Playing the 'Blame Game'

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

Football is much different than other sports in the sense that it takes so many people to make a play.

In hockey, a guy can go end to end dangle around everyone and score.
In basketball, a guy can hit a fadeaway as time expires to win the game.
In baseball, you step up and hit the jack on your own to go ahead.

In football, it just isn't that simple. I'm going to use the offense as an example, but it applies for the defense too.

Take the quarterback. He has to rely on his offensive line to block and his wide receivers to catch for a play to be successful. It does not matter how well that ball is thrown if thsoe two things don't happen. This is the way football is different.

After each loss we try and place blame for who lost the game for us and I think what gets lost in all of this is that it's typically a clusterfuck of multiple factors.

Take last night for example....

Joe was not good. He did not hit open receivers breaking on the routes where they were actually open (this is a new concept for fans to see WR actually open to receive a pass).
The offensive line was not good. They did not give Joe ample time and space (Films notes will be interesting to see) to make a lot of throws. HE looked like Rothlisbitch on a lot of these throws hwere he's getting knocked between two Bengals and gets the throw off.

The running backs for the most part ran hard, but they weren't give a hole to run into. Collins, and even Buck, ran hard though so it's very difficult to put a lot of blame on them.
The wide receivers and tight ends got open. 3rd-and-4 and 4th-and-4 in the second quarter Joe missed Crabtree and the nhe missed Snead. Both would have been first downs and both of the times he had a guy open with a chance to make the catch.

However, Joe was getting smacked and ended up with a ridiculous amoutn of QB hits.

And this brings me to my point - when playing the blame game we really need to disect the positional group individually. Because the QB needs a lot of guys around him to play well for him to be successful. This isn't a defense of Joe. It'd just be nice if we could see some more thought into the blame rather than "Joe fucking sucks" with no mention of "holy shit he got hit 19 times!? How is that possible!".

Just some Friday morning verbal diarrhea....Excelletor style ;)

[srobert96]

We have two crappy coordinators. Lets start there.

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

We have two crappy coordinators. Lets start there.

I didn't even get into the coordinators, but they 110% matter too.

Tavon Young for example looked bad last night. But when you ask a 5'9 guy to cover someone 7 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier, what the fuck do you expect from the guy!?

[Bhcforlife]

Tavon Young for example looked bad last night. But when you ask a 5'9 guy to cover someone 7 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier, what the fuck do you expect from the guy!?

As I keep saying he was also in his second game back from the ACL tear, too. They should have never allowed that matchup to happen. Stop being so damn rigid with the defensive playcalling. I thought it was supposed to be more fluid this year?

Coaching on this team is awful. It has been awful for several years. Inexcusable shit like this happening on a near weekly basis.

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

As I keep saying he was also in his second game back from the ACL tear, too. They should have never allowed that matchup to happen. Stop being so damn rigid with the defensive playcalling. I thought it was supposed to be more fluid this year?

Coaching on this team is awful. It has been awful for several years. Inexcusable shit like this happening on a near weekly basis.

I'm not shitting on Young too too much. He definitely had a bad game, but they happen. I was much more concerned with the position he was put in.

[DeltaRaven]

I can confidently say this was a complete team effort today, aside from special teams.

Coaching - Harbaugh's 4th down decisions, the play calling that along with it, forcing the ball to Buck Allen when Collins was the only spark

Offense - Bad blocking on the OL, Poor throws and decision making by Flacco, drops by the WRs. We've seen all this before.

Defense - Our front 7 didn't do jack shit against what is one of the worst OL in football when you factor in Billy Price left early in the 1st. Secondary had no answer for AJ Green in the red zone. Bengals offense were the aggressors and dictating the tempo.

All of it was pretty lousy. If the Bengals were a better team we would've lost by more than 11.

[Raveninwoodlawn]

Offensive line is...not good.

To me, this is shaping up as one of the worst OL's we'll have since 2013 and it's going be a big issue all season...anytime we face a good front 4, or a very creative DC, the offense is going to be in for tough sledding.

[Jsmoove]

Offensive line is...not good.

To me, this is shaping up as one of the worst OL's we'll have since 2013 and it's going be a big issue all season...anytime we face a good front 4, or a very creative DC, the offense is going to be in for tough sledding.

Yea I don't know about this Oline facing good D talent this year.

[esmd]

Offensive line is...not good.

To me, this is shaping up as one of the worst OL's we'll have since 2013 and it's going be a big issue all season...anytime we face a good front 4, or a very creative DC, the offense is going to be in for tough sledding.

I was hoping that Yanda getting back into the lineup would help out Skura, but that hope had faded somewhat. Not giving up on him yet, but they should consider giving Alex Lewis some practice reps at C, or at least start working on his snaps. They might need to shuffle the line within a few games if things don't improve and go with Stanley-Hurst-Lewis-Yanda-Brown. That's assuming Lewis can handle C. Also, Stanley was bad last night from what I say, even before he left with whatever injury he had. That's your 6th overall pick, smh.

[ravenfever]

Unfortunately when you have no pressure on a QB it is impossible for anyone to cover a receiver for that long. I really thought the Ravens would have a better rush against Cincy O-line, boy was I wrong.

I hope this is the one bad game every team has but if they do not fix the issues in the next 10 day's it could be a long season. Maybe they got to over confident after the Bill's win, but now they know they have to work harder at there craft when playing better competition.

[boller4president]

I didn't even get into the coordinators, but they 110% matter too.

Tavon Young for example looked bad last night. But when you ask a 5'9 guy to cover someone 7 inches taller and 25 pounds heavier, what the fuck do you expect from the guy!?

I expect him to not be beat in a footrace to a spot. He didn't just look small the bigger problem is he looked slow.

[GreatWhiteNorthRaven]

I expect him to not be beat in a footrace to a spot. He didn't just look small the bigger problem is he looked slow.

How about when AJ Green threw him to the ground and ran for a touchdown?