Week 15 - Dec. 14 @ Baltimore

[Finnegans Wake]

Tell me you had your digital camera ...

And were heckling Arians...

[jonzr]

Hey Bruce, I took a picture of ya but it scared my wife so I deleted it.
Hey Bruce, are you wearing depends or did you just shit your pants?  Or both?
Hey Bruce, they'd like one of your game plans for the Smithsonian.  They're starting a new Neolithic Pop Culture Deadends exhibit.  Yeah I know, that's not funny.
Hey Bruce, you suck.

[aj_law]

Tell me you had your digital camera ...

And were heckling Arians...

No, we didn't take our digital camera because someone didn't want to run the risk of dropping it...losing it...WTF ever.  No, our plan was to buy a couple disposable digital jobs on the way down, but we (1) left much later than planned; and (2) couldn't find any in the few places we stopped.  I wanted to just grab a couple regular disposables, but nooooooooooooooooo... those weren't good enough.

You'd think they'd sell some kind of camera in the gift shop (??!!), but of course, nothing.  We sat next to a pretty cool guy that had season tickets and apparently, our seats were his neighbors tickets.  I guess, for whatever reason, he couldn't make it so he sold them...*smirk*...to a loudmouthed Steeler fan.  The dude couldn't believe that he sold them.  So much so that he asked security to check our tickets.  He apologized after the fact for putting us through that, but I didn't take offense.  He just kept sayin' that he couldn't believe the dude didn't go.

Anyway, he was snapping shots all game in between ribbing Steeler players and said he would e-mail me pics/link.  He gave me his e-mail and I just shot him a note this mornin'.  We'll see if he actually follows through.  Hope for the best, I guess.

As I'm sure you guys know, fuckin' reedick seats.  First row, 40 yard line, right behind the Steelers bench.  So close that they could hear every word we (and the Ravens fans) were screamin'.  A little tough to follow action, at times, but it was definitely cool to be that close.  If anyone has the game recorded, it wouldn't surprise me if we could be seen on camera; right above the "N" in "RAVENS."  I caught a few blurred glimpses of our towels/jerseys during Sportscenter highlights.  Crazy, man.  Just crazy.

And, the game?  And, the finish??  Amazing.

[aj_law]

Oh yeah, nice poll you put up last week  there, J.

 

[jonzr]

Hehehe.  How was the view?

Oh, just read the longer post.  Sounds like it was pretty fun!

[aj_law]

Great calls on  O so far.   CATCH THE DAMN BALL!!!

Honestly, I thought the offensive playcalling was decent for a majority of the game.  Yeah, there were the occasional predictable calls, but for the most part, they just weren't executing crisply.

Dropped balls; Ben and the receivers not on the same page; missed assignments blocks; etc.  The offense was just...out of sync (?)...not on the same page (?).  At least, that's what I kept yellin'.

I will say that I never noticed something about the front five...and it's kinda dumb, really.  When they come off the field, they always sit in the same spots and it's just as they are on the field.  Left to right...Starks, Kemo, Hartwig, Stapleton, Colon.  Every time.  I'm sure it has to do with the coaching aspect because LZ pretty much lives in front of those guys when they're on the bench.  If Zierlein isn't doing a good job, it's not for a lack of effort because he was constantly workin' with them.  Overall, I thought they did an OK job.

[Finnegans Wake]

Execution is almost assuredly about reps.  Ben hasn't been 100% (errr, let me rephrase) all year, so I wonder if the weeklies are pretty light?  I think that may be the biggest diff with Ben and the WRs from last year.  And not sure he's suddenly gonna get healthy going into the post-season, though a bye week can't hurt.

I still think that playcalling looms pretty large, though.  Why does the offense "suddenly" click when we go no-huddle? 

The OL played reasonably well Sunday, with a few slips in the IOL especially where guys (Staples, Kemo) were supposed to hand off blocking to their neighbor and get back to block the gap, and didn't.  At least they weren't being completely overpowered, or getting trucked at OT by speed rush moves.  Still, I think the pass blocking has been for shit this year.  FWP may be less decisive than MM, but the rush lanes are abysmal.  I hope we don't get lulled into the sense that the OL is good enough and we don't need to invest in that area via the draft (again).

[aj_law]

JH, LW, and TP have been pretty quiet so far, and if you want to win MVP, these are the kind of big games you have to make a big play in.

To his credit, Harrison was being doubled a lot from what I saw.  They pretty much had to because every time they didn't he was able to get some heat on Flacco would usually equated to him speed rushing around the OT while behind "held" off with the tackles left arm.  They just don't call that.  Some of the Ravens fans around me even commented on it, surprised it wasn't called.  There was another play right in front of us where the Balty RT started almost a full second early on a play and they didn't throw the laundry.

Woodley was kinda quiet, but he always seemed to be around the ball.  IMO, TP was doing more coverage and run support than blitzing.  It seemed like DL had him up around the line, bouncing around, but he'd drop off into a cover 2 type shell or a medium zone coverage.  In several instances, Balty called a play that completely took him out of the play (i.e. a quick hook route to the right and he was off in zone coverage on the left).

There was one guy that the Ravens didn't seem to have an answer for and that was Timmons.  I think his speed really caught them by surprise.  Plus, he had that one shot on Mason (??) in the 4th when he was back in coverage that brought out some "oooo's and aaahhhh's."  It didn't hurt that it was right in front of the Steeler bench and hence, right in front of us.  Considering what it sounded like, I was a little surprised that Mason got up as quickly as he did.

#91 also seemed to be causing the Ravens offense regular fits too.

[aj_law]

3 and fucking out.

And after passing on Oline criticism, Stapleton shits himself and Lewis gets in the backfield.

Did this incident happen sometime in the 3rd quarter?

There were a couple series' where the offense was really stuck in neutral.  They came to the sidelines and Zierlein was in the face of a couple of the interior linemen.  After I think the second series, Arians came over too and was kinda grillin' somebody (Hartwig?...maybe).  It was at that point that I kindly let Bruce know that he should worry about callin' a decent play and let Larry do his job.

On the next series (probably the one you're mentioning...), the O comes off the field and one of the coaches goes bat shit on the white board.  He's...in...Stapleton's face and eventually whips the board at the Gatorade table.  After that outburst, he proceeds to pace the sidelines for the next 5 minutes or so.  I had no idea who he was (after looking today, I think it was Kirby Wilson, the RB coach), but I fucking loved it.  Not because of my negative opinion on the O-line, but because everybody seemed so listless.  There was zero emotion on that sideline.  Everybody had an 'aw shucks look on their face.  It was great to see somebody step in and try to light a fire under their asses.

"Yeah, YEAH, tell 'em!  TELL 'EM!!  GOOD TO SEE THAT SOMEBODY CARES!  C'MON, THIS GAME AIN'T OVER!!  PICK 'YER HEADS UP, BOYS!!  LET'S GO!!  LET'S GO!!  LET'S FUCKING GO!!!"

[aj_law]

Ironic how I said we needed a break and here it is...they MUST capitalize on this!!

Two weeks in a row they got lucky breaks on punts....crazy!

That was another one that you could see comin' a mile away.  You could see that he wasn't going to get under it.

IIRC, that lucky bounce was the game turner.  I'm pretty sure they were already down 9-3 at that point, right?  If Balty recovers and is able to even kick another FG and make it a two possession game, I think they would've been done.  Instead, they kick a FG themselves and they're down 9-6.  Big swing.