Loved our D for the most part. Suggs continues to have an insane year and makes me want to see the DPOY runnings. I thought our front 7 played great and the safeties ended up making a couple splash plays. Tucker, Koch and co are all stellar. Jimmy and the secondary in general played stupid, in todays league, you cant fall pray to hubris if your name is not patrick peterson. Blown assignments and bad plays all game, some blame should also go to dean for that game plan. Oh and it was fantastic to see trent dilfer out there again, hope he continues to show up 2k
The Good * Suggs still has it - 2 sacks, a FF and PD. One man wrecking crew. * Defense overall is still a top unit with crucial turnovers. * Alex Collins comes up big and used ina couple trick rush plays. * Flacco came up big and actually ran 6 times for 42 yds. Maybe it's time to get rid of that brace? * Flacco finally slid on his right leg on the last play! Yea! * The OL actually compensated for Clowney's early domination. * Gadget plays saved this game. We don't see them enough. * CJ Mosley is everywhere. The Bad * Passing offense is still trash. * Perriman had ZERO catches on 5(?) targets. * Wallace is not playing up to par. * Defensive penalties (80+ yards) - some are the refs fault but never give the zebras a chance to change the game. * Joe continues to lead the league in the least amount of yards per play - started came at 5.4yds/catch, today had just 7 per. * Secondary gave up more 253 passing yards for first time in 2017. * No Humphrey. Where'd our golden boy go? The Ugly * Jimmy got beat bad by Hopkins. * Hopkins ended up on Carr as much as any DB and was abused * 141 passing yards. * That OL (with or without Stanley) is U-G-L-Y with no alibi.
If Campanaro was scratched, who was the return man tonight? The Ravens crack me up because they were just tweeting about how Campanaro needs to make the Pro Bowl as a returner. You don't scratch a healthy Pro Bowl player! haha
Harb's said it wasn't anything he did or didn't do. Moore got the bulk of the duty. Collins chipped in.
Moore returned kicks, Webb fielded punts. I'm curious as to why Humphrey seemed to see no action and Webb was manly in the slot. I'll add my thoughts to the thread in a few hours
Things I like: - First off, this thread title - Terrell Suggs is the ageless wonder. In terms of Ravens historical players, I can't think of a defensive player that played at his level, while at his age. That includes Ray and Ed - The front 7. For the most part, they were easily the strong point on the defense today. - Justin Tucker. No explanation necessary - Sam Koch. Most accurate passer on the team and a pretty damn good punter - Chris Moore. He doesn't get enough recognition, but he's been better as a WR as of late, and he looks good at returner - Alex Collins. I can't wait to see a day he gets to run behind a line that isn't getting him hit in the backfield. Still led the league in ypc coming into the game. That may change - Some of the play calling on offense was surprisingly good. That 4th down misdirection toss, or whatever it's called, to Collins was one of the best plays I've seen by Baltimore all season. The Flacco bootleg to seal the game was also a great call. - Flacco scrambling for first downs. This might be the most underappreciated factor of the win - DeAndre Hopkins. I don't care if he was the opponent, I've love watching him (and have drafted him in fantasy 3 straight years). He's the best WR in the league imo, as previously stated, because he still dominates with trash level QBs. Give him someone with upper level talent and he probably breaks records - Being one game closer to a playoff berth. We may get to see some January Ravens football Things I didn't like: - Where the hell was Humphrey all game? I don't recall any injury talk and he's been pretty damn good this season - Why did Judon sit late in the game? Suggs is great, but having an actual threat on the other side helps him. - What happened to Eric Weddle? - Jimmy Smith and Brandon Carr. I think that 2011 Chargers game was the last time I recall seeing Jimmy abused to this level. Carr has been abused by top level WRs all season. Hopkins had his way with our corners - The line's inability to stop Clowney. Thank goodness Watt and Merciless were out or Joe may have been carted off the field. - The lack of adjustment to Clowney. Seriously, every time he stood up at ILB he rushed right up the middle with little to know resistance. At what point does the DC or QB make a freaking adjustment - The WRs. One catch for Maclin. Multiple drops for Wallace. No catch for Perriman. Joe was a factor in half of all their troubles, the other half was them - Being one game closer to a playoff berth. Harbaugh's streak of avoiding one and done appearances may end this year.
I think you are dead on with hopkins possibly being the best in the league. AB is obviously right up there but ive seen jimmy and better cb's stop AB or hold him down. Im a huge fan of smith's talent but what hopkins managed to do to him and Patrick peterson, the latter is the best in the league, is unreal to me. Now smith got burnt bad once, he had over the top help but the safety was late, but he didnt stick to his man at all, like he did on the PI call which i will forver hate because fuck this league- but i digress- other than getting burnt badly, he was giving up seperation to hopkins, and i thought one of the holding calls was BS but i had a lot of issues with the reffing yesterday and im not one to harp on that crap. Hopkins to be really shows how hard it is to play D. An elite O player always has the advantage as he forces a reaction and even against a guy like smith who can stick to his man, his cuts- hips and feets are simply insane. Calvin johnson would beat you because he was technically solid, had great hands and an insane frame, AB beats you because he is a technician...this kid might be a combination of both and that is not meant to diminish the greatness of AB or CJ. I was floored by how well hopkins played- again, beating patrick peterson is obviously more impressive and i cant recall a guy doing it so consistently against 2 of the best pure man cover corners in the league. The thing that irks me with dean peas is that if i had the tape of what he did last year the first thing i say is " hey jimmy, you are a stud, but we need to be smart and we are gonna give you consistent help on whoever is on hopkins" instead we fell prey to hubris which happens all the time. As for your point on suggs, again, i agree. Niether lewis nor reed played this well, this ELITE if you will at this stage in their careers- most of lewis and reeds effect was in marshalling the D, making reads etc and the raw fear qb's had of throwing anything near reed. Clowney and watt next year is gonna be very fun to watch for the neutral, i was very impressed by how easily he used the rip and especially the swim to beat his man, great athleticism. We just need trent dilfer to keep playing like that and this team has a shot. I would give my right ball bag for yanda back so we could have some help on that line 2k
So Joe said in the presser last night that in order to make the SB they have to "let [the offense] loose a bit and see where it takes us." Not sure if that alludes to Morhinweg maintaining too much control, being a lousy play caller and or allowing Joe to call more audibles. Recall in the final moments that Joe went off script. There was an actual huddle followed by a bootleg. He also ran 4 times for 42 yards uncharacteristically. He is struggling but he appears to be doing everything in his power to get the job done. He also mentioned that he's not surprised by the being at the head of a WC race saying that they did what was necessary at the time to win. Essentially they executed when they had an opportunity. It's not to say that they are doing all the right things but they're being opportunistic as the defense creates the opportunities. That was on full display last night, turning TO's in scores of short field situations. God knows they mastered the 3 and out for the kickoffs. I'm convinced this team is mainly suffering under a terrible OL. No time for Joe to make deep plays, no protection in the pocket, little running room anymore. A good defense can completely shut down the offense. Houston's was missing some key players and still made it a close game. Not sure what a "loose offense" for Joe would look like.
Im sure a lack of a solid O line is fucking us but watching joe, he has no poise, his mechanics are terrible and his decision making is atrocious. He locks in to receivers pre snap and just follows through, forces throw, has even worse touch than before and even if his line is to not be trusted, when they do give him sufficient time, he is just perpetually flustered and it shows and then hurts the team The wr's are doing him favours but this is by far the worst ive seen him. I do think there is some credence to placing a fair amount of blame on the OC because the calls are so generic, they are so easy to decipher and hardly ever create opportunities for a beneficial match up for a player or scheme vs scheme. 2k
Oh yeah. The o-line is inconsistent but Joe sucking is simply Joe sucking. The receivers are bad as well though. I'm honestly starting to think there's a culture of garbage passing offense in Baltimore. No Ravens WR has ever been a probowler or all pro. No matter who the QB or OC is, the passing game sucks overall. The best we can hope for is established veterans coming in and not succumbing to whatever the issue is. Mason, Boldin, and Smith Sr managed to escape it overall. Torrey was good while Boldin was here and started to slump when he left and now he can't even recover in Philly's dynamic offense.
