WhitewalkerInPhilly

I am also mystified as to why this is pinned. One, I highly doubt that the Ravens are terribly hard at work replacing Flacco. Second, Flacco has done his best work behind a stout defense and running game, and has little reason to want to leave. Three, even if the Raven's don't want him back or Flacco wants to take the show on the road what motivation would he have to come here? Fourth, is the money it would take to bring him here worth it?

I have no hard feelings toward Kelsay, and he's been a very solid though not spectacular player. But I do believe that after seeing Merriman start contributing, seeing Anderson play while healthy and seeing the emergence of Moore, Kelsay is simply on the wrong side of 30. The D-line is starting to finally come together and he's just not on it right now.

The man never played a game this season. I'm not shedding a whole lot of tears since it's to keep our O-line numbers up. Though considering that we can't seem to count on Wood finishing a season, looking into a few quality backups doesn't sound like a bad idea now.

I don't doubt that the players are doing better. The Graham article counts for a lot for me. I think our D scheme is still far from perfect, and Wanny should be kept on a tight leash, but I can't deny that Mario Williams is making the progress we were hoping he would. I remember people saying that we would be happy if he got 10 sacks, and already he's at 9.5. He's clearly turning the corner faster and is finally looking to be worth the money. We do have him locked up for a long time, remember? Meanwhile Stephon Gilmore is coming along nicely. We kept seeing him get beat consistently early in the season but I think he's been playing admirably against the opponents #1 receivers. So really, I don't know Wanny is doing anything, but we are seeing markedly better play, even against crazy good offenses like the Texans and Patriots.

I think he's promising and well, to be blunt, what really are our odds for the playoffs going forward? Considering that he was thrown into the deep end of the pool for his first start I think he did alright. I seem to remember Gilmore getting picked on early and often during the beginning of the season and he has come a long way since then. I'm still holding out hope that Aaron Williams can turn it around but to be honest I'm feeling better about our secondary than I did this time last season.

Seriously, where has this run defense been all season?

Is anyone else thinking "Hey, this is the D-line they promised us in preseason"?

I think this is a good point. Whenever someone comes off with a hot new defensive system it takes a while for people to catch up. For more recent examples, look how the Bills played for the first few weeks last season. We were lighting up the scoreboard until people figured out the best ways to make Fitz miss. We also had Tebow mania, which took a lot of people by surprise, but as the season closed you could definitely see that people were figuring him out. He's still playing better than Fitz though

Well, the title of "best O-line" is certainly a little bit subjective but I certainly believe that we are much better than the average rating we received in the beginning of the season in the previously mentioned article. (Ranked 13 out of 32) Yes, Fitz has been throwing short routes, but right now we are third in sacks allowed, third in rushing yards per attempt, and have helped Spiller to lead the league in yards per carry. With the exception of Pears, no one has played more than 5 years and Glenn has made Nix look like a genius and Mayock look like an idiot (not too tricky) so barring career ending injuries I think our O-line will be a tough unit for years to come. If we want to take a rookie QB and try to groom him for the future, the time is going to be at this next draft.

I don't think my screenname has ever been quite so appropriate. HE WON'T DIE! Ahahaha!

For this season? I highly doubt that's going to happen. I do think that Fitz' effort so far will quite possible have them looking around for the next QB to start grooming. I can see grabbing someone in the draft and trying to help Fitz teach him game management. I don't even mind that Fitz does't have a cannon, but you see him simply missing open men. He makes the right choice, but simply can't deliver.

In spite of all of my cynicism, I can't just throw in the towel this season. So we're not elite...I still think we're better than the Phins, and better than the jets without holmes and Revis. If we can beat the Titans and go 4-3 into our bye, we have an entirely winnable stretch of games to finish out the season. 10-6...chancy, but maybe.

As snarky as I want to be, it does give me hope that everyone in the division is having a hard enough time to all be 3-3.

But entirely ACCURATE! BYRD IS THE WORD!!!

That would be great. We could use everyone we possibly can for the Texans.

He does look like the future. He looked pretty good today running off of a banged up O-line and he knows routes well enough to be dangerous.

It's not a horrible call if your wildcat QB can make a decent throw. Brad Smith obviously can't. Kill. The. Cat.

As an argument against the "A quarterback can't fix a horrible defense" crowd, I would like to point out that the longer the offense is able to keep up sustained drives, the more time the defense has to rest. But we could have taken Luck in this draft, and our defense would STILL have taken a pound from the Pats and 49'ers. Whether it's more time needed for the rookies or a simple need for more talent, any team with a half decent offense has walked all over us.

I'm going to take a stab and say "Act of God"

Look, it's not over, but realistically speaking we're going to have to win at least three games in the division to have a shot. This means we're going to have to get those playing the Patriots at home, sweep the Dolphins, and win the last game of the season against the Jets, We have an incredibly tough looking two game road trip ahead and we'll be lucky to be 3-4 at the bye. Panic time? No. Time to get serious? Yes.

I know! I'm in Philly too and I thrilled I can watch it!

Mankins being out is big. Attack D-line, attack!

I can't say that this isn't the beginning. But the Patriots used to be a team that could be very good even if Tom Brady was out (See the 2008 season) But now, if Brady is out I don't see them doing it again. Brady, though a very good at reading a defense, and is now 35. Favre was pushing it at 40, and was first going to retire at 37. I won't say the Bills are going to take over, but I do think that something is coming down the pipe.

I'm entirely OK with trusting our O-line for once. Seriously, they've earned it. Last year, even with the injuries, they were good. This year they have Wood back and brought in Glenn who is looking like a STEAL. I don't want to tempt fate, but we've spent time and effort making our trenches better and it's starting to show.

I don't really get the "i want them to be fully healthy so we can beat them that way" attitude. We, quite frankly, would lose 9/10 times. MANY teams in the league lose 9/10 times when Tom Brady is on track and with all his receivers. I'll take whatever we can get and teams do as well. Is a O-line player hurting? Guess who you gun for. Is there a rookie cornerback? Guess who you're picking on. The entire game is exploiting your opponents mismatches while trying to minimize your own.