WEEK 12 MNF IN BALTIMORE!

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

9 hours ago, drd23 said:

It sounds like you guys have far more faith in Harbaugh to hire a competent OC than I do. 

While I agree that its better to wait until the end of the year before firing MM (because any replacement will just continue with the same offense due to time restraints), I'm not confident that Harbs can go out and find a hot young OC like a few of you are hoping for.  Aside from Teryl Austin, I can't think of another "young" assistant coach that Harbs has hired that has shown much (our RBs coach might be the closest to being this).

Hopefully I'm proved wrong though

I don't have much faith in Harbaugh hiring a competent, or creative OC at all. But even with that being said, there's a better chance of getting a good OC from out-of-house than there is of getting a good one that's currently on our coaching staff, and I think it speaks volumes that MM is still here this long in the season. If we had a good coach ready to take over, we'd have fired MM by now.

This is just one area where I want to be optimistic about, but ultimately I do fear that at the end of the year, we're going to end up with another NFL retread and another lost year next year because of outdated and poor schemes.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

2 hours ago, berlin calling said:

This is so bad. Also, doesn't Alex Collins also have more games averaging 5.0 YPC or above than Flacco has YPA? That would've made a better comparison since they're on the same team.

EDIT: Collins has 4 games over 5.0 YPC, so he's one game shy of matching Joe Flacco's number of games with above 5.0 YPA lol how sad is that?

[M.10.E]

Everything about our offense is so awful, I just can't comprehend how it's so bad.

 

Just can't.

[berlin calling]

thats what im getting at. how you just keep tolerating this gong show as GM or being the owner of this franchise is beyond me.

[paraven]

4 minutes ago, berlin calling said:

thats what im getting at. how you just keep tolerating this gong show as GM or being the owner of this franchise is beyond me.

well the GM is responsible for the lack of offense in that nothing has been invested in it for years. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

9 minutes ago, paraven said:

well the GM is responsible for the lack of offense in that nothing has been invested in it for years. 

And especially this year, where EVERYONE knew that WR and the skill positions were needs, and they were completely ignored in the draft.

[drd23]

2 hours ago, paraven said:

well the GM is responsible for the lack of offense in that nothing has been invested in it for years. 

That's not exactly true.  A WR and a TE were the first two picks by the Ravens in 2015 - the problem is that the WR was **** (and plenty saw he was a bust in the making) and the TE had a serious injury that required a surgery that apparently had never been performed on an NFL player before.

This FO always seems to go on runs of offense-heavy and then defense-heavy drafts, but the problem is that outside of OL that they aren't very good at identifying and developing offensive skill position players

[RavensDefense3]

2 hours ago, Darth Pees said:

And especially this year, where EVERYONE knew that WR and the skill positions were needs, and they were completely ignored in the draft.

well the WRs in the draft haven't been looking great so far, there were a lot of good RBs, but maybe only fournette would be able to do anything with this OL. the biggest complaint i have is the coordinators. we need to stop hiring trash that other teams throw away.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

19 minutes ago, drd23 said:

That's not exactly true.  A WR and a TE were the first two picks by the Ravens in 2015 - the problem is that the WR was **** (and plenty saw he was a bust in the making) and the TE had a serious injury that required a surgery that apparently had never been performed on an NFL player before.

This FO always seems to go on runs of offense-heavy and then defense-heavy drafts, but the problem is that outside of OL that they aren't very good at identifying and developing offensive skill position players

Two skill position picks in one draft doesn't exclude years of ignoring the skill positions. Since 2012 we've taken 3 skill position players on offense in the first 2 days of the draft. 2 of them were in 2015, and the other was Crockett Gillmore. That is a massive failure to surround your $100M Quarterback with homegrown talent.

[paraven]

3 hours ago, Darth Pees said:

And especially this year, where EVERYONE knew that WR and the skill positions were needs, and they were completely ignored in the draft.

All I know is that if DJ Moore declares for the draft, we better take him mid round

[wackywabbit]

So many pitchforks coming out all over because we didn't win impressively enough on Monday night. 

Let's not forget that the same FO we are knocking for the offense, has put together one of the 2 best defenses in the entire NFL this year. Once the top WR prospects were reached for in a super thin offensive draft, it made sense to take the value on defense. Bowser and WIlliams may not be contributing a ton yet, but I'm confident we're going to feel real good about that investment in a key position as they develop, if not later this season. How about some credit for solving the CB problem that has killed us for years. And that's with us losing a very promising Tavon Young before he took a snap this year.

We all knew the offense was going to be terrible before the season. Remember every offseason thread? And that was before the injury apocalypse. Remember how we lost half our team in the offseason? We had more players on IR before the season started than any other team has now. Remember how that was going to be excuse for us being bad this year? But now that we want to be discontent with borderline playoff positioning we forgot about it.  At least the coaching staff pulled off a MUCH better than expected running game. That's been a miracle. Like an actual miracle. Like with angels and stuff. We had been SOOOO bad at running the ball. I thought Kenneth Dixon was the most brutal loss of the offseason, but we found a gem in Alex Collins. And what about the interior offensive line blocking for them? We didn't just lose BOTH our starters at guard, including an all-world player. We also lost our top draft pick at the position. And we lost our top returning backup because he suddenly decided his brain was important. Look at a projected depth chart. What in the actual eff happened there. I honestly don't even know who is lining up opposite James Hurst these past few weeks.

So yea, the big problem is the passing game. That's the crux. As I said before, taking a WR in the draft was probably the plan, but they went WAY earlier than expected, not that any of those guys has done much. There wasn't really a WR we could have signed that would have made a huge difference either. Maclin is still probably a smarter signing than Decker or Marshall would have been. There weren't many good opportunities last offseason, but we need to look for them this next one. And we need to seriously look at QB now. Our QB may be broken. I was certain we'd see miserable offense play to start the season after all the back stuff in the offseason, but I was hoping we'd see improvement deeper in the season if the defense kept us afloat. I'm less optimistic now. I mean there exists a possibility that he gets healthier with an offseason, but I don't think we can sit and hope for that. I think it's probable that there be some improvement, and Flacco is still likely to start next year, but they need to be aggressive in looking for a QBoTF in the draft. 

Lamar Jackson, plz

[wackywabbit]

5 hours ago, drd23 said:

That's not exactly true.  A WR and a TE were the first two picks by the Ravens in 2015 - the problem is that the WR was **** (and plenty saw he was a bust in the making) and the TE had a serious injury that required a surgery that apparently had never been performed on an NFL player before.

Also the only top 10 draft pick we've had and used since... Terrell Suggs?!?... went to the offense. And as far as I'm concerned, solidified a key spot for hopefully the next decade. 

[coordinator0]

Yes. Greg Roman has worked miracles in the running game. Dude knows what he's doing. I hope the Ravens are able to keep him around. Don't have much faith in Harbaugh firing Mornhinweg and promoting Roman but there's always a chance...

Just imagine the running game with an actual competent offensive line. One that looks like Stanley / Lewis / Jensen / Yanda / *better than Howard* instead of the travesty that has to be utilized now. Assuming Ryan is re-signed the team looks to have six linemen returning for sure with Stanley, Lewis, Yanda, Eluemunor, and Siragusa being the others. Probably Howard too, so that's seven. Investing in one more quality lineman, hopefully a tackle, makes sense. But the need isn't vast here. Injuries suck and it would be nice to plan for them, but you can't roster twelve offensive linemen for insurance.

Of course for the offense to really start rolling the passing game needs to get on-track which leads into the Flacco discussion. I'm of the mind that he's not getting back to prior form. Doesn't smell like a post-injury rust situation to me. Yes, he has nothing around him, but all the little things Joe does when things actually aren't awful just don't sit well with me. He is a part of the problem, not just a symptom of it. 

Skill players? Running back is set for the most part. Collins and Allen alone look like a nice combo, and then there's Woodhead as well as Dixon returning. The latter is still the most talented back on the team. I think he would have been feasting this season with Roman's influence on the running game, even more than Collins has. A true power guy might be missing but I'm not too worried about that. Not with the way the running game has shaped up. Even Buck has had decent success in short-yardage situations. Spend assets elsewhere.

Wide receiver... yeah. This is where things go downhill. Maclin is solid as we all thought he would be. Wallace has come on a bit in recent weeks but he's probably not being re-signed. Perriman can't be counted on for literally anything. Still like Moore, but he isn't going to be part of a real top-three grouping. Same with Campanaro. So two guys are needed there. Hopefully a quality draft pick and at least a mid-tier, not ancient free agent. Not sure where the cap space is coming from but it's a need regardless of good or bad Flacco.

Still not sure about tight end. Boyle is good at what he does and I like that Williams is getting his chances, but there isn't a bona fide talent here to count on. Watson is most likely gone and while Waller has flashed he can't be counted on if/when he gets reinstated. If there's a no-brainer pick in the draft go for it, otherwise... eh. Keep developing Nick and Maxx.

 

[drd23]

6 hours ago, wackywabbit said:

And we need to seriously look at QB now. Our QB may be broken. I was certain we'd see miserable offense play to start the season after all the back stuff in the offseason, but I was hoping we'd see improvement deeper in the season if the defense kept us afloat. I'm less optimistic now. I mean there exists a possibility that he gets healthier with an offseason, but I don't think we can sit and hope for that. I think it's probable that there be some improvement, and Flacco is still likely to start next year, but they need to be aggressive in looking for a QBoTF in the draft. 

I'd rather they didn't just yet.  Find a good OC, fix the OL at a minimum and find a way to get a reliable WR (or at least have a good plan to get one) before we invest (likely multiple) first round pick(s) into a QB out of college.

Just look at the last few top young QBs and you can see that you need at least one of these, if not 2 or 3, before they really start to shine. 
- Goff needed the OC and the OL to be stablised by the signing of Whitworth
- Wentz has a pretty good OL and a pretty good OC as his HC calling the plays
- Carr had a beast of an OL and a pretty good pair of WRs when he really broke out last year
- Winston had Mike Evans to just throw jump balls up at

etc

[Danand]

Flacco might be broken, but I believe he can still do enough. I would still like someone to go through the plays to see how many plays he actually misses, especially deep. I saw the Jaguars game live, and it was very very clear, that there were maybe 4-5 open throws all game.

Every time we see some QB "break out" there are in certain key components which have to be there. Rivers fights all he can, but end up throwing for 350 yards, 2 TD's and 4 interceptions, because he doesn't have an oline. Matt Ryan is discussed as a possible replacement in Atlanta because he can't do anything in the playoffs, and suddenly with an Alex Mack and a innovative OC, he is the MVP of the league.

Dak Prescott did really well with an elite oline and runninggame and 2-3 good receiving options. Without the oline, people are discussing about replacing him.

Flacco might not have the worst players around him in the league, but the question is, if the 2 injuries he sustained since the 2014 season where it was clear that we had a competent OC, are the ones making the difference.

If Flacco is provided with better protection and we can execute the play action better. I believe he can still make the throws to make us a contender.

Also, i want the RT, and then maybe a home run threat to the runninggame. WR we can get in FA.