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The Random Thought Thread

ndub

Ravens Ring of Honor
it's honestly not as entertaining as id hoped it would be
but here you go:



main takeaway: jarvis landry giving mo sanu a run for his money for best non-qb passer in the league (after sam koch of course) but russell gage throws an absolute dime


I think Koch missed a very big opportunity as a kid. He should’ve been like Lamar and absolutely refused to try new positions. Probably would’ve made one hell of a QB with enough experience. Thanks by the way!
 

ThatsMyJoeTerback

Ravens Ring of Honor
Don't know if anyone mentioned it yet but we tried a flea flicker the first snap of the game vs Browns on MNF, resulting in a Lamar scramble for a loss of a yard. It was Mark Ingram's only snap of the game.
 

ndub

Ravens Ring of Honor
Don't know if anyone mentioned it yet but we tried a flea flicker the first snap of the game vs Browns on MNF, resulting in a Lamar scramble for a loss of a yard. It was Mark Ingram's only snap of the game.

Gotta actually respect the RB for it to work. That was at the point where everyone knew if Ingram was getting the ball it was usually 2-3 yards max
 

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
Gotta actually respect the RB for it to work. That was at the point where everyone knew if Ingram was getting the ball it was usually 2-3 yards max
It was also the first play of the game, where most defenses are in their base package, so they wouldn't need to aggressively pursue to stop the run. Not a great time to call a play like that.
 

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
MARVIN again with a shit ass take.


He's both right and wrong. Stand alone mac-and-cheese, like Kraft or something you buy out of a box at the store, generally is garbage. My kids eat Kraft Shells and Cheese like once a week for years. It's terrible.

However, if you do an actual, decent mac and cheese, like baked in the oven or in a cooker, using a bunch of different cheeses and occasionally throw some like meat in there, that's extremely good.

Good chance he's just never had actual good MC...
 

JoeyFlex5

Hall of Famer
He's both right and wrong. Stand alone mac-and-cheese, like Kraft or something you buy out of a box at the store, generally is garbage. My kids eat Kraft Shells and Cheese like once a week for years. It's terrible.

However, if you do an actual, decent mac and cheese, like baked in the oven or in a cooker, using a bunch of different cheeses and occasionally throw some like meat in there, that's extremely good.

Good chance he's just never had actual good MC...
I don’t think anyone will ever refer to Kraft boxed bullshit as Mac and cheese in a debate about what food is superior to literally all others, which is Mac and cheese.
 

ndub

Ravens Ring of Honor
i just think generally, flea-flickers require very specific conditions to be successful in the modern game

I will leave it like this… you’re right, it does. But doesn’t any trick play? You have to at least first make the defense respect the possibility of what you’re doing before you try a trick play. For example, a fake punt. If you have 35 yards to go on 4th down, a defense would laugh at you if you attempted the fake. If you are unsuccessful at running the ball all game long, no one will respect your run by putting 8 men in the box or even paying attention to it, thus also rendering the flea flicker useless (unless it’s college/HS). Hell, certain amount of conditions have to exist even for a play action/draw, which are standard plays!!
 

rossihunter2

Staff Member
Moderator
I will leave it like this… you’re right, it does. But doesn’t any trick play? You have to at least first make the defense respect the possibility of what you’re doing before you try a trick play. For example, a fake punt. If you have 35 yards to go on 4th down, a defense would laugh at you if you attempted the fake. If you are unsuccessful at running the ball all game long, no one will respect your run by putting 8 men in the box or even paying attention to it, thus also rendering the flea flicker useless (unless it’s college/HS). Hell, certain amount of conditions have to exist even for a play action/draw, which are standard plays!!

of course that's true for almost all trick plays - which is why i dont think you see the ravens do them much (not on special teams) because ultimately they require a lot of things to go right deception-wise and you're actively putting the ball in the hands of players who are inherently worse at that job on that play than the person who'd normally perform that role

although regarding the respecting the run thing - i vaguely remember reading an article a few years ago that actually suggested that play-action was just as effective with or without the running game being effective - which does seem counterintuitive (but is probably more related to the way that passing is so much more likely to add value than the running game in the modern NFL than anything actually interesting related to play-action itself)

but generally i dont like the ravens running trick plays (especially in this lamar era) because it mostly means taking the ball out of the best and most athletic player's hand
 

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
I will leave it like this… you’re right, it does. But doesn’t any trick play? You have to at least first make the defense respect the possibility of what you’re doing before you try a trick play. For example, a fake punt. If you have 35 yards to go on 4th down, a defense would laugh at you if you attempted the fake. If you are unsuccessful at running the ball all game long, no one will respect your run by putting 8 men in the box or even paying attention to it, thus also rendering the flea flicker useless (unless it’s college/HS). Hell, certain amount of conditions have to exist even for a play action/draw, which are standard plays!!
Conceptually, wouldn't a flea flicker work better WITH 8 men in the box? Most of the time you're trying to isolate a WR on the outside with the play fake so you can take a deep shot. That would seem to matchup well with 8 in the box would it not?

A flea flicker would be less likely to be effective on like 3rd and 15, when the defense is in like Dime personnel. They want you to hand the ball off, and are less likely to collapse on a such.
 

ndub

Ravens Ring of Honor
Conceptually, wouldn't a flea flicker work better WITH 8 men in the box? Most of the time you're trying to isolate a WR on the outside with the play fake so you can take a deep shot. That would seem to matchup well with 8 in the box would it not?

A flea flicker would be less likely to be effective on like 3rd and 15, when the defense is in like Dime personnel. They want you to hand the ball off, and are less likely to collapse on a such.

That’s what I was saying. 8 men in the box is more conducive to success for flea flickers. I said unless you can run the ball, no one respects the run and you won’t see many 8 men boxes
 

rmcjacket23

Ravens Ring of Honor
That’s what I was saying. 8 men in the box is more conducive to success for flea flickers. I said unless you can run the ball, no one respects the run and you won’t see many 8 men boxes
I mean you get anybody in a base package on a running down and you can have success. Like a 2nd and short is conducive for that.

Theoretically the Ravens would go excel at this a ton because of how we run the ball and its foundation of the offense, but it's also a notoriously slow developing play that requires a ton of execution from a ton of people.

I actually appreciate some of the Patriots designs out of it, where they'd sneak a TE off the line or a back out of the back field for like a very easy 10-15 gain, as opposed to always taking the deep shot. Once the safeties see the RB stop in his tracks, they go into retreat mode. I feel like too many teams treat trick plays as like "homerun" plays or plays where its a disappointment if you don't get a TD out of it. They used to run some of these for 15-20 yard gains religiously and excel at all of them.
 

Deebo813

Hall of Famer
of course that's true for almost all trick plays - which is why i dont think you see the ravens do them much (not on special teams) because ultimately they require a lot of things to go right deception-wise and you're actively putting the ball in the hands of players who are inherently worse at that job on that play than the person who'd normally perform that role

although regarding the respecting the run thing - i vaguely remember reading an article a few years ago that actually suggested that play-action was just as effective with or without the running game being effective - which does seem counterintuitive (but is probably more related to the way that passing is so much more likely to add value than the running game in the modern NFL than anything actually interesting related to play-action itself)

but generally i dont like the ravens running trick plays (especially in this lamar era) because it mostly means taking the ball out of the best and most athletic player's hand
Me personally, i wouldnt call it unless ive studied the opponents defense that way your % of success is better.. i mean shit thats what BB does
 

ThatsMyJoeTerback

Ravens Ring of Honor
i vaguely remember reading an article a few years ago that actually suggested that play-action was just as effective with or without the running game being effective
Still holds true. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/can-nfl-coaches-overuse-play-action-they-havent-yet/
Play action has increased in volume, and so has its efficiency.
ravens running trick plays (especially in this lamar era) because it mostly means taking the ball out of the best and most athletic player's hand
Agree with this - we had the long TD on the Ingram direct snap against a very bad Texans run defense in week 2, but I still have PTSD from the direct snap vs NE, and a couple from 2019 (I think vs BUF) that did not work
 
TIL Zeus Sr. missed 3 years of his career with temporary blindness after a ref accidentally threw a weighted penalty flag in his eye!?! That's mental.
 
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