- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Messages
- 9,344
- Reaction score
- 7,932
10. Some quick thoughts on the Ravens
A. On the plus side, I don't think the Raven's OL is not as good as Texans have, (3 all pros) and with the injuries to Ngata, and Suggs, they don't have anyone who can rush the Pats like Smith and Watt. So I predict our 4 man pass rush is going to improve a bit, while the chances of Brady getting hit a lot is going to decrease.
B. No question that the Ravens, unlike Houston, is going to test our secondary DEEP. Torry Smith and Aquan Bolden are just too good not to. Both are big tough guys who excel at winning the ball even when well covered. IMHO its the #1 threat and should be the #1 topic of discussion this week in the strategy threads.
C. I am a lot less fearful of Ray Rice's running. He's not near the threat that Foster was, and we handled THAT reasonable well. Where I DO fear Rice is in the passing game. Screens and dump offs make me worried.
D. We need Daniel Fells to go from a healthy scratch to a viable 2nd TE receiver in the course of a week. He doesn't have to be Gronk. He just has to catch about 3 balls and take someone out of coverage.
11. Just peeking ahead to the superbowl - In a playoffs riddled with rematches, it would seem that should we win next week, we should be getting another shot at the Niners. Of course they present a myriad of problems, which, hopefully we'll have 2 weeks to get into, but on the plus side, a Niner win next week, will likely mean that the Gronkless Pats, would likely be a Superbowl UNDERDOG. Rodney and I would very much enjoy that.status again
If the Patriots had had Gronk and Woody, I'd have made them strong favourites against the Ravens. We know that their defense is getting old and Ray Lewis looked old, slow and out of condition. Can we say "hurry-up-offense"? They look to me to be made for it. (Of course, if the Patriots still can't defend the deep ball, things won't go so well.)
Absolutely steamed about the kick-off returns. Sure, the coverage was bad, but take it from a European (we have kicking sports -- you know, foot-ball with the foot) that there is absolutely NO reason for Manning to be able to return those kicks. Gost has plenty of leg to get it out of the endzone in those conditions -- every single darned time.
The reason that he didn't is this stupid, stupid, stupid insistence on "hang time"/"kick it high". Of course, if someone is going to return your kick, you want time to get your coverage team there. But look at the ones that went out of the endzone -- much, much lower. No hang time -- but who cares? It's just physics, baby ...
If Gost can't do that every time, then get a kick-off kicker who can (Mesko?)