Thursday Night Observations

**highwater** · 12-01-2006, 12:59 PM

1) Not a very entertaining game -- we were only down 6-0 at the half but it somehow seemed worse than that. As others have pointed out in other threads, McNair was not sharp.

2) This was the first NFL Network game I've seen, and I'm surprised at how much I didn't like Bryant Gumbel. I've liked him in the past but didn't like him much as a play-by-play guy. Collingsworth was his usual arrogant self. Not that great a team, IMHO.

3) I don't really like the Ravens on Thursday night. Sunday will seem empty without a Ravens game.

4) I'm all for players getting along after the game, but did you see Ray and Chad after time expired? I thought they were on the verge of getting a hotel room. Sheesh!

5) Sam Adams looks even bigger than when he played for us -- that guy is huge. He looks like could swallow a sofa.

6) If we play the Bengals again this year, I hope our secondary plays more aggresively. They were too soft last night, giving too big a cushion to the receivers.

**OwingsMillsAlex** · 12-01-2006, 01:28 PM

Gumble's voice is to girly. Hard to get exicited for your team when a woman is calling the games. They need a real man to do the job. Collinsworth in my opinion wasn't bad. He gave good commentary on both teams and it seemed that Gumble tried to put him in an odd place by constantly mentioning that he had played for Cincy years ago.

**RavensNTerps** · 12-01-2006, 01:28 PM

secondary had exactly 0% to do with this loss.

QB had close to 100%

**ravenjoe** · 12-01-2006, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by RavensNTerps

secondary had exactly 0% to do with this loss.

QB had close to 100%

I'm sorry, but to blame this loss 100% on the QB makes no sense.

**Civic812** · 12-01-2006, 01:43 PM

i agree the QB had way less to do with this loss then the secondary or the lack of pressure on Carson imo... id say secondary 40, lack of pressure 40 and QB 20

**Sephy** · 12-01-2006, 01:52 PM

The Bengals scored thirteen freaking points! The offense got zero aside from a lucky non-OPI call. How you can put the blame on the defense for 80% of the game is absolutely astounding.

It wasn't all McNair, but he played a big part in the loss. He had about 4-5 dropped picks from Jonathan Joseph alone.

**Civic812** · 12-01-2006, 01:55 PM

did you see the part of the game where Cincy completed that 7-10 yard pass underneath our secondary playing soft, it only happen about 20 times.

**PARavensJeff** · 12-01-2006, 02:20 PM

Gee, I somehow think that if #7 had been the QB, it all would have been blamed on him, so I don't want to hear it wasn't the QB. He was terrible last night. We hold the Bengals to 13 points in Cincinnati & it's not the QB fault we don't score except for a meaningless TD w/ a minute left?

My 12 year old daughter said last night "What is Ray Lewis doing hugging that guy? He's from the other team. He's acting like he's in love with him." This from a 12 year old!!! The leader of our team shouldn't be getting friendly w/ a team or player, especially one who said he was going to punch him in the mouth.

They showed Sam Adams weight as 350, it might be closer to 425-430. I have heard stories that he is a big flubber now & he looks like it. The guy looks like he ate a whole living room set.

This Thursday night game did suck, & not because we lost, but you're right, we have nothing to do on Sunday now. It's like a 2nd bye week during the season.

**Mista T** · 12-01-2006, 02:35 PM

Blame the secondary when the Bengals were held to 13 points?

Can't agree. I have no problems with the Defense's overall performance. Give credit to Marvin Lewis for the flea flicker when our secondary played the run.

I'd just as soon forgettabout this disaster, but, since we're ascribing blame: about 80% McNair for the worst Ravens QB performance since the Radio, 5% to the long-snapper or holder, 5% on the muff and 10% to Billick for the playcalling , e.g. pounding the middle with 3 minutes to go and down by 13 points?

**darb72** · 12-02-2006, 02:06 AM

I'm going to blame the defense a whole 0%.

The offense gets equal blame all the way around.
QB- McNair was off.
RB- Jamal had a couple of nice runs but to often got stuffed.
WRs- Couldn't get open.
Coaching- I don't agree with the game plan.
OL- Actually they played alright. I'm just so used to blaming them after a loss...

**ravenwoman** · 12-02-2006, 11:36 AM

The team as a whole was not prepared to play. Five minutes after the game started, I had a bad negative feeling about it. We hardly had the ball at all in the first half. The defense did limit the bengals to 13 overall points. However, they were on the field way too long. There should have been more 3 and outs. We also had too many penalties. That right there is a lack of discipline.

Secondly, I did not like the game plan. Why we never throw deep is beyond me. We should have tested their secondary since it was obvious that Jamal was getting stuffed at the line most of the time. He did have a few long runs, but not enough to break their defense.

I also felt the officials favored Cincinnatti. I saw several holding situations which were not called on the bengals, particularly on our defense.

Simply put, Brian gambled on Thursday by not making this a do or die game. He went easy on the guys hoping for the best, but willing to accept the worst.

**Ravenswarrior19** · 12-02-2006, 03:33 PM

The team, defense included, looked sluggish and at time uninterested. It had a feel like we didn't concider it a must win. More like a game we would like to win, but will still be okay if we don't. I'm sure it had a lot to do with the short week, but its still not something I like to see from what I believe to be a Championship caliber team.

The Bengal secondary sat all over the short stuff all night. They were daring us to go over their heads, and we never even tried. That was very bothersome, especially late in the game. Send Demetrius outta the slot on a deep corner route against a safety. At some point it must be worth a try.

Having AD aligned with the 3rd reciever really hurt our blitz packages. They keyed on Bart Scott with man protection. We did only allow 4 3rd down conversions, although it felt like much more.

Two guys seemed to play with passion late in the game. Ray and Jamal Lewis. They run blitzed a lot on 2nd down, throttling Jamal behind the line and killing our play calling. Would have been nice to have him in more of a rhythm. He wanted to carry the offense, and more inventive playcalling may have allowed him to do that. When given a hole, he ran with a fury.

We are now in must win situations if we want that bye that we were earning until Thursday. I still expect the best.

**FadeToBlack** · 12-02-2006, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by highwater

4) I'm all for players getting along after the game, but did you see Ray and Chad after time expired? I thought they were on the verge of getting a hotel room. Sheesh!

Welcome to pro football, with the emphasis on "pro." These guys are all buddies. After the game, they can roll into any bar or club and bang any chick they want. Getting your ass kicked feels a lot better when you know there's a hottie that wants to bang the ever-loving hell out of you.

6) If we play the Bengals again this year, I hope our secondary plays more aggresively. They were too soft last night, giving too big a cushion to the receivers.

I disagree. I think it was long overdue for our cocky-ass corners to start playing softer. Let's face it, man to man the Bengals WRs will eat our DB's alive. By playing soft we bent but we never broke. If our offense had any semblance of rhythm, we were put into a prime position to win by the defense.

I still liked your post though.

**FadeToBlack** · 12-02-2006, 10:43 PM

Originally Posted by OwingsMillsAlex

Gumble's voice is to girly. Hard to get exicited for your team when a woman is calling the games. They need a real man to do the job. Collinsworth in my opinion wasn't bad. He gave good commentary on both teams and it seemed that Gumble tried to put him in an odd place by constantly mentioning that he had played for Cincy years ago.

I like Collinsworth. He's pretty humble about his playing days and he's a smart guy. Gumble is an okay guy, but the problem is he was born with peppercorns for testicles, as you alluded to.

**camdenyard** · 12-03-2006, 09:17 PM

I blame the rain. McNair obviously can't play in the rain. Seriously, he was off the mark and slow all night.

Any defense holding that team to 13 points in their stadium should be given a medal.

That being said, I don't want to face this team again!

**skaybaltimore** · 12-04-2006, 12:58 AM

Observations, in no particular order of "blame %":

1. The decision to have the CBs play off the l.o.s., coupled with the quick drop of CP, allowed Cinncy to pick us apart with those 10 yard +/- passes all night long.

Hunch: Marvin Lewis knows our predictable tendencies quite well, and neither Rex Ryan on D nor BB on O did much after halftime to adjust anything.

2. McNair had one of his worst outings as a Raven. Along with the poor passing, he just flat out looked as lost as could be out there. I just cannot believe that on those plays when he stood there for 4 seconds or more, looking all over the place, NOBODY was open besides the backs circling out of the backfield. Were both sides playing with the same number of players?

Hunch: 3 main contributing factors to the poor passing, although these don't address the look of lostness McNair displayed all night long:

A. 3 days rest not enough
B. Wet ball
C. Possible sore elbow from the hit he took in the Pittsburgh game.
D. The fact that he NEVER went vertical allowed the Cinncy D to press our WRs -- almost daring them to try to go long. And since they didn't, we got no respect at all on our WRs.
E. The patterns (i.e. trying to do a double move 5 yards away from the CB) were poorly designed or poorly executed, resulting in a very ineffective passing game, which persisted all night long.

(DISCLAIMER: This is in no way a backdoor to the whole SM/KB discussion. I am aware of the separate sub-board specifically for that, and I understand and respect how that works here. This is simply a note on what might have been done after the first half during which SM and the offense were 100% ineffective.)

Now, there were 2 main ways that the dismal performance of McNair and the offense could have been addressed at the start of the 2nd half -- leave SM in, or substitute Boller. Obviously, the decision was made to leave him in, and the results are what they are. It's pointless to debate any "woulda/coulda/shoulda" issues as far as what might have happened had he been replaced at some point in the second half. The bottom line stands: It was one of McNair's -- and the offense's -- poorest outings this year.

3. Jamal seemed to show moments of intensity, and overall, did a decent job. The times he gained little or no yardage, it seemed as if the O-line totally collapsed around him. I'm not a big JL fan, but when a guy gets mobbed 2 yards behind the l.o.s. almost as soon as he gets the handoff, I think it's unfair to blame it all on him. And as far as the decision to run him late in the fourth quarter, that's on BB, not JL. All in all, I think he was good enough to contribute to a "W", if the other parts of the team were as good as he was.

4. I have no idea what happened to Todd Heap. I know Marvin Lewis was keying on him, but they must have been throwing blankets over him or something. He turned into the invisible man out there.

5. Lousy clock management. Not only at the end of the 1st half, but that ridiculous display with around 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter, with zero points on the board, proceeding as if there was all the time in the world. I'm sorry -- it's one thing for McNair to project a sense of calm in the huddle; it's quite another to squander precious minutes huddling up instead of going no huddle/hurry up when the situation demands it. There are certain things over which a team has no control, and I accept that. But I simply do not accept incompetent clock management week in and week out at this level of professional football. If BB can't figure it out, then freakin assign someone to do it for him. It's beyond absurd and unacceptable for this to come up constantly with this team, especially with so much on the line.

6. Intensity was low for a game with so much on the line. Whether that relates to BB's "attitude" about having to play such a key game on only 3 days rest is mere speculation. What's a fact is that the Ravens didn't show up to play, and the Bengals did.

7. I personally found that after-the-game-display between Ray Lewis and Chad Johnson appalling. It's one thing to be a graceful loser; it's another to give the impression that there was no real disappointment at having been outplayed, outcoached, and generally outclassed.

8. Losing is always less satisfactory than winning. But at times, losing -- when you know you did your best -- has elements that help offset the disappointment of the loss, especially when valuable lessons are learned in the process. However, in this instance, the loss was made more bitter because several of the "old lessons" (i.e. poor clock management, inability to master throwing a football in the rain, Fassell-ball, etc.) reappeared, indicating that we're NOT learning the important lessons from games lost in the past that we need to.

9. We're 9-3, and still in a solid position in the AFC North. So no, the sky is not falling; it just clouded up and rained all over our parade.

GO RAVENS!!!

**RavenDavey** · 12-04-2006, 08:31 AM

My concerns about the game were these.....

Too many 3 and outs with the lack of our passing game, especially by failing to complete passes. Jamal was showed a couple of good breakout runs, yet became very predictable by the play calling, and was picked up easy by the Cinn D. I feel we should have pounded Jamal more even if it meant some 3 and outs all by the running the ball. We were not far behind in points and I feel it would have ultimately opened up and led to some major gains on the ground, and furthermore opened up our passing game as needed.

McNair played poorly as a whole. There were times in the 2nd half where he had great protection, yet he seemed to "panic in the pocket." Especially when he was called for intentional grounding in the 4th quarter when he through out of bounds. This was very uncharacteristic of him...just wonder what his mindset was at this time.

Receivers failing to get open. Heap was extremely quiet for the entire game, and where was the long ball, especially with very decent QB protection as stated above?