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Next Up: Bye Bye Marty, Pees and Harbaugh?

Tyler said:
That may be true, but you can’t play the injury card forever... The Eagles were decimated by injuries all season long and went 13-3.... teams have injuries all the time, great teams find a way to overcome them. The 2017 Ravens just weren’t one of those great teams. Not trying to piss in anyone’s Cheerios, it’s just the reality of where we are at.
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Exactly. Some people act as if we're the only team in the league that suffered injuries. Hell, the Bengals were decimated with injuries and somehow managed to beat us while we were playing at home with everything to play for. Enough with the injury excuse.

Exactly how many injuries are required to justify that abysmal home performance against Chicago? I just had the feeling that stupid loss was going to cost us and it did.
 
Adreme said:
Yes the Eagles lost there QB and are getting by with there backup which is expected but if he goes down the season is just over because your 3rd stringers are not good. You can pay for solid depth. You don't pay for solid depth to the depth.

Also Hurst was never a good T. He was ALL TIME AWFUL. That isn't hyperbole. He possibly was the worst LT of the past 20 years. If your argument is he didn't give up a sack every play well then you may wanna be careful not to trip over that bar you have set.

Fact is you cant compound injuries at the same position and be ok. Yes you will occationally find gems on practice squads (we found Collins after all which meant losing BOTH starting and backup RB wasn't so bad), but expecting that is stupid. It's like expecting every 6th round pick to be Antonio Brown.
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If it helps you sleep at night. Only If your excuses were worth points the ravens would be in the playoffs lol. You are the one that can't handle facts. Team sucked dude. Get over it. Or do u need a shrink to help you deal with ravens humiliated at home by the bungals?? Facts are every team deals with injuries. Steelers lost their best defensive player and numerous injuries along the OLine secondary and running back missed games. Texans lost the best defensive player to come along in 2 decades, their QB and an explosive WR. Patriots found a tackle on a practice squad that played well for 9 games. And Brady's security blanket. Yet home field advantage. Good teams overcome injuries. Packers are a sorry ass team without Rodgers thus the results. Skura and hurst played very well so that card doesn't work. You watch, Hurst played his way to a nice contract. At his age there is no guarantee Yanda outplays Hurst as a guard next year much less play at all. He will be 34 next yr. many all pro guards were finished by then. Not many playing at an all pro level at 34. Ravens aren't a good team right now dude. I'm kinda happy we didn't make playoffs so we can focus on building a powerhouse team that can and will overcome injuries
 
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This team has seen a high dose of mediocrity (at best) and excuses for a few years now. This season has been a complete mirage and at times convinced us this team was good. The defense led in turnovers, but it wasn't a good defense. Despite what's PFF might say or statistics, they lacked communication and execution. Maybe that has something to do with coaching and it will be refreshing to get a different look at that side of the ball. I don't think we have a communicator on the backside, at the safety position, but there are some positives as they head into the offseason.

New coordinator, getting Jimmy healthy, return of Tavon Young.

The offense has always been riddled with excuses; coaching, injuries, makeshift olines, etc. The offense had no type of playmakers this year. I think Flacco wasn't fully healed through the first part of the season and got healthier as the season winded down, but the team still lacks playmakers.

On the bright side, we found a stud in Alex Collins. Dixon will be back and hopefully out of the trouble. I'd rather keep Buck over Woodhead. Keep jensen. Draft a playmaking WR. Promote Chris Moore who I've been high on since college.

This next season absolutely has to fall on the head coach. If Marty stays and the offense is still abysmal, will they just give Marty the shaft and keeep Harbaugh for another year? Personally, I like Harbaugh, but eventually your time runs out, and this has to be the season where neeeds to prove himself or he's out.

The Ravens were great at beating bad teams this year. They had a cupcake schedule, riddled with backup QBs and once again it came down to a team like Cincinnati. Beating us with a typical rival play to KO us. Next season we get a tough schedule and I'm not groaning. They need a tough schedule. If you can't beat playoff teams then you're not a good football team and they weren't good this year.

I guess the positives to come out of this is we get a new coordinator and Marvin Lewis resigned with the bengals. This last game only fueled my already fiery hatred of the Bengals.
 
rossihunter2 said:
Why wouldn’t we keep both?
I personally am assuming we go into next year carrying 4rbs + project pat...

Collins-Dixon-Woodhead-Allen is a nice looking complementary group
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Yeah but three of the four have been used for the same type of style. I'm not sure how you would use them all unless one was used for insurance because we all know Dixons history.

but those are all starting caliber backs, Collins will be the number one, I'm sure Dixon the number two over time and Woodhead/Buck.
 
Sledge Hammer said:
If it helps you sleep at night. Only If your excuses were worth points the ravens would be in the playoffs lol. You are the one that can't handle facts. Team sucked dude. Get over it. Or do u need a shrink to help you deal with ravens humiliated at home by the bungals?? Facts are every team deals with injuries. Steelers lost their best defensive player and numerous injuries along the OLine secondary and running back missed games. Texans lost the best defensive player to come along in 2 decades, their QB and an explosive WR. Patriots found a tackle on a practice squad that played well for 9 games. And Brady's security blanket. Yet home field advantage. Good teams overcome injuries. Packers are a sorry ass team without Rodgers thus the results. Skura and hurst played very well so that card doesn't work. You watch, Hurst played his way to a nice contract. At his age there is no guarantee Yanda outplays Hurst as a guard next year much less play at all. He will be 34 next yr. many all pro guards were finished by then. Not many playing at an all pro level at 34. Ravens aren't a good team right now dude. I'm kinda happy we didn't make playoffs so we can focus on building a powerhouse team that can and will overcome injuries
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So youre saying injuries are an excuse, and then list several other teams with promising talent that completely underperformed due to injuries? Hmmm.... good argument.

Yanda was the best guard in the league. Jimmy Smith was playing like one of the best CB's in the league and was only fully healthy for 4 games.

Lost several starters along the OL. And Stanley was rarely fully healthy.

Lost starting ILB. Lost our ST leader and most veteran ILB. And then the promising young LB with ST ability.

Lost all our TE's for extended periods. Our top WR was injured so often he never developed a relationship with the QB. We lost our projected opening day #1 and #2 RB's. We then lost our 3rd down back and matchup nightmare who looked unstoppable on his first drive.

We lost arguably the best young slot CB in the league, and then his replacement who was looking great in preseason as well as the veteran brought in to compete. We lost so many corners we often had 4-5 safeties on the field. And we dont exactly have the best coverage safeties.

btw the Eagles are 13-3 but dont look like they can beat anybody right now unless the defense pitches a shutout. Foles has like a combined 80 yds of offense in his last game and a half.

The Steelers lost Bell for a wink, and lost Shazier but were already 9-2 at the time. And I wouldnt call him their best defensive player either. We also lost several OL and had a very good OL. Cool, but we dont have Big Ben, Bell, Antonio Brown, Juju etc... to begin with and they didnt lose their top skill player at each position for extended periods.


Yes, we found solutions to a lot of these problems.... but you dont hit the ground running with this many losses during your prep time. Eventually they got it together. So, no its not an excuse for missing the playoffs, because we had a very good chance to get in. But its also fact that if we had won one more game early we wouldve made the playoffs. And our massive number of injuries (most in the league, btw... and it was a landslide to begin the season) definitely contributed to the slow start because it takes time for those solutions to develop.

Saying injuries were the only problem is silly. But its just as dumb to act like they had no impact.
 
RavensPunkXVX said:
Yeah but three of the four have been used for the same type of style. I'm not sure how you would use them all unless one was used for insurance because we all know Dixons history.

but those are all starting caliber backs, Collins will be the number one, I'm sure Dixon the number two over time and Woodhead/Buck.
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i dont think they are the same style at all - collins is a shot out of a cannon runner who uses his quick feet in the hole and physicality to punish defenders in the 2nd level, dixon is a between the tackles 1 cut punishing runner who will make his bread and butter between the tackles - these 2 are both good at both but collins excels outside and dixon excels between the tackles - and buck is a short yardage back who will hit the hole if there is one and that's about it

the way i would envision it is we have collins and dixon sharing most carries with woodhead coming in on a load of passing downs and most 3rd downs (but not all of them) and buck coming in towards the end of a game to punish the other team (he also provides solid depth and will make the team anyway because he's a good special teamer)
 
rossihunter2 said:
i dont think they are the same style at all - collins is a shot out of a cannon runner who uses his quick feet in the hole and physicality to punish defenders in the 2nd level, dixon is a between the tackles 1 cut punishing runner who will make his bread and butter between the tackles - these 2 are both good at both but collins excels outside and dixon excels between the tackles - and buck is a short yardage back who will hit the hole if there is one and that's about it

the way i would envision it is we have collins and dixon sharing most carries with woodhead coming in on a load of passing downs and most 3rd downs (but not all of them) and buck coming in towards the end of a game to punish the other team (he also provides solid depth and will make the team anyway because he's a good special teamer)
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I mostly agree, but i think Buck is getting a raw deal here.

Reserving him to exclusively short yardage might be selling him short. He was excellent late as a change of pace runner and was often, especially when accounting for his opportunities and efficiency, getting huge chunk runs. At least a third of the time he touched the ball lately he was getting to the 2nd and 3rd level and then punishing people when he did. idk how many 7+ yard runs he had on 1st or 2nd and long, but it seemed like it was every time he touched the ball.
 
Boldnpurpblack said:
So youre saying injuries are an excuse, and then list several other teams with promising talent that completely underperformed due to injuries? Hmmm.... good argument.

Yanda was the best guard in the league. Jimmy Smith was playing like one of the best CB's in the league and was only fully healthy for 4 games.

Lost several starters along the OL. And Stanley was rarely fully healthy.

Lost starting ILB. Lost our ST leader and most veteran ILB. And then the promising young LB with ST ability.

Lost all our TE's for extended periods. Our top WR was injured so often he never developed a relationship with the QB. We lost our projected opening day #1 and #2 RB's. We then lost our 3rd down back and matchup nightmare who looked unstoppable on his first drive.

We lost arguably the best young slot CB in the league, and then his replacement who was looking great in preseason as well as the veteran brought in to compete. We lost so many corners we often had 4-5 safeties on the field. And we dont exactly have the best coverage safeties.

btw the Eagles are 13-3 but dont look like they can beat anybody right now unless the defense pitches a shutout. Foles has like a combined 80 yds of offense in his last game and a half.

The Steelers lost Bell for a wink, and lost Shazier but were already 9-2 at the time. And I wouldnt call him their best defensive player either. We also lost several OL and had a very good OL. Cool, but we dont have Big Ben, Bell, Antonio Brown, Juju etc... to begin with and they didnt lose their top skill player at each position for extended periods.


Yes, we found solutions to a lot of these problems.... but you dont hit the ground running with this many losses during your prep time. Eventually they got it together. So, no its not an excuse for missing the playoffs, because we had a very good chance to get in. But its also fact that if we had won one more game early we wouldve made the playoffs. And our massive number of injuries (most in the league, btw... and it was a landslide to begin the season) definitely contributed to the slow start because it takes time for those solutions to develop.

Saying injuries were the only problem is silly. But its just as dumb to act like they had no impact.
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Of course Injuries have an impact on most teams. But bottom line ravens were not a good team this year injuries or not. Orr isn't injured he is retired. Young is built very frail which is how he made it to round4. May wanna get used to him being injured anyways. And jimmy screwed up his tendons and ligaments with PEDs and was gone anyways cuz of his suspension. And is one more test away from a one yr suspension. And save for yanda who is turning 34 btw we didn't lose pro bowlers. Teams not in the playoffs cuz it hasn't received any major contributions from a round 2-3 pick since 2012
 
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Sledge Hammer said:
Of course Injuries have an impact on most teams. But bottom line ravens were not a good team this year.
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If injuries have an impact, then there's also a degree of impact depending on which players suffer injuries and how much depth is depleted. And by that logic, injuries certainly had one of the biggest if not the biggest impacts on us.

Not making an excuse - we had to win a game against a bad team to get in. And whether you focus on the last play or the horrendous play of the first half... we had no business losing that game.

But one could also make a very legitimate argument that without the full scale of injuries suffered, its very likely we win the 1 game somewhere throughout the season necessary to make the playoffs. And id wager that if you asked the entire league who they least wanted to see in the playoffs - it was us. Id guarantee both Pittsburgh and New England, even with their supposed amazing ability to deal with injuries, would have answered that way.

We may not have been a very good team looking at 16 games or honing in on a specific game, half or game ending play. But over the final 6-7 games, especially accounting for all our injuries, we were playing like one of if not the best teams in football.

Injuries definitely had an impact, and a sizable one early on. But we also did incredibly well to overcome them and play well the 2nd half of the season so it cant be used as the definitive excuse for not making it.
 
Boldnpurpblack said:
So youre saying injuries are an excuse, and then list several other teams with promising talent that completely underperformed due to injuries? Hmmm.... good argument.

Yanda was the best guard in the league. Jimmy Smith was playing like one of the best CB's in the league and was only fully healthy for 4 games.

Lost several starters along the OL. And Stanley was rarely fully healthy.

Lost starting ILB. Lost our ST leader and most veteran ILB. And then the promising young LB with ST ability.

Lost all our TE's for extended periods. Our top WR was injured so often he never developed a relationship with the QB. We lost our projected opening day #1 and #2 RB's. We then lost our 3rd down back and matchup nightmare who looked unstoppable on his first drive.

We lost arguably the best young slot CB in the league, and then his replacement who was looking great in preseason as well as the veteran brought in to compete. We lost so many corners we often had 4-5 safeties on the field. And we dont exactly have the best coverage safeties.

btw the Eagles are 13-3 but dont look like they can beat anybody right now unless the defense pitches a shutout. Foles has like a combined 80 yds of offense in his last game and a half.

The Steelers lost Bell for a wink, and lost Shazier but were already 9-2 at the time. And I wouldnt call him their best defensive player either. We also lost several OL and had a very good OL. Cool, but we dont have Big Ben, Bell, Antonio Brown, Juju etc... to begin with and they didnt lose their top skill player at each position for extended periods.


Yes, we found solutions to a lot of these problems.... but you dont hit the ground running with this many losses during your prep time. Eventually they got it together. So, no its not an excuse for missing the playoffs, because we had a very good chance to get in. But its also fact that if we had won one more game early we wouldve made the playoffs. And our massive number of injuries (most in the league, btw... and it was a landslide to begin the season) definitely contributed to the slow start because it takes time for those solutions to develop.

Saying injuries were the only problem is silly. But its just as dumb to act like they had no impact.
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I'd go further while the drops on O were the number 1 problem last game health was the biggest problem on O for the first 9. Once Flacco got healthy and the OLine stopped getting banged up, suddenly we had I believe the number 4 scoring offense in football down the stretch and were chaining wins together.

On D obviously the losses of Smith and Young hurt (tell me they aren't the teams 2 best corners) but on a larger scale both both Jefferson and Mosley did not have hood years. Neither really played to there potential.

The run D had the problem it often has where whatever side Suggs isn't on that side you can easily run on.
 
Please, for the love of god, promote Roman. I'd be so happy with him and Pags as our coordinators. I truly hope Flacco doesn't get the final say as far as who is going to call the shots on offense. I guess we will find out tomorrow when Harbs has his press conference.
 
allblackraven said:
But even if he lined up normally as @29BmoreBird22 said, he would have been able to break that pass and still provide some insurance for screen or even run play. He was only a step short as it happened, starting from scrimmage line.
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29BmoreBird22 said:
You know, Pees is widely considered one of the brightest minds when it comes to devising a scheme, but in this situation, it just feels like he outsmarted himself. I mean, truly, truly, in my opinion, the perfect play call... if you players can execute and clearly they weren't able to. Feels like he tried a little too hard and got ahead of himself.
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I don't know where Truth posted it but I think he's made a great point where this is Tampa 2. If this is then it's the weirdest Tampa 2 coverage I have honestly seen. I don't recall if I have ever seen a LB play in the gap when his responsibility is to drop deep in the zone.
 
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