after the '96 season and Ozzie told Art that Marvin wasn't the problem...he just needed better players.

The 2009 Ravens are in that exact same situation.

Shitty secondary, no pass rush and no playmakers.

 

It took 2-3 years to get them.

I think we have a 2 year wait again.

[BengalBilly]

And it is a pain to see the bungles having the best runninggame in AFC North, if we had insisted on the runninggame in both games, benson would never ever had time to get 2 games with + 100 yds.

Excuse me geo. We are the BENGALS. The team that handed yours its asses twice in a row. As far as your defense, it's a total joke. Carson Palmer waded through it like it's a shallow pond. And as far as Cincinnati's defense, they completely DOMINATED Baltimore's offense. The three consecutive sacks on the last drive only confirms what I'm saying.

 

As far as you being upset that Cincinnati has the best running game in the AFC North, if not the entire NFL, it's because they took a chance on Cedric Benson. The guy with the criminal back round. Not only has he turned his life around, so has he done the same to the team.

 

Sucks to be you dude.

[Ravensfan1]

was it me or did we not really blitz til we were down 17?i know i saw like a 3rd and goal where we rushed 3... sorry thats not ravens football there.

[deeshopper]

Wow, Billy. You went from asking why the Ravens were considered average by a poster here in one thread to calling the defense a total joke. What changed? The thread? Or did thunder convince you so quickly that the need to spew such venom arose much more quickly than anticipated?

[thundercleetz]

Wow, Billy. You went from asking why the Ravens were considered average by a poster here in one thread to calling the defense a total joke. What changed? The thread? Or did thunder convince you so quickly that the need to spew such venom arose much more quickly than anticipated?

 

If this was Facebook I would "like" that post.

[deeshopper]

If this was Facebook I would "like" that post.

 

The plus and minus icons at the bottom right of each post is the like or unlike.

[BengalBilly]

Wow, Billy. You went from asking why the Ravens were considered average by a poster here in one thread to calling the defense a total joke. What changed?

I went from beer to bourbon?

[deeshopper]

I went from beer to bourbon?

 

OK. That's a good answer too.

[dc.]

Bottom line... offense failed in this one.

 

The first half was ugly on both sides, but the defense put it together in the second half. It still wasn't perfect, but 0 points is 0 points.

 

And once again... if our opponent scores 17 points, we should win the game. The offense did not get it right. Hauschka's miss may have changed the game's outcome... but he certainly wasn't all of it.

 

Flacco missed the long ball... but most of the time we didn't even need the long ball. For most of the game, our offense looked like the Billick offense... short run, short run, LONG BOMB. Why? The Bengals have shown us twice now that the solution is BALANCE. Run. Short pass. Mid pass. The long bomb isn't necessary... especially if we can't make it work.

 

We bitched about Flacco overthrowing the long ball a few times in past games... well, now we know why he over throws... because an underthrow is a pick. And if you can't hit the throw, I'd rather have it go long.

 

Meanwhile, why can't we hit the long ball? Because we probably don't practice it. Manning and Harrison used to run 40 yard throws in warm-ups every damn day until they had the timing right. I have a feeling we never even get to that kind of repetition because we have so many issues elsewhere. Abandon that.

 

Ray Rice got 12 carries. I know part of that is because early he got stuffed and then we were down. But we need to run the ball. If it doesn't work, we can't just fucking give it up and start acting like we're scared of the outcome. Run the ball. Trust our offense. We were one of the league's most efficient running teams last year and nothing on our offense has changed to make that change... we can do it again if we trust it. There's a reason Ray starts finding holes later in games...

[thundercleetz]

Bottom line... offense failed in this one.

 

The first half was ugly on both sides, but the defense put it together in the second half. It still wasn't perfect, but 0 points is 0 points.

 

And once again... if our opponent scores 17 points, we should win the game. The offense did not get it right. Hauschka's miss may have changed the game's outcome... but he certainly wasn't all of it.

 

Flacco missed the long ball... but most of the time we didn't even need the long ball. For most of the game, our offense looked like the Billick offense... short run, short run, LONG BOMB. Why? The Bengals have shown us twice now that the solution is BALANCE. Run. Short pass. Mid pass. The long bomb isn't necessary... especially if we can't make it work.

 

We bitched about Flacco overthrowing the long ball a few times in past games... well, now we know why he over throws... because an underthrow is a pick. And if you can't hit the throw, I'd rather have it go long.

 

Meanwhile, why can't we hit the long ball? Because we probably don't practice it. Manning and Harrison used to run 40 yard throws in warm-ups every damn day until they had the timing right. I have a feeling we never even get to that kind of repetition because we have so many issues elsewhere. Abandon that.

 

Ray Rice got 12 carries. I know part of that is because early he got stuffed and then we were down. But we need to run the ball. If it doesn't work, we can't just fucking give it up and start acting like we're scared of the outcome. Run the ball. Trust our offense. We were one of the league's most efficient running teams last year and nothing on our offense has changed to make that change... we can do it again if we trust it. There's a reason Ray starts finding holes later in games...

 

dc, we run the ball and we get shutout. The Bengals were stuffing us out of our running formations. All of Ray's yard came out of the shotgun on the draws. Running the ball was not happening today, our offensive line was punched in the mouth. All running did was put us in 2nd & 10+. Trust has nothing to do with it except three-and-outs.

[dc.]

Running in shotgun and on a draw is still running...

 

And really, in the first half, Ray still had a few nice runs to the outside. But inside we certainly had serious issues.

 

I just think 12 carries is killing us - and it's not the first time this season we've walked away from a game saying, "Man, we didn't run that much..."

 

maybe it's about predictability... maybe it's about execution... but it's something.

 

Honestly... I think the offense's bigger problem was what we saw in the AFCC last year... no third receiver option. Kelly Washington needs to be on the field more. When our running game failed to work, we went to the pass, but we didn't put Washington or Heap out there very often. Two receivers against 7 defenders isn't going to cut it. I know we want to protect Joe, but Heap AND Washington need to get on the field and get out into the coverage.