GDT 10/18/20 Week 6: 4-1 Baltimore Ravens @ 1-3-1 Philadelphia Eagles

[drd23]

2 hours ago, M.10.E said:

Next 5 games are Steelers x2, Colts, Patriots, Titans so we’ll see how good this team really is. 

If you were basing it solely on today, the Colts are pretenders and the Pats don't even have a winning record

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

10 minutes ago, drd23 said:

If you were basing it solely on today, the Colts are pretenders and the Pats don't even have a winning record

Well we're about to find out how good our offense truly is, that's for sure. 

[baltimoreRebel]

4 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

Well we're about to find out how good our offense truly is, that's for sure. 

Hopefully this is a situation where we play to the skill of our opponent and we're fine. Who knows. We gotta wait 2 weeks to see what's up. 👎🏼

[RavensfanRD]

Man, feels good to win, but that was for sure a disaster. Takeaways

• Penalties - Refs didn't do any favors, but still a lot of them were on the players
• Offense - I have zero confidence in this group at the moment.
• Defense - Pretty good, but got cute second half. Will be a detriment against better opponents
• Special teams - Whatever the wolfpack wants, Harbaugh better accommodate  

Not going to lie, I don't feel confident whatsoever going against Pitt in 2 weeks. At this point in time, I definitely have that chalked as a loss. Harbaugh needs to get in ***** on the offensive side of the football and fast. We're in the second quarter of the season. Pre-season (weeks 1-4) is over. Ravens need to be tuned up and fast. All in all, a win is a win and I'm glad we got it done. We're 5-1 and about to rest. Let's go, boys. Let's go!

[Fitz709]

44 minutes ago, RavensfanRD said:

Man, feels good to win, but that was for sure a disaster. Takeaways

• Penalties - Refs didn't do any favors, but still a lot of them were on the players
• Offense - I have zero confidence in this group at the moment.
• Defense - Pretty good, but got cute second half. Will be a detriment against better opponents
• Special teams - Whatever the wolfpack wants, Harbaugh better accommodate  

Not going to lie, I don't feel confident whatsoever going against Pitt in 2 weeks. At this point in time, I definitely have that chalked as a loss. Harbaugh needs to get in ***** on the offensive side of the football and fast. We're in the second quarter of the season. Pre-season (weeks 1-4) is over. Ravens need to be tuned up and fast. All in all, a win is a win and I'm glad we got it done. We're 5-1 and about to rest. Let's go, boys. Let's go!

I second most of this. The defence needs to be more consistent, but looking good. I think the offence needs to take advantage and work on plays, but coming against the Steelers its the o-line I have no faith in myself. 

[DreamKid]

Fletcher Cox, Malik Jackson, Brandon Graham. These are all good players, very good/great even. Top 5 DI elite in Fletcher's case. Vinny Curry has always been strong in rotation and Josh Sweat is coming on for them too.

We faced an unquestionably plus front today. It's important to remember that when screaming about the shaky OL play in this one. The penalties and issues executing should be totally owned, but it's not like we were facing scrubs out there. 

[M.10.E]

I don’t even think anymore needs to be said until this Pittsburgh game. We’ve just repeated ourselves every week haha

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

43 minutes ago, DreamKid said:

Fletcher Cox, Malik Jackson, Brandon Graham. These are all good players, very good/great even. Top 5 DI elite in Fletcher's case. Vinny Curry has always been strong in rotation and Josh Sweat is coming on for them too.

We faced an unquestionably plus front today. It's important to remember that when screaming about the shaky OL play in this one. The penalties and issues executing should be totally owned, but it's not like we were facing scrubs out there. 

Josh Sweat looked like an All-Pro against our OL today. It would be one thing if the OL struggled today and it was an isolated thing, but it's just not. 

[diamondbull424]

I’m not going to act like the Steelers are pretenders or anything because I definitely think they’re the kind of team that plays to the level of their competition. However I think everyone has to remember that they are still riding fresh off of their bye two weeks ago. They’ll be playing a physical Titans team right before playing a Ravens team that should be well rested. I say this because the Browns while riding high going on were also becoming quite banged up, while they themselves were rather fresh. They won’t be against us come our matchup and in fact will be the ones with less fresh bodies.

So can we lose the game absolutely, but I don’t see anything more than two evenly matched squads that should push each other. They have the more clutch offense, so it’ll be important for us to cultivate a lead early, but their receivers aren’t ones that scare me like the Chiefs. They can out physical most any team but with Jimmy Smith and Marlon Humphrey in tow, we have the size and physicality to matchup with their WRs.

The bye week should hopefully help get some of the young guys further up to speed such as Queen with his play recognition and Madubuike with getting more opportunities to activate again as a pass rusher.

Best result might be the Steelers taking us to the brink and forcing Lamar to lead a GWD so this offense can build confidence in each other in late game situations that will come in handy come playoff time. They have confidence in the 2 min warning going into the half, so now they just need more confidence in other game situations. Hopefully rest allows Lamar to get back to throwing the tight spirals from early in the season.

Another thing I think will help is this bye week will be HUUUGEE for Lamar. He’s had his knee a little sore and his hamstring issue from earlier in the year. The bye week should definitely help him as a runner. I was thinking how on that last possession, it looked like Lamar COULD HAVE went into another level speed wise but didn’t. He had the ability to separate and get the TD but just let himself be caught and ended the game. It’s possible he’s not pushing himself on that front. Get him fully healthy and those hamstrings back to elite juiced up status and plays like that will end in a TD more often than not.

Also in terms of this game, yeah it was clear that the refs were providing some home cooking. There’s no excuse for so many pre-snap penalties. Killed some big completions we had made, kept the offense behind schedule, and kept the offense from playing with any level of confidence the rest of the game.

The defense was mostly dominant outside of a few coverage busts here and there. Which leads me to a huge concern. How is it as far into the tenure with these defensive coaches and yet this defense is still as terrible as it is in zone coverage? I get it, we’re probably the best man coverage corner set in the league, however great defense’s need to be able to switch up looks against great QBs/OCs. Our defense is far too one dimensional in that regard. They need to stop practicing all these exotic blitzes and practicing more how to be consistent in their zone defense responsibilities when we have to go to those looks.

The other issue is Judon is largely becoming the next Tony Jefferson. Always trash talking opposing players to give them life and motivation while providing little of actual substance on the field. He’s nothing but a barking chihuahua. Sure against TEs or unblocked he’s godly, but this defense will never take the next step until he’s no longer being relied upon to take the high amount of snaps that he does. Heck his idiotic tendency to go for the absolute latest QB hits is festering to the rest of this defense too. He’s such a waste of money, annoys me that we could’ve had Clowney for the money Judon has been getting. Everyone complained about how Clowney isn’t a pass rusher, but Clowney would be able to dominate in untouched and against TEs as well... only he’d be able to occasionally shred actual OL while being a force against the run.

Marcus Peters needs to play better. He’s not trash Peters, but too much of his value comes from his interceptions, the TD fumble recovery by JJAW probably looks a little differently if Peter’s isn’t letting him block him all the way up the field and then just give up once he thinks his teammate is going to make the tackle. If he actually believed in all hats to the ball, he sheds the block once his teammate is there and we perhaps get a fumble recovery there for the defense. If the interceptions aren’t coming he’s got to do a better job being valuable elsewhere. It’s clear that once his contract is up we’ll have to have a drafted corner in place to cultivate taking his place... as Peters is the forever mercenary type. No way we’re going to be paying this guy for his efforts once his coverage begins to slip from 8/10 down to a 6-7/10 due to age.

That said shoutout to Jimmy Smith, Marlon Humphrey, Calais Campbell, Chuck Clark, and Justin Madubuike for standing out. Patrick Queen for being in coverage as much as he was today also didn’t get particularly toasted so I’m here for it. Wasn’t his best game, but his value comes in his elite run stopping ability and he did have a crucial run stuff on that 4th and 1 situation with Wentz and had another big tackle on a play where Judon broke contain.

Edited October 19, 2020 by diamondbull424

[sp6488]

9 hours ago, Ray Reed said:

Yeah i took eagles +10 tbh think it could easily end as a 4-8 point game

Good call. 

[AngusMcFife]

My favorite play of the day was at 6:35 in the 3rd quarter. 2nd and 11. Lamar drops back, feels the pass rush coming up the field on both sides, steps up and fires a rocket 20 yards past the LOS to the far side of the field to Hollywood. If Lamar can pepper the outside of the field like that, we're cooking. Hitting the deep out and then hitting the 9 route are going to be crucial. 

There were a couple of other plays where Lamar failed to step in to his throw and was sidearming it but it didn't get there. I know he is capable of using good throwing mechanics, but sometimes he is falling in love with those sidearm throws too much. 

Also on the 3rd and 9 with 3:30 left in the 4th, we really needed a first down to ice the game. The O-line provided a nice pocket, but Lamar bailed out of the pocket way too early and had to throw it away. 

I feel like so far I'm seeing snippets of what Lamar is capable of, but he's still inconsistent at some crucial QB skills. The idea that he'll put it all together this year may be too much to ask. He's still a 23 year old pup. Obviously he will make some spectacular plays and have some great games down the stretch this season. But I hope he also uses good throwing mechanics more often and doesn't rely on his legs rather than going through his reads. 

[Danand]

My feelings after the game are very much the same as they have been after all games this first half of the season.

Outside of our win against the Browns, I have the feeling we are playing with on hand tied behind our backs (think some call it “playing left handed”). The Chiefs game is an outlier as well on the negative side. I don’t think we are close to being that bad on offense, and seeing the game for the third time, Mahomes just played at a very high level and we got outschemed on defense.

We need to see our offense getting back to that level with great execution and balance in the run/passing game like we saw against the Rams last year for instance. Just being able to attack all levels of the field keeping defenses a step behind – instead of this sluggish offense we have seen the last couple of weeks.

In my opinion, most of our issues comes from scheme and timing and not being able to take advantage of the stuff defenses throws at us. I am certain the slants are there to Boykin/Duvernay and that we can take advantage of Duvernay and Browns speed better than we have done. I also think we see less seam routes as defenses packs the middle of the field, so the out routes and deep curls should be there.

I hope they sit down and figure out to make those plays happen to open it up, because we have too many plays going for 2 yards or less on first downs.

[M.10.E]

I'm not sure if it's just me, but it feels like teams are daring us to run up the middle with Lamar this year.

[Danand]

15 minutes ago, M.10.E said:

I'm not sure if it's just me, but it feels like teams are daring us to run up the middle with Lamar this year.

Imo its both. They take away the outside and then attack up the middle which means there is a big gap behind the linebackers, hence there should be opportunities to exploit quick slants and outs all day as defenders also plays off coverage in man

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

To be 5-1 and the offence still hasn’t really clicked yet is not the end of the world, I’m actually optimistic that it is showing we aren’t even getting rolling yet! I think the bye will do a lot, as we need to watch tape and find out what exactly this team wants to be on offence. I’m hoping it involves under utilized guys like Gus Edwards and Devin Duvernay, and maybe some work on passing concepts.

We also have to realize that Harbaugh isn’t stupid, and if we can beat this gauntlet of bad teams without showing all of our best plays for our best young players on film, that’s actually pretty great. We’ve been jumping out to big leads and sitting on them - if we can get out with the W and without exposing our players to injury I’m pretty satisfied.

It’s definitely worse on reddit than here but seriously a lot of our fans can be a bunch of spoiled brats who are overly concerned about stats and stupid accolades. We look like a young team that hasn’t had many reps... because we are. Almost as if all our best offensive players are super young, and we didn’t even get an offseason to train together. Strange...

We’re 5-1 and I don’t know if anyone has watched these teams like Dallas or Atlanta who built their team around amassing flashy weapons at the expense of defence but they are currently putting up big stats playing on garbage loser teams. Good for them I guess... 

Once the offence gets a bit more settled we are a very well balanced team. Sure, we have wrinkles to iron out but we’re in a better position now than we were in week 6 of last year. To be tied for first in the division without having found ourself on offence yet is a good place to be.

If we beat the Steelers and end up 6-1 and leading the division in two weeks I’ll be laughing. 

.