A few Random Thoughts After the Ravens Game

[Pete]

4 hours ago, Gregg said:

I feel sorry for the Browns this week. They have to go play a pissed off Ravens team in Baltimore's home opener. I could easily see a 34-17 type of game. I still think the Ravens win 13 or 14 games this year.

Browns should of beat Cincy last week, but their kicker choked on multiple kicks, including what would of been a game winner

[Royale with Cheese]

39 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

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

 

Come on.  

So if Allen doesn't think he's going to be open, he still throws it? 

 

No, he throws it knowing he will be open.  You're saying he's not open just because at his break on a still shot he's not but literally a split second later he is wide open.  

 

[GoBills808]

3 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

Come on.  

So if Allen doesn't think he's going to be open, he still throws it? 

 

No, he throws it knowing he will be open.  You're saying he's not open just because at his break on a still shot he's not but literally a split second later he is wide open.  

 

We are in total agreement

I don't know why we're still taking

[thewookie1]

4 hours ago, PoundingDog said:

That's a whole discussion by itself. If Harbaugh was going for it, what do you think the best play they have to convert it? I bet both the Ravens and the Bills know it will be on the ground. I know Jackson hobbled a bit on the Oliver hit right before the play. But even it does not bother him, you can bet the Bills will stack up to the front, blitz with run awareness, double Flowers, one-on-one with everyone else. It is less than 50-50 chance to convert at that time if Harbaugh was not comfortable with putting the ball in the air. And the consequence of a failed conversion is high chance of loss: inside 2 minutes, one first down to running out of the clock and a field goal.

 

Conversely, if the Bills were in Ravens position, going for it would be the right play, just like Andy Reid would do for the Chiefs. You have reliable target for short area quickness targets, capable running back going to the edge, and a mobile QB.

Between Henry, Flowers and Lamar you go for that 4th & 3 no matter what there.

 

Allen has carved your defense up mercilessly in the 4th quarter and only needs a FG to win. 
 

You tell Lamar to man up or put in the backup and run Henry at the Bills defense. If you fail, the Bills are unlikely to play highly aggressive since they are already in FG range and Baltimore has 3 TOs. 
 

Effectively in the end Harbaugh had less confidence in his QB than McD had in his.

[Paup 1995MVP]

4 hours ago, zow2 said:

 

I used to think that way... Kinda like how Detroit will pummel Chicago this weekend because they looked horrible vs GB.  That's been debunked a bit over the past few years.

 

I feel like the Browns will hang in there for some reason.  They will contain Henry better than the Bills did.   

 

I also feel like both the Ravens and Bills may have a bit of a SNF "epic game" hangover, at least for the first half this Sunday.  I hope not for our sake.

I agree with you about Cleveland this weekend.  They played a feisty game against the Bengals and should have won but for their rookie kicker.   

 

I think the Ravens defense is overrated.  If we were not so conservative with our play calling in the first half after the first drive we would have been a lot closer late in the game.  When they let Josh play like an all timer, the Ravens could not stop him.  That needs to be our offensive MO every week. 

 

Conversely, what in the name of good defense is wrong with the Bills run defense every single year?  Is it the scheme, the players, or a brutal combo of the two?  This game was certainly not an outlier of our run defense the past few years.  It has happened numerous times. 

 

I certainly hope that Jordan Hancock is active this week.  Give the kid some opportunities.  He at least looked to have some athleticism in the preseason.  I can't believe he would not be an upgrade from what we saw out of Rapp and Bishop.  And do NOT go back to Tre White.  Keep Strong starting.  And then when Hairston is ready go with a combo of those two opposite Benford.  No way Tre can keep up with the speed of today's NFL offenses.  Just not happening.    

[BearNorth]

3 hours ago, wjag said:

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

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.

 

The Pass to Hawes was pretty remarkable as well.  Few QB's can make that throw.

[CSBill]

8 hours ago, billsfan89 said:

My random thoughts are 

 

1. The offensive line still looks good, the Ravens are a tough physical team up front and the O-line gave Josh a lot of time and got a semi-consistent push in the ground game.
2. Josh is picking up right where he left off, a couple of "off" throws that could have been picks but nothing drastic that can't be written off as rust. 
3. The defense looked bad but also seems to still play with confidence towards the end when they needed to make big plays. 
4. Safety play was not the only issue with the defense. It was a terrible day for Rapp and Bishop, but you don't give up 40 points on just bad safety play. The LB's were not having a great day, the corners were mediocre and got burnt, and the defensive line was not good at times either. It was a total defensive failure for the most part. 
5. The Ravens are a super dynamic offense. The Bills may not play a more dynamic offense in the league the rest of the regular season. The Eagles and Bengals on paper are the only offense that could come close. 
6. Special Teams looked better. Outside of that last bad punt which wasn't tragic the ST unit was solid. I think Special Teams starts out the season sloppy now so I think some of the mistakes they did make (the Walker near catastrophic missed block and the one longer return) will get ironed out. 
7. Palmer looks to be a nice addition. He's a solid all around competent WR. I think he's gonna be a nice fit if he stays healthy. 
8. Kincaid and Keon had a nice opener. That combo is going to have to be big for this offense if they want to go far. Shakir is a very good slot WR, Palmer a competent outside WR, and we know the complementary pieces like Knox, Ty Johnson, and the rest will serve as good role players but this offense will need Kincaid to be a consistent target over the middle and Keon to be a good outside presence. Good first game but it has to be kept up. 
9. Strong didn't look bad at corner. For a rookie thrust into a big moment he had a nice game. I wouldn't say he had a good game overall but he held up a lot better than he should. 
10. Curious to see how Sanders performed at DT. Seemed a bit inconsistent but to be expected for a rookie. 
11. Prater looks good, no rush to get Bass back, but Prater is older and coming off an injury so no guarantee he holds up longer term...

 

A few random thoughts on your random thoughts . . .

 

5. The Ravens are a super dynamic offense. The Bills may not play a more dynamic offense in the league the rest of the regular season. The Eagles and Bengals on paper are the only offense that could come close. ---> The Bengals? Really? The team that earned a grand total of 141 yards in their game versus the Browns?

 

10. Curious to see how Sanders performed at DT. Seemed a bit inconsistent but to be expected for a rookie. ---> You'll have to wait until next week, because he didn't perform at DT like every d-lineman not named Ed Oliver. But he did have good seats for watching Derek Henry run towards the endzone all night.

[SCBills]

Interesting to hear a lot of the film breakdown folks state that the DL held up, for the most part, against the run.. it was Milano, Bernard, Rapp and Bishop that were absolutely lost, leading to us getting gashed in both the run & passing game. 
 

Edited September 10 by SCBills

[wjag]

3 hours ago, BearNorth said:

The Pass to Hawes was pretty remarkable as well.  Few QB's can make that throw.

I thought about including that one.  The replay shows he threw it over two guys head and between the two deep safeties as they were crashing on Hawes.  Remarkable too.  You're right.

[The 9 Isles]

The absolute best recap of Sunday’s game. 
 

 

[MarkyMannn]

42 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Interesting to hear a lot of the film breakdown folks state that the DL held up, for the most part, against the run.. it was Milano, Bernard, Rapp and Bishop that were absolutely lost, leading to us getting gashed in both the run & passing game. 
 

On WGR they pointed out those 4 you mentioned had some of the lowest PFF individual D grades for this Week 1.  Hard to argue

[In Summary]

8 hours ago, Royale with Cheese said:

 

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

I'm half joking.

So far, you're half right.

[Rock-A-Bye Beasley]

Random late-night thought after re-watching. 

 

the bills end up kicking with time expiring, so Baltimore has nothing to gain from taking their timeouts.

 

If Harbaugh doesn’t take the first time out right away it puts the Bills in a weird spot. They have to bring out the kick unit or Time expires and ravens win. Ravens could then call the timeout with 15-20 seconds, then bills are forced to kick the field goal without kneeling a 2nd time. This leaves Baltimore with some time and one timeout after the FG. 
 

would’ve been interesting to see how it played out. 

[Mike in Horseheads]

Unless @Virgil has stopped this is his topic.

[Special K]

23 minutes ago, Rock-A-Bye Beasley said:

Random late-night thought after re-watching. 

 

the bills end up kicking with time expiring, so Baltimore has nothing to gain from taking their timeouts.

 

If Harbaugh doesn’t take the first time out right away it puts the Bills in a weird spot. They have to bring out the kick unit or Time expires and ravens win. Ravens could then call the timeout with 15-20 seconds, then bills are forced to kick the field goal without kneeling a 2nd time. This leaves Baltimore with some time and one timeout after the FG. 
 

would’ve been interesting to see how it played out. 

 

If the Ravens called the timeout at 15 seconds, they could have Josh roll out to right, hold it as long as possible, then just chuck it out the back of the end zone. That would waste 8-10 seconds....the FG would waste another 5 seconds, so depending on how many seconds Josh could waste before throwing it away, the game would expire on the FG, or there would be 2-3 seconds left...only enough for a crazy lateral kickoff return play.

Edited September 10 by Special K

[QLBillsFan]

I think the bigger Ravens mismanagement was on not using the full clock in the 4th. They were snapping with ten seconds left on several occasions. That’s certainly on LJ, but Harbaugh has to own that as well. 

[julian]

14 hours ago, newcam2012 said:

Josh make a great throw under the circumstances. Palmer was open too. 

Open in the sense that if you have one of 3 or 4 particular QBs, yeah he’s open.

[newcam2012]

6 hours ago, julian said:

Open in the sense that if you have one of 3 or 4 particular QBs, yeah he’s open.

He was a very good throw. However, most NFL QBs should be able to make that throw. It was more of a touch and accuracy throw. More than 3 or 4 NFL QBs can make that throw. Nevertheless, under the circumstances it was elite execution of by QB and WR. 

[BBMB Poster]

I think it bears mentioning about the D that two guys are suspended and two corners are/were hurt for this game.  The D still managed to make a few plays here and there and came up big in the 4th quarter.  Getting off the field twice and forcing the turnover was just as huge as Josh being Josh IMO.  There is no comeback without that.

[fergie's ire]

Yeah, I think the narrative of a choke is a bit overblown, but also of it being a blowout up to that point.  In a game where both teams are scoring on almost every drive, I think of it like tennis.  Need to score a touchdown to hold serve.  Bills were broken twice in the first half, but the field goal at the end to match the Ravens' earlier field goal really helped. That way, even when they scored right out of the half, the Bills were really down a break.  Just needed one stop to tie.  That's the reason the Bills 4th quarter punt was so deflating.  They had NOT been able to break serve (much like the frustration Jessica Pegula felt in her semi-final) and it seemed they just weren't going to be able to.  The punt was like another break.  So, that was the first time the Bills were down more than one break...but then they broke the Ravens...and again...and again.