Playoff Picture- The Final 7

[DreamKid]

We have 7 games remaining in our 2018 Regular Season Campaign-

 

1. Bengals

2. Raiders

3. @ Falcons

4. @ Chiefs

5. Buccaneers

6. @ Chargers

7. Browns

 

This stretch of games is one of the most important in Club History as it could possibly be the final run for both our SB Winning Quarterback Joe Flacco and Head Coach John Harbaugh. It is Ozzie's last year at the helm, we have a 1st Round Quarterback waiting in the wings, fan discontent is growing, and once again we find ourselves in a familiar position.

With a losing record(4-5) at the Bye- looking to play catch up.

Currently, we're on the outside looking in:

 

 No excuses. All we need is Ws, and there's no reason we shouldn't get them.

Discuss all things playoffs here. 
 

[DreamKid]

The conversation begins and essentially can end with the Cinci game. If we lose to them coming out of our bye, it's curtains. Just like that one time last year.....

What I'm seeing as the assumed wins from everyone right now are the Bengals, Raiders, Bucs and Browns. 

That's great and all of them are certainly must win, but I'm firmly in the camp that we're going to have to beat 2 out of the Falcons, Chiefs, and Chargers. If not win out entirely. 

 

 

 

[drd23]

Bucs and Raiders are the only two of those I'd be comfortable in penciling in as wins.  I'd pencil in the Chargers and Chiefs games as losses, especially considering they are away games.  The Falcons are certainly beatable, as the Browns showed today. 

I would not be surprised if that Week 17 game ends up as another "win and you're in" sort of game.

None of this matters if we can't beat the Bengals on Sunday though

[Danand]

While a loss to the Bengals mathematically doesn’t put us out of the playoffs, we will at least end up with a 2-4 division record and be 2 games behind the Bengals. A loss to the Bengals would literally mean we would have to win out. Besides that, I believe we have a decent chance to get that 9-7 record, that might be enough to get int. The teams we are fighting are Titans and Bengals – both teams have shown the same flaws as us.

What chances do we have?

Bengals – at home, coming off a bye, Bengals just got their *** kicked and they will most likely be without AJ Green who was close to the sole reason the first game went to **** within 3 drives. Whether it is Flacco or Lamar behind center, I believe both have what it takes to put up 3-5 scoring drives which should be enough to get af W.

Raiders – If we can’t beat the Raiders at home, we just don’t belong. It is that simple and while we most likely won’t do it, a L here would mean a roster shuffle where we play the future and “rest” the players who might not be with us. If we are 4-7 here, I think we will mathematically be out of the playoffs unless some unrealistic scenario unfolds.

@ Falcons – if we get 2 wins after the bye, I could see us having a blazing start to the second half of the season. That Falcons defense can just bury their offense. Matt Ryan didn’t have his best game, and the Browns defense played really well, but I can’t see why this wouldn’t happen again against the Ravens.

@ Chiefs – I can’t see how we can win this. It has to be an “any given Sunday” scenario, where everything clicks. We don’t have enough speed on defense and Hill, Watkins, Kelce would just kill us.

Bucs – same as with the Raiders. If we can’t beat the bucs at home, we don’t deserve to be in contention to anything. They have a potent offense, but it is so hot and cold during games, that it exceeds any offense Flacco has ever been a part of.

@ Chargers – Chargers could easily battle the Chiefs for a division win at this point, which means they most likely will play to win instead of resting starters. We could hope they have tired legs or something after a week 15 game against the Chiefs.

Browns – With losses to the AFC West, the only thing the Ravens can hope for is that the Bengals hit a bad away streak late in the season with 3 out of 4 away games. The titans might be contenders as well, but they are just as unpredictable as us, so who knows. As already said, this might be the deciding game where we either go 8-8 or 9-7.

While we are down at the moment, I simply can’t see a reason to throw in the towel.

Every team we face except the Chiefs and Chargers have shown huge flaws and there is no reason we could not get 5 wins against those teams. So far our losses are against the Bengals, Saints, Steelers Panthers and Browns. Only the Browns have a losing record of those teams and Saints, Steelers and Panthers look very much like playoff bound teams. We are not losing to scrub teams so far.

[berlin calling]

i have the Colts as my dark horse for a WC spot.

they are coming on hot right now, have a 3 game win streak and the oline is playing great. if they beat TEN at home next week they'll be the ones to have an eye on, they play them again week 17.

can't trust the Ravens to make it in imo, heard that story once too many times. they'll probably get embarassed by Nick Chubb week 17 to just lose out by conference record or some stupid tie breaker. as they always do in recent memory.

[diamondbull424]

13 hours ago, DreamKid said:

1. Bengals

2. Raiders

3. @ Falcons

4. @ Chiefs

5. Buccaneers

6. @ Chargers

7. Browns

 

I’m thinking we hit a 5 game winning streak. The next 2 games are must wins for sure. Once we take those, Flacco gets his win against his former draft buddy, Matt Ryan. Afterwards I see our teams confidence riding high. We have the talent and we historically have been able to beat Chiefs squads and Harbaugh will likely take perhaps his last battle with his mentor VERY seriously. I have us winning a tough battle that erupts into a high scoring affair in the second half. Flacco comes in clutch in the end to setup a Justin Tucker 52 yard field goal.

The media now is back on the Ravens jocks and we’re riding high. We go on to face the Chargers with the chance to potentially win the division crown with wins down the stretch. We lose to a Chargers team that historically has our number.

Last game of the season, we have a playoff spot clenched as a wildcard, with no possible way to win the division crown. So we play put the team into preseason mode. Play the starters for the first quarter, maybe second, and then let the 2nd and 3rd units run for the entire second half. Lamar Jackson gets the start though as the team rests Flacco’s hip for the playoff run. Lamar Jackson vs Baker Mayfield, RG3 gets the opportunity to play in the fourth quarter as Harbaugh looks to reward him for his hard work this season with some playing time.

First round:

Beat the Indy Colts on the road.

Second round:

Beat the Patriots on the road.

Third round:

Lose to the Chiefs, this was not our season of destiny.

Andy Reid goes on to lose the Super Bowl against the LA Rams. The refs play a huge part in the results. Some conspiracy theories say the NFL wanted the Rams to win because of the LA fires and the team having a great story.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Can't see us losing to the Bengals but I'll go through each scenario and see what happens:

Scenario 1: We beat the Bengals

We get some momentum and destroy the Raiders the next week, and are riding high and mighty into Atlanta to face the Falcons, where Julio and Calvin Ridley decimate our CB's send us right back to reality after a solid whooping. Next week Mahomes does the same thing and we're right back to where we are now, in chaos. But here come the Bucs in to town. Fitzmagic has turned into Fitztragic by this point and we eek out a close win against the Bucs. Now it's a win-or-else game against the Chargers since the Bengals are losing control of the 6th WC spot, and we get stomped by Phil Rivers and Derwin James ends our season with a pick. We start Lamar against the Browns for a Baker/Lamar showdown and Lamar outduels Baker for a meaningless win, sealing John Harbaugh's fate as we miss the playoffs once again by 1-2 games that we should've easily won earlier on in the year.

Scenario 2: We lose to the Bengals. Nothing changes other than we play Lamar a lot sooner than the Browns game and still miss the playoffs, but Lamar now gets experience and we probably end up with the same draft pick.

[DreamKid]

 

[DreamKid]

WTF happened to the Bengals. They looked like they had their best squad in years and now... a total collapse.

[drd23]

49 minutes ago, DreamKid said:

 

RIP a number of my fantasy teams if this happens

[DreamKid]

 

[DreamKid]

 

[DreamKid]

A major Post-Bye development I'm looking for is the true integration of Hayden Hurst and Mark Andrews into our Offense. No more excuses. Both players are healthy, know the playbook, and have displayed valuable skill sets. Especially with how rules are now, pieces like our 2 Rookies are invaluable. These DBs and LBs can't crush pass catchers going across the middle or down the seam anymore. They essentially have to play the ball, and it's almost impossible to do that with any sort of consistency against sure handed Targets that are 6'4 and 6'5.

Both Joe and Lamar love throwing to Tight Ends. It's time to start using our weapons to their potential. Our QB's rating when targeting Hayden Hurst is 92.5 and our QB's rating when targeting Mark Andrews is 109.4. It isn't complicated, use them and use them in tandem. 

I've grown completely uncomfortable with the coaching staff's handling of recent draft picks and if they're out of jobs they can point to that as a major reason why. I'll be truly disgusted if at the end of the season Tim Williams's playing time is still an issue. He's the Vanguard, but there are a dozen other cases where it's been an issue with other players. One that's cost us multiple games. Times up fellas, function as productive forward thinking coaches or get the F#$K off the team.  

[DreamKid]

 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

I can see it now. We decide to start RGIII in a must-win game without Ronnie Stanley and James Hurst. He gets hurt on 2nd series of the game after going 3 and out quickly on the 1st series. Lamar comes in and leads the team to victory and that's how the Lamar era starts.