01-26-2013, 05:08 AM
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#26
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Second Team and Threatening Starter's Job
Join Date: May 2006
Location: San Jose, California
Posts: 1,349
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Re: Matt Chatham:Defense’s demise more than Aqib Talib
I don't think Chatham was dissing Talib. I think he was, accurately imho, saying the media's reporting on his effect had been overblown. And that is the media for you....as a collective it is not a place one can expect accuracy in reporting.
His "Big Bad Ravens" sarcasm is spot on too. The Ravens are so big and bad that their normal offense MO of running the ball with that physical approach (a hallmark of physical teams) was losing the game for them. That gameplan had them down 7-13 at half time. So what did this mean, overpowering team do? All but abandon the run/that approach and hand the ball to a sometimes good, sometimes not, historically inconsistent QB. And Flacco made it happen (and probably just secured a very nice contract). They put it on Flacco to put the ball in the air and win the game for them....and that is what he did. IMHO a big part of the epic defensive fail is on BB and the other coaches for not making the needed adjustments. 3 TD drives in a row from a Raven team that was not particularly potent offensively, in the second half of the championship game is appalling! Not to take away from Flacco as he gets due credit but the Patriots repeated ineptness in coverage was making it to easy in too many spots on the field. We can talk about we lacked good enough coverage players but this group had played and won enough games that 3 TD drives in a row should not happen in a championship game against a passing offense that is just not that potent.
On the offensive side, again, such big mean physically imposing Ravens....yet the Patriots took it into or near the red zone repeatedly. A physically dominated team does not move the ball like that. You want to see physically dominated by a big bad opponent? go watch the first half of the niner-Patriot game. They slammed the door on the running backs and were like a jail break going after Brady. The Patriots never got a whiff of the endzone. The AFCCG was not that. While the Ravens were winning the individual battles too often, the Patriots were fighting through it and moving the ball. Offensively This was a collective failure. We needed our best blocking effort and we got an ok performance. We needed a best performance from Brady and it was ok. We needed best performance out of the receivers and running backs and it was ok. We needed the coaches to make adjustments and calls that would exploit the Ravens soft areas....and that was not happening.
Add it up: the Patriots offense not showing up with their A game + Ravens giving their A game defensively + the Raven offense putting the heat on the Patriots offense to score + coaching not adjusting/putting the team in its best place to succeed = the AFCCG results.
This poor soft Patriot guys going up against the big bad mean Ravens? LOL, puhlease.....
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