The Hamilton, The Injuries and The Self-Inflicted Wounds

[QtR Nevermore]

I just hope Harbaugh / Monken have learned their lesson about going so conservative with a lead. It almost cost us in Cinci. it did cost us yesterday.

With all our running backs dead and plenty of pass catchers still available we should have kept attacking rather than trying to run the clock out. I'd like to see us use 12 or 21 personnel with a lead, to keep the possibility of effective running or passing alive.

 

[UPennChem]

God its so awful in here. And it was so awful leaving the game. The number of times I heard we showed our true colors. We're a bad team. Lamar sucks blah blah it was crazy.

I fail to see how anyone is upset about anything other than our injuries. It took missing like 14 guys, 4 fumbles in redzone or own 20, Tucker to uncharacteristically miss, heinous missed ref calls etc for a starting Colts to team to eek out an OT win.

Like forget the game it's pretty irrelevant. Focus on you've sustained injuries to close to 30% of your starting roster. If we don't get healthy this season will just go down as another what could've been. Or we'll get healthy and it will probably be great.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

What change would you make? Harbs is one of the lone centering forces we have , so keeping him is a must. This really all comes down to player execution and getting the right people on the field. IMO EDC needs to be let go in the off-season. He’s had some nice finds but his misses have been brutal, especially in the later rounds.

I think you have that backwards. You don't get rid of a GM who has had drafts and trades like EDC has, especially over the past 3 years. You let go of a HC who IS the one lone force remaining on a team that, other than 2019, has demonstrated many of the same limitations. I'm on the record for a few years of wanting a new look at HC - and I don't wanna hear how JH will be on another team in the blink of an eye. Sure he will be, but our loss will be our gain, imo.

 

[QtR Nevermore]

Not like the injuries are shocking, when we’re talking about Stanley, OBJ, Batemen, and JK. Each of these guys are injury prone and we knew that coming into the year.

The OBJ signing was an obvious mistake as soon as we made it, but it's pretty hard to point any fingers about the rest of these players (who were already under contract.)

1 or 0 college injuries gives no indication about how healthy players will be in future. We also had no way of knowing Linderbaum, Gus, Oweh, Humphrey etc would get injured.

There doesn't always have to be someone to blame.

 

[BoredMarine13]

I think you have that backwards. You don't get rid of a GM who has had drafts and trades like EDC has, especially over the past 3 years. You let go of a HC who IS the one lone force remaining on a team that, other than 2019, has demonstrated many of the same limitations. I'm on the record for a few years of wanting a new look at HC - and I don't wanna hear how JH will be on another team in the blink of an eye. Sure he will be, but our loss will be our gain, imo.

If you get rid of Harbs you’re committing to a reset. I could see that in happening in 2027 when the Ravens decide to rework Lamar’s contract or dump him. But no sooner than that unless he’s just lost the team

 

[OURavensFan]

Please tell me we won’t be down 8 starters for Cleveland, someone on that list surely will be back

 

[Dom McRaven]

Playoff teams dont lay an egg after winning a big division rivalry. And thats what we did.

Yes they do. I'll give you two examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

1) In 2014, Big Ben threw for 6 TDs against us on SNF and won 43-23. The following game? Their offense played like hot garbage against the Rex Ryan-coached Jets. Didn't even score 20 in that game.

2) Last season, the Chiefs beat the Chargers on TNF in week 2, 27-24 (look at that, same score as our week 2). The following game in week 3? They ALSO lost to the Colts 20-17.

My point is, games like this happen from time to time and unfortunately, we were one of the latest examples (the Cowboys too). At this point, I'm more concerned about the list of injured players just continuing to grow.

 

[Florida Raven Fan]

If you get rid of Harbs you’re committing to a reset. I could see that in happening in 2027 when the Ravens decide to rework Lamar’s contract or dump him. But no sooner than that unless he’s just lost the team

I agree with Johnny on this one the only constant is Harbaugh and we continue to see the same issues plague us. I hoped we would've moved on from him last season. Maybe a reset us what this team needed. New coach, OC, positional coaches etc..

 

[BoredMarine13]

The OBJ signing was an obvious mistake as soon as we made it, but it's pretty hard to point any fingers about the rest of these players (who were already under contract.)

1 or 0 college injuries gives no indication about how healthy players will be in future. We also had no way of knowing Linderbaum, Gus, Oweh, Humphrey etc would get injured.

There doesn't always have to be someone to blame.

Yea I don’t blame EDC for injuries, but I do blame him for whiffing on later round picks that provide the depth when injuries occur. Or just straight up refusing to address the issue. Example: We lost our top two backs to serious knee injuries in 2022 and our third(Hill) had previously missed 2021 with Achilles tear. How did he address it? Drafted Baddie(didn’t make the team) and signed Davis, Gordon, Drake etc…

Same can be said for the CB situation. EDC is fine, but he doesn’t deserve the endless praise and should be on the hot seat.

 

[OURavensFan]

Yes they do. I'll give you two examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

1) In 2014, Big Ben threw for 6 TDs against us on SNF and won 43-23. The following game? Their offense played like hot garbage against the Rex Ryan-coached Jets. Didn't even score 20 in that game.

2) Last season, the Chiefs beat the Chargers on TNF in week 2, 27-24 (look at that, same score as our week 2). The following game in week 3? They ALSO lost to the Colts 20-17.

My point is, games like this happen from time to time and unfortunately, we were one of the latest examples (the Cowboys too). At this point, I'm more concerned about the list of injured players just continuing to grow.

Bengals also looked awful the last 2 years at various points. Our injuries however make this a little harder, we have to get some guys back before Cleveland. Plus god knows what surprise injury updates we’ll get to the negative this week too

 

[QtR Nevermore]

Yea I don’t blame EDC for injuries, but I do blame him for whiffing on later round picks that provide the depth when injuries occur. Or just straight up refusing to address the issue. Example: We lost our top two backs to serious knee injuries in 2022 and our third(Hill) had previously missed 2021 with Achilles tear. How did he address it? Drafted Baddie(didn’t make the team) and signed Davis, Gordon, Drake etc…

Same can be said for the CB situation. EDC is fine, but he doesn’t deserve the endless praise and should be on the hot seat.

I agree that he's far from perfect, for a lot of the reasons you mention, but I don't think he should be on the hot seat. He's an average GM. He makes mistakes but he still put together what should have been/still could be a competitive roster.

I don't think there was any way of predicting the RB situation. JK's achilles injury had nothing to do with his previous knee issue and was no more predictable than any other freak injury. The same with Gus' concussion. Justice was an injury prone RB3 but they thought they had Keaton Mitchell ready to step in, and they had Drake and Gordon around camp as emergency vets to plug in if needed. I don't think we can expect a GM to do much more than that at one position group.

 

[Simba]

Yea I don’t blame EDC for injuries, but I do blame him for whiffing on later round picks that provide the depth when injuries occur. Or just straight up refusing to address the issue. Example: We lost our top two backs to serious knee injuries in 2022 and our third(Hill) had previously missed 2021 with Achilles tear. How did he address it? Drafted Baddie(didn’t make the team) and signed Davis, Gordon, Drake etc…

Same can be said for the CB situation. EDC is fine, but he doesn’t deserve the endless praise and should be on the hot seat.

I couldn't disagree with this more. If the expectation is that GM needs to hit on 100% of his picks, there would be 32 openings each year. Do I think EDC is perfect? Absolutely not. I think you can absolutely criticize him for cap and asset allocation, but there's only so much you can do in a salary capped world. There's only so much you can do when 4 of your top 6 RBs (and this extends to other positions too) drop like flies. You simply cannot prepare for every single possible injury, and sometimes you have to take risks at certain positions.

 

[drjohnnyfever]

If you get rid of Harbs you’re committing to a reset. I could see that in happening in 2027 when the Ravens decide to rework Lamar’s contract or dump him. But no sooner than that unless he’s just lost the team

Yeah, I just don't agree with that timetable. We have a ton of talent and if you go back to when Harbs started, he took a talented team and ran with it. Any worthy leader should be able to do the same. I just think you get rid of the lower man first, is all. The GM has acquired good talent, imo, it isn't used to it's fullest. But there are injuries and one could also argue the reason JH is still here is he's been given the benefit of the doubt in the past because of injury riddled teams. But even that has to end sometime. I'm still flummoxed by the severity and sheer number of injuries over the past few seasons.

 

[29BmoreBird22]

I'm probably going to be one of the more optimistic people here until the season really feels like it's slipping away, but so far, the results just aren't terribly shocking.

Coming into the game, the Ravens were down RB1, RB2 (debatable, but Hill was getting a lot of work), WR2, LT, C, FS, CB1, ROLB1, LOLB. In the game, the Ravens lost WR3, RB3, DT2 (not sure if he returned), OLB2. I think there may have been some other injuries in there, but the point is that the Ravens were decimated.

The Colts had strong teams on both sides of the trenches. Given the injuries, they were able to control the LoS better and that ultimately helped make a big difference.

Regarding Lamar: I see a lot of people say he isn't a good quarterback and he made too many mental mistakes because he took a sack and had the fumble.

The fumble isn't something I can hold against him too much. He was attempting to pass and lost it while pulling the ball back in. Bigger share of blame goes to Mekari for being a turnstile on that play. And regarding the sack that should have been thrown away- it isn't always easy. You have to find an eligible receiver and get it in his vicinity or worry about breaking the pocket and getting it to the LoS, which isn't always easy when a 300 lb lineman is on your ass. I don't know. I just see quarterbacks get sacked week in and week out. It happens. Yes, the timing was bad, but it happens.

You know what else happens? Mistakes by other quarterbacks. I see a lot of people suggesting that elite quarterbacks don't consistently make mistakes. Except they do. Patrick Mahomes is notorious for hero ball. You just rarely notice his mistakes because when he's 4th and goal from his own 1, he throws a touchdown. Bills fans get very frustrated with Josh Allen because he forces a lot of plays and has 54 fumbles in his career. Hurts has 28 and hasn't been particularly spectacular this season. Justin Herbert is barely over 50% for his win percentage in large part because he's way too timid and conservative with the ball.

What I'm getting at is that every quarterback has flaws that come out. There is no perfect model for quarterbacks in the NFL.

And to be fair- I felt like Lamar actually played really well, all things considered. He was passing well and had a pretty strong day as a rusher, something many of you whined for. He individually, I think, played well enough to win the game.

I said it before, but I really do think this team will be just fine in the long run IF they can get healthy. The 2012 team was similarly decimated by injuries and got healthy in time for the playoffs. I think that could be this team.

I also just think the offense overall will be fine. Monken has to find his footing and vision for the Ravens offense and that'll take more than three weeks, especially with so many key starters injured. If the team gets healthy and still looks like crap around the bye, then I'm worried. But until then? I'm not.

 

[OURavensFan]

Man, the damn refs cost us and could have sparred all this doomsday talk

 

[JO_75]

Yes they do. I'll give you two examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

1) In 2014, Big Ben threw for 6 TDs against us on SNF and won 43-23. The following game? Their offense played like hot garbage against the Rex Ryan-coached Jets. Didn't even score 20 in that game.

2) Last season, the Chiefs beat the Chargers on TNF in week 2, 27-24 (look at that, same score as our week 2). The following game in week 3? They ALSO lost to the Colts 20-17.

My point is, games like this happen from time to time and unfortunately, we were one of the latest examples (the Cowboys too). At this point, I'm more concerned about the list of injured players just continuing to grow.

Chiefs lost to the Colts in week 3 last year, we lost to the Colts in Week 3 yesterday. Ravens winning the Super Bowl confirmed.

 

[BoredMarine13]

I couldn't disagree with this more. If the expectation is that GM needs to hit on 100%

When did anyone say that?

I think you can absolutely criticize him for cap and asset allocation, but there's only so much you can do in a salary capped world.

I agree There’s only so much you can do in a salary capped world we’re your whiffing consistently on WR, so you have to spend significant capital on an injury prone aging star out of fear of not supporting your star QB after being called out on Twitter by your most recent WR draft selection

There's only so much you can do when 4 of your top 6 RBs (and this extends to other positions too) drop like flies. You simply cannot prepare for every single possible injury, and sometimes you have to take risks at certain positions.

In my specific example he had two draft classes post injuries to Gus and JK and his only swing was a 6th round pick. So you have 3 players at one position, each has suffered season ending injuries, but don’t feel the need to reaffirm the position? That’s just negligence.

 

[redrum52]

Maybe it was the weather but I’m not happy the only consistent way to move the ball was Lamar’s legs

They didn't seem to trust the backs after the Drake fumble and Gus going down.

@BoredMarine13 I can't fault DeCosta for the RB situation. We picked up Mitchell with 3 healthy RBs at the time. That's 4 guys and if you're just drafting because you're scared of injuries you never going to have enough roster space for your team. I don't think people understand the amount of bad luck it takes to be in this position. It's week 3 and might need to look to bring in a rb 7. I don't share the same 1 injury makes a player injury prone sentiment some fans seem to.

Marcus Williams had missed a total of 7 games before coming here. Bateman was notoriously healthy in college. JK was fine. Gus had been fine with us prior. Marlon barely missed games until the pec. Oweh was playing what seemed like every snap. It just doesn't make sense.

 

[Simba]

When did anyone say that?

I agree There’s only so much you can do in a salary capped world we’re your whiffing consistently on WR, so you have to spend significant capital on an injury prone aging star out of fear of not supporting your star QB after being called out on Twitter by your most recent WR draft selection

In my specific example he had two draft classes post injuries to Gus and JK and his only swing was a 6th round pick. So you have 3 players at one position, each has suffered season ending injuries, but don’t feel the need to reaffirm the position? That’s just negligence.

If JK and Gus had stayed healthy, then you’d be complaining that we wasted capital on a RB3. Again, can’t plan for everything. This is a pure hindsight argument right now.

 

[Jacquouille]

Of all the things that went wrong, that Likely drop is what killed me. I was already dead inside when the refs blew the DPI call, didn't care a bit.