Observations

**JimZipCode** · 08-09-2013, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by JohnBKistler

Every player drops catches – even St. Boldin and St. Pitta.

Originally Posted by RavingMad

Lol..ok buddy.

No, really.

**NCRAVEN** · 08-09-2013, 10:02 AM

That play was a combination of a couple of things. Jones made a bad cut which tipped off Gorrer and allowed him to make a jump on a ball that was thrown late.

**HKusp** · 08-09-2013, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

If you're running a true sideline route, your momentum is going to take you out of bounds if you're running it right and at the proper speed.

Moot point now.

Yes, but he wasn't, he was almost standing stationary waiting on the ball.

**bt12483** · 08-09-2013, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by NCRAVEN

That play was a combination of a couple of things. Jones made a bad cut which tipped off Gorrer and allowed him to make a jump on a ball that was thrown late.

yup. Terrell Davis also said the ball was a little late. So it was a bad play by us and a good*play by gorrer. I just don't trust jacoby having to make tough contested catches though. He has never shown such a characteristic in his career.

**bt12483** · 08-09-2013, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by HKusp

Yes, but he wasn't, he was almost standing stationary waiting on the ball.

"The two Jones targets ended in disappointment. The first was intercepted, and Jones deserved “at least half the blame” for it, tweeted The Baltimore Sun’s Matt Vensel. “[It was a] decent ball by Joe, but Jacoby has to come back to the ball there,” he added. The second was a short pass in the middle of the field on third-and-2, where Boldin excels, but the ball clanked off Jones’ hands with tight coverage."
http://www.baltimoreravens.com/news/...8-2bb963a7a819

**BigPlayReceiver** · 08-09-2013, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by YorkRavensFan

Was it just me or did Joe's INT look to be a poorly executed comeback route by Jones? It just looked to me like it would have been a catch and not an INT if he runs that route crisp and comes back another yard and a half. Just looked like a half-assed route to me.

You are 100% correct.

Aggressively "walking into/coming back to" an NFL pass is challenging for any WR/TE at first...it's counter-intuitive and jacks-up your timing. Once you can do it consistently and catch it with your hands then you catch any pass, anywhere (with the exception maybe of crossing the middle and hearing those cliché footsteps).

I suspect that JJ12 has never been a confident hands-catching receiver, so him consistently knifing back into a Flacco laser (knowing the limits of his own pass catching abilities) will probably never happen. If anything he'll look to elevate and body-catch it.

Last night, two or three steps before his break, he should have known that pass was at-risk of being picked off b/c of the coverage and the shortcomings of his own skill-set. He's a superior athlete playing WR, but despite his PO heroics, he's pretty much just an average WR in just about every technical element of the position. No one should be fooled.

**ravenfever** · 08-09-2013, 10:25 AM

This is why pre-season games are important so players can work on things that need to be corrected, so it will not cost us during the regular season. Hopefully Jacoby will fix it. At the very least he should have tried to fight for the ball, it seemed he made no attempt to do that.

**FellsPointRaven** · 08-09-2013, 10:26 AM

Look, I think it's pretty clear we need a more dependable #2 receiver going into the season. Jones isn't suddenly going to become Boldin (who made that cut and catch a hundred times with Flacco) and is best suited as a #3 burner + return man. Going into a season with an untested possession guy - even if Doss/Williams/AN Other have a great pre-season (thinking back to the likes of Randy Hymes and Clarence Moore awesome pre-seasons) - is extremely risky to say the least, especially given the dramatic fall-off at TE with Pitta's loss.

We've had Boldin and before that Mason for so long that we forget how shitty it is to be lacking a truly dependable possession guy. I don't necessarily have the answer, but I know we need one.

**NCRAVEN** · 08-09-2013, 10:29 AM

Maybe we don't worry about a #2 WR and just go 2008 and run over everyone.

**BigPlayReceiver** · 08-09-2013, 10:31 AM

I don't think it was an out route; he lined up about 2 yards outside the numbers. Way too wide, yet b/c of that he should have 1) given Gorrer some type of inside move or 2) run right at Gorrer, so that he could have pushed off coming out of his break, forcing Gorrer to fight through him for the ball.

**bt12483** · 08-09-2013, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by NCRAVEN

Maybe we don't worry about a #2 WR and just go 2008 and run over everyone.

a little 2 headed monster.

my concern is Pierce is already dinged up (how bad we don't know) and is seemingly always dinged up. His biggest issue is injury concerns. Seems like every play he comes up limping or hurt, even from last year. I don't know how reliable he will be. He just seems like one of those guys that gets hurt all the time.