Week 7: Ravens @ Buccaneers

[diamondbull424]

17 minutes ago, Boodgyman5220 said:

I agree but it just feels like the offense is just hummingly unstoppable and like the defense is gonna get better as the year goes on.

I’m in agreement. As long as this offensive core stays healthy, I like our chances come playoff time to go the distance.

I think as long as this defense can be stout against the run and at least opportunistic against the pass, this squad can go the distance to the SB… and considering Lamar’s record against the NFC, I like our chances if we get there.

[Ray Reed]

Potential good news in that the Marlon injury doesn't appear to be super serious

That boy is playing this year. One of the few in the secondary who is lol

[AngusMcFife]

Offense is averaging 7.2 yards/play now. On pace to be maybe the greatest offense ever.

I still think you gotta demote Orr and get a real DC. Marlo bailed him out but the D still gave up 480 yards at 6.3  yards/play. The defense is only being made palatable by being paired with this amazing offense.

But given the talent on D this is by far the most disappointing and worst coached defense in the history of the team (not counting years with a bunch of injuries). This was a no. 1 D last year that only lost bit players and now it's garbage.

A team could easily hang 40 on us in the playoffs. Given how sloppy the offense is (despite it's incredible efficiency), that's just a dangerous combination.

[RavensTillIDie]

1 hour ago, AngusMcFife said:

Offense is averaging 7.2 yards/play now. On pace to be maybe the greatest offense ever.

I still think you gotta demote Orr and get a real DC. Marlo bailed him out but the D still gave up 480 yards at 6.3  yards/play. The defense is only being made palatable by being paired with this amazing offense.

But given the talent on D this is by far the most disappointing and worst coached defense in the history of the team (not counting years with a bunch of injuries). This was a no. 1 D last year that only lost bit players and now it's garbage.

A team could easily hang 40 on us in the playoffs. Given how sloppy the offense is (despite it's incredible efficiency), that's just a dangerous combination.

I'm not trying to make excuses, but for the majority of the game, the D had only given up 10 points to one of the more explosive offenses in the NFL. Then the offense turned the ball over at their own 30 with 13 mins to go in the fourth quarter off that silly fumble. They could of easily worked the ball down field and milked clock for the remainder of the game.

Then when the offense once again made it a 23 point game with 6:32 to go, you could tell the entire team was just eager to finish the game and go home. Not that it excuses the lackluster effort. Maybe a part of that is coaching, maybe a part of that is just being tired playing down in that Florida humidity in the fourth quarter of a blowout with the opposing offense going into hurry up mode. You could visibly see instead of locking in and playing sound football, most of the players were just going for hard hits and attempting to strip the ball to try and end the game.

Again, how much of that is coaching and how much of that is on the players? Probably a little bit of both, but I don't think Orr has done anything to get fired per se. He's going through many of the same growing pains as McDonald went through. I think the defense will continue to get better over the course of the season. Additionally, if we can get some guys healthy: Washington, Maulet, Marlon (left the Cincy game in a walking boot and left midway through last night). I like what the defense could become. Now, would I love to trade for another difference maker along the line, e.g. Crosby, Garrett, etc? Absolutely. Is that within the realm of possibility given our cap situation and how we manage draft picks? Probably not.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

The defense got extremely bailed out by Mike Evans' hamstring injury. Without him leaving the game, I don't think anything changes and Tampa rolls us all night. Brandon Stephens was getting repeatedly cooked and burnt by a guy who could only jog his way through a route. That's embarrassing.

The only saving grace was the Marlon INT's, and that's not a sustainable thing. Furthermore, this defense cannot just expect the offense to blow teams out and put up 30ppg as we move through the season and into the playoffs.

They HAVE TO figure out the communication and scheme issues. I'm sick of seeing Roquan 8 yards away from the guy he's covering. I'm sick of seeing Marcus Williams stand around while dudes catch TD passes right in front of him. I'm sick of seeing the defense give up 20+ points in the 4th quarter. And it's happening every single game. I don't see any improvement. I see the same mistakes being made week in and week out.

It's not sustainable, and it's not going to win us a Superbowl.

[RavensTillIDie]

21 minutes ago, AFlaccoSeagulls said:

They HAVE TO figure out the communication and scheme issues. I'm sick of seeing Roquan 8 yards away from the guy he's covering. I'm sick of seeing Marcus Williams stand around while dudes catch TD passes right in front of him. I'm sick of seeing the defense give up 20+ points in the 4th quarter. And it's happening every single game. I don't see any improvement. I see the same mistakes being made week in and week out.

This is the part I keep going back and forth with my friends about. What exactly do you think is the source of the communication issues? Felt like a major issue during parts of McDonald's tenure here as well. I get we're playing a lot more single backer vs 2 backer compared to last year and I get the "new" scheme plays into it in the sense of players trying to figure out their assignments and hand offs, but a lot of the blown coverages are just perplexing. Like on the opening Evans touchdown when they were sitting in zone, why was Washington trailing underneath when Williams was overtop being asked to essentially cover 2 guys? Meaning, was that the actual play design or is someone playing their assignment wrong? I don't know.

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

25 minutes ago, RavensTillIDie said:

This is the part I keep going back and forth with my friends about. What exactly do you think is the source of the communication issues? Felt like a major issue during parts of McDonald's tenure here as well. I get we're playing a lot more single backer vs 2 backer compared to last year and I get the "new" scheme plays into it in the sense of players trying to figure out their assignments and hand offs, but a lot of the blown coverages are just perplexing. Like on the opening Evans touchdown when they were sitting in zone, why was Washington trailing underneath when Williams was overtop being asked to essentially cover 2 guys? Meaning, was that the actual play design or is someone playing their assignment wrong? I don't know.

I couldn't begin to tell you. Some of it just feels like bad scheming and bad coaching. For example, the play you highlighted. It appears to be a standard cover 2.

The jet WR clears up the seam so Godwin can skinny-wheel behind him while another player comes late into the flat. Defensively, Marcus Williams takes the clear guy properly while Washington and Stephens just kind of sit in no-man's land while Mike Evans runs right through uncontested. I don't know what they're looking at or what they're doing, but one of them ****ed up. One of them is responsible for the flat, the other is responsible for carrying routes up the field, and neither did either of those lol

Then we have the repeated plays where the Bucs would run bunch + send the RB into the flat to the bunch side. They ran this I think 3 times and each time the RB was WIDE OPEN because the person responsible for the RB would start inside and get picked trying to go out. There was no passing off guys or even trying to match, it was just straight man which resulted in easy 20+ yard gains each time.

The last example I'll give goes back to the Bengals game between Eddie Jackson and Marcus Williams on the late 3rd quarter Tee Higgins TD from the 2 yard line. Eddie Jackson lines up on Higgins, clearly communicates to Williams that he is playing outside shade and needs inside help. Williams sees it, but lets Higgins run inside wide open for a touchdown. Why? I have no idea.

So to answer your original question - some of it feels like scheme, some of it feels like coaching, some of it feels like communication.

[Ray Reed]

Re: the pass defense

All I know is that if Orr is committed to playing Williams and Jackson as the deep safeties all year long, we need to trade for an impact pass rusher before the deadline. Because those 2 are straight up bad this year and the only thing I see remedying that is a quicker and more consistent pressure rate 

[BareYourTeeth]

17 minutes ago, Ray Reed said:

Re: the pass defense

All I know is that if Orr is committed to playing Williams and Jackson as the deep safeties all year long, we need to trade for an impact pass rusher before the deadline. Because those 2 are straight up bad this year and the only thing I see remedying that is a quicker and more consistent pressure rate 

They called the Browns about ZaDarius Smith. 

[AFlaccoSeagulls]

55 minutes ago, BareYourTeeth said:

They called the Browns about ZaDarius Smith. 

wrong guy on the Browns DL to call about IMO