As I was perusing the thoughts of our message board members, I came across this thread from one of our very active members, The Excellector. I thought that it was deserving of its own article.
Our forums are full of these types of insightful posts and great debate. For those looking to talk about the Ravens with other passionate fans who have a high degree of football intelligence, our board is the place to go.
Here is the thread for those wanting to participate. ~Tyler Lombardi
I am watching the Indianapolis/Denver Divisional Round Playoff game in its entirety for the first time. I am almost near halftime and I can see some of the issues with Manning that were mentioned. So far, although most claimed he was throwing lame ducks, what I see is a guy whose simply lost his deep accuracy. Passes are sailing.
Chuck Pagano already likes to press, so seeing him employ the strategy in this game was no surprise. However, it led me to think about how this same Broncos offense would have looked if they were facing the Ravens. Granted, there is no Vontae Davis on this team, but there is no one else of consequence in that Indianapolis secondary.
Regardless, not only would the Broncos have likely scored more points (Due to injuries in the secondary), but Dean Pees would not have challenged Manning in this manner. It wasn’t even that they weren’t getting WRs open deep. They were open. Manning was overthrowing them. Pees would have tried to take away the big plays, let Manning get into a rhythm with the shorter passes and they would have put up 30 points.
Which is why the New England game from last year still bothers me. I’ve heard people say that they eventually tried to press and still got beat. By that time, however, they’d already allowed Brady to get into a rhythm with the shorter passes. Plus, you then have the CBs and secondary overall thinking way too much, because the shorter passes have been established. Whereas, if they’d come out with the strategy from the very beginning and stuck with it, they would have had more success. They still likely would have given up 25+, but the game was only decided by 4 points.
Do I believe employing a different strategy would have been the difference in 4 points?
Yes.
It would have forced New England to work harder to get into a rhythm and it would have given the pass rush an opportunity to create more impacting plays. Instead, they were put at a disadvantage, because the quick passes were given up and Brady was able to get rid of the ball so quickly. In essence, you allowed the strength of their offense to get into a rhythm and hindered the strength of your defense from doing the same.
I saw a piece asking the question as to whether or not this defense would be elite under Dean Pees. The reality is that even with top notch talent, Pees coaches a certain way. His way is more risk-averse, and so it has the potential to keep points down. However, it is often too passive and better QBs will take advantage of those red zone opportunities.
For years, excuses have been made as to why Pees schemes defense the way he does. It’s in his persona. Even if he had better talent, he would scheme the same way. He did it in New England and nothing has changed here. The rare occasions when he does scheme more aggressively, it’s often after Harbaugh has implored him to do so. However, that doesn’t last long, because his scheme then becomes too recognizable, because he’s out of his element.
Written by “The Excellector”
Now here is one of the responses to the post from another active member, GOTA:
The Ravens secondary had very little talent by the end of the year. No coach is going to overcome that. Since you bring up the Colts, how did that defense do against the Patriots? They gave up 400 yards and 45 points. When you are aggressive and miss you give up a lot of points. I’m not a big Pees fan but he’s done a solid job given the talent level he’s been given. If everyone stays reasonably healthy that talent level looks better this year. That should lead to an improved defense but expecting an elite defense from any team under these rules is expecting too much.
Written by “GOTA”
Once again, here is the complete thread. To sign up for our board, click here. For those who want to connect with Facebook, there is a button at the top of the screen.
