Surrender to this...

[vmax]

The 2011 Ravens offense will be a work in progress and probably will not hit full stride until game 3 or 4 of the regular season.

 

That means surviving the Steelers, Titans, Rams and Jets and comming out of that stretch in the playoff hunt.

 

That means more slow starts in games.

It means getting occasionally hot and then disappearing for for awhile.

 

Joe Flacco, the Ravens passing game and rushing attack have had a patchwork offensive line to work with and this has limited productivity.

 

Eventually, the starting line will be McKinnie LT, Grubbs LG, Birk C, Yanda RG and Oher at RT. How soon that groups starts a game and get's into a groove only time will tell. It may not be opening day.

Thursday night only Grubbs played in his natural position.

 

It starts and ends with the line. Ask Manning and Brady.

 

To Ravens fans who are watching Flacco closely to see if he's taking that next step I say, "Good Luck!" You're going to be frustrated as hell.

 

Joe looked better moving in what pocket he had.

He also has to get used to his new receivers. He looks 'just about on' with Bouldin. He looks like he's got it down with Evens. Who the #3 receiver will be is unknown. The #4 too, if they go 4 wide which they should do in the redzone. Torry Smith is now a developmental project so don't count on him. Reed, Williams and Doss you can count on.

He still is working out the kinks with his TE's...but that is improving.

 

This 2011 Ravens team has to have a strong rushing attack for the offense to be effective. The line determines if it will be good, bad or mediocre.

Once again, just like last year in the pre season, Cam has overlooked the running game and they will pay dues for this. The Ravens hardly ran the ball last pre season and the Running game went south. This year the Ravens have only run on 72 of 189 offensive snaps. To make matters worse, it's 0 snaps with the eventual starting line.

 

In defense of Cam...he's very limited in doing what he wants to do. He has to be carefull. He can't ask units to do what they cannot do at this time. He has to get more protection packages in for Joe which will limit receiver options...which will limit...you get the picture.

 

I like the potential starting roster. I think they will get hot this year and be better than last year. But at what time in the season that happens I don't know. If it will be too late to make the plaoffs...I can't tell.

I do think this will be one hellova playoff team if they can hang in through the early adversity that they face.

 

[oldno82]

The 2011 Ravens offense will be a work in progress and probably will not hit full stride until game 3 or 4 of the regular season.

 

That means surviving the Steelers, Titans, Rams and Jets and comming out of that stretch in the playoff hunt.

 

That means more slow starts in games.

It means getting occasionally hot and then disappearing for for awhile.

 

Joe Flacco, the Ravens passing game and rushing attack have had a patchwork offensive line to work with and this has limited productivity.

 

Eventually, the starting line will be McKinnie LT, Grubbs LG, Birk C, Yanda RG and Oher at RT. How soon that groups starts a game and get's into a groove only time will tell. It may not be opening day.

Thursday night only Grubbs played in his natural position.

 

It starts and ends with the line. Ask Manning and Brady.

 

To Ravens fans who are watching Flacco closely to see if he's taking that next step I say, "Good Luck!" You're going to be frustrated as hell.

 

Joe looked better moving in what pocket he had.

He also has to get used to his new receivers. He looks 'just about on' with Bouldin. He looks like he's got it down with Evens. Who the #3 receiver will be is unknown. The #4 too, if they go 4 wide which they should do in the redzone. Torry Smith is now a developmental project so don't count on him. Reed, Williams and Doss you can count on.

He still is working out the kinks with his TE's...but that is improving.

 

This 2011 Ravens team has to have a strong rushing attack for the offense to be effective. The line determines if it will be good, bad or mediocre.

Once again, just like last year in the pre season, Cam has overlooked the running game and they will pay dues for this. The Ravens hardly ran the ball last pre season and the Running game went south. This year the Ravens have only run on 72 of 189 offensive snaps. To make matters worse, it's 0 snaps with the eventual starting line.

 

In defense of Cam...he's very limited in doing what he wants to do. He has to be carefull. He can't ask units to do what they cannot do at this time. He has to get more protection packages in for Joe which will limit receiver options...which will limit...you get the picture.

 

I like the potential starting roster. I think they will get hot this year and be better than last year. But at what time in the season that happens I don't know. If it will be too late to make the plaoffs...I can't tell.

I do think this will be one hellova playoff team if they can hang in through the early adversity that they face.

 

 

All my thoughts exactly! Good write-up! Torrey Smith has been a disappointment so far but as you noted there are many bright spots. And while I'd love a Super Bowl or reaching the playoffs, I do think this team will be better at the end of the season than last year's version and it will have more upside for the future.