As a Ravens fan I will try to address some of the "holes" that are being brought up. I will say that this is honestly the best Ravens roster that has been put on the field since the Super Bowl year....hands down. There are 2 main reasons for that, and that is the depth on defense and Joe Flacco.
OK this one will be easy. Not sold on Flacco? Take a look at his numbers down the stretch last year, not his numbers in the first part of the season out of D-II Delaware and being the starter for about 2 weeks. You will see in the last 11 games Flacco had one of the best QB ratings and his TD/INT was ridiculous. All he did was get better as the year went on, and all he did in this preseason (I know its just preseason) was light it up.Throws the deep ball better than anyone I have ever seen,and on the intermediate stuff just makes it look so easy with the way he throws the ball and the accuracy.The Ravens hardly ran the ball in the preseason just so Joe could throw it, and he delivered. All the stuff coming from close to the team is this guy is not going to be a good QB,but a great one.....this year. They say he is so far ahead of where he was at the beginning of last year, and is ready to take a huge jump. The players see it,the coaches see it and anyone who follows the team closely sees it. This kid is going to be special.
As to the running game. Did you miss 2008? And the fact we now have a guy in Ray Rice healthy to go with McGahee and McClain? I don't even need to say any more about this one....the running the LAST thing that will stop the Ravens. It is one of their strongest and deepest positions. Hell we had to cut a 6th rounder from this year we are so deep there, and the thing is we NEVER cut draft picks....ever.
Sophmore slumps in the NFL are a myth. If you want the numbers I can give them to you. The overwhelming majority of the time the QB makes a huge leap in every category going from his first full year to his second.
Thats what everyone said before last year, you saw what our defense looked like. Defense is aging? Like who? Ray? We have 10 other guys on the defense more than haplf are young guys.
Here are the starters and thieir ages....
CB-Washington 26 Foxworth 26
S- Reed 30 Landry 26
LB- Suggs 26 Johnson 28 Lewis 34 Gooden 24
Dline - Pryce 34 Ngata 25 Bannan 30
Now if that is an old defense I would sure love to hear what a young one looks like. The two positions that have th oldest players at ILB and safety have been known to be fairly kind to guys over 30. I mean, the Pats had a couple guys at those spots they...won Super Bowls with didnt they? 7 out of the 11 on defense are 28 and under,so lets get off the "old defense" argument. If I listed the backups they are ALL young guys around 25 years old except for 2 guys in Gregg and Ayanbedejo.
As to the "lost defensive coordinator". They said that with Marvin Lewis. And Mike Nolan. And now Rex Ryan. They said it when we went from 4-3 to 3-4 and vice versa. It does not matter, as long as 52,20,92 and 55 are on the field this defense will bring it. They always have and always will. Ray calls a lot of the defensive calls as it is, and they have said nothing about the defense will change scheme wise. Players play,and coaches coach....as the Ravens have proved over the last 9 years and various coordinators coming and going.
No wide receivers. Obviously we dont have a guy who is going to get 1400 yds 10 TD's and 100 receptions but you know what about 26 other teams are looking for that guy too.
What we do have is a guy in Mason who can still not be covered in the mid range passing game and is going to put up another 85/1000 plus year...again. Nothing flashy,nothing that will make Sportscenter but he will move the chains and keep drives going. Clayton is a solid number 2 and showed he can be a deep threat last year with a QB who can actually throw an accurate deep ball in Flacco. Demetrious Williams was hurt all last year but when healthy he is as good a number 3 as you are going to get. Big, tall, fast and rangey...just has to stay healthy. One other thing everyone forgets is how much better Flacco is right now compared to last year, he will make the receivers look better than they are..watch.
Anyway I know that is going to sound like your typical homer response to criticism trust me it is not. The Ravens will be a force barring major injuries of course and will put the best team on the field that I can ever remember.
The defense is deep, the offense will take a step ahead right along with Flacco and the Ravens will be able to play with anyone home or on the road and go deep into the postseason. How it turns out in the end is anyones guess but they will be there.
Go ahead,flame away.
