How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
Just curious what you all thought. It all happened so fast, I remember him completing like 3 passes in a row to start the game, and moving the ball down field well on the first drive. Then I remember Torrey Smith running backwards, a couple of short passes that fell incomplete, a couple of penalties, and a punt.
Next drive, another short pass falls incomplete, then there's a run for no gain and a huge sack.
The sack was obviously the offensive line not protecting well enough, I mean, it happened way before the play could even come close to developing.
The running game was getting stuffed. In order of occurrence, our running plays went for: 3, 5, 3, -4, 2, 0 yards. Basically one successful run out of 6 attempts, and two blown up for a loss or no. 9 yards on 6 carries (1.5 yards per attempt).
Flacco's early rhythm was good, then somehow got disrupted and he went 1/5 after starting 3/3. It was mostly "short" passes that weren't working, and one "deep", according to the play by play descriptions. I can't honestly remember the plays well enough to remember why these passes fell incomplete.
Anybody have any insight into why so many short passes were falling incomplete? I mean, I know a 15 yard penalty on Rice didn't help the offense's rhythm any in the first series. I know that the run game getting stuffed wasn't helping any. He only attempted 1 pass in the second series, a short pass that fell incomplete...
Anything that we can ascertain from this game? I know the play book was probably extra vanilla on purpose, both because they wanted to minimize injury, and because they didn't really care about winning the game, so they didn't want to give anything away.
I wonder if Flacco would have even started the game at all if he didn't have a nice consecutive games started streak going?
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
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Originally Posted by
callahan09
I wonder if Flacco would have even started the game at all if he didn't have a nice consecutive games started streak going?
DING. DING. DING. That and some players may have games started/played clauses in their contracts.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
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Originally Posted by
JohnBKistler
DING. DING. DING. That and some players may have games started/played clauses in their contracts.
Yeah I agree. It was very weird play calling. You could tell they weren't trying.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
He had one good throw, an intermediate seam pass to Jacoby Jones for 24 yards on 3rd down. Other than that he just had a few unimpressive short completions. Several inaccurate throws, including two terrible overthrows on intermediate level passes to the sidelines, which is consistent with how he's thrown to the sidelines most of the year.
I don't really recall a lot else. The Bengals have one of the best front 4's in all of football and we were playing without Yanda. Not surprised our run game was unsuccessful and we were limited to short passes. The Bengals' Cover-2 can be beaten by exploiting holes in zone, particularly the linebackers in intermediate coverage and particularly off play-action.
Considering they put about 0 effort into the game I don't think there's much to say about the starters. They didn't play to win and they didn't seem to care.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
The reason they played him was because they need a good week of practice. If they tell him he's not starting/playing he isn't going to work as hard at practice. I doubt the consecutive games streak had a lot to do with it. I'm sure it had a little to do with it, but having a good week of practice was at least as important going forward.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
I still would have liked to have seen the offense on the field for at least a quarter to the half. If you're going to trot the offense out there for 2 series, not do anything, and then yank them, why have them out there at all?
And now we just don't know what to expect next week.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
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Originally Posted by
StingerNLG
I still would have liked to have seen the offense on the field for at least a quarter to the half. If you're going to trot the offense out there for 2 series, not do anything, and then yank them, why have them out there at all?
And now we just don't know what to expect next week.
In retrospect, you could have said this after nearly every game this season.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
StingerNLG
I still would have liked to have seen the offense on the field for at least a quarter to the half. If you're going to trot the offense out there for 2 series, not do anything, and then yank them, why have them out there at all?
And now we just don't know what to expect next week.
Because it is more than just the actual game.
It is to keep the players/starters in their usual preparation leading up to the game.
You try to keep the players on their schedule and in the right frame of mind as well.
Very important to keep them in sync in as many ways as possible leading up to kickoff.
It doesn't throw them out of sorts and doesn't let them get stale for the following week.
Players, just like us average people, like to get on a schedule to prepare and it helps them focus at the right time.
A good example of someone getting thrown off schedule would be the closing seconds of the AFCCG, running the kicker on the field for the biggest kick of the year, while having a timeout in their pocket.
It doesn't work out too well.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
StingerNLG
I still would have liked to have seen the offense on the field for at least a quarter to the half. If you're going to trot the offense out there for 2 series, not do anything, and then yank them, why have them out there at all?
And now we just don't know what to expect next week.
To be fair, Flacco got pulled after he was sacked. I knew right there that we wouldn't see a Joe again. If the OL had protected him better, we might have gotten a little more.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
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Originally Posted by
Ravens44
A good example of someone getting thrown off schedule would be the closing seconds of the AFCCG, running the kicker on the field for the biggest kick of the year, while having a timeout in their pocket.
It doesn't work out too well.
Considering they practice for that, that's not a good excuse for the field goal unit.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
He didn't do much, but then neither did anyone else on the 1st team unit.
No Yanda Means No Chance anyway--without him our O-line falls apart because Bobby Williams, like Andre Gurode before him, is done.
The 1st team looked like their main focus was to not get hurt, especially after Leach went down.
Leach's injury is what probably hastened the departure of Flacco, Rice, etc.
Re: How did Flacco do in his two series' against the Bengals?
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Originally Posted by
PerpetuallyBored74
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Leach's injury is what probably hastened the departure of Flacco, Rice, etc.
Agreed. As soon as Leach went down, the coaches got worried.
Billy Bajema is no Vonta Leach.
