And then Bill Barnwell publishes this . . .

**rb6p** · 11-08-2011, 11:38 PM

I'm not sure if anyone else here reads Grantland, but I thought this might be an interesting read for other Ravens fans. He comments on the Pittsburgh - Ravens game at the very bottom and offers a controversial perspective Torrey Smith.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...lops-of-week-9

Bill Barnwell is responsible for most of the NFL coverage on grantland, and IMO misses the point more times than not. If you want a good chuckle, check out his NFL preview posts from back in September.

**StingerNLG** · 11-08-2011, 11:40 PM

And "Grantland" is?

Yawn.

**Corey** · 11-09-2011, 12:13 AM

No one has mentioned it, so I will. In a strange way (in hindsight of course) that drop worked out better for the Ravens. Running 4 plays took another 35-40 seconds off the clock. If he had caught it, which when you don't know the outcome is what you prefer, it would have left Pittsburgh with a reasonable amount of time to work their way into field goal range and force overtime.

With 8 seconds less, your running gadget laterals or taking a shot. You don't have your whole play book at your disposal and the way the defense plays you is totally different.

Next time Torrey gets two hands on the ball in the endzone he had better catch it. But this one is forgiveable. And not only because he eventually redeemed himself.

**Saltwater_Rider** · 11-09-2011, 12:23 AM

Grantland? How would that be any more credible than say.... a blog..... or The Bleacher Report? or any fool with a video camera in their basement and a youtube account?

**RAVENOUS52** · 11-09-2011, 12:30 AM

Eh he's on point about the drops and the holding, legit or not, did cost us, but in the end Smitty wiped all of that away with the game-winning catch.

That makes him a Hero, not a Goat.

**NC Raven** · 11-09-2011, 12:45 AM

So I take it he doesn't watch a lot of football. Nothing remotely legit about the hold (even the congenitally-anti-Ravens-biased Collinscrap groaned about that being a weak call), and the drop was not b/c he slowed down, but because he let the ball go through his hands.

Not the first time we've seen a Steelers player engaged by a blocker grab the blocker's arm and pull the blocker down on top of him to make it look like he got held.

Tellin ya again --- no WAY did Torrey Smith pancake William Gay -- even by holding. Not a chance. He saw Rice had a head of steam and knew he couldn't get over in the hole to stop him, so he threw himself down and pulled Torrey down on top of him. Total bullshit. They ought to send film of that to the league. They do it in soccer all the time, and players who don't get caught by the ref can still get suspended by their leagues for it. We need to have that for "diving" here too.

**Corey** · 11-09-2011, 01:02 AM

Originally Posted by NC Raven

So I take it he doesn't watch a lot of football. Nothing remotely legit about the hold (even the congenitally-anti-Ravens-biased Collinscrap groaned about that being a weak call), and the drop was not b/c he slowed down, but because he let the ball go through his hands.

Not the first time we've seen a Steelers player engaged by a blocker grab the blocker's arm and pull the blocker down on top of him to make it look like he got held.

Tellin ya again --- no WAY did Torrey Smith pancake William Gay -- even by holding. Not a chance. He saw Rice had a head of steam and knew he couldn't get over in the hole to stop him, so he threw himself down and pulled Torrey down on top of him. Total bullshit. They ought to send film of that to the league. They do it in soccer all the time, and players who don't get caught by the ref can still get suspended by their leagues for it. We need to have that for "diving" here too.

Actually, Torrey did admitt that he slowed down to see what Flacco was doing, because he saw Joe scrambling. He said it in his post game presser. He basically said that if he had kept running it would have been an easier catch.

Kind of amazing that he was still able to get two hands on it.

@ 2:41

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/media...be4331f6476e69

**akashicrecorder** · 11-09-2011, 01:03 AM

I like how Harrison was so "Fabulous" that he and his defense 1) gave up 92 yards on a game-winning drive 2) at home 3) to their worst rivals 4) in primetime, engineered by a guy who, evidently, was so not "Fabulous" as to not even warrant a mention: Joseph Vincent Flacco.

Grantland is run by Bill Simmons, who is in the running for Biggest Hack in the Universe. So this isn't a surprise.

**JimZipCode** · 11-09-2011, 01:05 AM

Barnwell is 100% right. If Smith hadn't caught that last pass for the win, he would have been the undisputed goat of the game. He had some terrible drops. On the opening drive, in addition to getting Rice's TD called back, he also didn't bother to get his second foot inbounds on what should have been a TD pass, so a couple plays later we had to kick the FG.

On the plus side, he had one key 18 yard reception for a first down, so it's not like he did nothing at all. But his contributions were net negative for the first 59:44 of the game. Torrey Smith had a pretty terrible game up until the final offensive play.

Having said that, I want to add that rookies are like that. They are inconsistent, and you have to keep feeding the good ones opportunities so they will grow as players. And Smith is a good one. He'll grow a bunch from Sunday night.

I have no problem with Torrey Smith. He looks talented as hell, he's coming along, and he seems to be a very serious-minded young man. You can tell the bad plays bothered him, and you can tell the other players like him, which says a lot for his personality and work ethic. I think he's likely to become the greatest WR in Ravens history. He's on pace for almost 800 yards and 8 TDs, which is a hell of a rookie season. (very slightly better than Mike Wallace's rookie season) And if he's as serious-minded as he seems, he'll work hard and improve. I'm thrilled we have him.

But he stank up the field for most of 59 mins and 44 secs Sunday night. It's not a mistake to notice that.

**Sirdowski** · 11-09-2011, 01:12 AM

Originally Posted by RAVENOUS52

Eh he's on point about the drops and the holding, legit or not, did cost us, but in the end Smitty wiped all of that away with the game-winning catch.

That makes him a Hero, not a Goat.

**rb6p** · 11-09-2011, 03:41 AM

Originally Posted by StingerNLG

And "Grantland" is?

Yawn.

I guess you haven't heard of Football Outsiders either . . .

**lobachevsky** · 11-09-2011, 04:08 AM

Gay dragging him down by the jersey is a "legitimate holding call" on Torrey? GMAFB.

You have to read through some of the other blurbs to get a good feeling for what a total shithead this clown is.