Week 1: Bills @ Ravens

DeSean Jackson has 111yds and 2TDs with Fitzpatrick throwing to him today. Guess he slacked when here.

 

It would not surprise if Dixon stays healthy, that he supplants Collins as the #1 RB.

 

Was just going to comment he is looking excellent now with acrobatic movement and patince behind his blockers. He's looking like he's imitating LeVeon Bell doing the latter.

 

Ravens now have a TD from their #1 #2, and #3 WR, in addition to their #1, #2, and #3 RB. Wow

 

It would actually surprise me. Collins has seemed more elusive and with better vision

 

Cleveland just tied Pitt 21 to 21 with 2 minutes to go.

 

Is the game actually delayed by weather, or is the stream just borked up now?


Edit: nevermind - borked!

 

Young and Young! One hitting the QB and the other blocking the pass!

 

Different type of runner. Dixon is a straight ahead power runner with some speed. Collins dances and jukes a lot to keep the play alive. Plays, Dixon is a better receiver.

 

Like I said, if Dixon stays healthy. There goes that theory.

 

I now. But it doesn't look serious.

 

And that's game, fellas! Time for all the "what I like and dislikes to begin!

 

Pretty much on point with my prediction

 

He was a 5th rd pick for them last year, but seemed to outplay McCarron and Allen in preseason but he wasn't that great. McCarron got traded and they were just waiting for Peterman to show he couldn't hack it.

That said, I'm glad we got Allen off our schedule now. I think he's going to be a great QB even in today's less than ideal conditions and circumstances he managed 100 yds of offense and took some bog hits in stride. He needs an OL badly.

 

Bog Ben just coughed up the ball and was returned by Cleveland into their territory with 30 secs left.

 

...and a blocked FG kick by Steelers. They're trying to fend off the biggest 4th qtr loss in their history apparently.


*EDIT - and it ends in a tie 21-21. That could have big consequences later on in the season.

 

There wasn't much to this game I didn't like. If I have to nitpick, it would be that Janarion Grant needs to learn when to fair catch. i get that he's explosive, but some of those PR's he had in the 1st half there were 2-3 Bills around him. It looked like he learned it later in the game.

I would also love to see Dixon start a game. Collins is too much of a dancer which also led to his fumble. He loses a lot of yardage, then gains it back with a few long runs. Dixon looks more powerful and sure-handed.

Love the passing game. Love that all 3 new receivers caught a TD pass. Love the TE's, all of them. Maxx Williams is the best he's looked since he was drafted.

The OL played good, not great. They will get better as the season progresses and they all get more in tune with each other. Yanda's back!

Oh, yeah. LOVE THAT DEFENSE BABY! Wormly was getting good penetration. The pass rush was abusive. Looked a lot more like a Rex Ryan "organized chaos" defense than a Dean Pees vanilla, bend, don't break, let's lose the game with less than a minute to go in the game defense. Z. Smith was all over the place. Bowser, Williams, K. Young looked explosive. Even Tavon Young got 2 sacks.

 

If you ask me, and none of you did - I know, the Ravens may have the best defense in the league right now. I don't make this claim lightly, because they made it look effortless in preseason for about 20 minutes but then they nearly blank a team of starters AND, like preseason, rested many of their starters in the second half.

Likes:
Flacco - looks better than ever. Wish he'd have stayed in longer to run up his stat line.
Jackson - showed his athletic ability and steady growth not in a real game. He still went 1-4 completions, but he still helped the offense.
John Brown - could be the best receiver on the team and this bums me out because I didn't see it coming. He was my least favorite receiver signing, but...
Crabtree - slow start likely due to the rain, but he finished strong.
Snead - did what he was signed to do - catch, run, score.
Collins - Not his best game, but he got a rushing score.
Allen - Did better overall with a score too.
Dixon - His elusiveness and his patience behind blockers is looking great almost LeVeon-like....and a score.
Williams, Boyle & Andrews all chipped in for 103 yds combined and did when in blocking duties.
OL - did a good enough job against an otherwise decent defense opening holes and protecting the QBs.

DL - Just collapsed the pocket and gave Peterman no place to go. Allen was better on his feet but the defense adjusted and forced him to use his arm. It's great to see what Urban can do when healthy - glad they kept him.
LBs - Pass rush is sick - 6 sacks today. Z.Smith is turning into a beast. Suggs' got it! Mosely is wall...one that can chase you down and fall on you. Kenny Young is looking like a rookie CJ Mosley. Williams notched a sack.
DBs - Humphrey is all over the place and is one tough tackler. Tavon Young a sack machine? That was surprising. I hope those two play side by side for a long time. Carr was all up in Benjamin's business. Not getting beat looks good on him. Weddle laid a hard and legal hit on Peterman causing one of the INTs. Jefferson with a nice pick and more than a few hard hits.

S/T - Grant had that nice 51yd return breaking tackles and showing his balance and speed. Tucker and Koch were perfect.

Dislikes - nitpicky and not much but...
Judon - was acting fooling having it in for Allen.
2nd half penalties - WTH were they thinking? You were dong fine w/o stupid penalties, keep it that way! That's how you lost the shut out!
Grant - still seems to not be fully aware of all his options. Learn to call a fair catch, dude!
Flacco/Jackson - Their dedication to giving LJ that much time shows they're in all likelihood going replace Joe next year no matter what.

Overall a 47-3 win is hard to bitch about even without Jimmy Smith. I figured it would be a blow out, of course, I erred on the conservative side to not look too much like a homer. With luck everyone continues to stay healthy into the post season. Even so, this team is deep and replacing key players like Jimmy) will be easier to do. I feel like they know what they're doing again.

 

You know, over the last few years people have been calling out Ozzie Newsome for past drafts. But he deserves a ton of credit for what we saw against the Bills Yes, I know it was just one game against a team that won't contend for the playoffs, but they were a playoff team just last season right?

31 of the 53 man roster is is in their 3rd year or less. The 2016 draft was heavily showcased with 4 starters and 1 other player getting heavy time (Young, who was a monster yesterday). The 2017 draft featured 4 of the 7 draft picks making plays, including amazing play from the Ravens next shut down CB, Marlon Humphrey) Willie Henry missed the game, but he's basically a starter when he returns. The 2018 draft is still too new, but we received great play from Mark Andrews and Kenny Young, while still getting to see that Orlando Brown Jr will dominate. That's while knowing Hayden Hurst will be very good.

Including backups, I think there are only 8-10 players that didn't start their career in Baltimore. This is mostly a home grown team. He hasn't received a lot of credit for it lately, but Ozzie really left this team in a great place with the last few drafts and the last two years in free agency. Kudos Mr Newsome, Kudos.

 

I think it's because some of the high rd picks (Perriman, Cody, Kindle, etc) haven't worked out as well as expected. But, since many people, especially the media, tend to harp on the negative, then it's become an "issue". He also got reamed for picking Humphrey over OJ Howard last year (I was one of the reamers) and for not picking Calvin Ridley this year.

Ozzie has always had his best drafts when the 3rd-6th rd picks make a difference. On the current team, that's players like Andrews, T. & K. Young, Henry, Wormly, Urban, Z. Smith, Dixon, Allen, Yanda, Lewis, Zeus, Jr., etc. Too many to mention for years past.

Let's not discount all the UDFA's that have become starting players, media darlings, and top FA's.

Football insiders and Ravens fans know how consistent he's been. He's missed a few, just like any GM, but the number he's hit on for over 20 years far outweigh the one's he's missed. His biggest downfall? Drafting WR's.