GDT 2018: Wilcard Weekend - LA Chargers vs Baltimore Ravens - Sunday 1:05PM

[RavensfanRD]

I'll be working for this game, but its time to hit them in the mouth again. Hopefully, we get a lot more Andrews and Snead over the middle with a sprinkle of Hurst. Somebody need to get Mason on the phone and teach Crabtree that certified comeback route so we'll be good there. I fully expect Lamar to air it out at least one time to John Brown. I didn't see the first game and sadly I won't see this one either, but I think we'll take it since we have a ton of momentum.

28-24 Ravens

Hey KC!  Hi big head!  in the words of Beatrix Kiddo "We have unfinished business"

[SalvadorsDeli]

Such a huge part of this game is gonna come down to what kind of new looks Wink is able to throw at Rivers. The nice thing about Rivers compared to guys like Mayfield and Mahomes who have gotten at us recently is that those other guys have the ability to extend plays and avoid the pass rush with their legs, and those extra couple of seconds in man coverage/scramble drills is often where the corners and safeties lose their man and we give up big plays. But even if Rivers is a statue in the pocket, he's also a step above most other QB's we've faced this year in terms of his presnap reads. If we throw him the same looks that he saw when we played them a couple of weeks ago, then he's smart enough to make the adjustments at the line to get everything blocked up. We were able to keep Rivers guessing and off-balance the first time we met up but they'll be more prepared for us this time... this will be a big test of what he's able to do to keep the Chargers on their toes. 

[berlin calling]

as long as our young tackle duo keeps shutting down the pass rush as they already did in the last game they should be good.

don't let Jackson become gun shy and make that one crucial mistake that could cost them the game, as it will probably be a tighter score now that the Chargers are back to health.

[SalvadorsDeli]

 

Obviously this is mostly just fluff, but I did think what Jefferson said here was kinda interesting: ""He does a lot of stuff on the practice field that hasn't been able to be shown yet in games, but I know for a fact it's coming. And when it does, all the non-believers are going to become believers."

This could just be him saying that in the future Lamar is gonna be fully unleashed as his career moves forward, but I do wonder if he's also hinting at the gameplan for Sunday including some pretty significant new packages or wrinkles. We've definitely seen this team go from comparatively vanilla to aggressive in the playoffs before and particularly knowing we faced this same team 2 weeks ago, the coaches may be diving deeper into the playbook to give the Chargers some new looks to deal with. 

On a sidenote, I love hearing the way his teammates talk about Lamar. Obviously you can get a little fluff in there as well but you can also just tell from the way guys talk about him that there's a lot of respect and buy-in there. For a 21 year old rookie - especially stepping into a team with a previously established veteran - this could have been a messy situation, but everyone has seemingly just gravitated to Lamar instead. Says a lot about the way he carries himself and works at it to have gained the respect of the locker room so quickly. If everything else with him stays right he's gonna be a hell of a leader for this team as well. 

[berlin calling]

i find it hilarious how everybody talks about how the Chargers are gonna adapt and learn from the recent game but act as if the Ravens will sit on their hands and do nothing and just trot out with the exact same game plan. 

So yeah, i agree with MR, there will be new looks on offense i am sure.

[Danand]

1 minute ago, berlin calling said:

i find it hilarious how everybody talks about how the Chargers are gonna adapt and learn from the recent game but act as if the Ravens will sit on their hands and do nothing and just trot out with the exact same game plan. 

So yeah, i agree with MR, there will be new looks on offense i am sure.

This 100%

I listened to a few danish podcasts today regarding football and predictions for the playoffs, and while these analysts know a lot about the game and the X's and O's, it was somewhat surprising to hear, that none of them acknowledged that the Ravens on offense (also on defense) could make adjustments. It was pretty one sided that, "oh, the Chargers could spread out the Ravens on defense to take away what they did in the first Chargers matchup, and the Chargers could employ the same tactic as the Browns to kill the Ravens deep, Chargers on offense figured out to stop the Ravens in the 4th quarter and they could now do it all game, the Chargers are now more experienced facing the Lamar Jackson offense".

Its not that any of the above is wrong, but the counter argument could be made, that the Ravens now have seen what the can exploit on offense when the Chargers counter the running game, or that the Ravens now figured out how to avoid getting beat deep/how to defend the empty formation the Browns had succes with.

[RavensTillIDie]

Yo, BaltimoreRavens.com is slacking. Where the hell is my playoff hype video?

This is pretty much what I live for every year we make the playoffs:

 

 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

Mebane being out is huge if it happens, though I really feel bad for him going through the personal issues right now with his daughter (health issues). If he's out, that's really going to allow our interior OL to push people around at will.

[SalvadorsDeli]

11 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

Yo, BaltimoreRavens.com is slacking. Where the hell is my playoff hype video?

This is pretty much what I live for every year we make the playoffs:

 

 

 

it's not as good as some of the old ones tbh, but I guess that's always gonna happen when you don't have Ray or Ed voiceovers to work with anymore... 

[berlin calling]

playoff legend Carson Palmer thinks the only team not able to win the SB are the Ravens.

i love this time of the year when everybody and their grandchildren comes out of their closet to enlighten the world with their grand ideas.

i mean, he must know a thing about SB and playoffs... with a playoff record of 1-3, 57% CMP and 5-7 TD/INT

he certainly led the Cards to the promised land... not

thank you for your opinion though, Carson.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

53 minutes ago, berlin calling said:

playoff legend Carson Palmer thinks the only team not able to win the SB are the Ravens.

i love this time of the year when everybody and their grandchildren comes out of their closet to enlighten the world with their grand ideas.

i mean, he must know a thing about SB and playoffs... with a playoff record of 1-3, 57% CMP and 5-7 TD/INT

he certainly led the Cards to the promised land... not

thank you for your opinion though, Carson.

Baltimore has the "least amount of weapons and expertise and experience"....are you actually kidding me?

And ALL of these teams are dangerous from the pocket? Have you seen Mitchell Trubiski throw a football? Have you seen Dak Prescott's stats this year? 

Whatever though. If we win, Lamar's gonna get trashed because we have a good defense and a really good run game (that he's almost solely responsible for reviving..). If we lose, Lamar's gonna get trashed.

[DreamKid]

 

[diamondbull424]

2 hours ago, DreamKid said:

 

 

15 hours ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Mebane being out is huge if it happens, though I really feel bad for him going through the personal issues right now with his daughter (health issues). If he's out, that's really going to allow our interior OL to push people around at will.

Yeah, especially considering the major component of the Chargers having the advantage in this game is that their “defense has already seen our offense.” Taking away two of their most capable players would essentially nullify said advantage.

Mebane is a force to run against up the middle and even though they have capable backups, taking him out of the lineup would mean less fresh legs to rotate along the DL to slow down our rushing attack. We’ve seen repeatedly this season what happens when our offense moves the ball a little, then the defense forces a quick 3 and out and our offense gets back out there. It allows our offense to destroy defenses that are playing fatigued (mentally and physically). It forces them to make mistakes and those mistakes become big rushing gains.

What’s more losing Jatavis Brown might even be the bigger loss. He’s probably the most athletic member of their linebacking core (4.4 speed). IIRC he was the guy they used to spy Lamar Jackson when they switched Derwin James onto Mark Andrews/Hayden Hurst (to stop our TE receiving threats). When they used Brown at spy that’s when they achieved their greatest success with slowing down our rushing attack.

With him removed Derwin James now has to go back into that role which should leave more space for MAndrews and Red Thor to operate in the passing game.

[diamondbull424]

6 hours ago, berlin calling said:

playoff legend Carson Palmer thinks the only team not able to win the SB are the Ravens.

i love this time of the year when everybody and their grandchildren comes out of their closet to enlighten the world with their grand ideas.

i mean, he must know a thing about SB and playoffs... with a playoff record of 1-3, 57% CMP and 5-7 TD/INT

he certainly led the Cards to the promised land... not

thank you for your opinion though, Carson.

😆

Lamar could potentially beat those numbers in just this playoff run if we get past the Chargers. I mean two wins is certainly within reason. He threw for 58% in the regular season, so beating 57% might not be unreasonable. And then 5 TDs, if he comes out composed with as much respect teams give to our rushing attack, 5 TDs might not be improbably to come by with a deep playoff run.

Would love for Lamar to make Palmer look even more ridiculous than his playoff numbers already do.

At the very least, THIS is good poster board material for motivation.

This and the fact that the Ravens, as a home team, are least favored by Pundits 26-23. I appreciate Palmer for making Harbaugh’s job easier.

[Danand]

Apparently Ravens have a below 0.500 opponent win ratio.

Ravens opponents won 101 games, lost 103 combined with 1 draw.

Ravens won only 3 games against opponents with a winning record (steelers once, Titans and chargers) and we lost 3 (Saints, Steelers, Chiefs).

The Ravens once again have very much been a team that beat the teams they were supposed to beat and lost to the best teams. The story however is, that we won both the Steelers and Titans game convincingly, while it took a late defensive TD to secure the win against the Chargers.

Of the 3 games we lost, only the Steelers game was really without reach although it was only 7 points, but we took bot the Saints and the Chiefs to overtime.

We actually only had 2 games this year against the Bengals and Panthers where we never really got close to win the game, so the Chargers have to fight for that W sunday.