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Next Up: vs Titans
- Thread starter rossihunter2
- Start date
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Its also a track team that is extremely easy to cover as a defense without deception or the ability to run the ball.
People keep harping on trying to get guys like Dobbins, Duvernay and Brown the ball in space. Well space is created by blocking. And Boyle is probably the best blocker on the team, regardless of position.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Pretty much just gotta stack the box and play man coverage. Getting back Jimmy and Fort, assuming they can play, well help.
Charm City
Veteran
I hope we see more spread now. Put Duvernay, Andrews, Dobbins, Hollywood, and Snead on the field at the same time and let Lamar make quick decisions based on how the defense lines up. The few slants that we've thrown to Duverney have arguably been our best plays. It seems like we easily get at least 7 or 8 yards on those plays
Grim
Ravens Ring of Honor
Honestly, losing Boyle was the worst loss so far this season. Stanley is a better player but Boyle is just so critical to what we do on offense and the depth behind him was literally non-existent. With that said, I would honestly try to put Boykin in Boyle's old spot as a road grader because he does that OK and run more plays with Duvernay. Sadly we cannot just replace Boyle, he is honestly too good and you can't just replace him at this point. Is Delanie Walker still out there? It may be time to give him a call and see what he has left as another option, too.
It's also hard to beat TEN if we are down our top-2 players on the interior DL in Campbell and Williams both. Losing one would have made this game hard but losing them both makes winning even more difficult unless Henry cannot play for some reason.
It's also hard to beat TEN if we are down our top-2 players on the interior DL in Campbell and Williams both. Losing one would have made this game hard but losing them both makes winning even more difficult unless Henry cannot play for some reason.
yeah this feels like a good time to change philosophy slightly to being more of a short quick passing attack - we've got guys who can make space in the short and intermediate area and we can do that out of tight and spread formations
i want to see us workshop the problem and come up with a solution that reflects the strengths of this offensive team... right now that's our speed and elusiveness in space
ill be severely disappointed if just running the nick boyle offence without nick boyle is the only thing we come up with - we dont have a bye week to solve the problem so im ok if it's a multi-week project to transition but I want to see us use our best players and it doesnt matter what TE we bring up onto the 53 they're not going to be among our best players on offence so I don't want to see them get major playing time
then again the titans defence sucks so far this year so maybe they wont need to change anything this week... who knows
cdp
Ravens Ring of Honor
Harbaugh confirmed that Boykin is capable of running the routes Boyle does, but Boykin can't block in-line. There is no way any of the PS TEs or Luke Wilson can replace Boyle. We can't run the same offense, we have to adapt. Play to your strenghts. Get the ball out quick, run screens, pick plays. Ricard might take on part of Boyle's role, but I'm not sure how that is going to work. Another TE probably has then to replace ricard as FB.
the best way to counteract a bad OL is to get the ball out quickly in the passing game - the best way to do that is get players on the field who can win early and/or scheming plays that create space quickly - it requires execution which tbf is not something our receiving corps has done most of the year but it also means being more creative with the types of plays we call - more screens, quick slants, designed check-downs etc.
im resigned to the fact that our deep passing attack is going to be basically non-existent at this point and that our running game is going to suffer significantly without boyle so what other options do we have...
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
1. Screens require quality blocking. Why do you think the screen game would be more important or effective when some of our best blockers aren't available?
2. If we need to adapt the offense because we lose one blocking TE, then this offense was never any good to begin with. I'm not pretending like Boyle isn't valuable, because he is, but is he really the basis by which the offense goes? I doubt it.
i mean why not? we're not going to be successful at the end of this year if we cant overcome these losses - the way we have to overcome them is by changing what we do to the strengths of the roster that's still available - we've lost players significant to the execution of the plays we run up to this point but that's not feasible anymore
so why not change it up and see what happens - there's no point limping to the playoffs and getting dumped out in the first round again so why not give Lamar a chance to put this team on his back in the pocket and maybe see if we can't jumpstart something
and if it doesnt work then we've learned a lot moving forward about the future of this team as currently designed
i mean he is pretty fundamental to everything we do - he's often at the point of attack on the edge when we get outside in the running game - him and andrews too have been exceptional at creating holes for duvernay and dobbins and lamar when they get outside but he also is someone we're confident in the ability to hold up vs an EDGE 1v1 and that's a luxury to have in a TE who can also go out on a route as a receiver
but more it's the attrition - we've lost Stanley, Fluker got benched, we lost Phillips (although he wasn't playing amazingly) and now we've lost Boyle who's one of the best options on the roster to help mitigate a bad OL
but the scheme of this offence is built around Nick Boyle (and Pat Ricard) almost as much as it is Lamar with the way we scheme them to the edge to seal and create overlaps on the outside - Willie Snead is pretty important to that running game too
that's why you have to start getting the ball out quickly and find ways to do what Brees has done for the past few years and Big Ben is doing this year - get the ball out quickly into the hands of your guys
maybe we dont have the players to do that but I dont see an alternative
JAAM
Hall of Famer
Exactly. Saw some speculation that the Ravens are “hiding” Lamar in the passing game. Well, let him take complete control and see what happens. Lamar was extremely sharp in the rain. I haven’t seen tight spirals like that from him for awhile which is odd. Let him gain some steam and get more confident. We need to know he can make all the throws before handing over a huge contract. Let him make adjustments at the line now. Just give him the keys because this offense will not work without Boyle and with someone taking over for him. I really hope Roman can adjust
ravenslord
Ravens Ring of Honor
With the injuries we have , how are we 6 1/2 point favorites against the Titans ?? Crazy .
Def taking titans with 12. Wont be surprised if it drops by sunday
I was telling myself the same thing.. last two weeks, when we were down.. lamar and the offense started to look better than normal. I think we should try to become more balance. Give lamar the ability, if able ...to aud at line scrimmage cause ive never seen flacco do it other than once in that playoff game to boldin.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
Generally speaking, Vegas lines aren't going to shift much, if it all, with injuries to non-QBs. They just don't really move the needle.
That being said, as others have suggested, I suspect that line will shrink as bettors flock to taking the Titans with the points.
Another thing Vegas looks at is trends. Tennessee is 0-3 this year ATS on the road, and they were favored in all three of those games.
That being said, Tennessee gets 10 days of rest and is clearly the healthier team.