Week 12 GDT: Ravens (6-4) vs Steelers (10-0) Pt. Dos - Prove We Don't Suck

[diamondbull424]

4 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

True but the stretch run is pretty easy. Cowboys, Browns, Jags, Giants, Bengals (w/o Burrow). The Browns are the best team and if B-Will and Calais are back, we match up very well with them. So I see your point, don't rush them back because we need them vs Cleveland. But the rest of those teams are bad. 

Meh. I see your point but those aren’t the same cakewalk victories they would’ve been 4 weeks ago. The Giants and Cowboys have improved to the level of the Eagles that gave us everything we could handle some weeks ago.

The Giants have fixed their OL woes and their defense has been a quality unit all season. They’ve got a well coached special teams unit as well. It’s a game we should win, but we just lost to the Titans 6th string defense (I’m being dramatic, but still) after being up by 11 points. This team keeps finding ways to lose to teams we should beat. We dominated the Steelers for that entire game, but lost. We somehow pulled one out against a really good Colts team that has an elite defense.

Yet we’ve lost the last two weeks to teams that have less talent than we do because our coaches have been out-coached. What’s more the coaches we’ve lost to the last two weeks are of the Bill Belichick coaching tree. So I’m not underestimating that Giants squad.

The Cowboys just pushed the Steelers to the brink and the very next week beat a Vikings team that was coming in pretty hot. Their offense seems to be turning the corner some. Their defense has also been making more plays as of late. They’re both fighting for their playoff lives as well as potentially the coach fighting to remain the coach of that team moving forward.

These squads aren’t Jaguars or Jets or Bengals level bad units. Those will be competitive games that, to your point, we should win based on talent, but when I know what we’re running based on our offensive plays being run... I don’t have much confidence in the playcalling to get things done.

If we fire/downgrade Roman at some point this season, I’d probably feel a little more comfortable about those games you bring up. But as it stands, I wouldn’t trust his offensive playcalling if Pinocchio told me our plays were good and his nose didn’t grow.

[diamondbull424]

17 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

Statistically speaking, there has been no observable home field advantage this season. 

Which actually isn't bad if we make the playoffs as a wild card, because then there is really no advantage being the higher seed. 

Yup. It’s why I’m far more worried about the mentality of this team and it’s ability to be clutch than what seed we grab come playoff time, especially if COVID-19 continues to keep fans out of stadiums, which seems like it’s the likely case. Just make the playoffs as a battled tested team. Give us a quality 1st matchup to build playoff momentum... and perhaps we could catch fire. I think that’s about as much as any team could hope for in the league in terms of SB chances... outside of the Chiefs who have a genius level offensive mind for a HC and an elite QB talent.

I still think Lamar is an elite QB talent, but he requires more maintenance than Mahomes. He’s elite in non-passing ability. As a passer though, he’ll require either a better offensive minded coach to better leverage his strengths as a passer OR better offensive weapons that leverage his strengths as a passer... or both. I’ve given up hope of having that ideal mix this season (under Roman), but the catching fire scenario isn’t something I’ve lost hope on. Flacco was a turd until his 3rd year in the playoffs as well... and Lamar’s third year will come with him as two years younger than Flacco was at this point in his career... assuming we make it.

So all things considered, just get hot and see what happens. HFA is far less important without fans and wasn’t particularly strong an advantage last season it seemed. I think home teams last season had only won like 56% of games in comparison to something closer to like 70% in decades past... if I recall the statistic well enough.

[BareYourTeeth]

They should fire Roman today and give Urban the OC job so the Steelers aren't as sure what to expect and hopefully give us a bit of an advantage against them.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

I have less faith in us is winning this game than I've ever had before against a Steelers team. They just decimated the Jaguars, we just got embarrassed by the Titans AGAIN, at home. For all the talk about how losing BWil and Calais sucked, we bottled up Henry all game until OT, while our All-Pro secondary just got torched like it was nothing. Now they're going against a better passing attack.

Yannick Ngakoue and ANYONE who can provide an interior rush are the keys to this game. Hit Ben early and often and force mistakes/turnovers. Stop blowing coverages on the back end AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE PLAY PHYSICAL AND TACKLE A DUDE.

[M.10.E]

 

Season from hell. At least theyre trying to save my Thanksgiving.

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by M.10.E

[M.10.E]

Can't wait for us to trot out a Skura/Ricard/Willson/Ty'Son Williams package vs the Steelers.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

38 minutes ago, M.10.E said:

Can't wait for us to trot out a Skura/Ricard/Willson/Ty'Son Williams package vs the Steelers.

That certainly is a new identity, though so technically he was correct.

[diamondbull424]

Beating the Steelers this week would show a lot about this team. Getting it done would provide the necessary mental fortitude through the rest of the regular season. I think there’s a lack of trust throughout, which makes sense. But a victory in a game like this would go a long way into forging this unit into a contender.

[Ray Reed]

We've seen this game a million times.

Primetime in Pittsburgh where we play our @sses off for 58 mins and look like we're going to win all game until a last min Steelers TD drive to lose 31-27

[M.10.E]

1 hour ago, Ray Reed said:

We've seen this game a million times.

Primetime in Pittsburgh where we play our @sses off for 58 mins and look like we're going to win all game until a last min Steelers TD drive to lose 31-27

Yup. This is 100% going to happen. Happened the time we played Christmas, why not do thanksgiving too. 

 

Also, the twitter "the team still won, it'll be okay" crowd is REAL quiet now. Looks like playing ugly will eventually catch up to you, like we all said.

Edited November 24, 2020 by M.10.E

[ThatJaxxenGuy]

2 hours ago, M.10.E said:

Yup. This is 100% going to happen. Happened the time we played Christmas, why not do thanksgiving too. 

 

Also, the twitter "the team still won, it'll be okay" crowd is REAL quiet now. Looks like playing ugly will eventually catch up to you, like we all said.

That’s Harbaugh Football ^TM

[diamondbull424]

Whelp. At least this COVID outbreak, as long as most players are asymptomatic should afford the team an additional bye week late in the season... you know, since the entire offense will probably be effected.

I mean, what are the chances that Dobbins and Ingram have it and were sharing a football with Lamar Jackson for an entire game... and he doesn’t get it?

We also likely won’t get in a single practice, since we only got in a walk through yesterday.

I wonder what it would actually take for the NFL to push this game back. There’s no way we will know the full list of infected by a Thursday game. You’re supposed to have 3 days with clean tests, there’s no way we’ll find ourselves within that range prior to the game. They’d just be ASKING for this spread to go to the Steelers as well.

All things considered, they’ll probably force us to be the first team to forfeit a game....

This definitely feels like a Madden Curse if you ask me.

Edited November 24, 2020 by diamondbull424

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

McPhee gone. Luckily we have plenty of OLB depth. Maybe this means more Bowser (not likely, as the coaching staff will probably just activate Jihad Ward instead)

[M.10.E]

McPhee is our best edge setter, so thankfully the Steelers aren't a big running team. Curious who else is on the list.

[diamondbull424]

I think McPhee getting it is probably what has most concerned me. I mean, that means this will now likely impact both sides of the ball. The only player that’s probably safe at this point is Marlon Humphrey... considering he had it already and while he could still get it again, it would be unlikely unless he’s exposed to a different strand of the virus... which considering we haven’t been traveling too far out of the region, that’s probably a reduced chance of being the case. But we’ll see.

This team has been seriously unlucky this season. Every time we have a chance to build momentum, it seems like the universe presents covid part 1 or a monsoon or a significant player injury or covid part two. I wanted this team to face adversity, but sheesh... this is a little too much at this point. Feels like at this point the camels back 🐪 should be about to break... if it hasn’t already.