Time for some more perspective

[ActualSpamBot]

Wow. Reading this forum after a hard fought road win against our bitterest rival is painful. Nothing is good enough anymore.

No one seems to care that we now have tied the NFL record for consecutive division wins.

No one mentions that our "terrible road team" is now 3-2 on the road. (That .600 road winning percentage by the way is better than or equal to 20 teams' home winning percentage, and better than or equal to 25 teams' road winning percentage.) Boy, if that's terrible I'd hate to see dreadful.

Lost in the desire to moan about the ineptitude of our offense is the fact that we are currently fielding top ten scoring units on both sides of the ball. In doing so we have given up the fewest passing touchdowns in the entire league, while scoring the second most rushing TDs.

Anyone know that we have given up the second fewest turnovers? Or that we've forced the 5th most?

Anyone care that even with his tough road games Flacco is on pace to shatter his previous career high in passing yards, yards per completion, and Net Yards per pass attempt?

Or that Rice went over 1000 yards from scrimmage last night? Or Jacoby hit the 1k all purpose yards mark? Or that we're one of only three teams in the NFL with 2 guys with over 1000 APYs right now.

How about our rookie kicker having the 5th best accuracy among guys with at least 20 kicks? Not to mention no misses from 50+ or within 40. Big leg and Stover-like consistency at short range.

Or special teams are verging on historically good right now. Our Special teams DVOA is ahead of the number 2 team right now by a wider margin than the number 2 team is ahead of the number 6 team.

Oh, and once again, a defense that everyone wanted to write off as soft, rose to the occasion on the road again and absolutely stifled an opponent. We can win shoot outs, we can win slugfests. We can't be beaten at home and believe it or not but we're actually one of the league's winningest teams on the road. We're still in a race for the number 1 overall seed and our competition is looking more and more beatable.

I've never been a believer of Super Bowl or bust. Too many things out of a team's control have to go right to get to the big show. But I've ALWAYS believed that the perennial playoff teams were the cream of the NFL and had the best odds to host the Lombardi at the start of each season. We're one of those teams now. People can try to say we're not. They can belittle our road play (ignoring the reality that it's good enough to be better than nearly 80% of the league's teams when THEY hit the road.) But those people are wrong. This is a CHAMPIONSHIP CALIBER TEAM. Be grateful that you have one.

Finally, you want REAL perspective. Want to feel for someone who's sitting on the OTHER side of the NFL's proverbial train tracks? Read this/ and tell me we have it bad.

[alienrace]

Good thread!

You're right about the Supebowl, there is a ton of luck involved. Look at the Giants in both years they won. Look at the Packers in 2010. Neither of these were close to being the best teams that year, but they won it all because they got hot at the right time, and had things break their way. Long gone are the days when you knew a team like the 15-1 Niners were unstoppable, or the 85 Bears or the last great Cowboy teams. It's all pretty much a crapshoot now, and the teams that are consistently in the playoffs are the truly elite.

The supposed poor road performances are kinda funny. Statisticians keep pointing out that we are a .500 team on the road over the last few years, and a 1.000 team at home, making it like we suck on the road. Few teams are ever much better than .500 on the road, and we are 3-2 this year.

[goldenelite28]

Honestly TC its hard to come on here and read these topics. We are on the verge of sweeping the best division in football for the second straight year and people still want to complain.

People talk about how hard to it to watch us play and I feel bad for them. Boy it must be fun to be a texans fan and watch chad henne tear your defense apart. Boy it must be fun to be a falcons fan and watch matt ryan throw five pics.

Winning is the most important stat and yet people seem to hate winning unless it fits their perfect vision of what a win should be.
People actually found reason to complain last week.

[2gigch1]

Obviously the ultimate goal is to win the Superbowl, but the reality is 32 teams are trying to get there. All things being equal that's a 3% chance of getting there, or 3 wins per century.

However things are not equal, and some teams win far more often. The Ravens want to be one of those teams.

Like teams that have been in the mix every year the Ravens have built themselves into a team that should contend or win year in and year out. They've been a couple plays from being there each of the last several years. I'm good with that. Eventually it will work out, and each year they will continue to contend.

They just played a very good team that most likely would have won if Ben had played. Our team has several key players out, but it really hasn't slowed them down much. I like that.

And for the record, what we've been witnessing this year has been outrageous: the team looked at itself and said "defense oriented teams are nice but they don't win the Superbowl. We need to become an offensive team." Suggs said as much last night after the game.

So they go out and reinvent themselves while staying competitive! That is incredibly hard. To become something completely new while still staying strong is a hurculean task. And of course, while they do it, will at times be ugly.

Of course at times there has been plenty to worry about. But they are 8-2. They have won squeakers, they have had 2 massive blowouts, and there is no shame in the two losses. Arguably better teams have worse records.

Most Superbowl winners go on a streak starting around now and ride it into the postseason. I was happy to see the Ravens struggle midseason, knowing the timing was perfect to grow out of it in time for the end run. Look at the Giants last year and how they pulled it off.

It's football in a competitive league. The same Raiders they beat like rented mules beat the Steelers earlier this year. There's a whole lot of football to be played in the next 6 weeks.

I'll take my Ravens any day, thank you very much.

[Corey]

Great post man. People are actually questioning the play call that WON the game. This fanbase makes me sick sometimes. There will be plenty of times to bitch in our future because we will lose our fair share of games in the future, every team does. But we are winning right now. Enjoy the W's. Ask the Steelers if they'd trade their L for an ugly W, like ours. To a man they'd make that trade.

I love the fact that we have a team that can go in and win a slugfest and come back the very next week and win a shootout. Do people know just how rare that is? If your a hardnosed team you can't drop 50 points on an opponent. If your a shootout team, your to soft to withstand being hit in the mouth. The Ravens can and do, do both. That's special man.

[LukeDaniel]

Obviously the ultimate goal is to win the Superbowl, but the reality is 32 teams are trying to get there. All things being equal that's a 3% chance of getting there, or 3 wins per century.

Excellent post. However, I do think the 3% Super Bowl chance, while mathematically correct, fails to cover several variables.

I think the Ravens Super Bowl chances are better than that for a number of reasons.

1-Cold weather outdoor city (look at the % of Super Bowls won by teams that fit that desciption over the last 15 seasons)

2- Statistically speaking, they have the biggest home field advantage in the NFL, which translates into more regular season wins and better playoff positioning.

3- The Jags, Chiefs, Browns, Raiders, Bengals, Panthers, etc are so inept and so directionless as a franchise that you really have to essentially exclude them from Super Bowl talk from the get-go.


Regardless, what the Ravens have done is incredibly impressive. By the numbers, a team should make the conference Semis once every four seasons (25%). The Ravens have done it five out six seasons (83%) and seven of the last 12 (58%). When you look at a franchise like Kansas City and they are nearly two decades removed from their last visit to the AFC Semis, it puts the Raven accomplishments in a better light.

The Ravens are an elite franchise right now. There isn't a team in the NFL whose fanbase wouldn't be in ecstacy after winning in Pittsburgh, with or without Roethlisberger. It says something about our success level that beating the Steelers on their turf is now ho hum in the bigger picture of our season.

[moose10101]

Wow. Reading this forum after a hard fought road win against our bitterest rival is painful. Nothing is good enough anymore.

No one seems to care that we now have tied the NFL record for consecutive division wins.

Strange. I look at the forum this morning, and I see mostly positive comments. Defense and special teams are being praised across the board, especially the reserves who've stepped up. The offense didn't give up on the ground game, and had no turnovers. Aside from a few play calls that people disagree with, even Cam is getting some slack today. So we're still concerned about the offense's performance on the road. Well, excuse us.

If you want all unicorns and rainbows, maybe you should find a Justin Bieber forum.

[ActualSpamBot]

Strange. I look at the form this morning, and I see mostly positive comments.

Really? Cause I see a thread demanding we fire a coach, a thread debating whether our head coach is better than the coach he just beat for the third time in a row, a thread about how a single play call was clearly a sign of our coordinator being an idiot, and a thread asserting that Ray Rice is over rated. Yes, there are some positives, but many many posters seem to think that once Ben was out this should have been an automatic or easy win, and thus we underachieved by only winning by three. I wanted to provide some additional facts about this team to those sort of people.

If you want all unicorns and rainbows, maybe you should find a Justin Bieber forum.

That's clever. I make a list of undeniable facts that paint this team in a positive light and clearly I'm a little girl who wants rainbows and unicorns. Classy. And people wonder why so many fans avoid this place after losses and ugly wins. Maybe it's because even OBJECTIVE INARGUABLE positiveness is treated with such scorn and impotent anger.

[edgecrusher]

Honestly TC its hard to come on here and read these topics. We are on the verge of sweeping the best division in football for the second straight year and people still want to complain.

People talk about how hard to it to watch us play and I feel bad for them. Boy it must be fun to be a texans fan and watch chad henne tear your defense apart. Boy it must be fun to be a falcons fan and watch matt ryan throw five pics.

Winning is the most important stat and yet people seem to hate winning unless it fits their perfect vision of what a win should be.
People actually found reason to complain last week.

I blame a lot of this on the rise of fantasy football. A slugfest like last night is bad for fantasy stats.

[moose10101]

OBJECTIVE INARGUABLE positiveness

Yes, I'm sure you believe you've cornered the market on objectivity and inarguable positions. Zealots usually do.

How about you let people discuss their favorite sports team, the good and the bad, from THEIR perspectives? That's what these forums are for. If not, I'm sure the Bieber forums are vigorously policed, and may be more to your liking.

BTW, you're the one toting the pailful of "impotent anger". No one else has started a thread complaining about people who disagree with them.

[ActualSpamBot]

Yes, I'm sure you believe you've cornered the market on objectivity and inarguable positions. Zealots usually do.

So which statistic that I posted was an opinion?

How about you let people discuss their favorite sports team, the good and the bad, from THEIR perspectives? That's what these forums are for. If not, I'm sure the Bieber forums are vigorously policed, and may be more to your liking.

So I start a thread to share MY opinion, and because you disagree with it, I should go to a Bieber board, meanwhile you turn around and tell me to "let people discuss their team for their perspective"? Go look up cognitive dissonance.

BTW, you're the one toting the pailful of "impotent anger". No one else has started a thread complaining about people who disagree with them.

No, I started a thread pointing out positives of the team because I felt they were being overlooked. I didn't tell anyone what to think or how to post. YOU decided to tell me that I should post on a fucking Bieber forum for having the unmitigated gall to be positive in the wake of division win against the only competition in the AFC north.

[moose10101]

Right, you're not angry.