Yeah, and we were missing our best receiver and our QB was battling through tougher issues than a sore hip. We've always played Baltimore tough, because of their defense. Their offense may be improving, although I'm not sold on Flacco when healthy.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Flacco is even in the first or second tier as a quarterback in this league right now. But he is a solid presence that Baltimore hasn't had at quarterback in the last ten years. In this first game, he threw on us for 264 yards and 2 TD's and carved us up on the last drive until Clayton dropped an easily catchable pass. I do agree that a healthy Welker would have helped. But that running game was tearing us a new one all by itself. We were practically selling out to stop their running game and still couldn't do it. This was with Flacco throwing a grand total of 10 passes. If he's healthy and balances the offense even more, than game could have been much worse... especially with the way their defense was playing.
This year they don't look like they're going to be a cakewalk either. They're returning the same running game that carved us up in the playoffs and the same receivers that Flacco showed he could use to drive against us on top of adding Anquan Boldin. On defense, they're going to be lining up Mt. Cody next to Ngata to make an already stingy run defense that much better. If their secondary can improve over last year, the Baltimore defense will again be tough to score points again. Surely, this is a team that should phase you.
We've had more than our share of success against Manning and came within inches of experiencing it again when we clearly weren't at our best. Colts got a few discontented cracks appearing in the foundation in case you hadn't noticed, and they're coming to our house for dinner this season....
I'm aware of the successes we have had against the Colts. Since our last Super Bowl win, however, we're 1-5 against Manning & Co. including the playoffs. Their discontented cracks are not any different from our discontented cracks so counting those as reasons for why the Colts don't phase you, particularly since they match up against us extremely well, doesn't really make much sense to me. This is, again, a team that usually gives us problems and has had it's fair amount of success against us lately. They are absolutely a team that should "phase you".
SD is a fraud team that notoriously starts slow and eventually folds under pressure and their top WR has been MIA and talking holdout. We've even beat them when we were sucking fumes. They own Manning particularly on the road fwiw...the JETS, not so much apparently. Matt Cassel also isn't going to be under center this season in case you hadn't noticed.
Vincent Jackson is MIA right now. That doesn't mean that he isn't going to suit up when our game comes around. Particularly if their passing game shows some flaws in the first few games. There are a lot of factors that could influence San Diego to get something done before Week 7. Even then, though, Rivers is a pretty damn quarterback that would most likely be able to make it work with the receivers he has on hand. As I said before, in the Belichick era, this team has typically been a tough out for us. It doesn't make sense to say that this team, one which went 13-3 last year, doesn't "phase you"
You don't need to win by 2 TD's unless they changed the rules in regulation, too.
For me, when I talk about teams that don't phase me, I envision teams which we would be able to beat pretty handily. That's just me, though. I would be surprised if we only beat the Bengals and Jets by one TD or less each.
No team with Tavaris Jackson or Brett Favre at the helm ever scares me. Brett will occasionally pull a game out his ass. But by and large Bill has his number.
They should. Favre had the best season of his career last year with Minnesota. They have a very stingy defense which creates pressure with it's front four (remember the Giants defensive strategy) and, arguably, the top RB in the game. If that said RB didn't catch a case of fumblitis in the NFC Championship, we're looking at Minnesota in the Super Bowl. Last time we played a Brett Favre led team, he was working with half of the talent that he currently has on the Vikings. What happened was Favre driving down the field with ease for the win in OT. And that was against a far more proven defense than we currently have. This should also be a team that "phases you".
Our toughest matchups occur at home this year, and I like that.
I agree with this. It just sucks that we don't have more than one home game at a time. But it's still a good thing. God knows we were horrible on the road last season.
This team was in full blown defensive transition last season, lacked depth on offense coming out of camp, was fronted by a rehabbing QB off a one year absence who got multiply cracked or broken early on, and then we had a little leadership void develop particularly on defense that flummoxed coaching down the stretch. I don't forsee nearly that much simultaneous adversity happening again this season. We've kept our FA (Mankins will show, believe me). Had a mahvelous draft. Mayo is healthy. Brady is healthy. Moss is healthy and motivated in a contract year. Welker who was dinged early and went down late will be back I believe better than expected. Neal will at least start the season... Edleman will be better with experience. We have depth at the position with Holt, Chief, Tate and Price. We got 3 new TE's including two the Ravens coveted. Vollmer will be starting at RT. We have excellent depth on the OL. It's the last hurrah for these RB's so they too should be motivated. O'Brien has another year under his belt coordinating an offense. Matt Patricia is being groomed as a DC while BB is essentially replacing Dean Pees.
You should realize that these are a whole bunch of IF statements. You keep saying "should be". What's your basis for that? Look, I'm high on our draft and free agent moves as well, but I think we should be reserved at this point. We haven't even seen these guys in pads yet. There is no rock solid indication that the defense is going to be an improvement over last year's. At RDE, Gerard Warren hasn't shown that he can be a consistent presence in the running or passing game throughout his career, Lewis is a JAG, and Deaderick is a rookie with promise. ILB is looking at starting a rookie and a first year player from South Florida who hasn't even so much as sniffed the field in the pros. I don't get what the basis is to expect that they SHOULD be improved. The secondary has one new potential starter in McCourty, who, once again, hasn't seen the field in the pros yet and, otherwise, is just returning everybody else from last year. The safety position is unchanged. To me, there is just as many question marks here as there were last year. The potential is there, but it is by no means a sure thing that an improvement is coming. I do like Belichick taking a fully hands-on approach though.
The same thing goes for the offense. Brady should be better this year but, let's be honest, he still looked INCREDIBLY inconsistent even toward the end of 2009. Hopefully he remains upright and fully healthy. I like the O-Line right now. Kaczur's main weakness, lateral mobility, will be neutralized playing LG. I also like Vollmer at LT. Depth is another question mark though. I hope Dan Connolly never sees the field for an extended period of time. Ohrnberger looks very likely to end up on PUP. LeVoir is good for a couple of games but, like Connolly, I hope he never sees the field for an extended period. We have absolutely no idea what we have in Larsen and Bussey. So the depth is still up in the air at this point. I'm high on Gronk and Hernandez, but they haven't played a snap in the pros yet either. At WR, I like the addition of Holt. I still think he has plenty left in the tank. Not so sure about Chief. As a matter of fact, I'm not so sure he'll make it out of TC. Tate and Price are absolutely unproven commodities, one of which is a rookie facing an uphill battle for snaps. Moss is in a contract year, yes, but nothing he has said thus far in the offseason has made me think that he's any more motivated than he was in the last couple of years. Welker is looking good right now, but expecting him to be the same or even better than last year at this point is nothing but a guess. He tore two ligaments and there is a big difference between running drills and running routes in an actual game with pads on and opponents flying at your legs.
As for leadership, I really hope that changes. I like what Wilfork has said. But saying it to the newspaper and actually being a leader in the locker room are two different things. Hopefully someone does the same on offense.
This isn't 2009 anymore. It's 2010. I expect to win a couple of more games than we did staggering through 2009 in transition. I think the FO sent a message and rid themselves of bad apples and dead wood and the next generation of the dynasty is being molded even as we speak.
Even with all that I just said, I'm optimistic about this team. However, I'm only optimistic because that's the way I am. In truth, I'm still holding myself back because there is so much we don't know about this team. At this point in the offseason, with the team not even having put on pads yet in practice, it seems unusual to fully expect that they SHOULD improve and that the bigger teams in the playoffs don't phase you.
