Post Ravens thoughts

[everlong]

Randy Moss had a great post game quote. (Paraphrasing) For three quarters they put away the flags but at least they got it right in the end."

The officiating was inconsistent and awful. The play before the deflection where Reed intercepted the ball where he covered Moss down the sideline was an awful no call. It was similar to the AFCCG when Hobbs got called expected Reed made contact before the ball got there. Conversely there were a couple of illegal contact penalties away from the play, one was against a Ravens defender on Welker, where the refs threw flags on what I consider to be a borderline call at best. The league needs to get this straight it's killing the game. Every week in every game we see a flagrant foul not get called and ticky tack stuff being flagged. Awful.

The catch by Gaffney was extremely close. If that had been ruled incomplete I don't think they over turn it.

Callahan had a great point this morning, it happens so infrequently you have to take notice. Ray Lewis is going to have an amazing acting career. He is all about getting it on camera. I can picture him in a war movie with the Rock, fellow U alum, grabbing a piece of scorched earth and doing one of his speeches. I'd pay to see it.

Amazing the ESPN spin saying that Lewis, Reed, and McGahee were playing for Taylor from the U yet they never mentioned Wilfork or Meriweather who played with Taylor there. The camera crew did their job and showed Vince on camera before the game started while Cornholeheiser rambled on and on about the Ravens. He is without a doubt the worst announcer ever. Worse than Beasley "giggle giggle" Reese.

The Watson call on 4th and 5 was not as egregious as a half dozen no calls earlier in the game.

Watson and the rest of this team need to start holding on to the ball. The amount of drops since the bye week has been very disturbing. I know part of it is adjusting to the cold but if we are going to play a spread offense and not establish a running game we cannot be dropping the ball.

Another ESPN spin that drove me nuts was their constant chatter about how Brady was having an off game. The receivers dropped no fewer than a half dozen balls and it might have been a dozen. So when pulling up the graphic on Brady's 72%+ season completion percentage and the 48% at the time it might be nice to note the drops. But they wanted to play up the Ravens rather than call it down the middle. The Patriot ball washing at the start of every game is also getting old. Stop trying to over hype everything.

What a great play by Kevin Faulk stripping Ed Reed. As pointed out in the game thread it was like Troy against the Chargers. He is so under valued.

I think we might have under estimated the loss of Colvin. The Ravens ran over Seymour and AD last night like I haven't seen since the Chargers game when they did it to Seymour and TBC. In other games like the Colts where we were run on it wasn't primarily to one side. I've been saying all year the run defense is the thing that scares me the most about this team. We haven't seen it early because of the leads but it could bite us. At the end of the game we did stop the run but we were selling out to do so. Against a team like the Colts the play action will kill us in that situation.

Before everybody jumps all over me I'm not saying the sky is falling but this needs to be addressed. It was AD's first game full game on the edge but he didn't look great at the point of attack and was getting blocked by a running back. I have to wonder about flipping Vrabel and AD since Warren is more stout against the run than Seymour right now. I have to watch the game again but it seemed like Vrabel also took some snaps inside last night.

I thought before the season Maroney would get a lot more touches in the passing game like Reggie Bush. It just makes sense since he's so good in the open field. He's clearly not hitting the holes aggressively in the running game right now on a consistent basis but he has such good physical skills I think the coaching staff needs to keep finding a way to get him the ball in a way he can be successful. I still think as a second year back he's developing and the bust talk is way off base but the loss of Morris is huge because he was making his own yards inside.

If the official really did refer to the Ravens several times as "boy" they should be suspended.

The sequence of the time out then the penalty both of which saved the drive for the Pats was amazing. I could not sit still. Thank god my house is three levels because when Gaffney caught that ball that was probably as loud as I've yelled since SB36 when the FG was good. Amazing, dramatic......

Thank god this is the last work night, night game this year. I am running on fumes. It is so hard to fall asleep after games like this one.

 

[DefenseRules]

The guys on WEEI said something very interesting. Last night on the "Real Post Game Show" they said the BB said that "WE ARE A TIRED TEAM". That was his exact quote, and it makes sense. I've heard a couple of players commenting on all of the late night games taking a toll on the team. I didn't even think about that. I figured playing at night gave them more time to rest and prepare. I guess not.

 

[Oswlek]

On the review, the official actually said, "The replay confirmed the call on the field". It most certainly was a catch and would have been reversed had it been called incomplete.

AD played mostly outside against the Bills earlier.

The only play where Maroney could have hit the hole harder was the 3rd and one play. That was it. I think we need to give credit to the Ravens on this one.

 

[everlong]

On the review, the official actually said, "The replay confirmed the call on the field". It most certainly was a catch and would have been reversed had it been called incomplete.

Can you imagine if he had said "There is not conclusive evidence to over turn the call?"

AD played mostly outside against the Bills earlier.

I believe they played more 4-3 in that game and used him as an edge rusher.

The only play where Maroney could have hit the hole harder was the 3rd and one play. That was it. I think we need to give credit to the Ravens on this one.

There were a couple of plays where Faulk had no hole yet gained 4 or 5 yards. No back can do that every time and without watching the game again, which I will, I cannot pull out specific plays but I remember several times thinking he could have gotten more out of his runs if he had lowered the pads and gone for it.

 

[cstjohn17]

The Watson call on 4th and 5 was not as egregious as a half dozen no calls earlier in the game.

Watson and the rest of this team need to start holding on to the ball. The amount of drops since the bye week has been very disturbing. I know part of it is adjusting to the cold but if we are going to play a spread offense and not establish a running game we cannot be dropping the ball.

I think we might have under estimated the loss of Colvin. The Ravens ran over Seymour and AD last night like I haven't seen since the Chargers game when they did it to Seymour and TBC. In other games like the Colts where we were run on it wasn't primarily to one side. I've been saying all year the run defense is the thing that scares me the most about this team. We haven't seen it early because of the leads but it could bite us. At the end of the game we did stop the run but we were selling out to do so. Against a team like the Colts the play action will kill us in that situation.

Before everybody jumps all over me I'm not saying the sky is falling but this needs to be addressed. It was AD's first game full game on the edge but he didn't look great at the point of attack and was getting blocked by a running back. I have to wonder about flipping Vrabel and AD since Warren is more stout against the run than Seymour right now. I have to watch the game again but it seemed like Vrabel also took some snaps inside last night.

The sequence of the time out then the penalty both of which saved the drive for the Pats was amazing. I could not sit still. Thank god my house is three levels because when Gaffney caught that ball that was probably as loud as I've yelled since SB36 when the FG was good. Amazing, dramatic......

Thank god this is the last work night, night game this year. I am running on fumes. It is so hard to fall asleep after games like this one.

Good stuff
- Interference or holding (4th and 6 play) - Len P. writes that it was Gaffeny who was held, the coverage on Watson was tight but that kind of stuff is usually not called
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli_len&id=3140574
" With 55 seconds remaining and facing a fourth-and-5 from the Ravens' 13-yard line, Brady threw incomplete for tight end Benjamin Watson, but Baltimore dime cornerback Jamaine Winborne was flagged for holding in the secondary. It was the correct call by the officials, but on the wrong player. Winborne made virtually no contact on the play but, in underneath coverage, Scott had Gaffney in a bear-hug. "

- I thought Samuel has an off game, and in general the Pats didn't show a lot of respect for the Ravens offense, likely Samuel's worst game this season
- Merriweather - looked a little lost, and missed some critical tackles
- Moss - even if teams double him they need to find a way to involve him more
- running game - was effective but this team will win or lose with the passing attack, Callahan said he felt more comfortable in 4th and 6 and than 4th and 1 and I agree
- on Maroney's long run it looked like a block in the back, similar to Addais long run against the Pats
- a lot of drops, Watson has got to catch that one in the end zone
- Willie Andrews played CB while Hobbs was out, I like Andrews, lets see how he does, he played some CB in college and we can always use more depth
- Brady is awesome
- run defense - still four more games to improve but usually by this point of the season team's identities are known, the Pats front seven were absolutely dominated, destroyed, on some running plays. Harrison had to come into the box to support the front seven, obviously this must be addressed. Hopefully it is technique not personnel.
- Tired? - that may be true but it is lame, the Patriots knew the Ravens would rely on the run, defenses are built on stopping the run first, it is one thing to have the odd mix up but they were just out manned
- AD - just awful against the run, this was alluded to by Marvin Lewis when he first signed as a FA, he needs to step it up, as does Seymour
- Seymour has a nice night rushing the passer

Bottom line- It is along season, the team is not going to be sharp all the time. The team is showing some toughness but is beatable, they will have to play much better against any of their playoff opponents. Some home cooking will help.

Added this late - WIlfork did a great job with the lineup! Best introductions I have seen this year.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I also think before folks here make all their impassioned critiques (not talking this one but more the hysteria driven OMG does out defense suck ones) they should take a moment and review the game book. You can find it here:

http://library.kraftsportsgroup.com/20071203_gamebook.pdf

It makes for some interesting reading past the emotion of watching the game. Sheds some light on what the real issues were last night.

The run defense contained McGahee pretty well in the first half. Surprisingly it was our all world LCB who was getting picked on and who paid for his ballhawking matched up with a rookie wingman.

A series of three and outs on offense where players were being held but also dropping eminently catchable balls didn't give the D much of a breather. McGahee had 53 yards in the first half, yet 19 of those came in a drive that stalled in a punt, followed by a 3 and out stop, and 21 of them (15 on one play) resulted in a drive that ended with a FG. The half ended with another 7 yards in a drive that resulted in a punt, followed by 2 more 3 and outs. So I think if the DB's and DL were doing their jobs, the run D was sufficient.

Most of the damage from McGahee's runs occurred in the 3rd quarter and ended 30 seconds into the 4th quarter. Baltimore didn't score in the last 14:30, even as our offense - with a little help from the zebras - kept putting our defense back on the field.

Not bad for a tired team facing a bunch of egomaniacs who were getting away with murder (no pun intended Ray) in their hell bent attempt to salvage another disappointing season in Baltimore.

 

[Metaphors]

There were a couple of plays where Faulk had no hole yet gained 4 or 5 yards. No back can do that every time and without watching the game again, which I will, I cannot pull out specific plays but I remember several times thinking he could have gotten more out of his runs if he had lowered the pads and gone for it.

Faulk slipped between people and dove forward. Maroney kept his legs churning and stayed on his feet. Hard to fault him for that since I would imagine that it is instinctive for him to stay off the ground. He will have to learn that there are some times when you aren't going to get much and you should get low and dive for the extra 2 yards.

 

[cstjohn17]

Almost forgot

Haloti Ngata = Beast

He is my favorite D lineman (other than big V) plus he even lines up as LB sometimes!

His play highlights why teams covet stud defensive lineman, he almost single handily controlled the line of scrimmage.