Bad football rising

[tsylvester]

There was some bad football played Sunday, league wide. The new practice rules, the philosophy on preseason games, poor coaching, players not taking practices seriously, maybe all of the above.

But it was just a lot of sloppy play, including from the Ravens. Sure they won, yes, we had a few deep, exciting plays, However, ill-timed penalties, poor decision making, even getting a play called in, in time, we more prevalent.

Let's hope the rust gets shaken off quickly, or this could be a long, ugly season.

[GrubberRaven]

The lack of starter play in preseason is pretentious.  

[cravnravn]

I thought they corrected the time issue at the half. 1st half Lamar was breaking huddle with 7-8 seconds on the play clock, that gives him 0 seconds to look over the defense. 2nd half they were breaking huddle with12 seconds on the play clock. That gives him time to look over the D, and it showed with his bomb to Bateman.

So they did make an adjustment, have no idea who was to blame for the slow start in the first half.

2nd it was the Jets, but we gave up 500 yards of offense to the Jets, I'm not so sure we can bend and not break against a good team.

[tsylvester]

The defense I will give a pass for the most part. With the offense unable to sustain drives, kill the clock in the 2nd half and the big lead, it made sense to just play blanket, let them complete passes to keep the clock moving. Those were junk yards mostly and the lack of depth right now, till some get healthy, the defensive line was running out of gas, so little to no real pressure.

But you are correct, unless this offense can get moving, hold onto the ball, this team will be blown out by the good teams. Shoot, if the Jets had a decent line, this game might have been a loss...

[papasmurfbell]

I didn't like the run d.  That has me concerned.  

[tsylvester]

28 minutes ago, papasmurfbell said:

I didn't like the run d.  That has me concerned.  

They controlled it enough and remember, they were still missing a player or two. I really enjoyed watching them attack the pocket, now if they can sustain that for a full game....

[papasmurfbell]

Against the pass I was fine with.  Those long runs are what I had an issue with.

[tsylvester]

57 minutes ago, papasmurfbell said:

Against the pass I was fine with.  Those long runs are what I had an issue with.

That's on Queen and Harrison, as usual

[papasmurfbell]

Nunes too.

[vmax]

It was sloppy everywhere. I think only giving up 83 yards is OK. It's the 4.9 ypc that's not ok. They had 22- and 14-yard runs. The D played very well all things considered (starters not playing in preseason).

Who adjusts the fastest wins in week 2. We'll see.

Hey....there was absolutely no run game from the Ravens. That is very concerning.

 

[tsylvester]

Boy was it on display today, the offensive line that did a masterful job pass protecting, couldn't even gain a half yard in run blocking, 0 movement.

A.defense that only gave up 7 pts in the first half, caused 2 turnovers, had 2 sacks, couldn't stop anything in the 2nd half.

That is coaching, not players.

[papasmurfbell]

All camp we saw no running.  This OL might not be built well.

[cravnravn]

I have no issues with the O, D 100% they horrible

[tsylvester]

The fourth quarter is when you salt the game away. Eat up clock, take what ever will the other team has left away.

The offense did none of that, no time consuming drives, certainly not pound them into submission. All we got were 3 completions for 9 yards and a punt.

The Dolphins may have rushed 7 and eight, but only 3 of them actually tried to get to Lamar, the others hung back, making sure he could not escape, run.

Lamar, as great as he was, still Mae a few key mistakes. Yes he completed a pass to Andrews for 7 yards, but he had Bateman, on the same side, open for 15 + yac, further down field. This is just one example.

Then factor in the inability to get a half a freaking yard 3 times, yes, the offense shares blame for losing a 21 pt lead in the 4th. Afterall,, it was not as if the Phins got the ball three straight times without the Ravens having the ball...

Somewhere in there ya have to have a drive, even just one, there was six minutes left in the game and they only took 1 minute off of the clock at one point...

[papasmurfbell]

They don't run bc they can't run.

[papasmurfbell]

even Dallas found a way not to choke that one away.  They do have something in common  They both have bad coaches.

[tsylvester]

The Browns collapsed in the last 2 mins, the Raiders collapsed and blew a big lead.

Yes, maybe this is coaching, maybe the coaches relaxed, tried to do things they normally would not in games thinking the game was "over", which fed into the players freelancing, losing focus..

Who knows, but it was bad football..

I saw a college team score the go ahead touchdown with 50 seconds left. Then the guy who scored got called for taunting, unsportsmanlike, 15 yards off the kickoff. In the same end of play, his coach got called too, another 15 yards. They kicked off from their 10 yard line, and lost the game...

[vmax]

The O had a great day, yet they only scored 3 points in the 2nd half and that hurt their chances to win. The Ravens defense went all out to make sure their chances to win were negligible. 

At the end of the 1st half, I had this feeling that 28-7 wouldn't be enough. Sure enough on the Phins opening drive of the 2nd half they score...28-14 and gained momentum and the Ravens choked. 

The rest of the game????

[papasmurfbell]

I am finding it interesting thatthe ravens pass d for more than a yr gas been the worst in the league.  Have the ravens not been looking at the stats and se8ng a problem? 

[tsylvester]

38 minutes ago, papasmurfbell said:

I am finding it interesting thatthe ravens pass d for more than a yr gas been the worst in the league.  Have the ravens not been looking at the stats and se8ng a problem? 

That is the biggest red flag. It has been what, 3 maybe 4 years, the secondary has had issues with communication, blown coverages, poor reads on the ball.

Yet each year they said they would fix it, nope.

Now we have a new DC, same issue. The one thing on his side was the players who had to miss time in the secondary throughout the game. Humphries had to sit out, play half strength with a groin pull (that might need surgery). Even ones that came back were coming back from injury.

Odd, this team has players miss loger periods with injuries than other teams/players....

Along with that, all of the drafted players for rush end have been busts so far, ALL OF THEM. For the past five years? You miss on edge rushers?

The middle linebackers are just playing horrible so far this year, as they did last year. Means getting hurt was a big loss from the stand point of depth, rest.

They over run plays, bite hard on play fakes, or take the wrong angles on their drops. This leads to big runs, easy over the middle passes.

This has been a problem for a few years.... Houston made a few plays in the first half, but then disappeared, as he always does, in the second half...

How does an offensive line lose the ability to run block? They did a fabulous job pass blocking, for 2 games, best they have done in years. A major reason Lamar has been able to throw on time from a clean pocket.

But what happened to the run blocking? You have a guy in Faalele who is what 6'-7" 350 lbs or more, and you don't run behind or when use him on the 4th and half a yard plays?

I know, I know, only 2 games of a 17 game schedule and all of the teams in the AFC North lost, are 1-1 or worse.

But this team better learn how to run block or not even the return of Jk and Gus will matter. They better fix this defense, and not just the secondary, or as we saw, 38 pts is not going to be enough.

If things keep going this way, we might have to look at Eric, who choses these bust players and say, time for a new GM

[papasmurfbell]

I have questioned EDC several times.  My understanding is turdbaugh has an outsized hand in personnel moves.  The only way that ha0pens is Steve is enamored with turdy and gave him that power. 

[tsylvester]

McDaniel got out coached. The one main thing that stops a comeback is the clock.

So you sit back, play umbrella coverage, make them drive the field, thus using clock, to score.

Rushing 2 or 3 and dropping 8 or 9 without having 2 high safeties is NOT how you accomplish this nor is showing 0 coverage, trying to fool the qb with blitzes.

He was a college coach calling college plays expecting a college result. Up 21, you set those 3 safeties deep, nothing gets behind them.

The only way the Phins come back, even with the inept Ravens offense in the 4th, is by quick scores.

So hopefully he learned something...

[vmax]

Agree with most points. You saw Preston's article....

Quote

The lack of a pass rush and poor coverage in the secondary isn’t a new problem for the Ravens, but an old one.

In fact, about 22 years old.     ...Mike Preston: Ravens secondary has become the primary problem ... again | COMMENTARY – Baltimore Sun

 

 

[papasmurfbell]

1 hour ago, tsylvester said:

McDaniel got out coached. The one main thing that stops a comeback is the clock.

So you sit back, play umbrella coverage, make them drive the field, thus using clock, to score.

Rushing 2 or 3 and dropping 8 or 9 without having 2 high safeties is NOT how you accomplish this nor is showing 0 coverage, trying to fool the qb with blitzes.

He was a college coach calling college plays expecting a college result. Up 21, you set those 3 safeties deep, nothing gets behind them.

The only way the Phins come back, even with the inept Ravens offense in the 4th, is by quick scores.

So hopefully he learned something...

One problem with that.   The run d was giving up 8+ a run and getting to the sideline. The whole d is a mess.

[tsylvester]

Wow, this team is completely bipolar. One series the offense and defesne are the best in the league, the next, the worst.

But they are not alone. If you watch other teams, they are much the same, the NFL as a whole is playing terrible football.

The relaxed practices, the shortened preseason, if this is the new NFL, no thanks, I'll stop watching it, college offers the same if not better play and, I can freely choose between 15 games each weekend throughout the day.

This is terrible, how do you not only need to call a timeout on 3rd down, but then call one with the game on the line and a minute less left in the game?

The Browns should never have gotten the ball, never. So it is not just the players who are playing terrible, but the coaches are just as bad.