HappyDays

My confession is that on his last kick I opened the ESPN gamecast, which is always like 30 seconds ahead of the broadcast, so I could see the result before watching it.

How did this end up working out

I'm always going to call it as I see it - this was a great win for Coach McDermott. Good clock management, timeout management, 4th down decision making. There were no goofy sequences that led to a 3 point swing or something like that. The players were ready and played sound fundamental football. The defense was fine, better than I expected really. I said before the game hold them below 30 and I'll be satisfied. So, I am satisfied. Reflecting on the game there are no specific defensive play calls or sequences I can point to where I felt like coaching let the team down. We don't have the talent to totally shut down Baltimore's offense so I kept my standard reasonable and we met that standard. The only thing I want McDermott to do differently this week is lock Joe Brady in a room with a TV on every wall playing nonstop Josh Allen highlights. Maybe prop his eyes open like A Clockwork Orange. Just to subtly remind the man what makes our offense tick.

Ironically Baltimore laid the exact same blueprint back in week 4. That's why we traded for Cooper, and as soon as we got him the offense started dominating on a weekly basis. I'd like to know what happened over the past month because suddenly Cooper isn't getting involved at all and the passing offense has regressed.

In general this game was not the MVP showdown it was advertised as. Lamar made two massive unforced errors, and Joe Brady inexplicably decided to take the game out of Josh's hands for the most part. So really the game ultimately came down to mistakes. They made a bunch, we made none. The pregame narrative meant nothing.

1st half offensive play calling was excellent, no argument there. But our 2nd half adjustments were terrible. Baltimore coaches won the 2nd half big time and almost stole the win but our players made clutch plays while their players made mistakes, and that was that. As for McDermott - I blame him for the 2nd half offense because he is the head coach but I thought his game management was excellent. Babich/McDermott as defensive coaches I give a solid B. I said before the game holding them to under 30 is the goal. I'm not unreasonable. I thought we did a good job making it a point to shut down the run and mixed in some pressure looks that created negative plays.

What worries me is that the offense we saw tonight is the offense we've seen since after the Rams game. Plodding, conservative, heavily reliant on 3rd down conversions, almost zero outside passing offense. It's tough sledding.

We won the turnover battle 3-0 and stopped two 2PT conversions and still only won by 2. Clearly something caused what should have been a lopsided result to become a nailbiter win. I place the blame on Brady. He was awful in the 2nd half while the Ravens coaching staff found answers on both sides of the ball.

I'm extremely happy about the win. Two more like it and we can all die happy. I just don't think the offense we saw tonight is sustainable to make it that far. Mistake free is good but it can't be your only goal. We have to push the envelope a bit and put the ball in the hands of the MVP in crunch time.

I'm not sure if their team was but their coaching certainly was better than ours. Luckily their players made big mistakes and ours didn't. The players won this game. Clutch plays from Allen, Cook, Bernard, Bass, and finally Douglas at the very end are what won this game. Lamar and Andrews made too many mistakes to overcome.

You're obviously 100% correct. The 3rd down screen to Knox gave up all the momentum. Failing to sneak it twice from the 2 almost lost us the game. My one saving grace is that Brady hasn't been that bad all year. I don't know what dead high school coach possessed him in the 2nd half but hopefully he'll exorcize him by next week.

Good thing we aren't building a dome, seriously. Opponents come to our cold home field and get butter fingers. We're ready to play in the elements, they're not. Massive underrated advantage and I'm glad we didn't give it up.

Bass Allen Cook Brown Oliver Mark Andrews

Feels like Lamar and Andrews gave this game away to us more than we took it. But we're in the AFCCG!!

I can't do the math in my current state, do we win automatically if they don't get the onside kick?

Yeah then what's the point of him being here? If our offense with his hand picked OC can't close out a game?

Seems like we stopped playing contain. Lamar has free access to his right on every single play

I just don't understand why we didn't do the two tush pushes.

His vision and footwork are as good as anyone in the NFL

This offense is bizarre. It's like our goal on every play is 5 yards or less.

I'd rather do that on 1st down than run and maybe get stuffed

You can't lose a game where you win the turnover battle 3-0. Go win it here

Are you actually a Ravens fan? Chiefs?