Going against the Grain... Our Defense played well last night

[RelocatedPatFan]

There were 503 yards of bad defense. Whatever excuse you want to make, they lined up to play those plays and werent competitive.
There was 1 solitary 3rd down penalty in the 4 TD drives. Ironically, it was the one we never saw live (Mayo) yet everyone is ready to throw 4 TDs and a FG in 5 drives and 503 yards into being due to that one play.

If the defense is so bad that one call like that leads to 4 TDs and a FG(which probably would have been a TD if time hadn't run out) in 7 drives, then it sucked even worse than I thought.

Yes there were bad calls, but there was an awful lot of crappy defense being played. To blame it all on one penalty, or pretend that a penalty on 2nd down 'kept the drive alive' when we couldn't barely ever force a 3rd down ATTEMPT is just denial.

There was plenty of bad defense being played. My point being, you consider each play as an isolated event. There's some validity in that point of view, but it's certainly not a complete picture.

If the new england offense was on the field for 3-game minutes longer, would that have benefited the defense by getting more rest (well besides the fact that they'd have fewer plays to provide bad defense)?

 

[Bhelmet]

At times our D played well. At times they were dominated. They made a couple critical stops and almost closed it out but 2 dropped Int's killed that. Having no pass rush is concerning - I hope it was b/c of holding - I saw a few, but our line struggled with their O-line. Nink was awful - he got blown up all game. This Ravens O is REALLY good and Flacco seems to have turned a corner. We still should have won and if not for the refs, we most likely would have. The D has a lot of work to do, but they showed a lot as well. They were fast, physical, and at times potent. Just very inconsistent. Hopefully, they learned a lot and can get better. Our secondary is very inconsistent also. Arrington was horrible - he seemed to always be 3-5 yds from the WR making the catch. I want to see it get better, but this D also got robbed - if not for lousy calls - I believe this would have been a victory.

 

[jnug]

Another reason I don't think the lack of consistent pressure from the D-line was critical in this game is because the goal of D-line pressure is to force mistakes from the opposing QB. Flacco made a bundle of mistakes in this game...enough for a couple of games worth at least. We just did not take advantage of them. But he made plenty. In fact, I thought Flacco made more mistakes and poor throws in this game with less pressure than I have seen him make in games when he has faced more fierce D-line play.

 

[JMC00]

Did anyone else think the 4th down stop was going to be negated by a flag? I actually didn't believe it until I saw the Pats offense coming out.

Figured there would be a really late flag because the refs realized it was a turnover on downs.

 

[Ring 6]

There was plenty of bad defense being played. My point being, you consider each play as an isolated event. There's some validity in that point of view, but it's certainly not a complete picture.

If the new england offense was on the field for 3-game minutes longer, would that have benefited the defense by getting more rest (well besides the fact that they'd have fewer plays to provide bad defense)?

You seem to be trying to say they played well by creating a hypothetical situation where there is a chance they could have played better than they did.
They got 60-some opportunities to defend the Ravens and the total of those chances was they played terribly. Thats really all there is to it.

 

[jnug]

Well if you want to get down to basics on the Pats defense in this game, the thing to keep in mind is that one key element to the Ravens offense has not changed. The key to stoping them is still stoping Rice. Once the Pats started getting blown off the ball or I should say once specific members of the Pats defense started getting blown off the ball and Rice started running amok the Pats were in trouble. They had to change their defensive schemes just to try to gain some control over Rice.

It is true that the Ravens are now able to do a bit more in the passing game than they could previously. Now the Ravens do have more to go to when defenses adapt in an effort to control Rice. However they can't do that much more unless you let them. The controlling factor is still Flacco who still makes tons of mistakes in the passing game. You either take advantage of them when the Ravens turn to him to carry more of the load or you don't. We didn't. That and the fact that we did not win the game with our offense when we had our foot on their throats was the story of this game, not the officiating or anything else for that matter.

 

[SeymourTrophies]

The Ravens were awarded 5 first downs due to penalties. The Pats were awarded 8 first downs due to penalties. Total penalty yards were 85 on the Pats, and 135 agaisnt the Ravens.

Sorry, but as bad as the calls were last night, we got more calls than the Ravens did.

Our defense gave up 500+ yards, 31 points, missed 3 INTs, no sacks, no hurries, no knock downs....and they "played well"??? If you say so.....

The defense was very vanilla, but this defense is centered around the front four getting pressure. It could not for a number of reasons, some legit, some not.

If the infractions were justified, then we did not 'get' those calls. Are we now arguing that Webb wasn't slow dancing with Welker while the ball was in the air? Ray Lewis pulled Gronk down in the middle of the field by his shoulder pads. Meanwhile, Mayo is getting call for PI for who knows what.

The only call I would say that we 'got' was the penalty on Harbaugh because rarely does a coach get penalized for acting up. The Ngata call was borderline too, but once a QB goes to ground, you can't complain if you hit him and get penalized.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

You seem to be trying to say they played well by creating a hypothetical situation where there is a chance they could have played better than they did.
They got 60-some opportunities to defend the Ravens and the total of those chances was they played terribly. Thats really all there is to it.

Nope, that's not what I was saying, but perhaps something you wanted me to say?

For the record, I mostly agreed with your assessment. My main point being that drives that get extended have a net effect on not only that drive, but on subsequent drives. Either by being more physically tired or trying to adapt by trying to play cleaner because penalties when you believe you are playing fairly/by the rules.

 

[Kontradiction]

The defense sucked. You can make any excuse you want but the fact of the matter is that Flacco took what he want over the middle and then opened things up by bombing all over our overrated corners all night long. How much of it you want to blame on the defense's lack of pressure and the reasons for that lack of pressure (getting held vs. just not being able to get to the quarterback) is certainly up for debate.

 

[Deus Irae]

The Ravens were awarded 5 first downs due to penalties. The Pats were awarded 8 first downs due to penalties. Total penalty yards were 85 on the Pats, and 135 agaisnt the Ravens.

Sorry, but as bad as the calls were last night, we got more calls than the Ravens did.

Our defense gave up 500+ yards, 31 points, missed 3 INTs, no sacks, no hurries, no knock downs....and they "played well"??? If you say so.....

I don't think the defense played well, but your argument is meaningless. The number of penalties doesn't prove anything you're trying to prove. The number of "bad" penalties, and their impact, is what matters.