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Lamar, The Running Game and The Defensive Collapse

JO_75

JO_75

Hall of Famer
airconteka said:
What I don't understand is given our pass game was far more effective than the run game why when we needed a yard we tried to smash it up the middle of a stacked box. Like you don't go for the knockout blow with your weaker hand.
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NaturalBornHitters said:
We're missing our bread and butter, the run game.
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Greg Roman for the past year has been thinking the run game can be replicated by any RB, he never changed anything last year when we lost Dobbins and Edwards, and now it's the same this year. It's clear we are missing Dobbins and Edwards, every other RB we brought in just isn't as effective at all. Teams know it's coming on those 4th & short plays so they can stack the box and get the stop easily, we have zero creativity with our 4th down plays.
 
D

Deebo813

Hall of Famer
I dnt even care that the run game is not what we are used to. I do think it will get better though, however…..we basically have a 250 million dollar qb and he did his part.. to blame our failures on the run game while we potentially got one of the highest paid qbs in the nfl….makes lamar look bad.
 
airconteka

airconteka

MVP
Florida Raven Fan said:
Justice Hill was clearly the better back yesterday and only had 3 carries.... if not mistaken had 5 yard avg on those carries. Why did we still try to force Davis to run? That's on GRo.
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He had 3 carries for 16 and one of those went for 13. They all sucked, excluding the 13 yard run the 3 of them had 13 carries for 15 yards lol
 
BoredMarine13

BoredMarine13

Ravens Ring of Honor
Deebo813 said:
to blame our failures on the run game while we potentially got one of the highest paid qbs in the nfl….makes lamar look bad.
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I don’t think it makes Lamar look bad. He still lead the offense to 31 points and it didn’t look overly difficult for him either.

The run game is a concern but if we can still be effective Vs teams without one it’s not the biggest worry. The defense on the other hand…
 
rmcjacket23

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
My takes on over-reaction Monday:
1. I'm not totally sweating the defensive collapse as a long-term issue...yet. Want to see film breakdown. Fairly confidence Hamilton was trash and that a lot of the secondary issues were blown assignments/miscommunications, which at least, is theoretically "fixable". Secondary has some injury concerns, but not seeing any long term one's at the moment.
2. Run game sucks, and I don't know if it'll get better. For the group who says "you gotta be able to throw it in the playoffs", I'm pretty sure, at this pace, a reckoning is coming for this offense. I think defenses in about a month or going to take away the big plays (much like they've done with Mahomes) and just force Lamar to take short and intermediate passing all season. And when that happens, and the running game isn't thriving, it's a wrap for this offense.
3. Gotta find ways to execute short yardage, because its a atrocious. Defense totally collapsed in the 4th quarter, but so did the offense, and the offense had numerous chances to hammer this game in, and failed to do so. If we're going to consistently fail to convert 4th and short, bring Stout out there and play field position.
4. Pass rush was what we thought it was on Sunday. It wasn't there. And thats a personnel problem for the most part. May not be solve-able.

Plenty of "star" players out there this week, including the offensive line in pass protection, but in a loss, nobody cares.
 
rmcjacket23

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
JO_75 said:
This. Lamar and the offense puts up 38 points and we can't win the game? That should be enough, it would have been enough points any other time. I think as some alluded to, the way we constructed the roster with very little pass rush is partially to blame. Macdonald and everyone on defense not named Marcus Williams owe Lamar a big apology for giving this game away. All I know is we have got to beat the Patriots to get to 2-1 next week because if our defense is going to play like that against the Bills in Week 4, Josh Allen will carve us up like Tua did.
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Think that's too simplistic. What did the offense do in the 4th quarter?
Offense put up 31, not 38, and they probably should have had at least 40. Even like two more first downs in the 4th quarter and we win by 10.

Offense did enough to win when the defense is average. When the defense is below average, it didn't. Part of being on a team is picking up units when another unit isn't working. When the defense is bad, the offense needs to be exceptional. They weren't. And guess what? There's going to be weeks where this offense is going to score 17-20 points, which is not enough to win. And maybe we'll win that game, because the defense will be exceptional.

And that week may be next week. Need to treat it like a team and not like two individual units trying not to screw up.
 
purplepittabread88

purplepittabread88

Staff Member
Administrator
Let me put it this way, no way will this ever happen again and I’m sure Mac will learn from it. Sucks but better now then to a team that matters more. The entire afc north losing makes it a wash.

Marcus Williams was an insane signing. Glad to see likely do as he did. IMO the loss hurts less because we saw how good we can be. The dolphins defense is no scrubs and we fucked them up
 
Florida Raven Fan

Florida Raven Fan

MVP
purplepittabread88 said:
Let me put it this way, no way will this ever happen again and I’m sure Mac will learn from it. Sucks but better now then to a team that matters more. The entire afc north losing makes it a wash.

Marcus Williams was an insane signing. Glad to see likely do as he did. IMO the loss hurts less because we saw how good we can be. The dolphins defense is no scrubs and we fucked them up
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This game does matter a lot. They are an AFC opponent and when it comes to tie breaker for playoffs now they have the upper hand.
 
UPennChem

UPennChem

Hall of Famer
I gotta say this was slightly a head scratcher from a coaching perspective this week (Harbs and MM particularly and a little GRo).

Harbs was hyper aggressive on 4th down calls, which is true to his nature in the Lamar Era. But simultaneously, we didn't give the Dolphins much respect because we thought we could rest Marlon the second half. What did they do, they marched down and scored a TD with Marlon on the bench. Then at the end I'm pretty sure either Marlon or Marcus wasn't in on the final drive because we saw both Pepe and JAD playing at the same time. So like were they injured and couldn't play or was this over reacting to last years injuries? Idk.

Then MM in the third quarter doesn't send any pass rush at all. But in the 4th quarter starts sending exotic pass rushes that take Marcus Williams out of the back 3rd and to the LOS. This is after we've seen them destroy us for 3 TDs in quick succession.

GRo committed to running on those 1 yard plays even when it didn't work 5 times in a row. Then later in the game tried some more. Situational play calling sucked when it mattered. Which is so frustrating because 95% of his game calling was fantastic this week.
 
rmcjacket23

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
Michael M. said:
Yes because when not in the shotgun, they know Lamar's keeping the ball
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Would appear they also know when he's in the shotgun he's keeping the ball, because that's all we call.
Even the fumbled 4th down. Lamar has a % chance of converting. DLine got all the push. He wasn't going anywhere. They sold out to stop that play, and it worked.
 
rmcjacket23

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
Florida Raven Fan said:
This game does matter a lot. They are an AFC opponent and when it comes to tie breaker for playoffs now they have the upper hand.
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Assuming we're competing for a wildcard spot instead of the division, of course. Which at this point, our division is in shambles, so we should be solely focused on winning that.

As bad as the letdown was, I don't think anybody could argue we aren't clearly the best team in the division right now.
 
drjohnnyfever

drjohnnyfever

Pro Bowler
rmcjacket23 said:
3. Gotta find ways to execute short yardage, because its a atrocious. Defense totally collapsed in the 4th quarter, but so did the offense, and the offense had numerous chances to hammer this game in, and failed to do so. If we're going to consistently fail to convert 4th and short, bring Stout out there and play field position.
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I've been saying this for at least a couple years about whatever analytics Harbaugh is using to determine going on 4th and short. The LEAGUE analytics is one thing - maybe it's successful 60-65% league-wide, but this team's analytics on 4th and short is POOR. Maybe not the case in 2019 or even 2018 for half a season, but over the last 3 years it has not been good. Go back to playing field position. Harbs, of all people should get that, but this is the same guy that continually challenges ball placement calls and regularly loses those too. One of the least likely challenges to be successful. I don't get it sometimes. Sometimes, back to basics is just the right thing to do. Less thinking and more playing what you're being given.
 
M

Michael M.

Pro Bowler
rmcjacket23 said:
Would appear they also know when he's in the shotgun he's keeping the ball, because that's all we call.
Even the fumbled 4th down. Lamar has a % chance of converting. DLine got all the push. He wasn't going anywhere. They sold out to stop that play, and it worked.
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Maybe with our current RB'S, they know Lamar's keeping the ball regardless. Drake and Davis are terrible. I would have liked to see them give the ball more to Ricard.
 
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