Week 1 2017/18 Ravens AT Bengals Post Game Thread

Good.

Defence is amazing. It is confirmed to cure erectile dysfunction.

Suggs was an absolute beast and should of had at least another sack.

Our entire DB corp was next level and can ACTUALLY tackle in space and are players of the ball which is great.

That D line of ours are very stout and was getting pressure.

I thought Maclin and woodhead before his injury looked real good.

Regular players on the O line looked good.

Oh and i was a big fan of West and Allen today, ran real hard.

Bad

Not sure if it was an injury but Joe started to let it go a bit after a strong first half.

We will be punished by better D lines

Not too much else to say other than

SHUT OUT HYPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ALSO SCREW YOU GREEN THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SMITH IS ON YOU!

2k

 

I am off to go to see the doctors it is coming up on 4 hours soon i think.

Great start to the season.

Tough Cleveland team next week judging by what i saw of the other game

2k

 

The defense is legit. It's one game, it's a Bengals team with a suspect o-line, but the defense is legit. If not for AJ Green getting matched up against Weddle a few times, he'd have been forgotten in this game. Ravens pitch their first opening game shut out since 2006. Coincidentally, they had a ridiculous defense that season also.

Credit to the o-line. They slipped up on some plays (looking at those penalties Jensen) but as the game went on, they inserted their will. 11 straight run plays on one drive can't happen with a bad o-line. They may struggle against better d-lines......but how many better d-lines are actually on the schedule?

Need more out of the passing game, but then again they didn't really pass much as they didn't really need to. Loved this game. Old school Ravens football. Dominating defense and a strong running game

 

The good news is, you know the offense isn't in sync yet. They can be better. This was the first time the o-line took real snaps with those 5 players. First time Joe threw to his receivers in real snaps. First time those TEs caught passes from Joe in real snaps. You get the picture

 

Nice game. You guys definitely look better than my Steelers right now. We have 3 weeks to get our shit together before we have to face your defense. You guys won't have a problem with Cleveland. Our defense sacked Kizer 7 times, you guys will probably get a dozen on him.

 

The team certainly had that 2000 swagger to it. The offense showed some potential, but what was up with Joe throwing just 3 passes in the second half? That may be a cause for concern. Or it could possibly be to get more work in on the run game? The offense can only get better. Well, hopefully. They can't afford any more injuries.

The Good:
The defense was as good as we hoped - 221 tot yds, 4 INTs, 1 FR, 5 sacks and no points allowed.
The front 7 is dominant AND made an adjustment against the quick dropback that stalled the Bengals early momentum.
The secondary didn't give much room in space to opposing receivers.
Suggs looked like his old self - 2 sacks on the day.
Onwuasor looks like another undrafted gem. He should be the starter.
Pierce is a pocket collapsing, double team commanding beast. He had a helluva game.
Mosley is a clutch player and is looking like he's coming out of Ray Lewis' shadow.
Jimmy Smith did a good job on Green when he covered him - stole that catch in the 4th to get the Ravens 4th INT against Green was a nice surprise.
Webby was all over the place. Jefferson was a beast leading the team in tackle.
The offense was solid, even if it did "wow" us with gaudy stats in any position.
Joe looked to have some rust but still made good pass plays.
The OL did s decent job despite being suspect coming into the season.
The run game looked capable grabbing little and big chunks. West could be the most underrated starting RB this year and Allen looked like a great #2.

The Bad:
Injuries to Woodhead and Z. Smith. Woodhead is just a hammy and could be back in a week, maybe 4. Smith looks like he's IR bound with an ankle.
Offense had 121 passing and 121 rushing with one TD each. The offense isn't quite on the same page yet, but that could get better as the weeks roll on.
Correa is looking lost out there. He shouldn't be starting.
Penalties need to be minimized. The two delay of games so close killed their 4th qtr drives.

Not much else to neg them on. I hope the defense can keep this up and the offense improves on today's performance. The Browns have some potential, but don;t look that great.

 

Something to think about for this game. Nobody drafted in 2017 made a difference today. Williams, Wormley, and Eleumunor were inactive. Clark, Bowser, and Humphrey didn't play any defensive snaps. There's two ways to look at it.

1. The positive way, that the defense was so good and is so stacked that those players weren't even needed.

2. The not so positive way, that those draft positions could have gone to offensive players who may have helped the offense a little more

 

I'd look again. If it wasn't for Antonio Brown, The Browns defense only gave up 123 yards and stuffed the run. They are not going to be a pushover. The good thing is that their OL is porous so the Ravens front 7 should get a lot of sacks, QB hits, and hurries.

The Jags had 10 sacks today and look to be a monster on defense.

I don't believe the next two games are not going to be as easy as we hope.

 

I watched maybe 5 minutes of football yesterday, and the Browns looked like they had some fight in them. I wouldn't bank on getting a bunch of sacks on a team that just gave up a bunch. They will make that a focus and most likely give up very few following. Any time a teams gets beaten down somewhere, I always look for a rebound the following week.

 

The Steelers got 7 sacks in week 1. At least 5 of those 7 sacks were on Kizer holding onto the ball too long. Can't blame the O-line for those.

 

Ravens fans, don't start sucking each other's dicks just yet... the Bengals are the worst offensive football team in the AFCN and will probably finish LAST in the division. They have AJ Green and that is it. Having a WR as your best player and no one to (competently) throw the ball to him is ... well, useless. Cincy has been steadily depreciating over the past few seasons. IMO, the most impressive thing the Ravens did was blank the Bungles in their own house and the 40 carries to control the game. When the opposing QB is not reading defenders or underestimating their range/vicinity, it makes for a relatively easy day defensively. 2 of Dalton's throws were tipped then fielded by the Ravens D, but the other 2 were directly on target... to a lurking purple jersey. I will say this, Brandon LaFell (#11) had 2 nice solo tackles, whilst chasing down the results of Dalton's errors.

 

After seeing Joe's post game interview, I'm now of the opinion that he's fine. I was worried about the unusual use of the run game in the 2nd half and thought that he may've aggravated is back, but it appears that that was the plan. I'm pretty familiar with back related issues and he didn;t have any signs of discomfort.

Peter King named Suggs defensive player of the week. It's pretty impressive for a player on the wrong side of 30 recovering from two Achillies. Also, Za'Darius Smith is reported to have a knee sprain and could heal up an play again. No word on Woodhead, but it's a hammy - we know its a 2-6'ocess.

 

Good to hear for Z.Smith. He was the best defender that first series before he got hurt. The defense was still dominant after he left, but it'd be great to have an extra body on the line that could dominate.

I do wonder who gets activated in place of him and Woodhead next week. I'm guessing T.Williams and Kaufusi

 

Happy about the win, and I thought the defense played pretty good. Not Great. While the sacks were there, the Bengals still moved the ball pretty consistently and this defense can't depend on getting two turnovers with their opponent in their own red zone each week. Nor can you depend on getting a turnover in their red zone. There comes a time when, in order to be a great defense, you have to have some 3 and outs on their side of the field. The Bengals ran the ball using their three backs and did pretty well, especially going to the left.

The offense did enough to get the job done against a suspect defense without their best linebacker. While I think the O is still a work in progress, they need to step up more.

Cleveland played well against a pretty good Steeler team and if not for a special teams miscue, might have taken them. Jacksonville surprised me the way the destroyed the Texans and it doesn't look like they're a push over anymore. Coming back from England to face the Steelers at home and then go to the left coast to play Oakland is a a daunting task. This schedule is not an easy one.

 

I can't believe that they'd go the next however many weeks with only 2 RB's. Unfortunately, they put themselves in this bind by only carrying 3 RB's to begin with, with one being almost as fragile as Campanaro. They do have options using a 4 WR set or a 2 TE/3WR set, but without Woodhead, Joe doesn't really have a good check down option out of the backfield. This is where Marty will need to get creative. They did have some creative looks against the Bengals.

 

Buck Allen could be a decent check down option if used as such. But personally I'd like an offense that's not reliant on check downs. That's where Marty needs to work his magic. And if we're going to avoid the big play, use one of the many TEs on the roster

 

Yeah, I watch some of the Cleveland - Pitt game and they had some good moments, but they pretty much bottled up Bell. Connor's first action in his debut was minimal. Pittsburgh didn't seem to play that well either though and (I'm not 100%) but it seemed that their OL wasn't opening holes for the run game. Terrence West is not LeVeon Bell and I wonder how the Ravens respond. Maybe the 3-RB scheme will do what Bell couldn't on his own. Clearly the Browns had no response over the middle to AB between the 20's and JJ in the red so their linebacking let them down as did their secondary. Maybe Maclin/Wallace between the 20's and one of our TEs in the redzone will be the answer. We know that those two can burn defense over the middle but which TE would be a RZ target? Or maybe that's a job for Chris Matthews? In any case Joe better get his passing game going this week.

I can see Kizer causing a bit of trouble in a collapsing pocket with his legs. They need to contain him like teams do Russel Wilson to keep him behind the LoS. Coleman could also be a danger and looked pretty good with his rookie QB. I expect they'll improve together in the weeks to come.

 

I expect that they could activate Langford if needed. He has good hands too. Ricard is already active as a FB. Not sure how well he catches, but if he has nay skill he could be 300lb Woodhead...well, at least a 300lb halfback.

 

Mayb that Defensive performance was a result of the Cincy offense being pretty bad

 

Maybe. It was just week 1. We probably won't know for sure until week 3. Bengals face Houston this week and get their rookie receiver back so it should be fun to watch.