Three Ravens made the PFF All-Pro Team at the quarter pole. Harbaugh defends the fake field goal with analytics. Ravens are 12th best team according to a power rankings machine. Kamar Aiken is confident in Flacco’s ability to overcome injuries. Ben Rosen makes hilarious GIFs. The NFL considers changing the preseason to only three games.
PFF All-Pro Team Through Week 4
Pro Football Focus has been heavily criticized lately for their -.8 rating of Aaron Rodgers last Monday night when he shredded the Kansas City Chiefs defense for 5 touchdowns. Still, I have always found their rankings to be pretty reliable, which means that Will Hill, Brandon Williams, and Marshal Yanda have had pretty good seasons. They all made the PFF All-Pro team. Steve Smith and Justin Tucker were honorable mentions.
John Harbaugh defends fake field goal with analytics
John Harbaugh still defends his decision to try the fake field goal on a 4th and 2 when they were down by 6 with 4:30 left to go in the 3rd quarter. He says that it was analytically-driven, which makes sense considering analytics say that teams should go for it far more often than they do. What the analytics don’t tell you, however, is that a fake would work in that situation. Because it was a situation where going for it wasn’t all that crazy of an idea, I would have preferred that they just lined up offensively and tried for the first down. That was one of the situations where a fake is somewhat predictable.
Aiken confident Flacco, Ravens can overcome WR injuries
Last year it was the cornerbacks. This year it’s the wide receivers who have been hit with big injuries. Perriman continues to remain sidelined, Michael Campanaro is out for the year, and Steve Smith shouldn’t be able to play this week due to micro-fractures in his back, which opens up an even bigger opportunity for Kamar Aiken.
WhatIfSports NFL Week 5 power rankings: Ravens 12th best team
Full disclosure: I have no idea how they calculate this. I understand that they run a bunch of simulations, but I don’t understand what goes into those simulations. Anyway, the Ravens rank 12th best in these simulations.
Funny Pages: Oh, You Thought We Were Finished?
Buzzfeed Senior Creative, Ben Rosen now writes for the Ravens occasionally. This week, he makes some great GIFs about stealing a win in Pittsburgh and Josh Scobee‘s missed field goal. He also has some great GIFs about “CameraHoglesberger.”
Tweet of the Day
One non-LA item owners are discussing at this week's meeting is the idea of reducing the NFL preseason from 4 games to 3.
— Dan Graziano (@DanGrazianoESPN) October 6, 2015
Please make this happen!
