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The AJ Green, the Joe Flacco, and the Defense- Week 2 Edition

We had our share of missing personnel and that surely contributed to this loss, but I still maintain that our personnel on the whole are better than the Bengals, we simply found ourselves out coached. Bengals used quick passes to expose us and mitigate our pass rush because they must’ve seen something they could beat in our CB. They were obviously right. I’m surprised we lost so badly in the secondary of all places since we are pretty strong there but clearly there’s issues there. Furthermore, I think it may be time to move Yanda to C or LG. I think he’s the only guy who can do it. You can then shuffle the OL and move Hurst to RG with Brown at RT and keep Lewis at LG. Probably would be our strongest lineup.
 
Grim said:
We had our share of missing personnel and that surely contributed to this loss, but I still maintain that our personnel on the whole are better than the Bengals, we simply found ourselves out coached. Bengals used quick passes to expose us and mitigate our pass rush because they must’ve seen something they could beat in our CB. They were obviously right. I’m surprised we lost so badly in the secondary of all places since we are pretty strong there but clearly there’s issues there. Furthermore, I think it may be time to move Yanda to C or LG. I think he’s the only guy who can do it. You can then shuffle the OL and move Hurst to RG with Brown at RT and keep Lewis at LG. Probably would be our strongest lineup.
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Bengals have better WR's
We have better TE's
Bengals have a better D line and pass rushers
They were without preston brown and vontaze burtfict
Their corners are as good if not better than ours ( William Jackson > Marlon)
The O lines are pretty similar in quality. Glenn > Stanley Bolling > Lewis , Price > Skura
our RG and potentially RT are better.

Reality check. Bengals have more talent.
 
Other than some random poor plays by some this game was ultimately lost at the LOS. No pass pro. Flacco was consistently harrased and hit and when he wasn’t there were arms, hands and helmets in passing lanes. Terrible O line play and great scheming by the Bengals. No pass rush. Dalton consistently had a clean pocket and open throwing lanes, don’t think he was ever touched. Great adjustments on D in the second half that were aided by some poor play by the Bengals and some suspect play calls on their part.

Couple of thoughts.......Siz disappeared in this one. Either he was nicked and we didn’t know or he’s seriously showing his age.
Crabtree sucked. Dropped passes, pulling up on routes, falling down before contact, etc.. When the pass hit him in the face mask I almost lost it. Hopefully he just had a bad game.

Please, please can the gimmick plays with Lamar. They serve no purpose other than to rob momentum and ruin any flow and rhythm the O might be trying to gain. They make the team look like a desperate loser searching for a way to win.
 
Sami84 said:
Bengals have better WR's
We have better TE's
Bengals have a better D line and pass rushers
They were without preston brown and vontaze burtfict
Their corners are as good if not better than ours ( William Jackson > Marlon)
The O lines are pretty similar in quality. Glenn > Stanley Bolling > Lewis , Price > Skura
our RG and potentially RT are better.

Reality check. Bengals have more talent.
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I’d say our corners are at least equal to or better than theirs. Smith and Humphrey are very good but Smith is either hurt or suspended. Smith is better than any CB they have. Humphrey is better than every second CB they have. On DL Atkins is better and I’d say Dunlap is too but I think that’s where better talent ends. I’d say we are at least equal to them otherwise and I would say we are deeper than they are on DL. I like our LB better than theirs. They absolutely have better WR corps couldn’t agree more. We do have better TE and I’d say Stanley and Glenn are equal. I think our OL is better than theirs but they schemes and outcoachef us there simple as that
 
Grim said:
I’d say our corners are at least equal to or better than theirs. Smith and Humphrey are very good but Smith is either hurt or suspended. Smith is better than any CB they have. Humphrey is better than every second CB they have. On DL Atkins is better and I’d say Dunlap is too but I think that’s where better talent ends. I’d say we are at least equal to them otherwise and I would say we are deeper than they are on DL. I like our LB better than theirs. They absolutely have better WR corps couldn’t agree more. We do have better TE and I’d say Stanley and Glenn are equal. I think our OL is better than theirs but they schemes and outcoachef us there simple as that
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They do not “absolutely have a better WR corps”.

How do they absolutely have a better WR corps? They have 1 elite WR and then that’s it, and even AJ disappears sometimes. Boyd is a good, but average WR. John Ross is shit until he proves otherwise. Am I missing something?

Crabtree is an above average receiver. Everyone’s hating on him after this game but he played fine besides a couple miscues. John Brown is a VERY good receiver and potentially elite. Yeah, he’s that good. Snead is a good slot receiver who knows how to get open. Not to mention Chris Moore, who if given more opportunities could be on the same level as Tyler Boyd. They might have one better player, but our overall receiving group is better.
 
DeVito52 said:
They do not “absolutely have a better WR corps”.

How do they absolutely have a better WR corps? They have 1 elite WR and then that’s it, and even AJ disappears sometimes. Boyd is a good, but average WR. John Ross is shit until he proves otherwise. Am I missing something?

Crabtree is an above average receiver. Everyone’s hating on him after this game but he played fine besides a couple miscues. John Brown is a VERY good receiver and potentially elite. Yeah, he’s that good. Snead is a good slot receiver who knows how to get open. Not to mention Chris Moore, who if given more opportunities could be on the same level as Tyler Boyd. They might have one better player, but our overall receiving group is better.
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Maybe we’re deeper but I definitely think Green is better than every WR we have and I think Boyd may be as well or if he’s not he’s at least tied with some of our best. I disagree with your assessment on Moore being Boyd. Boyd was killing us last night and he was a guy I and others liked a lot coming out of college, so he’s shown he is a good talent. I also don’t think much of Ross so I can’t disagree with you there. If anything I’d say Ross is closer to Moore than Boyd. Snead is good but I’d put Boyd above him honestly.
 
I can’t wait to see what this offense looks like with Hayden Hurst. You could see how he would be a big part of the offense so it sucked to lose him so early. He could really bring an element to the offense we desperately need. Flacco also loves his TE so I think he’ll bring a spark. One good thing I also saw last night was Alex Collins not going down on initial contact. I know that’s been a knock on him but I saw him shrug guys off last night and keep going
 
Remember who you're talking to. He said last year after Yanda went down that we'd go 2-14... this is what he wants, remember that.
 
Grim said:
I can’t wait to see what this offense looks like with Hayden Hurst. You could see how he would be a big part of the offense so it sucked to lose him so early. He could really bring an element to the offense we desperately need. Flacco also loves his TE so I think he’ll bring a spark. One good thing I also saw last night was Alex Collins not going down on initial contact. I know that’s been a knock on him but I saw him shrug guys off last night and keep going
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Especially given how mark Andrews has done so far - hurst will get more opportunities and is more ready at this level - he could be really dangerous
 
Lost_In_Translation said:
Remember who you're talking to. He said last year after Yanda went down that we'd go 2-14... this is what he wants, remember that.
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taking into account that we played vs QB backups due to injury and had a favorable schedule i'd say we won 4 games more than we would have.
 
This game was shameful.

The offense really came out flat to start the game and when you go onto the road against a division rival, you've gotta start fast. The Ravens just flat out didn't.

Joe made some really piss poor throws and really bad decisions. I'm still in awe that the 45 yard pass to John Brown was even completed with three Bengals surrounding him. And what was that throw to Jessie Bates? Crabtree was 100% covered and then Flacco throws it right to the safety. But, I can't put it all on him. Two turnovers weren't on him.

Offensive line was absolute trash. I had said before the Bills game that this had 2013 written all over it, but I was assured that it was going to be better. So far, no. Against the Bills, I had figured that the rain affected the footing and gave the offensive line a poor playing field. Against the Bengals, we can likely chalk it up to the Bengals having an absurd front four, but really, this offensive line has got to get better. I think every single Ravens fan knew that Skura and Hurst just weren't going to cut it. Stanley is playing pretty terrible right now. He certainly has not lived up to the sixth overall pick as we've only really seen his above average play in very short spurts. Otherwise, he's been largely average.

Where was the pressure? I watched the Colts get massive push back on Price and dominate the right side of the Bengals line. The Ravens have, easily, a much more talented front seven, so why were they unable to win the battle up front in the run game or really take advantage of the right side of the Bengals line with the pass rush? Hell, Price went out, so really, the entire right side should have been collapsing. I get the Bengals were getting it out quickly, but even on plays where Dalton held the ball, the pressure just never materialized into something good.

Tavon Young got worked this game. Not just the AJ Green touchdowns, either, but he struggled with Boyd. I suppose this was his first true test after the ACL injury and it just showed that there's still some way to go to get his legs back under him. I thought Humphrey played pretty well for the most part and Carr wasn't a total liability. Thought the safeties were okay. Nothing special, nothing great. The only negative that stood out was the DPI on Jefferson.

Coming into this game, the Bengals biggest weakness was their linebackers, easily. No Burficht, and I believe Preston Brown was inactive to start the game, also. So, the Bengals were missing two of their starters. The Colts showed in week 1 that you can really exploit the middle of the field with running backs, tight ends, and fast, crossing receivers. What do the Ravens do? Naturally attack the boundary with longer developing plays that put Flacco under pressure. I mean, seriously. Flacco threw 55 times and only 11 went to the tight ends (8 catches for 75 yards and a touchdown, by the way). I understand Flacco has these new shiny toys at WR, but please, involve the tight ends more. Williams and Andrews both have the capabilities to challenge the seam in a way that the Bengals could not cover.

I'm going to try something new this week. I'm going to write my post game article on Tuesday and try to figure out how to use GIFs from NFL Gamepass in my article to hopefully liven it up and help paint a better picture.
 
  • Kenny Young looked good out there; he was flying around to the ball and making plays. On a very shitty defensive night, Young was impressive and has me excited for his future.
  • Brown needs to start over Hurst immediately. I don't care if Brown knows half the playbook; Hurst knows the entire playbook and HE'S FUCKING TRASH.
  • O-line as a whole was atrocious. Bengals were in Flacco's face all night, hitting him and batting down passes. Fucking shameful.
  • Flacco was just off last night. Part of it can be attributed to the poor O-line play, but even when he actually had time, he missed quite a few throws that he should have made.
  • Not sure what happened, but Tavon Young got abused this game. It sucks that Canady was out because we could have used him to spare Tavon last night.
  • Speaking of Tavon, that defensive holding call was a big load of BS. The officiating in last night's game was almost as bad as our defense. Almost.
  • Crabtree dropping more passes is concerning. He had an excuse for the first game with all the rain, but last night was perfect conditions. Hopefully this doesn't become a trend.
  • The fact that Wink made some good half-time adjustments for the D bodes well for the rest of the season. Pees probably would have kept doing the same shit and Dalton would end up with the TD record for a single game.
  • Someone needs to remind Marty and Harbaugh that we have Alex Collins on the team. 9 carries for the night is unacceptable and Flacco should not be throwing the ball 40+ times a game.
 
shit i dnt even know what to say lol. Offense( pass catchers) looked pretty good, tucker was awesome and kenny young looked great but literally everyone else played trash.. inaccurate throws and bad decision making by flacco will and has always been our downfall..
 
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some disappointing snap counts:

of 76 defensive snaps the Ravens had Timmy Williams on the field for 10 and Tyus Bowser on the field for 9 - and im pretty sure none of those snaps were on high leverage passing downs

from the snap counts i can also say that Mark Andrews has established himself a role already - he's already getting the 2nd most TE snaps on the team and playing on almost 50% of the offensive snaps
 
RayRayRaven said:
We looked good in many aspects that first game. Didn't think the running game could be evaluated that early. Though contemplated JoeJoe may have had the one good game a year he throws at us right out of the box against a weak team. However, thought with the new receivers we had made a quantum leap. I hoped so, but it wasn't to be. Buffalo is god awful. Why does JoeJoe always seem to have this "deer caught in the headlights" look on his face? Harbaugh had it too.

We were in the game late, but Cincy always seems to come out against us with blazing results and then go conservative, excepting first game vs them last year. Their hurryup killed us and they abandoned it second half and played to not give us cheap chances like they did end of first half.

Really thought about every big penalty went in our favor. We caught a slew of breaks but it wasn't enough.

So the "Bellweather Results" are we are not as good as we looked first game. Now the next Bellweather game is vs Denver at Home and whether we are as bad as we looked vs Cincy. I am not that impressed with Denver and think we can beat them, but am worried about their pass rush.

Humpf made some nice tackles. He really did, but the TD against him by AJ Green and the dropped pick on an overthrow, as well as other plays really indicate he needs to bulk up and play safety. Stanley was abused, granted by a great pass rush. The guys I've been worried about showed their weaknesses bigly this game. We really missed a healthy Jimmy Smith, though he's prolly gone next year too.

Don't see the QB on the horizon I covet for the Ravens, unless we can trade for Sam Darnold. (Which would be much more "expensive" than the initial plan to land him.). At this point, just wish we'd have invested in losing the last two seasons to win. Despite game 1 optimism, I don't think this team is going to bring us the Glory we deserve.
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That Humphrey TD is one that most corners couldn’t have stopped. Humphrey was playing green very well and green ran one hell of a route. Humphrey has been incredibly instinctive so far and he went with his instincts and went after the fade, which is smart considering green is a 6’3” highpointing fucking machine, but green just dug in and cut back, it was a good play call going against what is expected and executed perfectly.

I’m more upset about not having inside coverage on green on that redzone crossing route, that was a straight up blunder.
 
Some positives:
-We may have found our 2nd ilb. Kenny young has been one of our best defenders in the first 2 weeks, and was unquestioned our top defender last night.

-Alex Collins continues to be a stud, I just wish the OL would do him favors, he works best outside, so put fucking brown in at RT

-John brown looks like the best wr we’ve had since SSS, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind signing an extension lasting him til the CBA

-Willie Snead is looking like a legit slot guy

-mark Andrews is exactly what we thought he was coming out of college, that man is just naturally savvy as fuck. His ability to draw defenders in and then exploit them is special, and crazy enough, Hurst is clearly the better TE and he hasn’t even been out there

-buck Allen is extremely underrated, he just breaks off so many solid runs so consistently

-pat Ricard will soon play himself out of his FB position because he’s becoming very valuable at DT

-everyone is bitching about lamar, but his presence on zone reads clearly makes an impact, Collins broke a big one because the front clearly keyed in on lamar

-wink adjusted, we haven’t seen the DC adjust in years, sweet.

-such a shit game from the OL is another notch on the ol’ “start Zeus” belt
 
It is pretty telling that 28 of the Bengals 34 points came when Onwuasor was the defensive playcaller. Nobody on defense seemed to have any idea what was going on for the entire first half. Big reason why the Bengals only scored 6 in the second half.
 
i see a lot of people cant wait for hurst to get back.. although i like andrews, whats the big difference between the two other than hurst being better at YAC and andrews being very good at getting in those soft spots? Is it the fact the both of them will be on the field at the same time? or is hurst just that much better than him?
 
I'm just going with the ugly today: crap offensive line and zero pass rush. Painful. I gave up sleep for that mess. I don't quit on my team but I should have gone to bed.
 
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