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ExtremeRavens: The Sanctuary

Game Observations


vmax

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Here's a few thoughts to get started...

 

1. Joe Flacco had his first 300 yard game and 3 TD's tosses....on a bad day for Joe. I say that because he had all day to throw and his receivers were getting open consistantly. Today Joe was too 'Cool'.

I'll explain. Beginning in the 1st quarter when Joe dropped back to pass he'd give a weak pump fake. The same one time after time. If I was a DB no way that would fool me. It hurt Joe in the second quarter because that pump fake made him a little late on a bunch of his throws to open receivers. He could have had around 7 more completions today if he had thrown the ball on time. His great arm strength got the ball there...but the timing was off.

I'm not saying to stop this...just perfect this because when he goes into that pump fake...he has the option to hand it off at times and defenses have to respect that.

Anyway...congrates Joe.

 

2. 500 yards of offense...new Ravens record...even Vinny & Co couldn't do that.

 

3. Heap is back! Great game...clutch catches when needed and a critical TD catch and dive.

 

4. Willis will be a force this year...great game.

 

5. Ray Rice...another force...his first 100 yard game and yes....he somehow has yet to find the endzone in his career. I just shook my head and felt sorry for him going out on the 1 yard line.

 

6. Did I mention the Browns and Bengals lost?

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Great game plan Chiefs! Don't do anything and wait for the Ravens to make mistakes....then a big play or two and you're in the game! Hat's off to the Chiefs...I can see them turning things around.

 

Mark Clayton! Welcome back

 

Kelly washington! Come on down!

49237738.jpg

 

Who needs Brandon Marshal?

Not us!

 

Michal Oher was dominant. His first punch is a rib crusher. His second sends his man anywhere he wants.

 

Do we have to talk about the missed field goal?

 

Now I'm looking down the walk outside the stadium VP entrance....it's a sea of purple...people sholder to sholder.. and then I see Ogden...his head and sholders in full view above the mob of people...it was surreal. He's that tall. Nothing blocks his view.

 

Saw Fred Cook.

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Dude, wait to you see how the Bengals lost..It was Bungledom at its best.

 

OMG! BWAHAHAAAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

 

Stokely takes tipped pass 87 yards for TD with 11 seconds left, Broncos stun Bengals 12-7

CINCINNATI (AP) — In the time it takes to run the length of the field, Denver went from a crushing loss to an unbelievable win.

Edited by vmax
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I do not think that Joe Flacco had a bad game. Other than the pick and the one throw across the middle to Mason which was almost picked off, he did not make any mistakes. Max, Joe passed the ball 43 times, and dropped back to pass nearly fifty times. To only throw one INT is excellent. Remember, Mason and Heap each had a couple of drops that would have kept drives alive. For the most part, Joe hit the open receiver and took some very good shots downfield that gave both Mason and Clayton excellent chances to come down with a TD (and he hit Clayton once, obviously).

 

If anything, with the way we were running the ball pressure should have been taken off of Joe by feeding the ball to the three-headed monster. However, we took the training wheels off of Joe today. In my mind, Joe proved a lot today. He proved that he can handle the full offense throwing to all parts of the field. We needed to see that out of Joe today. Imagine when we coming out with running the ball and Joe only has to throw the ball twenty times, there are going to be some big plays downfield! It's only going to get better boys!

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Hi cleetz!

 

I was half kidding when I said he had a bad day....he definately over threw guys and threw behind them. Being there...I saw receivers wide open and Joe getting the ball there late. They were completions but the lateness is what I'm refering to as ' a bad day'.

He missed a wide open Heap by throwing a quick out incompletion. It would have been a sure TD...Heap was alone racing for the endzone....so points were left of the field.

That means to me look out when he has a good day! Like Brees and his 6 TD's today.

 

The sky is the limit.

 

On a more sobering note...this was the Chiefs...Joe had all day to throw.

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Couple things on my mind.

 

1.) Is our new offense going to be to pass 5 times as much as we run, or did the coaches just think they had some room to test drive the new pass offense since we were playing the Chiefs? It'll be intersting to see how we come out next week. We probably could have controlled the game better by running more but heck, I can't complain since we had 500 yards of offense.

 

2.) Flacco looked great to me. He started to float the ball a little after the interception, but got things together enough to hit big throws to Heap and Clayton on the last drives. I see what you are saying Max (hi btw), that on a day when Flacco left many completions on the field, he still managed to throw for 300+ and 3TDs - it's very exciting to see where he progresses from here.

 

3.) Special Teams - blah! I really hope Hashuka gets it together because you need a good kicking game to win in this league. I was praying that the game won't come down to a FG attempt. He seems to be kicking the ball straight, it just tailed to the left at the end - it even happened on the kick he made. It's like he just needs to better judge the effect of the wind on the ball. I really hope he gets it together. I keep telling myself it's ok - Stover seemed to always look bad in his first game.

 

4.) McGahee, Rice, and to a lesser extent McLain looked good. I'm thrilled McGahee is taking his demotion well, because I really don't think he did anything to lose his job.

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I think that the most impressive statistic is that the Ravens ran 85 plays during the course of the game. In fact, everyone is making a big deal about the 43 pass attempts, but we also ran the ball 42 times (I grant you, some of those were pass plays when Flacco took off, but we still ran the ball upwards of 35 times this game.) Also, Flacco hit the magic completion percentage number of 60% (60.4%, to be exact), so while he was inaccurate on a couple throws, it wasn't as if he had no idea where it was going.

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Couple things on my mind.

 

1.) Is our new offense going to be to pass 5 times as much as we run, or did the coaches just think they had some room to test drive the new pass offense since we were playing the Chiefs? It'll be intersting to see how we come out next week. We probably could have controlled the game better by running more but heck, I can't complain since we had 500 yards of offense.

 

 

Interesting observation there OTR and bmw800. Cam made a post game comment on this...about throwing more. He basically said it takes less time off the clock so they can run more plays. That's one confident OC. He wants points.

 

This is a huge change in the Ravens "run the ball/eat the clock" mentality of the last decade.

 

Let's see if the local reporters catch this.

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Well... I like the change.

 

I mean, even with more passing... we owned the clock... nearly 40 minutes... that's unbelievable.

 

Really... I think what Cam and Harbaugh want to do is get the points early... and eat the clock late. We've shown we can do both. I'm excited to see it continue.

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Hi cleetz!

 

I was half kidding when I said he had a bad day....he definately over threw guys and threw behind them. Being there...I saw receivers wide open and Joe getting the ball there late. They were completions but the lateness is what I'm refering to as ' a bad day'.

He missed a wide open Heap by throwing a quick out incompletion. It would have been a sure TD...Heap was alone racing for the endzone....so points were left of the field.

That means to me look out when he has a good day! Like Brees and his 6 TD's today.

 

The sky is the limit.

 

On a more sobering note...this was the Chiefs...Joe had all day to throw.

 

I am glad the receivers were open, but you cannot deny that Flacco was not helped out by drops. D-Mase dropped a first down near the sideline, bobbled that long touchdown pass in the first quarter (it was a tough catch), and also had a great chance at pulling in the deep jump ball two plays before the Clayton touchdown. Also, Heap dropped a crucial third down pass that led to the missed field goal. Drops happen just like the eventual misthrown ball or missed receiver. What to come away with this is that the receivers are getting open, and the timing between Flacco and the receivers (especially Clayton who has been injured and Washington who is new) is only going to get better. I'm sensing big years for Clayton and Heap!

 

 

Here is the bottom line with today's game: Ravens 501 yards of total offense, Chiefs 188 yards, a surplus of 313 yards!

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3.) Special Teams - blah! I really hope Hashuka gets it together because you need a good kicking game to win in this league. I was praying that the game won't come down to a FG attempt. He seems to be kicking the ball straight, it just tailed to the left at the end - it even happened on the kick he made. It's like he just needs to better judge the effect of the wind on the ball. I really hope he gets it together. I keep telling myself it's ok - Stover seemed to always look bad in his first game.

 

 

On a good note, Houshka got us some premo field position on those kickoffs. One was actually a touchback, I havent seen that in years from the ravens.

 

Great game for the ravens. Whenever the chiefs gained a little momentum, we crushed them back down to size. Just like we should do. Ravens, 5 straight wins.

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Haushka kicked the ball well, there was a big wind on his miss and he literally missed it by inches, no worries there, like someone said what was more important was the great kickoff's. We scored a lot and it seemed like the Chiefs never were starting out past the 25, that's fantastic.

I don't think there was a big drop problem, there were a few, but again, when you throw 45 times there are going to be a few drops, for the most part I was extremely impressed with the WR play.

My take on the huge pass attempt number - Cam expected to go out and take a big lead early with the passing game (which we did), and then run the ball down their throats the whole 2nd half. If not for that blocked punt and the interception return, I'm sure the 4th Quarter would've consisted of McClain and McGahee going to town.

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Haushka kicked the ball well, there was a big wind on his miss and he literally missed it by inches, no worries there, like someone said what was more important was the great kickoff's.

 

I'm just going to have to disagree there... Haushka's place kicks looked pretty bad on TV. They all had a heavy hook to the left, no matter which direction we were facing... his made field goal hooked, his miss hooked, his XP's hooked.

 

I appreciate his kickoff ability, but I don't trust him place kicking. I really don't see the harm in carrying an extra kicker... because 3 points is going to matter as much as 10 yards of field position in some of these games.

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For the most part I happy with the performance of the Ravens yesterday, especially being the first game of the season. I think the running backs played great, the receivers were very good, and I was surprised to see Heap play as well as he did. I thought Flacco looked good. Sure, he had the INT and some other bad throws but when you throw as much as he did there are bound to be some bad throws.

 

Special teams were a problem, and I suspect I will worry every time Hauschka tries for a FG the next few weeks, but I will give him some time. Carr didn't dazzle me but I didn't see anything from him that bothered me either.

 

The defense gave up a few big plays, but I thought they were very good. The majority of the points given up were because of the INT and punt block.

 

All in all I am very pleased. If the score would have ended the same but not been as close in the 4th I would be thrilled, but even so its game one. Sure they will have to play better in some areas against better teams, but I think they will.

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