A few Random Thoughts After the Ravens Game

[The Wiz]

 

[wagon127]

3 hours ago, PoundingDog said:

1. This game has the feel of how the Chiefs winning their regular season games the past few years. Other teams view beating you as a measuring stick; they prepare and make you look bad in the process. But you have enough floor to hang around, then somewhere and somehow, someone makes a big play (or the opponent make a big mistake) and your superstar QB takes over and gets you to the finishing line.
2. A lot of media types said the Ravens beat themselves. I disagree. The Bills made plays to win the game themselves. THE critical turning point, the Henry fumble, was not something Henry was careless, or someone did not blocking for him. Oliver beat his man quick and punched the ball out. Of course, Allen was converting every opportunity at that point.
3. I still maintain Allen today is not the Allen we saw 2 years ago. There is a reason he didn't win MVP until last year. Mentally he's probably at the best of his career. In one of the post game interview, he said Ravens would be looking to stop big plays down field at both half time and the end of the game, so he would take shorter completions. In the past, he probably would say I'm still going to complete down field passes on you (and he did from time to time).
4. A big step forward for our outside receivers. Towards the end, Coleman and Palmer came up big when they were one-on-one and they got open for Allen. Good signs.
5. The tipped catch by Coleman is luck. However, Coleman played basketball at collegiate level. So he is used to the going after the rebound concept. Speaking of Coleman, there is report Coleman went to California catching passes from Allen off-season. It reminded me the story of Julian Edelman moved to Los Angeles specifically to be near Tom Brady, as in "whenever Brady wants to throw the ball, I'm there." 
6. I'm surprised there is no interviews what-so-ever after the game for him. I rank him as co-stars of the game along with Allen.
7. McDermott said it's a coach's dream to have this come-back-from-behind game. I know why. First, you win. Second, team bonding from the get-go. Third, you evaluate players under stress situations against a tough opponent. There is a lot to be worked on, and a lot of roster decisions with a number of guy of IR, suspended guys in the next 4-6 weeks. You have several games to see who is taking the coaching and improve. Even in good plays, like the last field goal that has a clear blocking execution mistake but did not cost them. 

Dont forget the slide on the punt at 7:20 in the 4th. The ravens player, slide into the goal line, leading to a touchback. He slides by barely the hair on his arm. Any less, the bills are pinned at the 1. I dont we come back if that happend. The ravens made alot of mistakes leading to the bills coming back. They still earned it, they werent necessarily handed a win.

[Gregg]

1 minute ago, wagon127 said:

Dont forget the slide on the punt at 7:20 in the 4th. The ravens player, slide into the goal line, leading to a touchback. He slides by barely the hair on his arm. Any less, the bills are pinned at the 1. I dont we come back if that happend. The ravens made alot of mistakes leading to the bills coming back. They still earned it, they werent necessarily handed a win.

 

That play was so close. He barely touched the goal line but good thing because I don't think the Bills comeback if they were pinned inside the 1.

[machine gun kelly]

PD,

 

What a nice review.  Virgil kind of coined the “A few thoughts in no particular order moniker”.  Consider that as there is always, “Here are my thoughts” or whatever.

 

Sincerely, nice review.  Shaw with the Rockpile Review, and Virg with the phrase above was something we all looked forward to each week for years.

 

Not a criticism, just a simple point to a new guy who is doing a nice job.  Thanks for adding to the board.

 

Enjoythis week, amd hopefully we build on it Sunday against the Jets.

[buffaloboyinATL]

21 hours ago, wjag said:

 

 

1. Pretty sure the tipped pass to Coleman was heading to Shakir when Knox jumped up and tipped it wide of Shakir.

I agree with that. Knox thought it was an overthrow to hime, but it wasn't.

2. Taron Johnson, Milano and Bernard were invisible in that game unless being shown getting beat by the RB1 or WR1.

3. Dehop pulled that ball in with Benford holding his other arm hostage.  Just an incredible pitch and catch.

4. While I never, ever give up that 2 play sequence where LJ8 was almost sacked 15-yards, escapes and rushes for a first down, followed by Henry running down the sideline on the next play really deflated me.  Things certainly seemed bleak and inevitable.

5. The problem Baltimore had in that game is they scored too fast.  Buffalo ran 85 offensive plays versus 52 for the Ravens and 35 TOP minutes Buffalo versus 25 minutes for Baltimore.  Baltimore defense was gassed at the end of the game.  Baltimore D was on the field 10 more minutes and 33!! more plays..

6.  I was not a fan of taking the XP off the board.  I never, ever like to take points off the board.  That missed point was consequential throughout the game.  So too of course was the one missed by Loop.

7. I loved the fact that Flowers did his pageant/Queen wave to the crowd and then lost the game.  That will certainly be a meme.

8. The video of Oliver blasting LJ8 on their final 3rd down play was amazing.  Very rarely anymore do you see a QB taking that kind of hit.

9. Allen threw 3 unbelievable passes in that game.  First TD pass to Kincaid, the pass to TJ that he didn't catch at the pylon and the dime to Palmer.

10. Even 2 days later, I am still stunned at that last 4 minutes of the game.  It was very Chief-esque...  How damn lucky are we to have JA17 as our QB?

1. Pretty sure the tipped pass to Coleman was heading to Shakir when Knox jumped up and tipped it wide of Shakir.

I agree with that. Knox thought it was an overthrow to him, but it wasn't.

 

4. While I never, ever give up that 2 play sequence where LJ8 was almost sacked 15-yards, escapes and rushes for a first down, followed by Henry running down the sideline on the next play really deflated me.  Things certainly seemed bleak and inevitable. 

I was so optimistic, my family got mad at me.  I kept saying things like McDermott will figure this out, and Josh will find a way...

 

7. I loved the fact that Flowers did his pageant/Queen wave to the crowd and then lost the game.  That will certainly be a meme.

Agreed. Between that, and the Ravens fans chanting MVP half the game, it made the victory even sweeter. I really wanted our crowd to chant MVP even louder at the end, but if they did, I didn't hear it.

 

10. Even 2 days later, I am still stunned at that last 4 minutes of the game.  It was very Chief-esque...  How damn lucky are we to have JA17 as our QB?

Amen! It's like the Navy Federal Credit Union commercials - Just imagine where we'd be without him...

 

Edited September 10 by buffaloboyinATL

[Royale with Cheese]

25 minutes ago, The Wiz said:

 

 

Is it possible two straight 1st round corners are replaced by two 6th round corners?

I'm half joking.

[skibum]

2 hours ago, Gregg said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/josh-allen-can-t-save-the-bills-from-themselves-forever/ar-AA1M8oiT?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=68c068be39f3427f8d852a6f45fd2617&ei=12

Ha, “do we really trust this defense to make a play when it matters moving forward?” Isn’t that exactly what happened multiple times on Sunday? 

[Gregg]

1 minute ago, skibum said:

Ha, “do we really trust this defense to make a play when it matters moving forward?” Isn’t that exactly what happened multiple times on Sunday? 

 

Oliver causing Henry to fumble might have been the most important play in a series of plays that started the comeback. I give the defense and Oliver specifically credit for that. Hopefully they can get better as the year moves along. Have to think Beane will try to improve the defense if there is anyone he can bring here.

[Brand J]

17 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Is it possible two straight 1st round corners are replaced by two 6th round corners?

I'm half joking.

If only we had a crystal ball, we could’ve taken the athletic freak Emmanwori in the first round, who was one of the stars of Seahawks training camp. He got hurt in game 1 and had to go out, but he’d easily be our SS of the future. I know Cole Bishop is more suited for SS, but Bishop ain’t Emmanwori. Would’ve been a fun chess piece. 

[The Wiz]

37 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Is it possible two straight 1st round corners are replaced by two 6th round corners?

I'm half joking.

I honestly never like the Elam pick when it happened and thought he was gonna be average at best.  I think there is plenty to like about Hairston and will end up getting back into the mix later in the season.

Either way, it's good problem to have.  Beane needs to start trading his 1st and 2nds and stock piling those 4ths, 5ths and 6ths.  Whoever the guy that scouts for "potential late rounders" needs a raise.

[newcam2012]

2 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

he wasn't open in the traditional sense tbh

 

 

more impressive than the throw is the presnap process here imo...motions knox over to confirm man and understands that the safety who rotates underneath is held by johnson's route out of the backfield. then he locks onto palmer because alexander is playing off and hamilton playing deep is shaded to the weak side so once palmer hits the top of his route he's going to have his db stacked no matter what

What does he wasn't open in the traditional sense mean? Strange terminology. He was open and Josh fit it in the open  window. 

Edited September 9 by newcam2012

[GoBills808]

4 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

What does he wasn't open in the traditional sense mean? Strange terminology. He was open and Josh fit it in the open  window. 

it means his man is very close to him and it's not apparent he's coming open unless you understood the leverage once Palmer stems him 

[Ralonzo]

2 hours ago, wjag said:

My last thoughts before I mentally move on to the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!!

 

1. Pretty sure the tipped pass to Coleman was heading to Shakir when Knox jumped up and tipped it wide of Shakir.

 

That pass doesn't get tipped, Wiggins was flying in to defend it at the point it arrives to Shakir and it almost certainly gets broken up. I don't know I've ever seen a Bills game where so much went uniquely right in preceisely the way it needed to go right. My joke about McDermott's game management is "he does exactly what he needs to do to lose, no more and no less"... but this time it went the other direction. The butterfly effect from any of 8-10 extremely unlikely events not happening almost certainly culminates in an L. It was like hitting PowerBall.

Edited September 9 by Ralonzo

[Royale with Cheese]

2 hours ago, GoBills808 said:

he wasn't open in the traditional sense tbh

 

 

more impressive than the throw is the presnap process here imo...motions knox over to confirm man and understands that the safety who rotates underneath is held by johnson's route out of the backfield. then he locks onto palmer because alexander is playing off and hamilton playing deep is shaded to the weak side so once palmer hits the top of his route he's going to have his db stacked no matter what

 

No, he is open in the traditional sense.  You took a still photo with Palmer's momentum towards the sidelines where he's headed.  The defender is not in position to keep up with him and that's why he got blown right past by....he reached for Palmers hips after being beaten.  

 

This is throwing him open because Allen knew where he was supposed to be because he was going to be open.  

So yes, he was wide open.

[GoBills808]

Just now, Royale with Cheese said:

 

No, he is open in the traditional sense.  You took a still photo with Palmer's momentum towards the sidelines where he's headed.  The defender is not in position to keep up with him and that's why he got blown right past by....he reached for Palmers hips after being beaten.  

 

This is throwing him open because Allen knew where he was supposed to be because he was going to be open.  

So yes, he was wide open.

 Yes already addressed When you are throwing someone open he is by definition not open

[Belgium_Bill]

I’m not going to revisit the 40-page post game thread so apologies if this has been mentioned already, but my random thought after the game is this: after Keon got tripped up with 40 seconds left, why did the Ravens take all their time-outs? The Bills could run the clock down anyway.  Bills were out of time-outs so why didn’t Harbaugh let the clock run to say 15-16 seconds and then take a time-out? If the Bills take the next snap and kneel on it, it’s going to be a hell of a rush to get the kick off.  So McD would have likely kicked it then, leaving say 10 seconds on the clock.  At least, as Baltimore, you get the ball back then.

PS: I deliberately avoided using 13 seconds in my theory 😉

[Shaw66]

Pounding Dog, Bills Fan 89, and wjag all with great lists of commentary.  Good stuff. 

[PoundingDog]

9 minutes ago, Belgium_Bill said:

I’m not going to revisit the 40-page post game thread so apologies if this has been mentioned already, but my random thought after the game is this: after Keon got tripped up with 40 seconds left, why did the Ravens take all their time-outs? The Bills could run the clock down anyway.  Bills were out of time-outs so why didn’t Harbaugh let the clock run to say 15-16 seconds and then take a time-out? If the Bills take the next snap and kneel on it, it’s going to be a hell of a rush to get the kick off.  So McD would have likely kicked it then, leaving say 10 seconds on the clock.  At least, as Baltimore, you get the ball back then.

PS: I deliberately avoided using 13 seconds in my theory 😉

Josh can throw an incomplete pass any time to stop the clock before the field goal attempt

[Cash]

5 minutes ago, Belgium_Bill said:

I’m not going to revisit the 40-page post game thread so apologies if this has been mentioned already, but my random thought after the game is this: after Keon got tripped up with 40 seconds left, why did the Ravens take all their time-outs? The Bills could run the clock down anyway.  Bills were out of time-outs so why didn’t Harbaugh let the clock run to say 15-16 seconds and then take a time-out? If the Bills take the next snap and kneel on it, it’s going to be a hell of a rush to get the kick off.  So McD would have likely kicked it then, leaving say 10 seconds on the clock.  At least, as Baltimore, you get the ball back then.

PS: I deliberately avoided using 13 seconds in my theory 😉

1. Yeah, he probably should have - at least for the last TO. Just to take the Bills out of their rhythm if nothing else. 
2. It’s hard to make that call in the heat of the moment. It’s a rare enough scenario that Harbaugh may have never seen it before. 
3. If Harbaugh took the first 2 right away then waited on the 3rd, the Bills probably would’ve had Allen take a shotgun snap, roll right, and huck the ball into the 200 level. That would both stop the clock and run off more time. Best case for the Ravens is 1 play from scrimmage. 
4. If Harbaugh waited on the first or second TO, the Bills would’ve still had extra downs to play with. They could’ve run the play from #3 or spikes to stop the clock at a time of their choosing. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Was listening to ex Ryan's comments yesterday.  They were discussing if Ravens should have went for it on 4th and 3 at  the end.  He says Ravens problems are they and he was actually referring to Harbaugh is they play like they still have Ed Reed and Ray Lewis on the team and their defense is going to win the game for them.  But these days their offense is their strength and they need to play that way, but they don't.