Ravens vs Titans, Divisional Round Thread

Figured I'd start this thread early since we don't/didn't have any other Ravens action this weekend. We now know who's coming to Baltimore. It'll be the Tennessee Titans making their way to M&T Bank stadium.

Tennessee just overcame the odds and eliminated the New England Patriots from the playoffs in the wildcard round. It's the first Patriots WC appearance and loss since 2009 when Ray Rice and the Ravens ran all over them with little help from the passing game. The Titans beat them in similar fashion with Derrick Henry running all over them while the passing game had less than 80 yards. The Ravens will need to have their best run defense performance, which has been their biggest issue this season. The Titans passing game is based on play action, but Baltimore has a secondary that should win out against the Titans passing game.

On the other side, the question will be if the Titans defense can keep up with the Ravens offense. Both teams play ball control, time killing, offense but the Ravens are far more likely to score on their drives. Tennessee won't win next week with 14 points.

I have the Ravens winning this, but any given......Saturday.

LET'S GO, RAVENS!!!

 

The key is Brandon Williams and Pierce, Peko and the rest of the DL against Derrek Henry. You HAVE to control this guy and win time of possession to knock the Titans out of the playoffs. The best thing that Lamar and the offense does however, is win time of possession. The Ravens have to score early and score at least a couple of TD's in the first quarter to get the Titans out of their run happy offense and force Tannehill to beat you with his arm (which we know he isn't always capable of doing). If the Ravens can get the lead and maintain, this game shouldn't be that big of a problem.

If this happens, the Ravens will score a couple of big turnovers and turn this game into a comfortable win, but we will see when the players hit the field and the action ensues.

One thing is for sure, that big contract that the Ravens gave Williams a couple seasons ago? This is the game that he has to LIVE up to that contract and be a beast in the middle next Saturday.

Go Ravens!!

 

They didn't win this week with 14 points either.

 

Well, the Titans offense only scored 14. And with 15 seconds left in the game, the Patriots trash offense wasn't going to drive the length of the field with no time outs, or even get in FG range. The pick 6 was just insult to injury at that point

 

I can't see the Titans beating you guys. The only interesting AFC match up is if the Chiefs go to the Ravens.

 

Saturday will be all about shutting down Henry. Luckily the Ravens have faced a similar back in Chubb twice this season. We'll see how that goes. I still think the Titans had the worst QB of our possible opponents (despite the numbers), so this makes sense to be the matchup you want, but as we've seen all weekend, the playoffs are crazy. That's why winning the Super Bowl is far from a guarantee for any team any year.

The Bills yesterday looked tough, and the Texans defense looked like creampuffs. Then with about 2 minutes left in the game, Josh Allen played some of the worst and most moronic football you've ever seen. Despite that, they STILL managed to get to OT. The Bills certainly have some young talent, but don't yet have the winning mentality for the post season. A part of me still feels like the Chiefs may get the easier opponent, but I kind of want to see them out of the playoffs. Call me selfish there.

 

If things go the way they SHOULD, it will be Chiefs/Ravens for the right to the Super Bowl.... but as we know, things NEVER go as they SHOULD

 

I will say, the Texans have beaten the Chiefs with Mahomes already this season. The Titans could very well pull a week 4 Cleveland on us. Nothjng is guaranteed. As Patriots and Saints fans learned this weekend

 

Saw something interesting yesterday. The top 4 passing teams missed the playoffs but the top 4 rushing teams all made it (the 5th team from each ranking ruined the trend). Just thought that was interesting for this passing league

 

The top passing teams changed because of injury. Mahomes, Roethlisberger, Brees. Teams can't stop the run with pass defenders so the league is making another change back towards running until defenses catch up again.

 

According to LFW bill polian didn't even have Lamar on his All Pro Ballot. Why is a clown like that even allowed to have a say in anything related to football awards? What an embarrassment.

 

Some people hate having to admit their wrong. He might be still resentful of the fact many bring him up first when it comes to being wrong about Lamar. He could be mad some people have called him racist because of it. Or he could just truly feel that someone else was more worthy (idk who he voted for but I'm guessing it was Wilson).

"Nobody cares, work harder"

 

Here's the issue (and it's not just polian). People are just sitting and waiting for Lamar to fail. Even the people on the bandwagon now (I don't mean Ravens fans) will jump ship in a heartbeat should he have a bad game. Not like guys like Brees, Brady, Rogers, and P Manning haven't had bad games before.

It was few and far between for people who were bullish on Lamar, and probably even fewer who at least wanted to give him a chance to develop. The rest will swing with the pendulum.

 

What's even worse to me is that some people actually want him to get injured just so they can say I told you so. Tony Gonzales was actually on air advocating for defensive players to hit Lamar late and "take the penalty" just to get hits on him and "put a hurting" on him.

Even the ones that aren't openly saying players should cheap shot Lamar are still waiting for an injury so they can push the regularly stated "it's not sustainable" line. Look at every team's week 1 starter at QB this year. If they've been in the league since at least 2017, they've been injured. That's pocket QBs, mobile QBs, running QBs, etc. ALL have missed time except one, Russell Wilson. The crazy thing is, Wilson has run more than just about every other QB who fits that criteria. The QB who has avoided missing games the 2nd most is Matt Ryan.

"But but but, pocket QBs just stay healthy longer." Tell that to Nick Foles and Jimmy Garoppolo. For every example Brady, Favre, or Eli playing many seasons from the pocket before getting injured, there's a Jimmy G, Foles, and Wentz that got hurt their first years. Football is freaking violent

The crazy thing is, you never hear the same trash said about other QBs. Josh Allen is #2 in QB run attempts the last two years, and he actually doesn't shy away from contact, but you don't hear as many injury projections for him. Pat Mahomes was deemed unstoppable last year, but Tony Gonzales wasn't advocating for defenses to take blatant late, cheap, shots at him as a way to slow him down.

Lastly, RG3 seems to be the first and only QB people use as an example of why they are, or will be, right. What other mobile/running QB has shown they can play at a high level yet had their career shortened due to running??? I honestly can't think of one. I do, however, know that the running QB who runs like a FB, Cam Newton, has had a longer, and better, career than the pocket passing Andrew Luck. It's football. No matter what position you play, the longer you play, the higher the chance you get injured regardless of your style of play and there's no evidence that says otherwise.

/rant

 

Tony G is pulling for the Chiefs to get a Super Bowl, hence the trying to get Lamar hurt because he knows deep in his heart, a healthy and motivated Lamar Jackson is nearly unstoppable in the league.

 

Btw, you do realize that the last two "running QB's", those being Mike Vick and RG3 were both injured playing the Ravens? The Ravens broke Vick's leg in a pre-season game, ending his season and he was NEVER the same again and Haloti Ngata got Rg3 in a late regular season game in his rookie season and he was NEVER the same again.

Kinda ironic that the Ravens are now ALL-IN with another very talented running QB in Lamar.

 

it is very interesting to me that so many so-called experts are picking the Titans for the upset. I think they are a solid team but maybe the last few weeks off have erased some of the dominance the Ravens showed over the last 8 to 10 weeks of the season.

I by no means am predicting a blowout, but I think the Ravens win this game and are in control the majority of the time here. I just am comparing the Titans in the Pats game and think, if the Patriots had an offense even close to the Ravens do they even win that game? I think no and if Brady had even 1 other weapon, I still think the Pats take the game and this is totally a different Divisional scene.

I just think the Titans could barely score against a team that could not really sustain a drive and kept punting the ball back to them and they still only managed to score twice until the last 6 seconds (accounting for the defensive score, yes I know they scored a third time but an not accounting for that as an offensive score). I just do not think they will get those extra chances and the Ravens will capitalize on their possessions and score touchdowns.

 

it is very interesting to me that so many so-called experts are picking the Titans for the upset..........


It will be a Huge upset if Titans win........not ONE of you Ravens Fans have mentioned the Week Off (WC Week).......that can play into the Upset ???

If Titans can score early watch out.......silence the crowd and RUN the Ball.

Titans are in real tough this weekend and Baltimore is very good team on BOTH sides of the Ball......I say Good Luck and Go Titans Go.

 

Welcome in!

I think we mentioned it in another thread about the rust factor and the synopsis was (from my point of view) rust is something that can affect a precision passing team way more than a power running team. If we were the Manning led Colts or someone along that line, I would be more worried about the so-called "rust" but a power running team is way different when it comes to rest. I think rest only helps a team like the Ravens. Freshens tired O Line legs, RB legs etc....

I do think it will be a relatively close game but I do think the Ravens win by perhaps 10 points.... (27 to 17 or maybe 35 to 25ish.....)

 

I think anyone that would overlook any team on any Sunday is a fool. The very shape of the football causes a lot of crazy things to happen. Also, with a 1 and done playoff system, the best team does not always win. I said it before, but the 2012 Ravens certainly weren't the best team in the NFL that year. If this was a series, I find it extremely unlikely that the Titans would even have a shot at coming out the winner. For 1 game though, they absolutely have a chance.

The reason I'm more scared of the Chiefs than the Titans is the Chiefs are more equipped to go blow for blow with the Ravens. They are aggressive and have all the skills to go for it on 4th down and succeed when called for to score a multitude of points. That's something the Ravens do to opponents this year in taking them out of their comfort zone and forcing them to play the Ravens' game.

Harbaugh knows all about how pees runs his defense. I can't imagine bend but don't break is going to fly here. You're asking an awful lot out of those guys to stop this team in the red zone if you concede it every possession. The Titans also have been very poor against the TE which is the Ravens best part of their passing attack by a mile. If there's rust, it would be in those guys hanging on to the ball.

The other area of concern would be if Ingram doesn't suit up. As it's been noted, Edwards is a beast of a back, but not as adept as Ingram in handling (or not handling) all of Jackson's run fakes. We don't want the ball on the ground.