I'm probably going to be beating an already dead horse

[ronravensfan]

Darren, what were you thinking?

 

We were down two, within reasonable striking distance of a potential go-ahead field goal (our own 40), and then THAT personal foul?!

 

Boy, I think he just cost himself a job here for next season.

 

 

Mods: if someone else started this thread and I didn't find it by looking at topics, go ahead and wipe out this thread.

[ForceEight]

There were worse things that happened, but that was just plain dumb. Moronic. Retarded.

 

Idiot.

[ronravensfan]

I figure that in spite of ALL the bad things that happened prior, and the fact that we simply didn't start fast to say the least, it could have all been overcome with a potential field goal on the drive, had it started from our own 40.

[cmacarolle21]

How about Joe Flacco having 19% of his completed passes going to Steelers. Come on yea there was a 25 yard penalty that backed us up but, the fact that flacco can't get 150 yards or a TD is just pathetic. That's an easy number to reach when your offensive line is giving you all sorts of time and you get 30+ attempts.

[ForceEight]

How about Joe Flacco having 19% of his completed passes going to Steelers. Come on yea there was a 25 yard penalty that backed us up but, the fact that flacco can't get 150 yards or a TD is just pathetic. That's an easy number to reach when your offensive line is giving you all sorts of time and you get 30+ attempts.

What are you, blind?

[colincac]

Flacco sucked tonite, anyone who says otherwise is a retard.

[ronravensfan]

How about Joe Flacco having 19% of his completed passes going to Steelers. Come on yea there was a 25 yard penalty that backed us up but, the fact that flacco can't get 150 yards or a TD is just pathetic. That's an easy number to reach when your offensive line is giving you all sorts of time and you get 30+ attempts.

 

Frankly, it's easy for the Steelers to assess our WR's, know that they must double up on Mason, and single cover Clayton, and be effective. I'll be blunt. Mason is fine, but we need better WR's... at least someone other than Mason to have on the field.

 

Flacco didn't have his best night, but I'm not so sure that he was pathetic. He only has so much talent at WR to work with.

 

I'm thrilled with Flacco, and he did all of this as a rookie. Has any other rookie QB won two playoff games? Flacco will be fine.

[ronravensfan]

Flacco sucked tonite, anyone who says otherwise is a retard.

 

A good defense will often make a good QB look bad. Especially a rookie.

[OminousRaven]

[ForceEight]

:lol:

 

Sums it up pretty well.

[thundercleetz]

It was not the receivers faults, our passing schemes were pretty bad. There were no slants or checkdown options in the middle of the field to counter the blitz. We had no option routes to find holes in the zone. We should really take a page out of the Steelers playbook.

[dc.]

It was not the receivers faults, our passing schemes were pretty bad. There were no slants or checkdown options in the middle of the field to counter the blitz. We had no option routes to find holes in the zone. We should really take a page out of the Steelers playbook.

 

Well, it may not be their fault that the play didn't get them open...

 

But when Flacco has 4-6 seconds (as he did multiple times) it becomes their fault. Ben finds open men when the play breaks down all the time... and often for a bigger gain than if they play had gone as planned. Why? Because his receivers bust their asses.

 

Additionally, I would blame the late play-calling. How many times did we burn a timeout because of lack of hustle on the call and coming out of the huddle? And how many times did we almost have to? How many times was Joe at the line with just 5 seconds to set the line and snap while he's trying to make defensive reads.

 

I get that part of it is crowd noise, but a huge part has to be the OC or play-calling itself. Maybe Cam just needs to reorganize his cheat sheets so that they are easy to read around... maybe his cards are organized by formation and we need them organized by down and distance... lol. OR maybe there should be an "ask madden" button!

[thundercleetz]

Well, it may not be their fault that the play didn't get them open...

 

But when Flacco has 4-6 seconds (as he did multiple times) it becomes their fault. Ben finds open men when the play breaks down all the time... and often for a bigger gain than if they play had gone as planned. Why? Because his receivers bust their asses.

 

Additionally, I would blame the late play-calling. How many times did we burn a timeout because of lack of hustle on the call and coming out of the huddle? And how many times did we almost have to? How many times was Joe at the line with just 5 seconds to set the line and snap while he's trying to make defensive reads.

 

I get that part of it is crowd noise, but a huge part has to be the OC or play-calling itself. Maybe Cam just needs to reorganize his cheat sheets so that they are easy to read around... maybe his cards are organized by formation and we need them organized by down and distance... lol. OR maybe there should be an "ask madden" button!

 

Completely agree on the timeouts. Granted, Pittsburgh is a very tough environment, that stuff happens on the road. You went to Maryland, Gary Williams says the only way to win in Cameron Indoor against Duke is to use up all your timeouts in the first half. Yes, it is a different sport, but the message relates. We had to break up the momentum, and control the crowd noise. Last night, as we saw, every yard counts. We were able to convert a 3rd and 7 which would have been a 3rd and 12 had we taken the 5-yard penalty. It was a game of field position and momentum.

 

The reason receivers didn't get open when Flacco had all day to throw is simple. We had max protect and only three receivers in routes. Pittsburgh pretty much had every receiver double covered in those routes. And when the receivers are being sent 30 yards downfield, it is pretty easy to cover them coming back to the ball. We needed our receivers to be breaking off their routes and trying to find openings in the zone. We needed option routes.

[pumpkinhead]

Well, it may not be their fault that the play didn't get them open...

 

But when Flacco has 4-6 seconds (as he did multiple times) it becomes their fault. Ben finds open men when the play breaks down all the time... and often for a bigger gain than if they play had gone as planned. Why? Because his receivers bust their asses.

Also, the Steelers are not as dependent on the blitz as we are to get some form of pressure on the pocket. The Steelers nickel front four of Harrison, Woodley, Smith and Kiesel is superior to our nickel front four of Suggs, Johnson, Pryce and Ngata/Barnes. In order to force the QB off the spot with our front four we almost always have to blitz whereas the Steelers can often do it with just their front 4.

 

The lack of the blitz allows their nickle LB's (Timmons and Farrior) to take deep drops forcing the Baltimore QB to throw over them making the passes to the receivers come in high and affording the defender playing man on them a better opportunity to pull the ball from the receivers hands while the receiver is attempting the catch.

 

Unfortunately our lack of dominant play by our front four often forces at least one of our nickel LB's (Lewis and Scott) in to a blitz, clearing out the underneath zones and allowing the Pittsburgh QB to throw directly in to the recievers body (say as on a slant or short curl) leaving the defender playing man the only options of coming through the body (an easy PI call) or simply making the tackle after the reception. In addition, Ryan's exotic blitz scemes often send the nickel defender (Ivy) or a safety leaving holes in the zone coverage which the QB can easily defeat by throwing at the blitz.

 

Understand, Ryan is doing a great job, the blitz is a requirement given the physical abilities of our front four but it does leave a defense lamentably vulnerable to an experienced QB.

 

To take the next step and become a great defense that is capable of taking a team to the championship game, we need to upgrade the ability of our front four to make them a unit capable of more consistently shrinking the pocket and moving the QB off the spot, therefore reducing our over reliance on the blitz.

 

[pumpkinhead]

"Setting the tone in the hard-hitting series, Ravens special teams player Daren Stone suffered a concussion on the opening kickoff.".

 

Give the guy a break, he may not even have known where he was or that he was even out of bounds. Maybe this poor fellow should not have even been in there at that time, maybe Curl and Tessendorf screwed the pooch on that one...then again, maybe not.

 

[thundercleetz]

"Setting the tone in the hard-hitting series, Ravens special teams player Daren Stone suffered a concussion on the opening kickoff.".

 

Give the guy a break, he may not even have known where he was or that he was even out of bounds. Maybe this poor fellow should not have even been in there at that time, maybe Curl and Tessendorf screwed the pooch on that one...then again, maybe not.

 

I thought about this as well, I do not think he was aware that he was out of bounds. You are right, Stone probably should not have been in the game, but were short on DBs. There was not much of a choice.

[BCEagles]

Things to Draft Next Year: Corners, WRs, DEs

[dc.]

I thought about this as well, I do not think he was aware that he was out of bounds. You are right, Stone probably should not have been in the game, but were short on DBs. There was not much of a choice.

 

Out of bounds or not... his slam-tackle would warrant a flag no matter...

 

And if he wasn't aware of his surroundings, he shouldn't have been on the field. Period.

 

Honestly, I think it's more likely that he got hit hard early and was retaliating.

[thundercleetz]

Out of bounds or not... his slam-tackle would warrant a flag no matter...

 

And if he wasn't aware of his surroundings, he shouldn't have been on the field. Period.

 

Honestly, I think it's more likely that he got hit hard early and was retaliating.

 

I do not remember the play very well, I just remembered that it was in a crowd deep onto the sideline. I am surprised the ref saw it, the play if I remember was not very near the spot of the foul.

[52isUnstoppable]

going back to the timeouts...

 

john harbaugh had the challenge of the year in the first quarter. As tomlin was hyping up the crowd about to throw a challenge flag to challenge that they were in the endzone Harbs comes outta no where and throws his first to challenge possession... that was the best coaching move ive seen all year. Had pitt got their flag in first we would have been screwed for 7 points.

[RavensNest8483]

Also, the Steelers are not as dependent on the blitz as we are to get some form of pressure on the pocket. The Steelers nickel front four of Harrison, Woodley, Smith and Kiesel is superior to our nickel front four of Suggs, Johnson, Pryce and Ngata/Barnes. In order to force the QB off the spot with our front four we almost always have to blitz whereas the Steelers can often do it with just their front 4.

 

The lack of the blitz allows their nickle LB's (Timmons and Farrior) to take deep drops forcing the Baltimore QB to throw over them making the passes to the receivers come in high and affording the defender playing man on them a better opportunity to pull the ball from the receivers hands while the receiver is attempting the catch.

 

Unfortunately our lack of dominant play by our front four often forces at least one of our nickel LB's (Lewis and Scott) in to a blitz, clearing out the underneath zones and allowing the Pittsburgh QB to throw directly in to the recievers body (say as on a slant or short curl) leaving the defender playing man the only options of coming through the body (an easy PI call) or simply making the tackle after the reception. In addition, Ryan's exotic blitz scemes often send the nickel defender (Ivy) or a safety leaving holes in the zone coverage which the QB can easily defeat by throwing at the blitz.

 

Understand, Ryan is doing a great job, the blitz is a requirement given the physical abilities of our front four but it does leave a defense lamentably vulnerable to an experienced QB.

 

To take the next step and become a great defense that is capable of taking a team to the championship game, we need to upgrade the ability of our front four to make them a unit capable of more consistently shrinking the pocket and moving the QB off the spot, therefore reducing our over reliance on the blitz.

 

 

This is the best post i've seen in awhile. We cant get a pass rush with our front four, steelers can.

 

 

As far as stone, yes he made a boneheaded play on that, but everyone does. He actually has been a pretty solid pickup for us this yr and has played great on special teams.

[vmax]

First...cut Stone and send a valuable message.

The makeover to a championship caliber teram is not over

 

As to pressure from the Ravens front four...it could be better. They need a 'for real' defensive end...not just a pass rushing specialist.

 

BTW...one of Suggs sacks came when the Ravens only rushed 3.

 

The reality is, that banged up as they were, the defense finished #2 against the pass. They had to be doing something right. Coverage and pressure go hand in hand.

Perhaps our front 4 and back 4 are pretty damn good. That's minus McAlister...and Rolle missed time...so the next men up (Washington and Walker and Leonard) are pretty damn good.

 

[BMoreHon]

I have finally decompressed after Sunday and now have the heart to read the boards again

 

I feel bad for the kid. I heard he came off the field crying, saying "I just lost this game."

 

I must be mellowing in my old age