Week 3 Pre Game Thread - Ravens @ Pats

[Joey007]

This kind of matchup is why you made some of the moves (and subtractions) that you did this offseason. We’ll see if speed and youth pay dividends here.

 

[Joey007]

This game is pretty huge for us. You win this, and it means a ton for tiebreaker scenarios.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

This kind of matchup is why you made some of the moves (and subtractions) that you did this offseason. We’ll see if speed and youth pay dividends here.

Agreed. Lamar, Josh, Tua, Rodgers, etc., a lot of reasons for faster defensive guys. Hope Duggar is OK. Need Barmore to step up. Uche and Jennings helping would be nice.

 

[Loving_life35]

Hey guys! I’ll be at the game I hope for no injuries and of course a victory .

 

[Guts]

Hey guys! I’ll be at the game I hope for no injuries and of course a victory .

Awesome have a great time!

 

[StrawHatPatriot]

I honestly could see this going wither way.

It depends on Ravens turnovers.

 

[goheels22002]

They do look bad on defense, my point is are we ready to exploit that?

I like our defense but Baltimore has a really good offense, you still have to anticipate them scoring at least 17-20 no matter how good we play. Our offense will need to do more this week.

Great question. I think the Patriots are definitely ready to light these guys up at home. If you watched Mac Jones at Alabama, you know he can pick apart a defense and let his receivers do their thing. If the OL does as good a job as they did against the Steelers, the Patriots can blow these guys out.

 

[catent]

Great question. I think the Patriots are definitely ready to light these guys up at home. If you watched Mac Jones at Alabama, you know he can pick apart a defense and let his receivers do their thing. If the OL does as good a job as they did against the Steelers, the Patriots can blow these guys out.

Yeah, that's kind of my sense. Mac's due to pop-off. I know the guy isn't perfect but even bad QBs (which Mac is not) in the modern NFL have blockbuster games, Mac will certainly have plenty of his. Maybe it has to wait until Thornton returns, but if they can get the offense clicking on all cylinders (it was close at times against Pittsburgh but it never fully hooked up to its maximum potential), soften up the defense early, and play with some momentum, I think we could see Mac and co. have themselves a special day sometime soon.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Great question. I think the Patriots are definitely ready to light these guys up at home. If you watched Mac Jones at Alabama, you know he can pick apart a defense and let his receivers do their thing. If the OL does as good a job as they did against the Steelers, the Patriots can blow these guys out.

I hope you are right. Being at home will help, last year his 4 best games were all at home and opening on the road against two teams who should be in the playoff hunt was a tall order for a 2nd yr qb. The offense has shown the flashes for sure, it has not been completely stagnant, just need more consistency to finish on those drives.

 

[ashley]

Getting everyone ready for a Tuesday:

 

[PatsFanInVa]

This is a good test for this defensive team. If the Miami team we held to 20 was the "real" Miami, it bodes well for what we do against the Ravens. (By the same token, if I'm Baltimore I'm looking at it as more like a must-win than should be the case... but if anything, the Ravens seem to regard Patriots games as opportunities to lose by rising and falling on emotion.)

Funny story about what I mean: I think it was when we were on the 2007 FU tour, and the Ravens "created the blueprint to beat the Patriots" or whatever, and only lost by single digits. If I'm not mistaken, the end of that game, with the outcome still very much undecided, we scored the TD to take the lead, and Bart Scott got penalized on the play for unsportsmanlike conduct. Effin' genius that he is, I'm sorry, emotion-feuled emotional powerhouse, he picks up the flag and heaves it into the stands for another unsportsmanlike conduct. Acting all on his own, Scott prety much iced it for us, or made that final mountain they would have had to climb that much higher.

And if you google looking for that play, they defend it because the refs really were bad, because other mistakes the Ravens made really were unfair, how they really won most of that game, whatever. How they have "always done a great job not being intimidated by the Patriots." Blah blah blah. They loved to use all that emotion. We loved to deny the existence of emotion.

Who knows whether these teams have residue of those two approaches now... I'm not a Ravens student, but I *can* imagine the Patriots still preaching the "never as good as your best game, never as bad as your worst game" mantra.

Most of all I hope for continued signals, as we always do, that this D is as good as it looks. All defenses except the very best deteriorate toward the end of the season... But right now would be a good time for this D to continue its dominant play while the O further gels.

A continuation of the O-line showing what all that work is for, please, on the offensive side of the ball. And a toast to the continued (newfound) success of the OZ scheme and of the principle of clock control at will. When I finally saw the last few minutes against Pixburgh I was impressed. Ball control and a solid D is the hardest story to sell in today's NFL. Here's to being a throwback... until Mac10 is back on track.

 

[Triumph]

4 - 5 home record last season. Started off 0 - 4 in the hole.

Another big game with post season implications. Ravens fans are complaining about the DC and the whipping they just took over the passing game.

 

[Kontradiction]

This is a good test for this defensive team. If the Miami team we held to 20 was the "real" Miami, it bodes well for what we do against the Ravens.

Not really. That’s actually pretty meaningless simply because the match-ups are completely different. The Patriots weren’t spying Tua nor were they sitting in press or off zone to keep their eyes toward him. They’ll do more of the latter (likely) with Lamar.

 

[Triumph]

The Ravens blitzed Tua 15 times last Sunday.

Safe to imagine that we will see more pressure on Jones.

Tua Tagovailoa 2022 Advanced Game Log | Pro-Football-Reference.com

Get Tua Tagovailoa 2022 Advanced game log for regular season and playoff games on Pro-football-reference.com.

www.pro-football-reference.com

 

[Guts]

I know some of you don't care about these things but for those who do....

NFL.com has as at 18 in their power rankings.


Espn.com has us at 16


I think we are top 15 through 2 weeks

 

[jeremy2020]

Agreed. Lamar, Josh, Tua, Rodgers, etc., a lot of reasons for faster defensive guys. Hope Duggar is OK. Need Barmore to step up. Uche and Jennings helping would be nice.

One of these things is not like the others..

 

[PowerRunRevival]

I'm not sure how to feel about this game.

On one hand the Ravens don't look good. Lamar is great, but they haven't been able to run the ball with their running backs and their passing offense is really boom or bust. If the Pats can prevent explosive plays by playing heavy coverage I don't think the Ravens can consistently move the ball by taking what the defense gives them underneath. The Ravens defense seems pretty bad against the pass, but I'm not sure the Pats have the passing game to take advantage of that.

On the other hand, I could see the Patriots come out and make mental mistakes that lead to explosive plays for the Ravens and turnovers given up.

Coming into the season I expected the first 4 games to be really difficult. After watching the Ravens against Miami and the Packers struggle offensively in their first team against a defense that got lit up by the Eagles yesterday. Honestly, I don't think the Ravens or Packers are really that good. Unfortunately the Pats aren't that good either.

 

[jah]

I know some of you don't care about these things but for those who do....

NFL.com has as at 18 in their power rankings.


Espn.com has us at 16


I think we are top 15 through 2 weeks

It doesn't make much sense to say you think a team or QB is top <X> unless you actually go through and rank everyone. I have the Pats at 17 right now because I looked at every team and found that I considered 16 of them better. Months ago, I did a QB ranking and expected Mac to be somewhere in the 10-15 range and he ended up in the 18-20 range after actually considering the rest of the QBs.

It also doesn't mean that much where you rank relative to others because it doesn't factor in how the league is distributed in that category. Some years there's more parity, or different manifestations of parity. The 20th best team one year might be the 15th best another year.

Right now, the league has a lot of teams that could go either way, and the Pats are one of them. Nothing should be especially surprising with how they get ranked.

 

[PatsFan2]

I'm not sure how to feel about this game.

On one hand the Ravens don't look good. Lamar is great, but they haven't been able to run the ball with their running backs and their passing offense is really boom or bust. If the Pats can prevent explosive plays by playing heavy coverage I don't think the Ravens can consistently move the ball by taking what the defense gives them underneath. The Ravens defense seems pretty bad against the pass, but I'm not sure the Pats have the passing game to take advantage of that.

On the other hand, I could see the Patriots come out and make mental mistakes that lead to explosive plays for the Ravens and turnovers given up.

Coming into the season I expected the first 4 games to be really difficult. After watching the Ravens against Miami and the Packers struggle offensively in their first team against a defense that got lit up by the Eagles yesterday. Honestly, I don't think the Ravens or Packers are really that good. Unfortunately the Pats aren't that good either.

That goes for our Offense the Defense is carrying this Team.

 

[ashley]

Something to keep an eye on when the injury report comes out tomorrow. Dugger will be a big component in trying to stop Lamar: