No long write up, nothing to say. I expect a 49ers win today, so this game "should" be for first place in the AFC North. At worst, it's for second place. The rivalrly is well known, and each team knows what's at stake. LET'S GO, RAVENS!!!
Yeah if anyone ever is second guessing Harbaugh going for it on 4th down, they shouldn't. Whether it's 9 yards or 99 yards, the defense is atrocious. Anything that gives you a chance to keep them off the field is a bonus whether it works or not.
And here I thought the pundits were just talking crap about the Ravens D. They have unfortunately proven said pundits exactly CORRECT in that they are just pathetically deficient on the field. No way this Steeler team should be scoring or moving the ball as well as they have, compound that with Lamar forcing balls into coverage for picks and you have a recipe for a road loss and a 2-3 record when they should have been 4-1 right now.
"Pathetically deficient" is a tad bit harsh. No team could lose the starters you guys lost over the off season and still maintain the level of play you've enjoyed over the past years. Keep the faith . . . They will rebound.
This team can't get out of its own way. They just murder themselves with self-inflicted mistakes on the biggest plays week in and week out. They are building something nice, but they don't yet have what it takes to really challenge for a title this year. They're going to make opponents look like world beaters each game.
wow, wasnt sure that was going in, but it faded inside! Hard fought win today, prove me wrong boys. will take it.
This was HUGE, needed this win badly, the defense still played like utter shit and the offense has kinda stalled with the injuries that are piling up but they gutted it out and marlon makes an ed reed type of play to get this win.
Lamar now has 5 INTs on the season (all in the last two games). Of those 5 INTs, 3 hit his intended target in the hands before they were picked off. This defense is a problem. This o-line is a problem. And Lamar's inability to find people not named Andrews or Brown is also a problem. Disclaimer: The last one could be an issue of WRs not getting open. I don't have all 22 to check that.
The Ravens stole that game which gives you a sigh of relief for a win, but you don't feel good about the team because the steelers had no business even remotely making it a close game. The defense is simply atrocious. We might be looking at a bottom 3 defense in the league right now. They will give any opponent confidence on offense. The Ravens offense has also massively regressed. They aren't dangerous at all because they either run or throw up the middle to the TE. They would be significantly better if they had any semblance of an outside receiver game to spread things out. The TEs this week get a F-. Andrews, Hurst, and Boyle all screwed the pooch massively with drops leading to INTs and penalties. We learned Peanut and Jefferson wear the green dot. Neither of those two should ever have that duty because they are terrible at it. Can't believe Tucker's kick snuck back to the right.
Jefferson tore his ACL and possibly MCL also. Done for the season. May have been his last game as a Raven
I hate it for him but honestly Elliot needs to win that spot. He has instincts which Tony nor Chuck have. This injury i think will end up being a blessing in disguise, just need Jimmy to get back in the lineup and somehow a LB stands up and begins to play with any kind of coverage skills
Good to get the win, and I will never downplay how hard it is to win in the NFL. The offense started off amazing. Looked like a throttling after the first 2 drives and then it started to fall apart. I give the Steeler's defense a ton of credit for adjusting and finding the weaknesses and exploiting them. We have to make different adjustments and also perhaps start to run some more roll outs and sprint outs to counter the pass rush and give Lamar more opportunity to make that decision to run or throw outside the pocket. I am hopeful the defense will make some adjustments and that Ferguson will start to step up and help the pass rush. Right now, Judon and McPhee can't do it alone. We need that third pass rusher like we have had in the past to allow the defense to bring pressure from other areas. I also hope Elliot wins the safety role. He is one of those guys that just has a nose for the ball and makes plays. Earl made his presence felt even more today and I think they all start to get better and better as the cohesiveness grows. I thought we may see more deep shots to push the stack back but they could not get Lamar enough time to wait for deep routes, or at least it seemed like he had to go all short. Credit again, the Steeler's defense is pretty good up front. We will see what happens, I feel coming home and getting the Bengals will be a good opportunity to get on a winning streak again and grab another division win. Let's go Niner's tonight!
I'm still trying to process what happened yesterday on the field. The complete botching of calls during the game nearly annihilated the Ravens and gifted the steelers 2 INTs they never should have received. When you have Gene Steratore (who famously had the NFL enact a policy where you can't ref a hometown team after he botched a game for the Dolphins in favor of the steelers) and Bob Pompeani and Chris Hoke (Pomp is probably the biggest homer you will find in all of broadcasting anywhere) calling out that Devin Bush's "INT" as a botched call, then you know something is wrong in Bizarro world. That's not to say that the Ravens didn't benefit from Anderson's awful officiating. In the "what have you done for me lately" league, probably his last blown call (which lends itself in memories now as being the most important) was the roughing the passer called against the steelers. It was just an awful football game to watch yesterday. What feels like a game that should have been a "classic" was anything but one in my mind because of all the asterisks in the 60+ minutes. Despite those atrocities, the team still has huge issues that need addressed. On offense they have to open it up! WRs on the outside need to make plays and they need to be thrown the ball. If not, you're going to see the same thing that happened after the 2012 SB where woefully unqualified Jim Caldwell hoped that the league wouldn't realize what he changed in the offense on the SB run by forcing all plays in the middle of the field. The league noticed and the offense was horrendous. Why are we having receivers within 5-10 yards of each other on passing plays like on Jackson's legit INT yesterday? This is not a revolutionary offense as promised. It's an offense hoping Jackson continues to be a highlight reel on stuffed plays. For the defense, they are simply bad. Canaday seemed to be a step up from Averett, but he's going to be picked on often. Jefferson being out for the year sucks from the aspect that you don't want to see someone get injured, but removing him from the lineup means you can't go anywhere but up. Peanut moving from the middle in favor of an unemployed Bynes shows just how bad Peanut is at that position. Keep him out of that role and let him do what he's good at. The pass rush is simply awful. The outside guys don't worry me too much, but there is no pressure at all from the middle which is where you get the fast pressure from. Without that, you're going to see plenty more 0-1 sack days against dink and dunk 3 step offenses. I do not look forward to facing Wilson and Brady in the coming weeks.
