Happy Friday once again, Ravens Flock! As we head into the first of two matchups the purple birds will have against our old friends the Pittsburgh Steelers, there’s a combination of uncertainty and excitement in the air.
Uncertainty, of course, due to the state of the offense without Lamar Jackson at the helm. Excitement due to the fact that the Ravens should be out for blood after those son-of-a-you-know-whats have gotten over on them the last FOUR times they’ve met.
Now, it’s time to change that, but before we get there let’s touch on all the last minute news and notes!
Stewart says in this piece that Ravens OC Greg Roman is no longer in the running for the Stanford opening. https://t.co/M34sjwHwrB
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) December 8, 2022
It appears as if Greg Roman is out of the running for the head coach vacancy at Stanford University. It’s a bummer for Greg no doubt, but naturally the fear of the fanbase is that this will lead to his return as offensive coordinator of the Ravens.
Candidly, I would be beyond shocked if that were the case. Anything short of being able to get to a Super Bowl this year should spell the end of his time in Baltimore, and even that might not be enough if they don’t win the whole thing. Sometimes a guy’s act just goes stale in a locker room, and that appears to be the case here. Should he return next year, it’s very possible that combined with the Jackson contract situation could turn away a lot of fans. Here’s hoping that Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh have enough foresight to understand that this upcoming off-season is a major one, perhaps the biggest in team history from a decision making standpoint.
Or the Team Dr who knew the ENTIRE time Derek needed to have BOTH hips done as he spoke with Hip surgeon on multiple occasions (yes we were on those calls!) RT @Savageraven88: @HFILsurvivor @HoodieRamey @Derek_Wolfe95 Real talk . Harbaugh could have told us the truth .
— Abigail J Wolfe (@AbigailJWolfe) December 9, 2022
An interesting bit here from Derek Wolfe’s wife, who now claims the Ravens medical staff knew about Wolfe’s hip injury status for months before the season but kept it quiet. As of this writing there are a lot of questions about the specifics of this tweet, and perhaps more will be revealed throughout the day. What can’t be denied though is that this isn’t a great look for a medical staff that’s already been under fire with players dropping like flies for two years straight now. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
Since the Roquan Smith trade, the Ravens' defense ranks:
⚫️ 3rd in PFF grading (77.0)
🟣 3rd in EPA/play (-0.171)
⚫️ 2nd in PPG (13.3)
🟣 2nd in YPG (263.0)
⚫️ 1st in 3rd down success rate (25.0%) pic.twitter.com/ciiNZg576y— PFF BAL Ravens (@PFF_Ravens) December 8, 2022
If it wasn’t obvious by the stat sheet as to how much of an impact Roquan Smith has made on the Ravens defense, here’s some more statistics from PFF to back that notion. Smith is quickly becoming the best mid-season acquisition the Ravens have ever made (sorry Marcus), and with Lamar likely missing at least the next three weeks, he and the defense are going to be called upon in an even bigger way. They stepped up last week against Denver, and with Smith running around like a man with his hair on fire, you feel a lot better about their chances of a repeat performance in Pittsburgh.
Our Week 13 Picks. Not many weeks that @profootballtalk and I agree on all the games, this means I’ll have to wait for next week to make up lost ground pic.twitter.com/xw7qZSbO3F
— Chris Simms (@CSimmsQB) December 8, 2022
The PFT crew gave their picks for this weekend yesterday, and not surprisingly both have the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out with a victory on Sunday. They’re not the only ones with that mindset, and given the offensive struggles as of late (even before Lamar’s injury) you can’t really blame them. The offense is going to have to rediscover some of that early season juju (no pun intended) in a hurry here, even with Tyler Huntley at the helm. Last year he showed he was able to put points on the board with an equally depleted supporting cast, it’s just on Roman and Harbaugh to design a game plan to give him that opportunity.
Can they do that? Only time will tell.
Week 14 fit ❗️ pic.twitter.com/GiPSW2lcOi
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 8, 2022
Quick stop in the fashion department, as the Ravens will once again be busting out the white jerseys and purple pants in Pittsburgh. They didn’t have much success wearing them down in Jacksonville a few weeks back, so let’s hope that was just a fluke and the purple magic can return again on Sunday!
The NFL will never see another Defensive Duo as great as this one 💯 pic.twitter.com/HmsnQHUHEI
— The Ravens Realm (@RealmRavens) December 9, 2022
Lastly, for our Ravens photo of the week, we throw it back to two guys who know very well how important it is to beat the black and gold when you’re donning the purple and black. The young guys who are just getting their first taste of this rivalry would be smart to go back and watch the tape of what made it so great in the first place. There’s no denying that since these guys left, the rivalry has lost a slight bit of it’s luster. Pittsburgh believes they have their new franchise cornerstone in Kenny Pickett under center though, so we could very well be seeing a new era of the rivalry beginning on Sunday. Here’s to starting out that new beginning with a W!
One Response
Irrelevant! It’s Harbaugh’s offense, not Roman’s or Mornhinwhig’s, or Trestman’s or Caldwell’s or Cameron’s! Flacco was on his own during the SB MVP run and Kubiak brought his own assistants and system with him…..