Weather the Storm

[vmax]

Even at 5-2, this is a new low for the Baltimore Ravens.

 

Let's be fair; the defense is decimated by injuries. Besides Ray, Webb, and recently Suggs, Ngata is 50% and Reed is hurt. Smith has a groin injury. Pollard is playing hurt. The bye week is right on schedule for some of these players to heal up.

The big disappointment is that the next man up hasn't shown up. They are not deep enough in talent to overcome these injuries. Kruger, Jones, Cody, Upshaw, Kemo and McPhee have been disappointments in varying degrees. Williams and Smith are playing a little better but they have to step it up another notch.

 

They have finally gone from 'bend but don't break' to broke. After weeks of ridiculous yardage being put on them they are allowing sick points.

 

This has got to be where it stops. Suggs is back and that should help free up other guys to make plays. It should help the secondary and run defense.

 

This storm will last until this D learns how to get a 3 and out.

 

Untill then, the offense has no chance to get into any kind of rythmn. This 'no huddle' doesn't work with only 20 minutes of game time possesion.

Want to beat a good offense?

Keep it off the field.

 

This storm will last until the Ravens offense stops playing 1, 2, 3 punt. Until they can sustain drives and rest the D, this viscous cycle will continue.

 

They can't sustain drives by ignoring their best player in Ray Rice. They have proven that they can't win on the road passing.

So run it.

They could have run all day today if that would have been the game plan from the first snap. Ray's averaging 5 yards per carry. Use him.

 

Stop finding ways to lose.

Keep it simple: Block, tackle, throw, catch and run. It's a simple game.

The team that executes these fundamentals wins the game.

Get back to basics.

 

There's a lot of football left. A lot of games for this team to develop, fix the weaknesses, find themselves and get better.

They still look good as far as the playoff picture is concerned.

Edited October 22, 2012 by vmax

[thundercleetz]

I'm starting to see why Ozzie hasn't given Joe what he wants for a contract. With Joe it's always something: a dumb pass, a missed block, a dropped catch, a tipped ball at the line. Whether or not it is Joe's fault something is not working. The phrase having the undescribable 'it' factor. Well with Joe there is something undescribable (or maybe it is) that is completely baffling. Joe's play was embarrassing today. You had two QB's today that are trying to she'd the average label. Schaub looked great and Joe put himself in a league with Mark Sanchez.

 

Joe does not have a defense to fall back on. Having an average QB with a poor defense does not win a Super Bowl. If Joe doesn't pull it together the rest of this season I'm inclined to just let him walk and start over. Bottom line guys, we do not have an elite QB who can win us a Super Bowl.

[cravnravn]

We need a fn qb. Joe sucks

[BengalBilly]

We need a fn qb. Joe sucks

Wow. Didn't expect to hear that from you crav. You were tooting Joe's horn pretty loud a few weeks ago.

[oldcrow]

NO SYMPHONY FOR YOU

old man

 

let it go, one got away from you.

feel free to vent , but i'm not buying into what you just said

ya'll have good qb

 

tough place and time to be

[RavenMad]

While "Above Average Joe" didn't have a good game, guys just weren't getting open to throw to them. How many times did Schaub have a receiver with no one within 5 yards of him and how many times did Joe?

 

I still think we should stick with Joe but there needs to be a change in both coordinators IMO. I can't quite figure out how this team is 5-2. We might be lucky now to finish 8-8.

[cravnravn]

Wow. Didn't expect to hear that from you crav. You were tooting Joe's horn pretty loud a few weeks ago.

 

 

Heat of the moment.

 

But it was a horrible game

[papasmurfbell]

I'm starting to see why Ozzie hasn't given Joe what he wants for a contract. With Joe it's always something: a dumb pass, a missed block, a dropped catch, a tipped ball at the line. Whether or not it is Joe's fault something is not working. The phrase having the undescribable 'it' factor. Well with Joe there is something undescribable (or maybe it is) that is completely baffling. Joe's play was embarrassing today. You had two QB's today that are trying to she'd the average label. Schaub looked great and Joe put himself in a league with Mark Sanchez.

 

Joe does not have a defense to fall back on. Having an average QB with a poor defense does not win a Super Bowl. If Joe doesn't pull it together the rest of this season I'm inclined to just let him walk and start over. Bottom line guys, we do not have an elite QB who can win us a Super Bowl.

 

Exactly. You do not pay a guy because of the results from a game or 2.

[papasmurfbell]

Some interesting HOME/ROAD quarterback statistics .... Philip Rivers: 41-14 @ home (64.3% comp), 28-24 @ road (63.2% comp) ... Ben Roethlisberger: 46-13 @ home (63.4% comp), 37-24 @ road (63.2% comp) ... Tony Romo: 32-20 @ home (64.1% comp), 30-23 @ road (65.4% comp) .... & JOE FLACCO: 31-5 @ home (62% comp), 18-17 @ road (59.4% comp)

[papasmurfbell]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--with-leader-ray-lewis-sidelined---old-ravens--nowhere-to-be-found-against-texans.html

HOUSTON – Terrell Suggs was the only Baltimore Raven who smiled as he walked off the field after his team got obliterated by the Texans 43-13. A few hecklers in the front row of Reliant Stadium, hanging a Ravens doll from a string, got his attention and he clapped and nodded and grinned.

"We gonna see you again!" Suggs yelled.

Well, if he says so.

Suggs is a throwback to the old Ravens, the team that hit without mercy, and woofed before and after the fact. At least these new Ravens can still talk, as the commentary after the game was something out of an Aaron Sorkin script.

"Sometimes you get tossed out of the bar," head coach John Harbaugh said.

"They all count the same," said quarterback Joe Flacco, "no matter how you lose."

"When you step into the shower, you're gonna get wet," said Suggs. "And it rained [sunday]."

But behind the talk is an emerging identity crisis, especially without injured linebacker Ray Lewis, who used to embody the Ravens' moxie just by walking onto the field. It's still Lewis' team, but it sure seems to lack that Lewis spark.

This was supposed to be the season where the torch was finally shared. The powerhouse Ravens' defense of years past was still capable, but now the "vertical" offense behind Flacco would fill the void. It would be the best of both worlds and it would put the Ravens over the top. And it looked doable, as the team started 5-1. Then came injuries to Lewis and cornerback Lardarius Webb, and then came the most humiliating beatdown of the Harbaugh era.

So who are these new Ravens?

They are not a defensive team. Not when Houston scored a franchise record 43 on them and could have hung 50 with a break or two. The Ravens were 26th in the league in defense coming into this game. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees said he was made "sick" by his team's performance before they even got on the plane to Texas.

[Related: J.J. Watt does Dikembe Mutombo proud with sack celebration]

 

Asked what concerned him about getting thrashed Sunday, Harbaugh said: "I'm concerned about everything." The game changed completely in the split-second when Connor Barwin sacked Flacco in the end zone for a safety that closed the Ravens' lead to 3-2 in the opening quarter. By the end of the first half, it was 29-3. That is not the mark of a resilient team. That is not the Ravens football we're used to seeing. But that is the Ravens on the road, where their only win came in a 9-6 squeaker against the hapless Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5.

"It's two different teams," Ravens safety Ed Reed said afterward, looking like a pummeled boxer with his sunglasses on in the bright locker room. "Can't win like that."

Not with Flacco and the offense converting nearly just 25 percent of their third downs. He threw for a meager 147 yards and no more than 15 yards on any one play. There has been plenty of debate about whether Flacco is an elite quarterback, but he looked more like Blaine Gabbert than Eli Manning on Sunday.

 

The Ravens' "vertical" passing attack was decidedly horizontal against Houston, with either Flacco or his passes wounding up flat on the ground. The Ravens knew coming in that J.J. Watt and friends would be racing in with their arms raised, hoping to bat away throws. They did that seemingly at will.

 

"We saw it on film," said Ravens receiver Torrey Smith, "and they did a good job."

Perhaps the most disturbing sequence occurred early in the fourth quarter, when Texans pass rusher Antonio Smith sacked Flacco and then did his patented samurai sword sack dance. On the very next play, Smith bolted in again, sacked Flacco again, and did the same samurai dance. The only thing missing was the hibachi and the flaming onion.

It's not all Ray Lewis' absence. He doesn't block, catch or throw. Baltimore went 4-0 last season without Lewis in the lineup, and eventually made it to the AFC title game. So there's that. And yet the way the Ravens simply fell apart after the first-quarter safety and a pick six by Texans defensive back Johnathan Joseph was jarring. The jolt Lewis always provides was clearly missing. Suggs, coming back bravely from a ruptured Achilles tendon, made the occasional big play, but there were precious few big hits. There was little visible emotion after the first few minutes. It was a veteran team getting "whupped" (Suggs' word) and going home. The old football cliché is "Next up," where an injury gives an opportunity for someone else to come in and own the moment. Next up for the Ravens on Sunday was no one. "If we don't get used to [missing Lewis] …," Reed said, "something's wrong."

Is something wrong? Hard to say after just one wretched game. And let's be clear: the Texans were incredible on Sunday. They looked like a Super Bowl team, even after getting beat badly by Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers last week. The Ravens marveled at their opponents, almost to a man, and with good reason. The Texans, sad to say for Baltimore fans, look very much like the old Ravens: They run the ball, they control the clock, they hit with anger, they wag their fingers, and they can sustain a significant injury to a key player (Brian Cushing) and still win big. You know you've manhandled a team when the opposing head coach gets up to the podium after a game, grabs the lectern and declares, "I'm not sure what to say about that."

The Ravens are still 5-2. They are still confident. Very confident. The old Ravens are still in there somewhere, they insist.

 

"Everyone else will hit the panic button," said Suggs, grabbing his suitcase and striding theatrically out of the visitors' locker room. "That's when we'll have 'em right where we want 'em."

Well, if he says so.

[varaven45]

We are 5-2 but not the same team. Its one thing to say we are confidfent, its another to play like it. "it" is gone or missing from the team.

Our D, especailly the D line, LB and safety positions are weak/aging and the FO refused to formulate a transition plan, much less have one, over the past

10 years. Now its biting us in the arse. And you cant make chicken salad from chicken poop.

 

We wont see much, if any, improvement from this D this year and not until the FO accepts that we have to replace our aging playmakers and skillmakers.

Even when Ray was drafted it took about 3 years for our D to really develop. The good news is we have a few good parts - Suggs, Ngata and Webb (wheen healthy) - to buld around . The bad news is there wont be another Ray or Reed, but maybe a decent find in the upcoming draft.

[Robjr83]

If you look at the Pats/NYG you don't need a dominate playmaking defense. You need a solid front 4 and a defense that gives up maybe 20 points a game. The offense needs to be a lot more consistent, we have a ProBowl back in Rice thats never used properly. I also don't know why our receivers can't get open.

[papasmurfbell]

Just got to thinking about it today. The Texand are the Ravens to the Ravens are the Jags. How many games did the Ravens lose to Jax under the craziest of situations until they finally won and beat their ass basically from then on. Could this be the first of many wins for teh Texans over the Ravens?

[yagersports]

If you look at the Pats/NYG you don't need a dominate playmaking defense. You need a solid front 4 and a defense that gives up maybe 20 points a game. The offense needs to be a lot more consistent, we have a ProBowl back in Rice thats never used properly. I also don't know why our receivers can't get open.

 

I think the receivers not getting open has to do with two things. One we don't run the ball enough, so play action goes out the window. Two, our routes have little to no imagination. When was the last time you saw Joe pump fake? Someone mentioned it here a few days ago, crossing routes, can I get a pick on crossing routes. Yeah it's illegal, but once a game will get it done. How about a WR screen to Boldin? The biggest WR in football that runs like a RB and we don't give him the ball on a screen. How about the out and up? Why oh why is that pattern almost non existant from this scheme?

 

Offensively it boils down to Joe is a great play action QB and Ray Rice is an awesome RB. Why do we need to be anything different? We've got a really good back-up RB let's run the ball and win like Ravens.

[oldno82]

Its an old football axiom that you have to use the run to set up the pass. Joe is great on play action but they haven't been running that kind of offense.

 

Joe and Cam both need to look in the mirror and accept what they are and then utilize their strengths.

 

By the way, Flacco has been sacked 18 times so far---the third worst in the league.

[vmax]

The defense, to a degree, has an excuse: injuries, raid on coaches, no high draft picks, no big free agent splashes.

 

But the offense? No excuse.

 

Coaching? No excuse.

Belicheat isn't God, but he could make a Super Bowl winner out of this roster.

Coughlan too.