GaryPinC

Two years ago I would have agreed with you, but Lamar has really improved his vision and passing since then. He's drastically improved his decision making. Him and Josh have taken those final steps to being complete QB's and both will strive for continuing improvement. We're really privileged to have 3-4 great quarterbacks squaring off against each other in the AFC (my fourth is Burrow). Epic playoff games now and in the coming years!

Sure they do, but what #17 can do with the ball is truly frightening so they want him stopped and will take their chances on the ground game. It's not like their defense played badly and Ravens were right there at the end.

Your first reason is a no go because it completely undermines the authority of the refs on the field which will inflame any perceived mistake. That's why you instead give coaches the opportunity to ask the refs to re-review perceived critical mistakes and the ref gets the opportunity to correct and explain.

The NFL simply needs to go the way of the NBA and allow challenges of any/most penalty calls. I feel like it's working great for basketball. The floor refs review, make a decision and briefly explain why. Out of bounds possession is frequently challenged and more than once while in review the refs realize an uncalled foul occured before the OoB and they'll instead call the foul. It also allows everyone to understand why the ref made his/her decision and that has a calming effect. It's a tough job and sometimes things happen too quickly to see entirely what happened.

Here's the official wording of the rule: Use his hands or arms to materially restrict an opponent or alter the defender’s path or angle of pursuit. It is a foul regardless of whether the blocker’s hands are inside or outside the frame of the defender’s body. Material restrictions include but are not limited to: 1. grabbing or tackling an opponent; 2. hooking, jerking, twisting, or turning him; or 3. pulling him to the ground. Since the Ravens player didn't alter Oliver's path or angle, it falls under the gray area of "materially restrict". I see this same scenario all the time with Myles Garrett, refs focus on the fact that he is still moving up field so the grab gets ignored. Meanwhile, the defender has no chance of closing in on the QB due to the restriction. I'm ok with Oliver's attempts to emphasize the grabbing. He wasn't getting to Lamar because of them, try and get the call. Myles always keeps fighting as you suggest and never gets a call or the QB.

Well, everyone eats is fine, but if we want to keep him we better use him because otherwise it lowers the value of his next contract. He only played 21 of 61 snaps in this game. He's not getting much of a chance to eat.

There was another play where Oliver got penetration and the O lineman turned sideways. Oliver was trying to head upfield to Jackson and the lineman refused to disengage and Oliver threw his hands up with the guy still draped on him but no flag. Just shameful.

For sure Baltimore is not on a level of pain with us. But having lived in Cleveland since the 90's I feel the level of their pain is well beyond ours, same with Detroit. We were on their level until the Super Bowl years. I can see how someone would feel the disappointment of losing the Superbowls trumps everything, but I feel this is shortsighted. It was a hell of a ride with amazing football save one game a year. In my life, it beat the hell out of the seventies and most of the eighties.

And I'm just scratching the surface. Ozzie Newsome was immensely popular here and working his way up the executive ladder. He continued to do so in Baltimore and Browns fans got to watch him become GM of the Ravens and help them build their second Super Bowl team.

😂 My buddy did grad school at UM and took me to 6-8 games and I dated a girl from MSU for a time. I definitely feel the same way you do, OSU fans get far more worked up about The Game but it definitely means something to UM. They also definitely have a rivalry with MSU, who they consider their hillbilly little pipsqueak brother. So they usually pretend the MSU rivalry doesn't matter until they suck bad enough. The UM fans were just insisting about Sparty because the couldn't beat OSU and knew it would piss off Buckeye fans to talk it down. They actually weren't beating Sparty many of those years either, it was really a helpless, dreary time for them.😂 Just say "Rich Rodriguez" if you want to get them worked up. Totally agree about the marketing. Cripes, even going to a Big Ten game is like going to a NBA game, just a blitz of lights, sounds, ads, video and music trying to cover 8 minutes of commercials every 15 minutes. And people complain about NIL.

I would rather lose 4 superbowls in a row then deal with the pain Browns fans experience. They have never been to a single SuperBowl, lost 3 AFC championship games in the late 80's, 2 year record 1-31, lost their team that went on to win 2 super bowls, and the times they are starting to put it together ownership meddles and sabotages the situation. Their fan suffering is worse then ours in almost every single way at this point. Yep, losing 4 superbowls in a row is acutely painful but as a Bills fan living in Cleveland the never-ending failures is an incomparable level of long term pain. It was a privilege to watch Jimbo and that offense and Bruce and that defense, those were really amazing football years and personalities for the Bills despite never winning a Super Bowl. Much better than even the subsequent 17 years.

I think you're right in the long term, like 20+ years. And you're a good and intelligent fan. I've lived in Ohio (Mansfield and Cleveland) since the 80's and I'm thinking there's plenty of pig-headed Buckeye fans who won't let go of The Game for AT LEAST 10 years. Especially if Michigan continues to enjoy more of the success in the rivalry. You're talking about football since 1897 and over 125 years of animosity and history. And you know there will be marketers on both sides continuing to stoke the rivalry! https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/war-sparked-sports-rivalry

Things aren't going to change and the coaches know it. Their solution is to establish a lead and have the offense play ball control and milk the clock. If we're behind, the offense opens up more. All to try and limit exposure on defense. For the defense, be extra aggressive early to keep the opponent off balance and hope our playmakers come up with plays and turnovers. It sucks, but it helped us beat Detroit, Denver, and Baltimore. Hang on. The stress-filled ride continues until the end!😂

Yep, except we will see a risky passing game downfield if the game situation calls for it. Ball control offense and open it up as needed. My worry is if Josh is only drinking and dunking his accuracy and timing may be off for those few downfield throws.

Yep, but this isn't supposed to happen with McDermott's rotational system. I hope he seriously reevaluates it after the season.

I picture all this being truer when Daboll was here and a huge influence on young Josh. McD was too risk averse and didn't see eyeball to eyeball with Daboll and Josh stubbornly clung to hero ball which Dabs rolled with. Is McDermott chummy with any of the players on the team? While he'll high five and support, he seems to maintain a coach-player separation. He's no Dan Campbell to be sure. Lastly, look how much Josh has bought into and emulated McDermott's philosophy. "One game at a time", etc. They say the same things at their press conferences. By his maturity of play-style and philosophy, Josh has bought fully into McDermott's philosophy. I would bet their relationship has grown and is just fine now.

Uh, hello? They just made snow angels together. Sometimes love is a late bloomer.

Creativity when things aren't working, making rapid adjustments, not just at the half. Exploiting what is working before leaning on what you think should work. Stunts, delayed blitzes if our D-line isn't effective, staying aggressive on offense late to maintain possession, no prevent D too early. Coaching in the moment and two steps ahead for smart clock management. No problems with the wrong number of men on the field for special teams. Our defense prepared and lined up in time for hurry up offense. Baltimore is a great team and victory cannot be presumed because it's going to take some luck. In short our coaches need to keep pushing for momentum and putting our players in good positions to make plays. I can absolve McD if Baltimore just happens to make enough plays to win when our guys were in position to stop them. I don't want to hear "we'll learn from this" if we lose. There's nothing to be learned 8 years in that shouldn't have already.

First off, let me say I don't want McDermott fired at the end of the season. He's earned at least one more year. He simply needs to show more of the continuous improvement he preaches. He is the head coach 8 years in. He needs to tweak the details to get us over the hump. 13 seconds was completely his fault. He took two timeouts to control that situation and failed with the prevent. He's improved since then, but then you have Allen's failed goal line scramble in the Rams game this year. He's got to know better, and plan better in that situation. It's these little details that make a difference in the playoffs. He needs to have the pressure on him to grow in this way. We only have so many years with Josh. Regarding a change, you can look to the Cleveland Cavaliers who made the tough decision to fire their coach last year (who went to Detroit) and keep the roster intact. Their new coach has taken them to a higher level and old coach has really improved Detroit. Both coaches are being mentioned for coach of the year. If you make the right change it can work. One thing's for sure with me. I don't want to watch this team remain futile in the playoffs. What if Marv had fired Walt Corey after the Washington superbowl and brought in a strong, established replacement?

Always gotta sweat for a game as big as this one but the Bucks are playing the way they are supposed to and I think they will take control of this game at the latest third quarter. ND is strong but just doesn't have enough talent.

Surreal connection for me, Dr. Spock died in 1998 and Dr. Robert Needlman edits/writes and oversees new editions of Spock's books. Only reason this matters is Dr. Needlman works at my hospital and I took my son to see him a few times. One of his residents mentioned the connection, I thought it was cool. 😎 I never did ask him how he got the gig though! https://www.metrohealth.org/physician/robert-needlman-105577 https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Robert-Needlman/18496734

I think the next three possible games will be pretty evenly matched. Coaching, and some luck are needed. McDermott's done many, many things right and for me he needs to more creative and intelligently aggressive in the playoffs. And I think he's starting to realize this. D line did a good job, we didn't retreat into a pure prevent defense and we stayed aggressive late in the game to keep momentum. Keeping momentum is key. Someone on Denver's D mentioned the Bills O did a great job of confusing them because of changing their zone blocking schemes frequently. Great stuff, and what I want to hear. McD in his PC mentioned making defensive adjustments at halftime but before halftime whenever possible. As long as he keeps coaching this way I think he gets at least another year before considering a change.

Honestly, I felt like they purposefully did that against the Broncos and will do it throughout the playoffs to protect their D. Eat up the clock on offense, they're good enough and Josh is smart enough. If a team get us out of that, I'll know it's trouble.

This seems most likely, based on body language and Josh. I can't see a ref going over to simply warn/scold Josh about his behavior, body language would be different. Josh didn't want to fully discuss the exchange because he's too intelligent and classy, he only took accountability for his failures. The ref coming over to say "hey, we did miss the call but you can't treat us like that again" seems most likely. Maybe an apology but I doubt it because none was needed. It's part of the game.

Yes, but this is a re-tear several months later. I am not a doctor but I've got to believe the 4-6 month window will be significantly longer. That's also assuming Watson will want to work hard to get back ASAP.