Bills!Win! Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Flacco was not impressive, but I've always thought he was a 2d tier QB at best so I wasn't surprised. Of course, his WRs were pathetic so that didn't help. I'm not sure why Boldin even bothered to show up. I thought Baltimore got hosed on that punt return penalty. Looked to me like the Steeler guy knew he wouldn't get him so he took a charge from his blocker NBA style to draw a flag. The Ravens need work in the secondary; they were very suspect on the deep balls and gave up a number of 3d and longs. But wow...fun game. I hope they are all that good. p.s. I guess the Steelers did ok in the last two drafts, huh? They had first and second year guys all over the field. Even Ryan Fitzpatrick torched the Ravens secondary. I prefer our DB's over theirs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 All you need to know is the Bills came that close to beating both teams. How good can they be? PTR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim in Anchorage Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) All you need to know is the Bills came that close to beating both teams. How good can they be? PTR Well, the Browns BEAT NE. Read into that what you will. Playoffs. Big diff. Reg season game 8 or 9? Who cares? Edited January 16, 2011 by Jim in Anchorage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillsForever Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) All you need to know is the Bills came that close to beating both teams. How good can they be? PTR It doesn't mean anything. However, the Bills came close to beating the Steelers because Gailey properly gameplanned for them and realized their weakness on defense. Putting Fitz in shotgun and limiting the zone blitz packages and their elite run defense with 4 and 5 wr sets and not running the ball a lot. The Steelers secondary has shown they can be beat using this scheme. Fitz moved the ball effectively that day. Edited January 16, 2011 by BuffaloBillsForever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Joe Crappo! (in reality, I'd trade Fitz,CJ,Evans,Stevie and Freddy for him) For real? I wouldn't trade any of the above for him. He's got a decent line, decent RBs, and some real talent at WR and he looked shell-shocked yesterday All you need to know is the Bills came that close to beating both teams. How good can they be? PTR Let me guess: Ya wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillsForever Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I am seeing a trend in this playoffs with the losing teams. Brees, Manning, Flacco, Cassel were all Capt'n checkdowns. Ironically Brees and Manning were brutal with just dunking it off for a safe play. Flacco checked it down a lot to Rice for minimal gains. Another flaw in their game plan was implementing a lot of screen passes. They just don't work against their defensive base 3-4 scheme and zone blitzes in general. That's playing into the hand of the Steelers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Flacco didn't play well but I put this game on the coaching staff and how they game planned for the Steelers. Everyone knows this year, you can move the ball EASILY against the Steelers defense by spreading them out with 4 and 5 wr sets and throwing down field. They are suspect at the CB position. Setting up the run in the 2nd half with the passing game and passing a lot. I don't even recall a 4 wr set that they used in this game. You can't win against the Steelers with the power running game and dinking and dunking with Ray Rice. It reflects in the loss and the statistics. The Ravens called up nearly 40 pass plays in this game. I thought their decision to come out in the second half and keep chucking it all over the place played right into the Stillers hands and was the primary reason that Pittsburgh got right back in the game in the 3rd quarter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EasternOHBillsFan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Agreed. With the ravens out, the only thing left to root for is a meteorite hitting the stadium during the AFC Championship and knocking out both pieces of **** teams playing in it. +1. That's what we all think here, obviously. I did hear that -Flacco's receivers dropped a bunch of passes today Yes.. Boldin's drop in the end zone and Houshmanzadeh's drop on the sideline were brutal, especially Houshmanzadeh's with the 4th down at the end exactly like Stevie Johnson. -that the gameplan sucked Nope... 3 turnovers aren't because of the game plan. -that there was a Ray Rice fumble It was the absolute worst time to fumble for a guy who didn't fumble all year. -a horrible call on a punt return The Steelers usually get these crappy calls, and so I am not surprised. -that the Ravens defense was ordinary. NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!! The three turnovers were in the Ravens' end of the field, and I would put it ALL on the offense. ALL of it. If Flacco did indeed suck, it's a miracle that the Ravens were even close in that game. Ray Rice sucked just as bad... his fumble and inability to find holes and pass block, as noted by someone in an earlier post, were embarrassing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillsForever Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) The Ravens called up nearly 40 pass plays in this game. I thought their decision to come out in the second half and keep chucking it all over the place played right into the Stillers hands and was the primary reason that Pittsburgh got right back in the game in the 3rd quarter. In perspective they were out of 2 te and 3wr sets and the majority of them were called screen passes and dunk offs to Ray Rice. The Ray rice fumble was a pass for like 2 or 3 yards which is a safe play, as much as a running play is. Not a winning formula against the Steelers. I am talking about spreading their defense out and throwing the ball down field. Totally different. The reason why the Steelers got back in the game in the 3rd quarter was because of turnovers and field position because of those turnovers. Once the fumble occured, they panicked, even though their gameplan never changed throughout the course of the game. Edited January 16, 2011 by BuffaloBillsForever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The Ravens called up nearly 40 pass plays in this game. I thought their decision to come out in the second half and keep chucking it all over the place played right into the Stillers hands and was the primary reason that Pittsburgh got right back in the game in the 3rd quarter. One can critique the game plan, it seems pretty straightforward that the primary reason Pittsburgh got right back in the game in the 3rd quarter was a Rice fumble, a fumble on the snap, and a Flacco INT. Give a good team a short field 3x and a lead goes away in a big hurry. After that though...I did think they were flinging out low percentage long passes when what they needed was some grind-it-out ball control to give their D a chance to regroup and keep the ball away from the Stillers. I was NOT impressed with Boldin finger-pointing on his TD drop. "It was a low pass". It hit you on the numbers, dude. Big-game wideouts catch that. Agreed. With the ravens out, the only thing left to root for is a meteorite hitting the stadium during the AFC Championship and knocking out both pieces of **** teams playing in it. Actually what I'd like to see is the Pack go to the dance and grind up whatever team shows for the AFC. I'd like to see them spanked. Humiliated. Embarrassed. Choked. I don't think it can happen, but that's what I root for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Watched the DVR'd game last night. The Baltimore defense was actually quite heroic, except for the long pass at the end. They have very little fault in the loss, so I guessed wrong about that. On the other hand, the entire Baltimore offense looked very jittery in the second half. All the players seemed scared and intimidated. You even had guys like center Matt Birk making mistakes. It's not the worst performance I've seen by a QB in such circumstances but it was pretty bad. The pass to Todd Heap which was picked off was a horrible decision and a bad throw. The thing I blame Flacco for the most was that the offense was in disarray and he's supposed to be the leader of the offense. The unit lacked poise and he didn't marshall and command the unit when needed. In fact they fell apart. That's on the QB, IMO. Flacco's always looked like Trent Edwards. Last night he played like him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillsForever Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) One thing that bothers me about Flacco is do you ever see him call audibles at the line of scrimmage? It seems like he just hits the line of scrimmage and goes with the play called in the huddle. Thats got to be coaching, right? I can't see him being like JP Losman and what the coaching staff restricted what he could do because he could not process the game. Edited January 16, 2011 by BuffaloBillsForever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave mcbride Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The criticism of Flacco here is crazy. First, the Steelers have the best defense in the league. Second, on his last two must-complete throws in crunch time -- the one to Boldin in the end zone and the fourth and 18 pass to Houshmenzadeh -- he delivered perfect throws. You guys are crazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBillsForever Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The throw to Boldin was perfectly placed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Bills Fan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The criticism of Flacco here is crazy. First, the Steelers have the best defense in the league. Second, on his last two must-complete throws in crunch time -- the one to Boldin in the end zone and the fourth and 18 pass to Houshmenzadeh -- he delivered perfect throws. You guys are crazy. You're absolutely right Boldin and Housh let him down. I have no respect for Boldin's finger-pointy response "the ball was low I tried to get it". Flacco is also not responsible for Rice's dumb "ball swinging in the breeze" fumble and the center shares responsibility for the fumble on the snap. On the other hand, Flacco played "run for your life" several times where I bet the game film shows he could have sideslipped or stepped up and avoided or at least minimized the loss. If Rodgers had done similar, the Packers would have been beaten, badly. Flacco normally seems to have a pretty good line and hasn't had to learn to cope with a steady diet of pressure as much as some. His INT was, what I saw at the time, a pure bad throw. I didn't tape to go back and see if it might be a blown route. Maybe someone who did can comment. Overall, I think the Flacco bashing is out of line, Flacco doesn't get a pass though. He needed to take his game up a level, and he didn't make the step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffOrange Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Flacco was not impressive, but I've always thought he was a 2d tier QB at best so I wasn't surprised. Of course, his WRs were pathetic so that didn't help. I'm not sure why Boldin even bothered to show up. I thought Baltimore got hosed on that punt return penalty. Looked to me like the Steeler guy knew he wouldn't get him so he took a charge from his blocker NBA style to draw a flag. The Ravens need work in the secondary; they were very suspect on the deep balls and gave up a number of 3d and longs. But wow...fun game. I hope they are all that good. Agreed on all fronts. Anyone who ever thought Flacco was on par with Aaron Rodgers before yesterday hasn't been paying attention. But Jesus, somebody else needs to make a play. The inexcusable Housh drop was the least costly mistake since they still needed to put it in the endzone just to tie. But both the Boldin TD drop that would've put them up 28-24 and the defense epic fail to get off the field on 3rd & 19 would've put them in the driver's seat to win the game. Those two plays were the difference - big thumbs down to Tomlin and especially Ray Ray's post-game "we killed ourselves" comments when the turnover mistakes basically cancelled each other out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Overall, I think the Flacco bashing is out of line, Flacco doesn't get a pass though. He needed to take his game up a level, and he didn't make the step. The above is it in a nutshell. A truly elite quarterback would have played better than Flacco did yesterday. Does he suck? No. Is he an elite quarterback? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RealityCheck Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 Obviously you didn't watch the Buffalo game and many other games vs the steelers this year. Not a very good point considering the Bills lost that game also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 I am talking about spreading their defense out and throwing the ball down field. Totally different. There's two problems with that philosophy. For one, you're playing away from your strengths and failing to maximize your offensive potential, And even more importantly that is just not something you can install and be proficient with in a week. It takes a lot of time to get good at running that kind of a complex offense and trying to change what you're good at and go to something you're not accustomed to against that defense on the road in a playoff game is just begging for disaster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sisyphean Bills Posted January 16, 2011 Share Posted January 16, 2011 The Ravens called up nearly 40 pass plays in this game. I thought their decision to come out in the second half and keep chucking it all over the place played right into the Stillers hands and was the primary reason that Pittsburgh got right back in the game in the 3rd quarter. I think the 3 turnovers deep in their own end is what played into the Steelers hands. I went through the official gamebook and counted 36 pass attempts. The Ravens did throw the ball much more than they ran it -- 16 rushing attempts. The running game was highly ineffective, but it was essentially "what they do" under Cameron with packing the box with extra blockers. That just doesn't confuse the Steelers one iota. Cameron is also out of the vertical stretch school and getting big chunks in the pass game, so those sorts of plays are again "what they do." But, again, the Steelers know that as well and left them with the alternative of dumping the ball off to Ray Rice. Rice touched the ball more than all the other Ravens offensive weapons combined and simply was not effective (2.6 yards per carry, 4.6 yards per catch, a back breaking fumble, and several bad whiffs at picking up the Steelers rush). I don't think Joe had a great game, but there were other culprits on the Ravens offense to include in the blame game. JMO. As far as spreading the Steelers out and such, the Ravens do have a collection of veteran "possession" WRs so that isn't completely out of the question; but, like you said it isn't what Cameron does. Marty ball will win a team a lot of games, but it continues to show weaknesses in the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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