Monday, October 17, 2005
Thoughts from the Couch...
The Next Big Thing makes his first post of the season and comes out firing. Cover topics including the Browns, College Football and Terrible Commentators. Look for a column or two a week from him... enjoy.
The mantra for the year has been ‘improve in every game’, I think it’s pretty safe to say that nothing about yesterday’s game indicated that we got better from last week. There was too much talk about how the Ravens were in disarray despite having the 2nd ranked defense in the league. We were a bit over confident after stealing a win last Sunday and the city was starting to gain the false confidence that we always do every time one of our teams shows a glimmer of hope. Quite honestly I never had a good feeling about this game all week, which was wholly solidified by the Jeff Faine snap on our first offensive play.
Going out of the shotgun on the first play from scrimmage made no sense to me at all. It’s kind of like watching a pro-baseball game’s first pitch...you generally see the pitcher throw a fastball right down the middle for a strike. It’s kind of a ‘good omen’ play or something to ease the nerves a bit for both the pitcher and the batter. It is the chance to exhale and settle into the game. We let the leadoff hitter go deep on the first pitch, only in this case I think it was much worse in terms of momentum. The defense had just done a great job of getting off the field without letting the Ravens do any damage on their first possession…really all you are looking for out of a first frame. For my money, the Faine snap, or lack thereof, was far more damaging than the two taunting penalties in the first possession of the Indy game in terms of ‘negative momentum’. It had to be very deflating for the offense, and brought the defense right back out without giving them a chance to catch their breath. It’s been an early theme to the season that the offense seems to put the d in some spots where you can only expect them to minimize damage instead of averting it. That’s a recipe for disaster any way you slice it.
Leading up to the game I really thought that we would lose the game by either allowing there defense or special teams to score. Neither did, but they both hurt us. It was a foregone conclusion that the Ravens would run with success on us, and they did….with just under a buck fifty in yards between Jamal Lewis and Chester Taylor. Taylor was impressive, let’s hope that the Ravens chose to re-sign Lewis after the season to give Phil and crew another shot to recruit this guy in FA.
Speaking of free agents...what about Reuben Droughns? Are we missing something? Is there something in his contract that says we cannot give you more than 2 consecutive carries or two consecutive offensive series in a row without a break? I don’t think he wants to come out, but for some reason when he seems like he is going to take a drive over he gets subbed out, what gives Mo? It has to be the most common question surrounding the team at this point to ask “why is he not more involved?” 15 carries this week? I think he was averaging easily 4 plus yards per carry, but we kept going away from him. Let’s see what the outcome of the game is if we give Reuben 25 to 30 carries…my guess is it would be pretty good….I suggest we test the theory against the Lions this coming week.
Overall there wasn’t much to like about the offensive game plan. We played directly into the strengths of the Ravens defense which translated into the results of the game. Terrell Suggs embarrassed both Ryan Tucker and LJ Shelton with some regularity. I don’t know if the statistician was keeping track of lookout blocks today but I can guarantee Trent won’t be taking the line out to dinner this week rewarding a job well done. The protection today was overwhelmed by the Ravens pass rush, I think everyone realized that, but since we don’t have a pass rush I thought it was worth mentioning so we can know what to ask Santa for this year.
The Ravens were routinely sending 5 or 6 guys on both run and pass plays where were the screens and draws? We ran one draw that went for a nice gain but never went back to it…again I was confused.
Our lack of dedication or willingness to run the ball more regularly created all of the other symptoms of our sub par output on O. The receivers and tight ends did their jobs for the most part considering the pressure Trent was under.
How much more can be said about an offense that only managed three points today. One more bat to the dead horse….not running the ball was the single largest contributor to today’s loss.
The defense was also deficient today in all areas. Like the offense, the failures of the defense in the game today can be put on the game plan as much as we can put it on the lack of talent on the team. I understand that it is easier to defend the run playing zone defense, but when we started getting picked apart by a Anthony Wright we should have made adjustments. We played such a soft zone that we made a two weapon passing attack look like they were playing 7 on 7. It would have made more sense to me to man up to try to take away Mason and Heap leaving the rest of the crew to try to create some havoc. Instead we were content with the bend don’t break methods that didn’t allow enough points to knock us out, but allowed the Ravens to control tempo, eat up clock, and wear the defense down mentally and physically while the Ravens d were allowed to recharge the batteries on the sidelines.
I don’t know how Romeo put his stamp of approval on the coordinators game plans this week, both of which were seemingly the exact opposite of what should have been done.
Individual Performances:
Reuben Droughns – would have been nice to see what he could have done today with a game plan tailored for him. He looked very strong, but we didn’t give him enough carries to make a significant impact in the outcome.
William Green – not really noteworthy, but he had a couple solid runs…really just more fuel on the fire to continue to ask where the running plans went?
Trent Dilfer – today the pass protection made Trent look a lot worse than he really played. For the most part I thought he made the right decisions on the throws and I give the guy credit for making it through the game.
LJ Shelton, Ryan Tucker, and Jeff Faine – all deserve game balls from the Ravens because they all looked horrible. Faine’s errant snap was a tone setter, and T-Sizzle abused both Tucker and Shelton all day.
Gary Baxter – didn’t look very good today, and for a guy who is supposed to be our shutdown corner needs to make more plays. He gave up a lot of catches and yards, and when we needed a play he got beat one on one by Todd Heap. He was in good position, but bottom line on that play he got flagged for interference and Heap made the catch anyway in a critical play late. It didn’t help him today that I happened to flip to the Cowboys/Giants a handful of times and saw Anthony Henry force a Plaxico fumble and another nice pass breakup on a play to Shockey.
Ben Taylor – So far he has been the defensive player I have been most disappointed with. I can’t think of anything in particular he did today…which leads me to deduce he was a non-factor. He will be one of the players that will be replaced after the season in my opinion.
The Defensive Line - didn’t have a real push today, but I am putting that on Grantham since I saw mostly 3 guys rushing…what can you expect them to do?
Josh Cribbs – I hope he’s saving his game checks, because his career will be a short one. Another fumble on a kickoff? That is 2 fumbles in probably less than a dozen opportunities in the regular season. We aren’t good enough to overcome special teams turnovers and he needs to protect the ball better.
Maurice Carthon and Todd Grantham – I think I was pretty clear that I thought both failed in creating their plans this week. Since Romeo rubber stamped them, I guess he deserves a ding too…but I can’t bring myself to be angry at Romeo at this point.
Final Thoughts -
I didn’t particularly care to see Trent and GB seemingly laughing and enjoying post game congrats with former teammates. Look, I’m cool with those being your boys…but we had just gotten our butts kicked. Give them a call from your couch tonight to shoot the breeze. Given the performance I would have preferred to see a more somber or frustrated group leaving the field.
So far I have been telling friends that we need to take the best defensive player on the board when we draft. After watching USC/Notre Dame I’m not sure I could pass on Reggie Bush if he was available (I assume he’s coming out although he is only a junior). Tom Jackson keeps calling him the next Gayle Sayers. I think I see L.T. in him. I don’t know if we could pass on the next Tomlinson even with the lack of an impact linebacker or pass rusher on the team. Hopefully we are not picking high enough that it’s an issue, but if he’s there I don’t know if I could pass on him if I were in Phil Savage’s shoes.
Anyone see the Broncos/Pats game? All of the ex-Browns looked solid today in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. Courtney Brown and Gerard Warren both looked pretty good…CB was getting a lot of compliments from Phil Simms.
Speaking of Simms, I wish he would have been doing the Browns game today…we got a terrible crew with Spero Dedes (voice of the LA Lakers from what I read on the net)…he made a lot of mistakes and wasn’t very insightful in my opinion, maybe he should stick to hoops. Rich Gannon wasn’t any good either….I guess the execs at CBS knew the game wasn’t going to be a great one, and therefore we got a crappy crew.
Not much to smile about going into the work week…let’s hope next week turns out better. I wrote that before just hearing the Sunday night crew say the Texans had a legit shot to win against us in two weeks…ah…there it is, the blood is back to a simmer.
The mantra for the year has been ‘improve in every game’, I think it’s pretty safe to say that nothing about yesterday’s game indicated that we got better from last week. There was too much talk about how the Ravens were in disarray despite having the 2nd ranked defense in the league. We were a bit over confident after stealing a win last Sunday and the city was starting to gain the false confidence that we always do every time one of our teams shows a glimmer of hope. Quite honestly I never had a good feeling about this game all week, which was wholly solidified by the Jeff Faine snap on our first offensive play.
Going out of the shotgun on the first play from scrimmage made no sense to me at all. It’s kind of like watching a pro-baseball game’s first pitch...you generally see the pitcher throw a fastball right down the middle for a strike. It’s kind of a ‘good omen’ play or something to ease the nerves a bit for both the pitcher and the batter. It is the chance to exhale and settle into the game. We let the leadoff hitter go deep on the first pitch, only in this case I think it was much worse in terms of momentum. The defense had just done a great job of getting off the field without letting the Ravens do any damage on their first possession…really all you are looking for out of a first frame. For my money, the Faine snap, or lack thereof, was far more damaging than the two taunting penalties in the first possession of the Indy game in terms of ‘negative momentum’. It had to be very deflating for the offense, and brought the defense right back out without giving them a chance to catch their breath. It’s been an early theme to the season that the offense seems to put the d in some spots where you can only expect them to minimize damage instead of averting it. That’s a recipe for disaster any way you slice it.
Leading up to the game I really thought that we would lose the game by either allowing there defense or special teams to score. Neither did, but they both hurt us. It was a foregone conclusion that the Ravens would run with success on us, and they did….with just under a buck fifty in yards between Jamal Lewis and Chester Taylor. Taylor was impressive, let’s hope that the Ravens chose to re-sign Lewis after the season to give Phil and crew another shot to recruit this guy in FA.
Speaking of free agents...what about Reuben Droughns? Are we missing something? Is there something in his contract that says we cannot give you more than 2 consecutive carries or two consecutive offensive series in a row without a break? I don’t think he wants to come out, but for some reason when he seems like he is going to take a drive over he gets subbed out, what gives Mo? It has to be the most common question surrounding the team at this point to ask “why is he not more involved?” 15 carries this week? I think he was averaging easily 4 plus yards per carry, but we kept going away from him. Let’s see what the outcome of the game is if we give Reuben 25 to 30 carries…my guess is it would be pretty good….I suggest we test the theory against the Lions this coming week.
Overall there wasn’t much to like about the offensive game plan. We played directly into the strengths of the Ravens defense which translated into the results of the game. Terrell Suggs embarrassed both Ryan Tucker and LJ Shelton with some regularity. I don’t know if the statistician was keeping track of lookout blocks today but I can guarantee Trent won’t be taking the line out to dinner this week rewarding a job well done. The protection today was overwhelmed by the Ravens pass rush, I think everyone realized that, but since we don’t have a pass rush I thought it was worth mentioning so we can know what to ask Santa for this year.
The Ravens were routinely sending 5 or 6 guys on both run and pass plays where were the screens and draws? We ran one draw that went for a nice gain but never went back to it…again I was confused.
Our lack of dedication or willingness to run the ball more regularly created all of the other symptoms of our sub par output on O. The receivers and tight ends did their jobs for the most part considering the pressure Trent was under.
How much more can be said about an offense that only managed three points today. One more bat to the dead horse….not running the ball was the single largest contributor to today’s loss.
The defense was also deficient today in all areas. Like the offense, the failures of the defense in the game today can be put on the game plan as much as we can put it on the lack of talent on the team. I understand that it is easier to defend the run playing zone defense, but when we started getting picked apart by a Anthony Wright we should have made adjustments. We played such a soft zone that we made a two weapon passing attack look like they were playing 7 on 7. It would have made more sense to me to man up to try to take away Mason and Heap leaving the rest of the crew to try to create some havoc. Instead we were content with the bend don’t break methods that didn’t allow enough points to knock us out, but allowed the Ravens to control tempo, eat up clock, and wear the defense down mentally and physically while the Ravens d were allowed to recharge the batteries on the sidelines.
I don’t know how Romeo put his stamp of approval on the coordinators game plans this week, both of which were seemingly the exact opposite of what should have been done.
Individual Performances:
Reuben Droughns – would have been nice to see what he could have done today with a game plan tailored for him. He looked very strong, but we didn’t give him enough carries to make a significant impact in the outcome.
William Green – not really noteworthy, but he had a couple solid runs…really just more fuel on the fire to continue to ask where the running plans went?
Trent Dilfer – today the pass protection made Trent look a lot worse than he really played. For the most part I thought he made the right decisions on the throws and I give the guy credit for making it through the game.
LJ Shelton, Ryan Tucker, and Jeff Faine – all deserve game balls from the Ravens because they all looked horrible. Faine’s errant snap was a tone setter, and T-Sizzle abused both Tucker and Shelton all day.
Gary Baxter – didn’t look very good today, and for a guy who is supposed to be our shutdown corner needs to make more plays. He gave up a lot of catches and yards, and when we needed a play he got beat one on one by Todd Heap. He was in good position, but bottom line on that play he got flagged for interference and Heap made the catch anyway in a critical play late. It didn’t help him today that I happened to flip to the Cowboys/Giants a handful of times and saw Anthony Henry force a Plaxico fumble and another nice pass breakup on a play to Shockey.
Ben Taylor – So far he has been the defensive player I have been most disappointed with. I can’t think of anything in particular he did today…which leads me to deduce he was a non-factor. He will be one of the players that will be replaced after the season in my opinion.
The Defensive Line - didn’t have a real push today, but I am putting that on Grantham since I saw mostly 3 guys rushing…what can you expect them to do?
Josh Cribbs – I hope he’s saving his game checks, because his career will be a short one. Another fumble on a kickoff? That is 2 fumbles in probably less than a dozen opportunities in the regular season. We aren’t good enough to overcome special teams turnovers and he needs to protect the ball better.
Maurice Carthon and Todd Grantham – I think I was pretty clear that I thought both failed in creating their plans this week. Since Romeo rubber stamped them, I guess he deserves a ding too…but I can’t bring myself to be angry at Romeo at this point.
Final Thoughts -
I didn’t particularly care to see Trent and GB seemingly laughing and enjoying post game congrats with former teammates. Look, I’m cool with those being your boys…but we had just gotten our butts kicked. Give them a call from your couch tonight to shoot the breeze. Given the performance I would have preferred to see a more somber or frustrated group leaving the field.
So far I have been telling friends that we need to take the best defensive player on the board when we draft. After watching USC/Notre Dame I’m not sure I could pass on Reggie Bush if he was available (I assume he’s coming out although he is only a junior). Tom Jackson keeps calling him the next Gayle Sayers. I think I see L.T. in him. I don’t know if we could pass on the next Tomlinson even with the lack of an impact linebacker or pass rusher on the team. Hopefully we are not picking high enough that it’s an issue, but if he’s there I don’t know if I could pass on him if I were in Phil Savage’s shoes.
Anyone see the Broncos/Pats game? All of the ex-Browns looked solid today in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated. Courtney Brown and Gerard Warren both looked pretty good…CB was getting a lot of compliments from Phil Simms.
Speaking of Simms, I wish he would have been doing the Browns game today…we got a terrible crew with Spero Dedes (voice of the LA Lakers from what I read on the net)…he made a lot of mistakes and wasn’t very insightful in my opinion, maybe he should stick to hoops. Rich Gannon wasn’t any good either….I guess the execs at CBS knew the game wasn’t going to be a great one, and therefore we got a crappy crew.
Not much to smile about going into the work week…let’s hope next week turns out better. I wrote that before just hearing the Sunday night crew say the Texans had a legit shot to win against us in two weeks…ah…there it is, the blood is back to a simmer.
# posted by Bill Weber @ 7:20 PM 
