Bring on the Ravens

[PatsWSB47]

It's not like whomever argues their team's chances the best affects the actual game's outcome guys.....It is fun though

 

[kennyb]

Can Reed really cover Gronkowski? He's hobbled and much smaller anyway than Gronkowski.

Ravens make me nervous, I just hope, hope the Pats win.

One thing in the Ravens favor is that Brady doesn't throw really deep that often. He tends to put too much air under long bombs (IMO), which allows the secondary to converge on it.

Very nervous, very excited!

 

[The Brandon Five]

Jesus dude, I'm not even making an argument! What is wrong with you people?

It was a friggin' joke saying who really gives a crap about so and so beat so and so, and this team hasn't beat a playoff team?

This is a joke?

Hey, if the Jets maybe win any of their other 14 games, they make the playoffs.

But the two playoff teams you faced (as far as I recall), NYG and PIT, beat you. However, if they woulda just lost one or two of their other games, they wouldnt of made the playoffs, and no one can say that you haven't been able to beat a playoff team this year.


Not that any of this matters. You can only play whats on your schedule. You're gonna win some, gonna lose some.

 

[supafly]

Missing the point.

We know the Ravens can beat teams with winning records. In fact the Ravens have not lost to a team with a winning record.. maybe they play up to their opponents..

The jury is out on the Patriots.. they have consistently lost to teams with a winning record.

See how that works ?

No....we don't see how that works.

Especially since last yr we beat 7 teams in the top 10 defenses.

Beat ALL 4 AFC/NFC conference championship teams.

Beat BOTH Super Bowl opponents.

And yet, it didn't mean a damn thing.

Green Bay did the same exact thing this yr, although to a much lesser extent.

See how that works?

 

[mgcolby]

I suspect the Tight End play of the Patriots is being overdone, especially in light of who they are playing.

The Ravens achillees heel in pass defense has been over the top plays.. 2large, fast receivers. Even then the Chargers game requires closer analysis.. that game was decided by maybe 4 over the top plays resulting in scores and in the context of a weakened Ravens DB squad. The rookie was basically abused.

The Patriots type of pass offense involves more underneath play. It is very hard to sustain long drives against the Ravens however you choose to manufacture them.

This below average Patriots pass defense will be actually a welcome sight for Flacco. The majority of games for the Ravens this year have been against teams with top 10 pass defenses.

It will be interesting to see if Cam game plans to take advantage of this.. he was willing to take shots against a much better Texans defense.. but then they play more man coverage.

If the Patriots cannot generate adequate pressure with 4 men.. it is going to be tough to protect the corners and at the same time the middle.

This is real exciting !!

The TE play is being overdone? They own just about every single season TE record there is? If you think that then I feel very confident that you have not watched to many Pats games.

Brady will take what is given to him. If he gets an outside matchup that he feels he can take advantage of, he will. I think Hernandez can be a factor as a wideout in this game. If Branch is one on one with Williams, he could have a big day outside. And as I said before I would not be surprised if they tried to get the irrelevant one (Ocho) involved in a limited basis to attack you on the outside.

Has Flacco been playing mostly top 10 defenses his whole career? He does not scare anyone. And his teammates know it. Can he hit a few deep balls sure. I fully expect Smith to be bracketed. Boldin won't outrun anyone but is a great route runner. He concerns me. ****son, Pitta are solid but underutilized. Again your offense goes as Rice goes. We shut him down and it will be a long day for your offense. With all that said I expect your team to score around 20 points. But I expect the Pats to score 27+.

Our Secondary is interesting they give up big plays. But Bill makes sure they keep everything in front of the safeties which prevents big TD plays. They recently moved McCourtey to safety and Moore a young CB to CB in sub packages. This so far has shown imporvement. Also losing Chung for 7 games did not help. Also be carefull of what you ask for. There may not be 4 Revis' back there but they will catch the ball.

Your last point is valid but that depends on Flacco's ability to identify the hole in the coverage and then exploit it. When has he shown the ability to do that this season? My impression from watching him is he looks to his first read and if it is not there he dumps it to Rice. Is this not the case, because that is what I have seen?

 

[coolguy]

Lets hope josh mcdaniels can help improve the offense and bring new plays that no one has seen the patriots do.

 

[shmessy]

Missing the point.

We know the Ravens can beat teams with winning records. In fact the Ravens have not lost to a team with a winning record.. maybe they play up to their opponents..

The jury is out on the Patriots.. they have consistently lost to teams with a winning record.

See how that works ?

Epic Fail.

The Patriots won 7 games this season, plus 1 vicious beatdown in the playoffs against teams who would have had a winning record had they not played the Patriots.

You can look it up.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens were 4-4 on the road.

 

[mgcolby]

Lets hope josh mcdaniels can help improve the offense and bring new plays that no one has seen the patriots do.

I'm not claiming to have any inside info obviously.

But I think it is more than a coincidence that the Pats line AH at RB out of the spread the same week Josh shows up. Little things like that are what I think BB had in mind when bringing him in for the playoff run.

 

[RealityCheck52]

Epic Fail.

The Patriots won 7 games this season, plus 1 vicious beatdown in the playoffs against teams who would have had a winning record had they not played the Patriots.

You can look it up.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens were 4-4 on the road.

Yeah but the Ravens did not lose to a playoff team on the road.. or a winning team for that matter.

Things look good for the Ravens !

 

[shmessy]

Yeah but the Ravens did not lose to a playoff team on the road.. or a winning team for that matter.

Things look good for the Ravens !

The 2010 New England Patriots say that that means absolutely zilch.

So does the past 11 years of Baltimore Ravens football.

If I were you, I'd be more worried about Ed the Gimp blasting Flacco and the OL today on Sirius.

 

[RealityCheck52]

The TE play is being overdone? They own just about every single season TE record there is? If you think that then I feel very confident that you have not watched to many Pats games.

Brady will take what is given to him. If he gets an outside matchup that he feels he can take advantage of, he will. I think Hernandez can be a factor as a wideout in this game. If Branch is one on one with Williams, he could have a big day outside. And as I said before I would not be surprised if they tried to get the irrelevant one (Ocho) involved in a limited basis to attack you on the outside.

Has Flacco been playing mostly top 10 defenses his whole career? He does not scare anyone. And his teammates know it. Can he hit a few deep balls sure. I fully expect Smith to be bracketed. Boldin won't outrun anyone but is a great route runner. He concerns me. ****son, Pitta are solid but underutilized. Again your offense goes as Rice goes. We shut him down and it will be a long day for your offense. With all that said I expect your team to score around 20 points. But I expect the Pats to score 27+.

Our Secondary is interesting they give up big plays. But Bill makes sure they keep everything in front of the safeties which prevents big TD plays. They recently moved McCourtey to safety and Moore a young CB to CB in sub packages. This so far has shown imporvement. Also losing Chung for 7 games did not help. Also be carefull of what you ask for. There may not be 4 Revis' back there but they will catch the ball.

Your last point is valid but that depends on Flacco's ability to identify the hole in the coverage and then exploit it. When has he shown the ability to do that this season? My impression from watching him is he looks to his first read and if it is not there he dumps it to Rice. Is this not the case, because that is what I have seen?

Your analysis of Flacco is incorrect. His pocket awareness and read progressions are greatly improved from his 1 and dump days.

Bottom line is he will make plays against your defense, he has the weapons to do so (Boldin, Smith, Evans, Pitta, ****son, Rice)

My prediction once again is that the QB Ratings of Flacco and Brady will be very similar at the end of the game.

 

[i82much]

Epic Fail.

The Patriots won 7 games this season, plus 1 vicious beatdown in the playoffs against teams who would have had a winning record had they not played the Patriots.

You can look it up.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens were 4-4 on the road.

There are always a bunch of different ways of looking at things. I'm a Ravens fan. I try to be rational. I think it would be pretty hard to dispute that some of our victories (Pitt x2, SF) are more impressive than anything the Pats have done this year in terms of beating tough opponents. But of course that's just a function of who it is that you played, right? Can't blame the Pats for not playing many winning teams.

I don't know about the argument that some of the teams the Pats beat would have had winning records but for their losses to the Pats. The teams that lost to the Ravens lost those games and *still* had losing records, so I think that argument cuts both ways.

The big issue for the Ravens is consistency. There are days when the whole team shows up and they are practically unbeatable. Those days haven't happened often enough and they haven't happened much on the road.

Bottom line is there are a lot of ways to look at the various records and stats, but I do think you have to be mindful of your own biases when you do so.

 

[RealityCheck52]

The 2010 New England Patriots say that that means absolutely zilch.

So does the past 11 years of Baltimore Ravens football.

If I were you, I'd be more worried about Ed the Gimp knocking Flacco and the OL today on Sirius.

That is on the Patriots.. don't lump the Ravens in that category.

 

[Tunescribe]

Things look good for the Ravens !

Not if they look in the mirror.

By the way, what's with the bickering and dissension re., Reed slamming Flacco's play against the Texans on the radio? That cannot be good for Flacco's confidence -- which he doesn't seem to have much of already -- or the general locker room vibe during a playoff week. You'll never see the Pats indulging such nonsense.

 

[Patspsycho]

This indicates you do not have a good grasp of the facts. Ravens have good young rotation in the front 7. Ray Lewis I suppose is the odd man out if you want to call him geriatric

Which other Old Boys are you referring to ?

Unfortunately it still remains that the big playmakers you have on D are the old boys, (Reed, Lewis, Suggs, etc).

 

[PatsWSB47]

This thread will be 300 pages long by Sunday:singing:

 

[mgcolby]

Your analysis of Flacco is incorrect. His pocket awareness and read progressions are greatly improved from his 1 and dump days.

Bottom line is he will make plays against your defense, he has the weapons to do so (Boldin, Smith, Evans, Pitta, ****son, Rice)

My prediction once again is that the QB Ratings of Flacco and Brady will be very similar at the end of the game.

Ok, but that is not what I see when I watch him each week.

Lets say that is the case and you are correct. How do you explain Rice being the leading receiver on the team? And how does he only have a 57% completion rate with Boldin, Smith, Evans, Pitta and ****son? Surely a QB who is reading through his progressions would be able to find one of them open down field and wouldn't be over reliant on dumping it off to his RB?

 

[RealityCheck52]

Not if they look in the mirror.

By the way, what's with the bickering and dissension re., Reed slamming Flacco's play against the Texans on the radio? That cannot be good for Flacco's confidence -- which he doesn't seem to have much of already -- or the general locker room vibe during a playoff week. You'll never see the Pats indulging such nonsense.

Flacco's confidence soars against bottom of the league pass defenses.

 

[shmessy]

I don't know about the argument that some of the teams the Pats beat would have had winning records but for their losses to the Pats.

It is no "argument".

It is a simple math fact.

They played 7 games against 6 teams who would have had been 8-7 (8-6, in the case of the Jets), without the losses to the Patriots.

Then they blasted one of those teams all over again Saturday night.

 

[RealityCheck52]

Ok, but that is not what I see when I watch him each week.

Lets say that is the case and you are correct. How do you explain Rice being the leading receiver on the team? And how does he only have a 57% completion rate with Boldin, Smith, Evans, Pitta and ****son? Surely a QB who is reading through his progressions would be able to find one of them open down field and wouldn't be over reliant on dumping it off to his RB?

You were probably watching the games where he was playing against top 10 pass defenses.. which were the majority of games.