Baltimore

[Rob0729]

Even without Moss, I think there are a lot of favorable match ups for the Pats.

The Ravens have not played well on offense all year. Flacco has been average at best even with two new weapons. Ray Rice's falling back to the pack is one of the more underplayed stories right now. BJGE is having a better year than him right now (BJGE has 215 yards, 4.6 YPC, and 2 TDs vs. Rice's 230 yards, 3.8YPC, and 0 TDs although Rice has been more of a factor in the passing game) and BJGE didn't actually start until this past week.

The Raven's defense is still their strength, but it is still also the Pats. Their weakness is their secondary. Even with the loss of Moss, they will have match up problems because they do not have great secondary players and with all Brady's weapons people will get free at least at times.

I think the loss of Moss will hurt the Pats far more against teams with great offenses with average or below defenses than great defenses with average or below offenses. The loss of Moss will hurt the Pats more in shootouts than if the Pats' offense is allowed to have long sunstained drives to score. The Ravens' offense might be the right one to face for this defense who is starting to gain confidence in themselves.

 

[The Brandon Five]

you can get lewis out of his game by hitting him back. he then turns into a freak and overpursues everything

Maybe we'll have the first instance of someone getting "Gronked" away from the endzone...

I agree with Rob that the secondary is weaker than in the past, but I worry about the protection against the Ravens' front. Ngata and Suggs are beastly. Cody outweighs Koppen by 50 lbs, although he has handled him in the past.

Hopefully having Welker, Woodhead and our TE's will help, but I wonder how the safeties will play now that our only deep threat is Tate?

 

[Kulko]

Well gpoing out 3-3 over the next 6 games would be all one could ask for from this team, but of course BAL is a homegame, so one of the better chances we have.

We have a short but very consistent history this season of making mediocre QBs look good and giving up big chunks to good RBs, so I would guess you should expect them to put 24 points on the board, even if its only Flacco out there. Of course getting another pair of these nicely timed INTs would be very helpful here.

OTOH our offense is the big unknown. As somebody posted aleady, nobody is prepared for Tate and Price, but less need for deep safeties will hurt the running game and the short routes. And you should expect a decline from the current 30 pt average because we will be playing a top notch D.

Comes out about even unless we have another of these noshow days in the trenches like we had the last time we met. But that seeems unlikely the way we have been playing so far.

 

[PowerRunRevival]

Post Moss I see the Patriots trying going back to a gameplan that attacks the opposing defenses weaknesses.

I think Baltimore is very susceptible to runs out of the shot gun and runs to the outside. They are very stout up the middle but once you have there big d lineman trying to flow to the play they have problems. I believe this is how Cleveland was able to run the ball with so much success on them. I feel like success can be had running on the Ravens but only as a change up to the pass. The real success should be through the air.

The Ravens pass defense actually hasn't given up many yards this year, but this might be misleading. First game they played Sanchez who looked awful (I think it was due to it being his first game, he was missing open receivers), Senecca Wallace, Charlie Batch and Carson Palmer. I will be interested to see what Kyle Orton and the Broncos suddenly strong passing offense does against them. If Kyle Orton can slice up there d then you best believe Tom Brady can, Moss or no Moss.

On defense we need to pressure the Ravens. Bring pressure to stop the run and bring pressure to force Flacco into mistakes (he has 6 ints on the year).

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Maybe we'll have the first instance of someone getting "Gronked" away from the endzone...

I agree with Rob that the secondary is weaker than in the past, but I worry about the protection against the Ravens' front. Ngata and Suggs are beastly. Cody outweighs Koppen by 50 lbs, although he has handled him in the past.

Hopefully having Welker, Woodhead and our TE's will help, but I wonder how the safeties will play now that our only deep threat is Tate?

I take their safeties against our tight ends anyday....

 

[Ravenwild]

Hello,
Ravens fan here. Not here to troll or talk smack or anything just like to talk football. Talking on your own teams forums can get stale sometimes.

Anyway, this is going to be a great game.

I've kind of read through this thread and a lot of you make some great points, there are a few others that I really don't agree with.

There is a misconception that the Ravens secondary is weak. They are playing without Ed Reed and Dominique Foxworth, but in Reed's place is Tom Zibikowski who is probably a starter on most other teams in the league. He's not the pure playmaker that Reed is, but he doesn't gamble in coverage nearly as much, and generally just plays the position very well. At Corner is Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb. While Washington isn't a top tier shutdown corner he is a solid #2 and has great speed. Lardarius Webb is a second year guy who will probably be a shut down corner with the way he has progressed so far (see him stripping mike wallace of a td reception last week)

The defense is way down there right now in rush ypg, due to getting absolutely run over by Peyton Hillis. Honestly as much as I wanted to be a homer and chalk it up to a fluke, Hillis is a beast at 250lbs (running behind another FB most of the game as well) Also, Cleveland's Oline is impressive in the run game it's been a few years since the Ravens front 7 just got blown off the ball like that. It's funny how a lot of teams allow 100yd rushers on a regular basis, but when the Ravens allow the run people are quick to say that they can't stop the run anymore. IMO the Ravens run defense will most likely be back in the top 10 if not top 5 before the season ends.

As far as the Offense goes, a lot of people are quick to point out that they haven't been scoring many points. Keep in mind that they have had to play the Steelers defense on the road, the Bengals defense on the road, and the Jets defense on the road as well. Out of those three games Flacco really only had one bad game. Considering the circumstances, i'd say that's pretty good.
He's still young, and he has a lot of improvement to make but not many QBs have moved the ball against the Jets D and the Steelers d like he has so far this season.

The flip side of the coin offensively is that the Ravens are playing without Jared Gaither who is an upper echelon Tackle. They have moved Marshal Yanda over to RT from RG and Michael Oher to LT. Yanda has played better than expected so far in pass protection, but where he was instrumental for the Ravens offense was in the run game.

I think this is going to be another 3-7 point game between these two teams. I don't know as much about the patriots obviously as you guys would so i'll just stick to making comments about my own team. It will be interesting to see what the Patriots drum up offensively without Moss. That being said, even though Moss is gone you guys still have Brady and we have all witnessed the Pats go all the way with just Brady and less talented receivers than you have now, so I don't buy into all the hype that the Pats offense will struggle without Moss.

Anyway, Cheers and good luck!

 

[Its_The_Patriots]

Bump! I'm not sure why this thread is close to the bottom so again I say bump!