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We Are Who They Thought We Were, or Are We?

JoeyFlex5

JoeyFlex5

Hall of Famer
this team is such a pain in the ass, you never know who's gonna show up but you can basically assure that our offense will make every lead feel unsafe, regardless of our defensive dominance. Our pass rush disappears at times, we give up chunks both through the air and on the ground, and we do it often, yet we continue to force turnovers and get sacks when you least expect.

Who are we and how good are we? Have we had multiple fluke shutouts against dogshit tier offenses? Or is our defense that good(jags aside)? Can a healthy ravens offense come to life on the coattails of Alex Collins and Ronnie Stanley and Ryan Jensen? Can flacco get his shit together? Are we ACTUALLY good enough to make a run at the wild card? Or are we just gonna continue shitting the bed every other week...

Can anyone put a finger on "who the fuck are the ravens and what are they capable of?", because i sure can't. I like being optimistic, and I'm trying to be, but I just can't bring myself to have faith in this team to rattle off more than 3 wins, were too prone to laying eggs and too inconsistent.

So who do you all think the ravens really are, and after week 17 what are you predicting our outlook to be?
 
I just keep thinking surely our offense will step it up at least a little. Our offensive line has held up this season pretty well, but the rest of the offense has been bad. Against the Packers, Flacco and the rest of the guys looked better. But without Stanley, Flacco was running for his life and Collins was consistently getting smashed in the backfield. When we get Stanley back, if our guys play like they did against the Packers i think we can be a decently good team. Our defense is good enough to carry a competent offense. Our defense is rated what, number 5 or something? If our offense was decent there is no doubt in my mind we would be the #1 rated defense. We just need the offense to score 20 points a game the rest of the way and if that can happen I think we probably make it to the divisional round and lose to a better team like the Pats
 
I think the team will ultimately fall short at 7-9 or 8-8 and miss the playoffs again because of the inconsistent and terrible offense. I like staying confident but the offense has shown no signs of life pretty much all season. This team has never played well when it comes down to controlling their own destiny to get to the playoffs.

But if they do somehow sneak in I wouldn't be surprised if they made it to the AFC Championship. That is how bad the AFC is. I doubt they could go any further but if they came to life at the right time then it's possible.
 
given how we never really have 2 performances the same each week id suggest we literally flip flop as you say every other week which screams .500 to me and an 8-8 record - now given the awful afc that might actually be enough to make the 6th seed
 
I had low expectations from the beginning due to all of the injuries. It's great that the defense has begun to gel and become a force, but I just don't know how the team gets anywhere with the raggedy O line in tow.
 
I don't sleep at night when I think about what the offense would actually look like with a healthy OL of Stanley-(Hurst/Lewis/Siragusa)-Jensen-Yanda-Howard.

The depth next year is going to be crazy at almost every position though, so that gives me hope.
 
jboy19 said:
I don't sleep at night when I think about what the offense would actually look like with a healthy OL of Stanley-(Hurst/Lewis/Siragusa)-Jensen-Yanda-Howard.

The depth next year is going to be crazy at almost every position though, so that gives me hope.
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Yep, thinking about next year with depth on the Oline and everywhere else, plus a new OC. That should give everyone hope
 
JoeyFlex5 said:
this team is such a pain in the ass, you never know who's gonna show up but you can basically assure that our offense will make every lead feel unsafe, regardless of our defensive dominance. Our pass rush disappears at times, we give up chunks both through the air and on the ground, and we do it often, yet we continue to force turnovers and get sacks when you least expect.

Who are we and how good are we? Have we had multiple fluke shutouts against dogshit tier offenses? Or is our defense that good(jags aside)? Can a healthy ravens offense come to life on the coattails of Alex Collins and Ronnie Stanley and Ryan Jensen? Can flacco get his shit together? Are we ACTUALLY good enough to make a run at the wild card? Or are we just gonna continue shitting the bed every other week...

Can anyone put a finger on "who the fuck are the ravens and what are they capable of?", because i sure can't. I like being optimistic, and I'm trying to be, but I just can't bring myself to have faith in this team to rattle off more than 3 wins, were too prone to laying eggs and too inconsistent.

So who do you all think the ravens really are, and after week 17 what are you predicting our outlook to be?
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What you just did is encapsulate the confusion and frustration of every Ravens fan out there. Nobody fucking knows or can reliably know who this team is. This much we know now.

The defense can be stellar and dominant every now and again. We had 3 shutouts for fuck's sake! Even against bad teams it isn't easy. Because there have been only 4 other shutouts this season by 31 other teams combined! So our 3 has to mean something. We also know the offense sucks most times and is serviceable every now and again. To me, analytically speaking these two situations have to come together for a W - defense should be dominant and the offense serviceable. Every other combinations lead to a L pretty much. How often do you think a dominant defense couples with a serviceable offense with the Ravens? 5 times out of 10! Hence the 5-5 record.

Now to be wishful and think we are going to run the table here with victories in the final 6 games doesn't sit well logically with me for the aforementioned reasons. I think they win at best 4 and lose 2. Or they go 3-3 during the final stretch which is the most likely scenario. It simply depends on how many times this team can summon those two avatars of offense and defense in the final stretch. So, yes there is my finger on this fast wagging donkey's tail for you!
 
barring more injuries i believe the team is playoff bound and they will go as far as the offense will take them. they need to get the offense going and soon or they will be one and done
 
problem with the offense getting even a little better down the stretch could be Marty again in 2018

I think he will still be let go, but I’m not so sure we as ravens fans could handle him again.
 
All due respect, but is there really that much confusion about who we are? I feel like it's pretty clear we have a shutdown, turnover happy defense and a ball control offense that lacks a game manager. This is pretty much what we expected going in, isn't it?

When healthy, we're a shutdown defense that gives up little, and when we're hurt, we're an opportunistic defense that comes up with enough pass rush and turnovers to turn the tide. Our defense reminds me somewhat of the Saints defense when they won the bowl. They weren't a shut down D by any means, but they got a good pass rush when it mattered and they forced turnovers. If I'm asked to pick between the number one defense in yardage but last in turnovers or the number one defense in turnovers but last in yardage, I'm probably picking the defense with more turnovers. Yards don't win or lose games. Possessions do. The more chances you have to score the better off you are. We lead the league in redzone turnovers, and that's good enough for me.

As for the notion that 'we only shut out the garbage teams,' well, no shit. Nobody shuts out good teams, not even the 2000 Ravens. In the regular season our shut outs came against bottom tier teams with mediocre QBs.

On offense, we're committed to a ball control offense with one-read passing, but we lack a game manager that can do that effectively. Our defense can win us games if we score 20. Our best bet for moving the ball is opening up the offense and giving Joe more than one read. Letting Flacco be Flacco is what won us our Super Bowl. If our oline was healthy, I'd be content to ride the run game and be a true blue ball control team, but if we want to watch this offense work, we need to roll with a spread attack. Joe is always at his best out of the gun, in the spread, with more than one read. That's not up for debate.

What's up for debate is whether this is the philosophy that will win us games. The games we won this year, we won with an insane defense and a vicious running game. We haven't won because of Joe, so maybe we should continue with this approach.

Is this good enough? To finish the season at most 10-6, yes, this is good enough. If we stay healthy and avoid turnovers, our defense and our running backs are good enough to take 10-6, but that's the high side. Most likely, we finish 9-7 and possibly make a wildcard. From there, who knows? Maybe January Joe returns. Our offense didn't impress anyone in 2012 but we set the world on fire in that playoff run. Joe has pissed me off this year but I've learned to never bet against him.

We are exactly who we thought we are, and I'm not sure why there's a question about this. The only question is whether we can get to 9-7. And my answer to that is yes, if we stay healthy.
 
I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I’ve come to the conclusion that the ravens have told us exactly who they are - we have an awesome defence and an offence held back by a couple of fatal flaws - we are this year’s Vikings...
Good enough to put away bad teams and good on the road because defence travels but when we come across a good all round team we don’t have quite enough
 
K-Dog said:
hasn't the win the toss win the game been a consistant as well ?
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nah it didnt work vs the titans and maybe another team too

and we beat the raiders when we lost the toss i think

still its not a bad indicator + its counterintuitive with the way our team is built at the moment given they are built to defend a lead so youd think losing the toss and going offence first would help us out a little
 
The Ravens are exactly who I thought they would be. For me, the moment that I went to the Ravens vs Steelers game this season and saw first hand...live and in living color....how dreadful, pathetic, awful and anemic and just downright embarrassing Joe and the offensive players were....I knew right then....which way their season would go. And, although the defense would crumble at times....I knew that it would have to shoulder and carry more weight because of their suck ass offense.

I'm the type of person that....once I know what or who I'm dealing with....I know how to deal with it or them! So, once the Ravens offense showed me who they really were that week and in that game....I believed them! And they have carried that piss poor game play all the way into week 11. So, while I am happy whenever the Ravens win, I'm always surprised by it. The next few games will be no different for me. I have absolutely no confidence in Flacco or in that putrid offense's improvement going foward. So, I confidently expect to see more of the same from them next week and in the few more weeks to come.


 
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