The bye week, or is it a buy week?

[tsylvester]

Not sure even the stounchest of critics would have had the Ravens 1-5 when the season began. Sure, the defense was still a question after the shoot out in Buffalo, but nobody would expect the collapse of the high scoring offense.

Sure, we can blame injuries and one would not be completely wrong. Some would blame coaching and they too would not be very far off track. But the issues the Ravens are facing now go deeper me thinks.

The lines, offense and defense, have regressed, let us start there if you will.

On offense, there has been a regression on the talent side: who could have thought this?

Let us go left to right, otay?

Stanley: sure, no one expected him to be the youthful Stanley who had power, quickness, great balance. Some have said that they expected him to falter, but mostly due to injury and sure enough, that surgically repaired ankle has cost him plays and game. But more so, his power is gone, he can no longer drive people off of the line, especially the bigger ends. His quickness too has slipped mightily, he cant seem to get his once quick feet in the proper stance to stop those fast ends.

Vorhees, he spent all of last year rehabbing an injury, had the entire offseason to get his strength back. Once the top guard in the draft before his injury, power, quickness, agility were his trademark. But this year since "winning" the competition in camp & preseason, he has shown little, if any of those traits.

Lindy: well, he has been the best of the bunch, he came into this 2nd year ready to take the next step in his evolution; stronger, more experienced, quicker. However, while he has been the best of the linemen, he too seems to hwve regressed in his abilities. He has made numerous errors in blocking, he cant move defenders out of the way. In short, he looks more like a rookie this season than he did last year.

Faalele; oh the big fella had everyone on the team, in the fan base excited, a monster in size and a willingness to learn. Not a good fit at tackle because of slow feet, they moved him to guard last year. He was part of a unit that helped an offense be in the top 5 in passing and rushing. Last year he was more along for rhe ride, often found standing still looking around, confused on who to block. Many though this year would be different, nope, he actually got worse.

Rose; fantastic rookie year has us all, coaches and fans, thinking they not found their right tackle but made also a left tackle when Stanley retires. Smart, quick feet, instinctive blocker last year, who struggled at times with power rushers but learned how to use their power against them. This year, he had to be better, right? Wrong, he too seems to have regressed, allowing pressures, sacks, missed blocks, unable to move people consistently off of the line.

So yes, if you made it this far in the long post, well done. If you skipped down to here you are smarter than you look.

In summery, I feel, offensively, this line is the issue, pass and run blocking, regressed, loss of power which is why this year, they are horrible in short yardage. This team was one of the best in the league last on short yardage and especially in the redzone. Not so this year.

One factor is the line coach, what other reason could there be for every player on the line, NOT progressing from last year? What are the odds that all five of them would regres? 

Quickly, the same can be said for the defensive line. Losing our best defensive tackle to injury, the 2nd best ro retirement sucks and is a cause. But all of the others along the line, the subs from last year, none of them has turned out; none. Let thay sink in on thos bye week.

No, we should not be buyers.

[papasmurfbell]

Stanley can’t set his feet against power bc his ankle is trash.  I do think rose would be better on the left.  Lindy I think has regressed bc the guards are so bad.  He has always been small and more of a finesse guy.  That makes me ask why you run a tush push with him.  You never would have seen shanahan do that with his ol.  

[tsylvester]

They released Gardner-Johnson in favor of the burn toast safety they traded for....

[papasmurfbell]

1 hour ago, tsylvester said:

They released Gardner-Johnson in favor of the burn toast safety they traded for....

Deonte doesn’t have anything on this guy.

[tsylvester]

Nope, save face and keep the guy not matter how he plays. I get maybe CJ didn't get along given his strong personality, but he still has great talent and on vet min, cheaply

[papasmurfbell]

Lamar is not at practice.  I expect him to come back for Miami.

[tsylvester]

Lots of fodder being fhrown around, "sources" have told the sun, etc... Sounds like they are all, players and coaches, weak minded and are in need of being slapped.

Quite frankly I am sick of this team if the "sources" are correct. Blast Monken, stand up for Orr? Really? Blast the guy who had this offense tops in the league? Who called plays that had this offense scoring 40 on Buffalo? And because the defense shit the bed against the Bills, it is Todd's fault? He has no imagination?

I am not saying the play calling has been perfect, if you have read through the game threads, you saw my disdain for some of the calls and personnel packages.

But Oz has been wrong on his play calls and personnel groupings far, far more often. It is he who has NOT put his players in a position to succeed.

Quite, quite disingenuous of the players, again, if those revelations are true.

[tsylvester]

Oh yeah, the defensive players are so "scared about making a mistake and losing their job" thqt they then cant do theor jobs, but Orr is a perfect coach...

 

[tsylvester]

Ravens worked out Carl Lawson, 30 year old, 5 sacks last year in 15 games

https://heavy.com/sports/nfl/baltimore-ravens/carl-lawson-workout-bengals-free-agency/