The Random Thought Thread

[JAAM]

i honestly think we'll do the opposite of what you've suggested - the scheme we ran this year was incredibly successful and there's no need for it to completely disappear but i think it'll be adjusted to whatever talent we have on the team and if that means accommodating another wr then it will

what i expect is that we remain with our similar run scheme but expand the passing concepts and utilise the passing game more - its great that we can win games when lamar passes 20 times - id like to see us built so that we can also win games when he passes 35+ times - the more multi-faceted this offence is the better we will be

I'm with you, but what if defenses start to catch on and stop our inside power runs out of the full house? I want to see more variety like tosses, inside zones out of shotgun, counters, etc. The amount of full house we ran had to be an absurd number. I want to hit defenses from all angles in the run game. Too bad Mark nor Gus really has the speed to get outside. Hopefully Justice develops more.

 

[rossihunter2]

based on his production, even the improvement in year four, he wasn't worth giving him the salary that he got. That being said, I'm happy for him, but wish he showed that improvement in year four so we could have found a way to keep him in the fold.

the fact he didnt get all-pro this year is absurd

 

[rossihunter2]

WRs are a weak link, but we did things this year with those same group of receivers in terms of being able to take advantage of teams 8/9 man fronts that we just didn't do this game. I think some of Lamar's passes got away from him and it played a pivotal role in terms of the Titans commitment to the run. We just didn't do enough to get them out of those fronts. I think Boykin is in a shaky spot because he has not looked good outside of short yardage plays and that one catch against Seattle for 50 yards accounted for about 25% of his total offensive production this year? That pretty much tells the story as far as that goes.

I will say this though, Roberts screwed up dropping that pass big time because if he comes down with that it's a house call easily. That might have gotten them out of their commitment to the run and shifted the momentum in our favor. He blew with that one, would like to see him back though since he's on a cheap deal.

just so many missed chances in that game to turn the tide - maybe only 1 of the marginal plays had to go our way and the whole complexion of the game is changed - but in every single high-leverage situation, the titans won or the ravens made a mistake and it killed us

in the last couple of weeks gordon mcguinness of PFF was on the filmstudy podcast and he talked to ken about how the ravens were so much better in all facets of the game that it would have to take a game where the ravens have some turnovers and fail on 4th downs to lose the game - lo and behold - that's what it took... it's why i put "murphy's law" in the title of the discussion thread

but the 2 biggest plays for me in that sense in terms of the game momentum were the andrews deflection that turned into the pick and the roberts drop on 3rd down that killed that drive but should have been a huge play - you could just feel the energy get weird after those 2 plays - like everyone was just getting the idea that it wasnt going to be our night into their heads

better receivers will make a huge difference to this team as long as we retain good OL play next year

 

[allblackraven]

tbf we lost a lot of guys through the year who were impact guys on special teams on the cover units (both our kicks and their kicks) - someone like deshon elliott was a huge loss on special teams - but we also cut bethel for the comp pick, we lost trawick for multiple weeks, our returners were awful, chris moore was often doubled as a gunner on punt coverage, levine's older etc. etc.

and on top of all that we lost jerry rosburg

all that being said, we didnt lose to the titans because of special teams - the special teams didnt help us win but they didnt lose us that game either

That's the most important loss on ST

 

[rossihunter2]

1. Our TEs do get separation, Mark Andrews has been elite at getting open all year.

2. I wouldn’t want more of that because we have big physical targets in 3 quality TEs, but what we lack is a diverse skill set on the boundaries, we wanna open up the field, we wanna pressure the defense, you don’t draw extra defenders with pure jumpball receivers. Get a guy who’s gonna demand brackets and/or safety help, we already have one, add another and you will truly never face a situation like we saw against Tennessee, Kevin byard was up the TEs asses all night, can’t do that if you have a 4.3 route runner screaming up each sideline, taking that high bracket off the TE allows a guy like andrews to slip past the LB and sit down, and that’s what we did all year and the titans took it away from us, as did the niners, as did the bills, one common thing is they all have very quality safeties to do exactly that.

gregg rosenthal earlier in the year was the first analyst in the media to pay any attention to the commonality in all the defences that had played us tight - and it wasnt about being great in run D (being a great run d didnt matter because the run concepts with lamar were so different schematically that having a conventional run d wasnt a reliable indicator of being good against us in the running game) - what he noticed was what you're pointing out - to shut down this team you have to have a great passing defence

 

[A1A]

I've been quiet for the majority of the season in part to not jinxing or being a daisy cutter, also just enjoying the Lamar show. My one fear and the one thing I expressed to my fellow Raven fans was that the coaches let Lamar down when it mattered most. I hate the analytics talk I really hate that crap. It's one thing to say hey look at these numbers spread across a season..look at the percentages of 4th down conversions to wins etc...but that crap dont fly in the playoffs its 1 game just 1 so those odds are cut immensely. I've said on here before theres this thing called momentum and its real! The confidence of a man could having him playing more focused, stronger than any weight room regimen could, faster...etc. those turnovers were back breaking and the Titans being on the ROAD were getting more confident by the min. The crowd was completely out of it and there goes our home field advantage along with the win. Sorry not sorry but I see the 8/0 on 4th down stat but on a lot of those weren't we up by 3 TD's ?? Lol I mean those numbers they keep posting dont tell the whole story. Yes there were mistakes by players theres always mistakes by players. Of course the players are going to say hell yea let's go for it!! But coach is the father hes the leader hes supposed to say no let's be smart here. I gave coach credit during the season for adapting and taking a backseat to the coordinators, many coaches wouldn't do that. Lamar is only 23 I mean cmon help the kid dont have him throwing the ball 59 Times!! Thats where the true Harbaugh came out, not doing a damn thing to help the team..completely disconnected ...let's have the kid do something that hes never done when it matters most. Where was Gus? U know the guy that recently ran for 100+ yards...14-9 kick the ball off Tannehill INT crowd goes crazy Vrabel starts to do Vrabel things our guys start to settle down...and boom we in control. Cmon man I'm glad I didnt put no money down cause like I said Harbs let's me down every time. Every time. I sure do hope nothing but the best for the kid hes special real good kid, but this was an amazing opportunity that may never come again.

Oh btw remember I said Tannehill would be a starter for another team and we should bring him in as a back up?? Lol I was roasted on here for that.

 

[rossihunter2]

the more I think about this game the more I think it comes down to 3 major things: 1. Greg Roman was unprepared because he would rather coach the browns than win a super bowl, that was so fucking obvious. 2. Lamar got rusty, lost rhythm, and in turn lost confidence rather quickly. And 3. The receivers and TEs were even more rusty than Lamar.

i think that assumption about Roman is extremely unfair - nothing about his demeanour or anything suggests to me he wasnt fully committed to preparing the ravens for this game - doing a bad job and not trying to do your job are completely different things

and while you can criticise him all you want for how he called the game and the game-plan etc. i think its safe to say he made enough good play calls that had the players executed we would have won that game

the offence was out of rhythm but lamar wasnt going to play against the steelers even if we wanted him to because he was throwing his guts up with the flu, andrews wasnt going to play that game because he had an ankle injury (that still hobbled him in the titans game), ingram the same as andrews etc. etc.

to say rust is the reason we lost is to ignore the fact that the rust wasnt really an option - we dont get to decide we want to play on wildcard weekend once we've got the 1 seed and those guys were never going to play week 17 because of their various ailments...

we had a nightmare murphy's law game where even 1 extra play might have changed the whole game - but in all honesty we lost that game because receivers dropped passes and didnt get open and because we got beaten up in both trenches

 

[A1A]

We wont win another SB with Harbs. Stop wasting time and move on please!

 

[rossihunter2]

I'm with you, but what if defenses start to catch on and stop our inside power runs out of the full house? I want to see more variety like tosses, inside zones out of shotgun, counters, etc. The amount of full house we ran had to be an absurd number. I want to hit defenses from all angles in the run game. Too bad Mark nor Gus really has the speed to get outside. Hopefully Justice develops more.

we have one of the most versatile running games the league has ever seen - we dont run everything out of the full house and we dont only run power inside

 

[Dom McRaven]

@gtalk12 , I haven't read any other threads yet but I'm surprised that you're not harping on GRo more for Gus only having like 3 carries. Kinda like how you kept on us calling a draw on 3rd and 4 or 3rd and 6 or whatever that play was against the Browns part 1. LOL.

 

[JAAM]

we have one of the most versatile running games the league has ever seen - we dont run everything out of the full house and we dont only run power inside

Maybe I'm still shell-shocked from Saturday night, but I really can't remember us running a lot of tosses or runs out of shotgun. Excuse me if completely wrong. Been a rough couple of days and the loss is really the only thing that's still on my mind

 

[Dom McRaven]

So now ET want to clown after talking that talk, huh?

 

[rossihunter2]

Maybe I'm still shell-shocked from Saturday night, but I really can't remember us running a lot of tosses or runs out of shotgun. Excuse me if completely wrong. Been a rough couple of days and the loss is really the only thing that's still on my mind

we didnt run many running plays against the titans at all - 11 of lamar's runs were scrambles on called passes - i meant for the whole season schematically we've been pretty diverse - but running a diverse running game when you're down 2 scores is difficult - motions take time, and a running clock takes time

 

[allblackraven]

we didnt run many running plays against the titans at all - 11 of lamar's runs were scrambles on called passes - i meant for the whole season schematically we've been pretty diverse - but running a diverse running game when you're down 2 scores is difficult - motions take time, and a running clock takes time

Yes but if receivers are dropping everything and Lamar throws 50 passes in a game, I'd take my chances.
We ran 2 minute drill in a game vs Rams with 80% run or option plays. And scored a TD.

 

[JoeyFlex5]

gregg rosenthal earlier in the year was the first analyst in the media to pay any attention to the commonality in all the defences that had played us tight - and it wasnt about being great in run D (being a great run d didnt matter because the run concepts with lamar were so different schematically that having a conventional run d wasnt a reliable indicator of being good against us in the running game) - what he noticed was what you're pointing out - to shut down this team you have to have a great passing defence

And specifically, safeties and ILBs in coverage. Fred Warner and jaqcuiski tartt, tremaine edmunds and Brian poyer, Devin bush and minkah fitzpatrick, rashaan evans and Kevin byard, although Evans hasn’t been good in coverage but he is a sideline to sideline beast and was able to disrupt other aspects.

Taking away the TEs really hurts us and when you do that we gotta be able to run it, we didn’t even try to.

 

[JoeyFlex5]

i think that assumption about Roman is extremely unfair - nothing about his demeanour or anything suggests to me he wasnt fully committed to preparing the ravens for this game - doing a bad job and not trying to do your job are completely different things

and while you can criticise him all you want for how he called the game and the game-plan etc. i think its safe to say he made enough good play calls that had the players executed we would have won that game

the offence was out of rhythm but lamar wasnt going to play against the steelers even if we wanted him to because he was throwing his guts up with the flu, andrews wasnt going to play that game because he had an ankle injury (that still hobbled him in the titans game), ingram the same as andrews etc. etc.

to say rust is the reason we lost is to ignore the fact that the rust wasnt really an option - we dont get to decide we want to play on wildcard weekend once we've got the 1 seed and those guys were never going to play week 17 because of their various ailments...

we had a nightmare murphy's law game where even 1 extra play might have changed the whole game - but in all honesty we lost that game because receivers dropped passes and didnt get open and because we got beaten up in both trenches

i didn’t say Roman wasn’t trying to do his job, I said he was unprepared, also his mind wasn’t in the right place.

Roman changed his gameplan entirely, why?

and also I understand that players couldn’t have played anyway, I wasn’t blaming the decision, just stating that they were clearly rusty

 

[rossihunter2]

And specifically, safeties and ILBs in coverage. Fred Warner and jaqcuiski tartt, tremaine edmunds and Brian poyer, Devin bush and minkah fitzpatrick, rashaan evans and Kevin byard, although Evans hasn’t been good in coverage but he is a sideline to sideline beast and was able to disrupt other aspects.

Taking away the TEs really hurts us and when you do that we gotta be able to run it, we didn’t even try to.

tbh though the passing game would have won us this game if everyone did their job - not sure whether to put the first int on andrews, lamar, andrews's ankle or a combination, but the 7 drops (or whatever the final number was) were killers, the lamar fumble basically ended the game etc. etc. cut out those mistakes and we win by taking advantage of the fact that the titans didnt actually have much on the back end outside of byard - vaccarro, ryan and adoree jackson really arent a great group

 

[rossihunter2]

i didn’t say Roman wasn’t trying to do his job, I said he was unprepared, also his mind wasn’t in the right place.

Roman changed his gameplan entirely, why?

and also I understand that players couldn’t have played anyway, I wasn’t blaming the decision, just stating that they were clearly rusty

i just think what you're suggesting about roman is completely baseless - where is there any evidence that he wasnt 100% focussed etc.?

 

[JoeyFlex5]

tbh though the passing game would have won us this game if everyone did their job - not sure whether to put the first int on andrews, lamar, andrews's ankle or a combination, but the 7 drops (or whatever the final number was) were killers, the lamar fumble basically ended the game etc. etc. cut out those mistakes and we win by taking advantage of the fact that the titans didnt actually have much on the back end outside of byard - vaccarro, ryan and adoree jackson really arent a great group

I agree, seems like Lamar had a few key passes that were off by inches, and the passes that were money were dropped, and the difference that this all made was game breaking

 

[D1City55]

i think that assumption about Roman is extremely unfair - nothing about his demeanour or anything suggests to me he wasnt fully committed to preparing the ravens for this game - doing a bad job and not trying to do your job are completely different things

and while you can criticise him all you want for how he called the game and the game-plan etc. i think its safe to say he made enough good play calls that had the players executed we would have won that game

the offence was out of rhythm but lamar wasnt going to play against the steelers even if we wanted him to because he was throwing his guts up with the flu, andrews wasnt going to play that game because he had an ankle injury (that still hobbled him in the titans game), ingram the same as andrews etc. etc.

to say rust is the reason we lost is to ignore the fact that the rust wasnt really an option - we dont get to decide we want to play on wildcard weekend once we've got the 1 seed and those guys were never going to play week 17 because of their various ailments...

we had a nightmare murphy's law game where even 1 extra play might have changed the whole game - but in all honesty we lost that game because receivers dropped passes and didnt get open and because we got beaten up in both trenches

I've pulled back on my Roman criticism. I think he did call most of the right plays, guys just didn't execute. It's rather upsetting because I would like to see more deep cross and deep post, but looking back on the film he did just that.

I'm upset that Gus didn't get a little bit more carries, but it's a problem when the Titans are sending 8/9 man boxes constantly and are refusing to allow us to run the Football. At that moment, we have to be able to air it out and get them out of those fronts. If Roberts came down with that damn catch what would have been is something I'm going to think for the rest of the year. Harbaugh not calling timeout with 50 seconds left prior to Hollywoods completion was mind-boggling, we ended up chewing 20 seconds of clock. Lamar also has to get rid of the ball quick because we completely ate up time there. Tennessee was more than happy of letting us burn time there. I thought Harbaugh dropped the ball in terms of situational football in this game.