Heroes and Goats... (Festivus Edition!)

**POPSinPA** · 01-11-2010, 11:51 PM

Simple. He didn't do his job well at all. Which is throwing the ball successfully to Baltimore receivers. But that's just one man's opinion.

And you would of been the 1st to complain if we had started throwing the ball all over the place when we didn't need to. ?

But who really cares after such a great win anyway.

**NC Raven** · 01-12-2010, 12:18 AM

Originally Posted by ravenjoe

I'd put the entire freakin' team in the Heroes column except for the damn kick-off team - way too many yards on kick-off returns

Down with that.

So I say: Let's all just remember that we thought this thought the next time a Ladarius Webb gets hurt covering a punt and I'm -- I mean WE're all griping about why we have starters out there on special teams. The answer is: because teams can gain a hell of a lot of yards on special teams, that's why!

And I noticed that on a couple of those returns, it was guys like Walker and Carr who were making the tackle -- all the "non starter/special teamer" guys had missed, and left it to the "starters" to clean up the mess. Good thing they WERE in there.....

**psuasskicker** · 01-12-2010, 12:48 AM

Well, there's everyone outside of Baltimore that has said "Can't see the ball cross the goal line." And then there's everyone in Baltimore that says "Duh so obvious that the ball crossed cause it looked like he crossed." hmm...

And the ball to DWill wasn't underthrown.

- C -

**AirFlacco** · 01-12-2010, 12:59 AM

Originally Posted by POPSinPA

Flaco did what he had to do, we were up 24 to zip. If he had thrown it around I would have broke another TV. How can you dog him for doing his job as dictated.

Best Ref'd game the Ravens had this year, and I personally would like to buy every striper a beer. They let the teams play. Only 8 total flags thrown on both teams.

D Line and especially the O line deserve Gold medals, not honorable mention. WTF?

Mattison's game plan was perfect, another slight by you.The guy had Tommie so confused all day he didn't know which way to turn.

you mean marsha.

that was a great point about mattison. many wanted him fired just a few weeks ago.

**RAVENOUS52** · 01-12-2010, 03:05 AM

Originally Posted by POPSinPA

Simple. He didn't do his job well at all. Which is throwing the ball successfully to Baltimore receivers. But that's just one man's opinion.

And you would of been the 1st to complain if we had started throwing the ball all over the place when we didn't need to. ?

But who really cares after such a great win anyway.

It's not the number of passes, it was the quality of them that scares me.

If we expect to win next week, we may need Joe's arm. So I guess it's me who cares if he can make an accurate throw to his receivers or if he can make a smart decision under pressure.

BTW, I would've been PISSED if Cam's decision to run a naked bootleg play with Joe had backfired. Luckily at 6 foot 5, 230 pounds (I'm in that club) the kid is plenty tough.

Just because I smack him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper when he pisses on the carpet doesn't mean I don't care about him. In fact, just the opposite is true.

And PSU, when you have to slow down to catch a ball, it's underthrown, thus explaining why DWill's man was deeper down the field at that point. Still should have caught it 7 out of 10 times though...Maybe next time.

**PTORaven** · 01-12-2010, 11:03 AM

gotta agree with PSU on the 2 pt conv. You can tell that the ball most likely would have crossed the plane judging by where his arms are etc., but there isn't indisputable evidence that it crosses the plane (which can't be denied, because only half the country thinks it crossed the plane, so we're obviously disputing it, so ther wasn't indisputable evidence). now, if only the officials had followed the "indisputable evidence" thing last year against the Steelers... btw, why are there not 20 dillion overhead cameras on an obvious run play from the 1 yard line. also, why do you play a sport that relies so heavily on instant replay with a flesh-colored ball?

flacco should bounce back this week and be in the heroes column, unless Indy somehow figures out how to bring deceptive blitzes.

**NC Raven** · 01-12-2010, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by PTORaven

gotta agree with PSU on the 2 pt conv. You can tell that the ball most likely would have crossed the plane judging by where his arms are etc., but there isn't indisputable evidence that it crosses the plane (which can't be denied, because only half the country thinks it crossed the plane, so we're obviously disputing it, so ther wasn't indisputable evidence). now, if only the officials had followed the "indisputable evidence" thing last year against the Steelers... btw, why are there not 20 dillion overhead cameras on an obvious run play from the 1 yard line. also, why do you play a sport that relies so heavily on instant replay with a flesh-colored ball?

flacco should bounce back this week and be in the heroes column, unless Indy somehow figures out how to bring deceptive blitzes.

I think most people's point with that is the frickin refs missed an obvious call in real time, and left it to a replay that for some reason we only got from one side of the field but not the side where we could actually see the ball itself. But the man's whole upper body was over the line. Where was the line judge? We ran the play from the 2 yard line. What's he supposed to be watching on that play? American Idol? The damn ball was way over the line, there's no doubt, and the ref just flaked out and blew it and left it for the booth to handle. Nice work if you can get it. It's the American Dream: take a paycheck every week but when anything important needs to happen, pawn off the responsibility for the quality of your work on other people.

Brilliant!

As for lacking indisputable video evidence, that doesn't seem to stop refs from overturning calls. I refer everyone to the early "pick" in the PHI/DAL game where the Philly DB caught the ball, bobbled it, then held on. The replay never showed the ball hitting the ground. So unless the refs had another replay angle the rest of us couldn't see, they were inferring that the ball "must have" hit the ground.

But I agree, I 'm not sure whether that thing we saw jutting over the goalline was the point of the ball or Willis' elbow, but the only way it WASN'T over the line is if he had it in his right hand and stuck his right hand out BEHIND him to keep it from going over, which he clearly WASN'T so the ball HAD to be over the line. But we never did conclusively get a photo of the ball over the line, because Willis' body which was over the line, was blocking our view of the ball.

**Sua Sponte** · 01-12-2010, 11:30 AM

I agree, but I think Flacco would have improved his numbers if he would have thrown more. We all know by now that Flacco is a slow starter and yes you can tell that something is bothering him, but if needed he could have put together one of those 8-9 drives and his numbers go from 4-10 to 12-19 (don't look so bad now does it). The big plus is that we showed nothing to the Colts in our passing game and that we can run over anybody, so try to stop us. That game plan that they executed is a nightmare for coordinators. He is probably sitting in his office right now asking himself WTF are we going to do to stop the run, and Cam is probably mixing the chems together, predictable but unpredictable.

And I sure hope Ray is as active in the game Saturday. After watching the Ravens vs Indy game from the regular season our defense played good but they didn't play anything like Sunday and Ray and the enitre D just seemed to get the play call and wait, no talking or adjustments.
They are going to make plays, but if we hit them earlier like we did the Patsy's it will take their will. Indy is not a physical team adn Garcon will remember that hit Ray put on him across the middle and after that hit he wasn't as active in the game. Hit them in the mouth and take from them everything

**RAVENOUS52** · 01-12-2010, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by NC Raven

I think most people's point with that is the frickin refs missed an obvious call in real time, and left it to a replay that for some reason we only got from one side of the field but not the side where we could actually see the ball itself. But the man's whole upper body was over the line. Where was the line judge? We ran the play from the 2 yard line. What's he supposed to be watching on that play? American Idol? The damn ball was way over the line, there's no doubt, and the ref just flaked out and blew it and left it for the booth to handle. Nice work if you can get it. It's the American Dream: take a paycheck every week but when anything important needs to happen, pawn off the responsibility for the quality of your work on other people.

Brilliant!

Preach on my brother, preach on!

Get that shit right the first time!

Originally Posted by ScoNo

I agree, but I think Flacco would have improved his numbers if he would have thrown more. We all know by now that Flacco is a slow starter and yes you can tell that something is bothering him, but if needed he could have put together one of those 8-9 drives and his numbers go from 4-10 to 12-19 (don't look so bad now does it).

MAYBE he could have pulled out of his tailspin. But I'm not willing to chance our playoff fortunes on it. He needs to man up and get it done like we all know he can, injured or not. I'm not talking Marino numbers, just solid, stable numbers and not hurt the team with turnovers.

**psuasskicker** · 01-12-2010, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by NC Raven

The damn ball was way over the line, there's no doubt, and the ref just flaked out and blew it and left it for the booth to handle. Nice work if you can get it. It's the American Dream: take a paycheck every week but when anything important needs to happen, pawn off the responsibility for the quality of your work on other people.

Brilliant!

First off, slow down there slappy. These guys have to make snap-second judgments on national television and rarely get credit for anything except when fans want to bitch about something. They're widely the most hated and least loved figures in sports. You lemme know when you sign up for a paycheck you earn by being the most hated person in your office. Till then, maybe you should back off the conjecture about the job.

Second, there obviously IS doubt since there's so much discussion about it. It's not like McGahee's body was all the way into the end zone. Part of it certainly was. Part certainly wasn't. And the camera angle we had shows a body in the way. You're really going to sit there and say that the line judge should have x-ray vision to see where that ball was?

"But there was a ref on the other side of the field! He shoulda seen it! That guy's an idiot!"

And how is it that you know there wasn't a body between him and the ball so he couldn't see it too?

Would it have been nice had it been called the other way? Of course. Is it probable they made the wrong call? Yeah, no doubt.

Was it this horribly egregious missed call where it was so obvious that ball was across the line that a blind 98 year old from the third deck could see it? No. Stop pretending this is some sort of egregious miss. It's not. It was a split second judgment at the time of the play that he didn't make it in, and it was a 100% by-the-book not indisputable evidence call on replay.

- C -

**ravensnhokies** · 01-13-2010, 03:19 PM

Sure Flacco was not a bright spot, but you can say that once the Patriots sorta got back in the game after scoring that TD to cut the lead to under 2 TDs, Flacco was there when we needed him most. He went 2 for 2 converting 3rd downs on the last TD drive and had a nice run on 3 and 7 to get a 1st down (which included him intelligently extending the ball to get that extra yard).

**RAVENOUS52** · 01-13-2010, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by ravensnhokies

Sure Flacco was not a bright spot, but you can say that once the Patriots sorta got back in the game after scoring that TD to cut the lead to under 2 TDs, Flacco was there when we needed him most. He went 2 for 2 converting 3rd downs on the last TD drive and had a nice run on 3 and 7 to get a 1st down (which included him intelligently extending the ball to get that extra yard).

I agree. But his full body of work for the game was, to put it mildly, doo-doo.

Joe will have his day to redeem himself and shine like the diamond we know he is destined to be.

It's called this Saturday night.;)