10 Things.

[The Excellector]

At the end of day, you can say what you want about the coordinator's strategies, but neither was as bad as the execution made it look. Pagano was playing more for the coverage. It should have worked, because Ed Reed did a great job of shadowing Johnson, whom they expected Yates to go to. The two interceptions that Reed dropped, led to ten points by the Texans, because they were able to continue those drives.

If Reed catches those, the Texans only score 3 points and we are talking about how great Pagano's game-plan was.

On offense, dropped passes continues to be an issue. Smith dropped a pass down the sideline, early in the game, that would have set the Ravens up in field goal range. What made that pass worse is that, had he caught it, it might have diminished the confidence Houston had in leaving Joseph alone with Smith. He dropped it, Joseph made him pay for the missed opportunity the rest of the game, and the Ravens couldn't get Houston's safeties out of the box. Then, he dropped another one on third down, albeit it a bit high. It was one of the few plays where he had room to move if he had caught it.

Dickson's drop is another that would have set the Ravens up with good field position. Then, he had another where he should have just came back to the ball. Instead, he sits there and waits for it. While a flag could have been called, Dickson still should have caught it. Both of those helped stall drives.

Boldin even dropped one early in the game, that would have set the Ravens up very well.

When things like that happen, it is harder for me to lay the majority of blame with the coordinators.

[NOLARavenFAN]

3. I don't know what happened at halftime but the D shut it down in the second half. Had they been able to run like that all game we would have lost.

6. I counted one time when Pagano sent the house (a crucial 3rd and 5 I think) and it disrupted the timing. Don't really know the reason for hesitation to blitz.

8. Dickson is just.....not just a drop every game but a crucial drop.

10. I'm excited! Can't wait

The hesitation for the blitz is because they didn't want Foster to take over the game with big runs, or screens and dump-offs. They took away the screen and asked Suggs not to gamble insisde. Terrell played a team first game and did a great job. The coaches correctly assessed that Foster was the only offensive player who could beat us....and that we could defend the WRs with our DBs. We played a vanilla defense and it worked. As far as the offense, we did enough to win which is all that counts.

[Uli2001]

I thought the committed to the run game for the most part, 31 rushes vs 32 passes, seemed pretty balanced. They had to throw more than they wanted to because the run game wasn't doing squat.

Of the 31 rushes, 4 were from inside the 5-yard line on that embarrassing stop by the Texans D, and three more were trying (unsuccessfully) to run out the clock. So the rest of the game was 24 rushes and 32 passes, not balanced. And I do not believe in balanced when you have pro-bowl backs in the backfield, in a playoff game, in a defensive struggle. Those numbers should have been reversed. So yes, they were stopping the run up the middle. Then try something else, run off tackle. Just don't give up on the running game, especially when they are teeing off your QB. Cam Cameron has a common defect among OCs, he outthinks himself.