Can someone intelligently explain how we lost 41-7 at home to the Patriots?

iggyman555 · 12-23-2013, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

There is definitely some emotion to it, but this team has a pattern of playing down to their opponents and getting beaten by teams that have star players and key players out.

IMO, there is something that just isn't being addressed.

yupo. glad we won the super bowl despite the coaching last year

**JohnBKistler** · 12-23-2013, 11:17 AM

Originally Posted by Terpsfan82

Excuses. We got our asses handed to us at home against a superior coaching staff with a superior quarterback.

Wow, they must really play/coach down to their opponents level given the number of times they've lost to an inferior coach and QB. If I was a Patriots fan, I would be furious.

**pslholder96** · 12-23-2013, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by iggyman555

yupo. glad we won the super bowl despite the coaching last year

Yep. Superbowl champions without any of the coaches present in practice, breaking down film or standing on the sidelines during games.

**saintmatthew** · 12-23-2013, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by NOLARavenFAN

OK, here you go.

9> This game we actually missed Boldin who owned Talib Aquib (?)

I disagree with this one. Boldin didn't really show up until Talib went out last year.

**callahan09** · 12-23-2013, 11:26 AM

Originally Posted by Dirt1

Agreed. Flacco played very poorly yesterday. However, IMO the most appalling thing from yesterday's game was the fact that the Ravens could not run the ball versus a very banged up Pats DL, and how little pressure the Ravens were able to get on Brady against a banged up Pats OL. What has happened to Suggs and Dumervil?

Flacco had the worst game of his career. And I place damn near 0% of the blame for this loss on Flacco. He turned the ball over twice, could have been a lot worse than that, and BOTH of them were somewhat unlucky breaks where the ball hit our receiver in the hands and bounced into the arms of a defender. Not excusing him based on that... he made a poor decision on one of those 4th downs throwing deeper when he had Pitta open at the sticks. That's OK. Those plays didn't cost us the game. We got straight up dominated in the trenches, and our receivers weren't getting separation for most of the game. Our defense let them march into the end zone too easily in the 1st quarter, which put us in a hole and we just didn't have the ability to play a catch-up game yesterday. How different might this game have gone if those first two TD drives ended up field goals? You're still in a one score game, and it drastically changes how you call plays. We called too many deep passes.

I've gone on too long without making the point I wanted to make...

The offensive coaches did not prepare or game plan to mitigate Flacco's injury. They didn't call any easy, high percentage throws. They were making him throw deep all game. His first reads were deep on nearly every drop-back. That fourth down play, the first read was deep 12-yards past the first down marker. Why are the coaches calling so many first-read deep plays? It made absolutely no sense. You've got an injured QB, and you start the game with the very first pass as a deep ball? And then you continue to do it all game long and never let him develop a rhythm? Psychologically you let him get beaten by a mediocre pass rushing defense who just bullies Flacco all game long, won't let him get comfortable back there, because our offensive line played such a terrible game.

That coaches just completely failed to scheme for this game based on the opponent and what we had to work with that particular day. Flacco's poor performance was a result of a bad gameplan and poor playcalling, in addition to the usual receiver separation and pass protection struggles.

**Dirt1** · 12-23-2013, 11:39 AM

Originally Posted by callahan09

Flacco had the worst game of his career. And I place damn near 0% of the blame for this loss on Flacco.

Sorry, but this is where you lose me. I agree that the play of the Ravens OL and DL was the chief reason the Ravens lost yesterday, but to say that Flacco is in no way responsible for the performance of the offense is just ignoring reality. Flacco made a number of bad reads and had two costly turnovers. The Ravens offense scores very few TDs in general, and only scored 7 points at home yesterday. You cannot completely absolve Flacco of responsibility for that performance. Also, I think many times Flacco prefers to throw to the deeper receiver than the underneath receiver. I saw players open for shorter receptions yesterday on at least 8-10 plays, but Flacco still threw longer passes. This may just be due to Flacco's preference, rather than poor coaching/play-calling.

**Terpsfan82** · 12-23-2013, 12:04 PM

Originally Posted by JohnBKistler

Wow, they must really play/coach down to their opponents level given the number of times they've lost to an inferior coach and QB. If I was a Patriots fan, I would be furious.

Not sure what you are implying. Jason Campbell, Cade McCown, EJ Manuel ARE among the list of quarterbacks we have lost to this season, though.

**s.r.genovese** · 12-23-2013, 12:41 PM

Originally Posted by Dirt1

I don't think Harbaugh is getting fired anytime soon. That said, I recall the same thing that I have bolded above being said about Billick. Billick has been out of coaching for six years and counting.

That's because he got paid 15 mil to do nothing for 3 years then got a job with FOX and realized he could make good money working 16 weeks out the year instead of busting his ass 100 hours a week as a head coach.

Don't think Harbs is ever going to be a TV guy.