Game 10, Ravens @ Cowboys

[Ravenchamp]

Baltimore Ravens

5-4, 1st in AFC North


Sunday, November 20, 1:00 PM on CBS

AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas



Baltimore

Ravens



@


Dallas

Cowboys

[Evil Yoda]

Predicting a Ravens loss here. The Cowboys are the best team they have faced in awhile; they've gotten a few wins against poor teams and they may go into this one thinking it will likewise be easy. I suspect they'll be able to make Elliott less effective than he has been, but Joe is not having a good year; he will need to play the whole game to win this one, and so far, we haven't seen that. Indeed, a strike against Harbaugh has been his consistent inability to get both units to play all four quarters of a game.

[Evil Yoda]

This loss is much more what I expect from them going forward, against the better teams they'll be facing. The easy part of their schedule is over, and they are 5-5. They might finish 6-10. With a lot of luck, 7-9.

They did managed to mostly neutralize Elliott, but Prescott then took to the air, and without Smith their pass defense is mediocre. The offense didn't play better than mediocre at any time, and that's going to lead to a loss. The return of veterans improved the offensive line, which helped Flacco, but he's still got accuracy problems. They ought to look at why the guys one level below the starters are often much worse than they should be.

[Deleted]

Where was the hurry-up offense that worked so well against Cleveland? (OK, it was only Cleveland, but why not employ it at some point?) And I don't understand the three rushing attempts the entire second half. Dallas had the ball for what seemed like an eternity in the second half, but that was still no reason for the Ravens to abandon the run so quickly. The 12 penalties didn't help, either (thank you, Jeremy Zuttah).

It would also be nice if the Ravens had a tight end who at least had some idea of how to block. The next good block Dennis Pitta throws will be his first and Darren Waller isn't much better.

Still, the Ravens have a shot of winning this godawful division. They get the Bengals next week sans Giovanni Bernard and AJ Green, while the Steelers have to visit Indy on Thanksgiving. A 7-9 record might be good enough this year.

[Ravenchamp]

1st half Ravens looked decent , scoring first. Actually looked like they had a shot to beat Dallas.
2nd half Dallas owned the ball. Ravens could not produce.

Waiting for firings

[Evil Yoda]

I suspect there will be a coaching housecleaning at the end of the season. I believe that one is needed.

Poor discipline, exemplified by numerous penalties all season. A lackluster play selection which finds Joe targeting the same receiver over and over and over again during any particular game. A team that can't or won't play hard four quarters, both sides of the ball. All that, I believe, is coaching. And the head coach isn't good at evaluating talent for the coordinator role. All he can do is hire failed former head coaches. Some of those guys might be good coordinators, but he hasn't chosen those: he's twice had to fire his OC midseason. The second time after wondering whether to make a change in the off-season. When you're wondering that, you already know the answer. I'm not saying Trestman didn't want firing, he did. I'm saying he's part of the problem, not the whole problem.

They need to move on.

[bobloblaw]

It wasn't that long ago when people were trying to call Flacco an "elite" quarterback. Now he's ranked #26.

[Evil Yoda]

Nov 21, 2016 14:36:07 GMT -5 bobloblaw said:

It wasn't that long ago when people were trying to call Flacco an "elite" quarterback. Now he's ranked #26.

I was never in the "he's elite" school. He's a solid, middle-tier quarterback who can do good work, but is inconsistent (possibly due to poor coaching). He was never going to wear a gold jacket, however.

It's also possible his troubles this year are due to still healing from an ACL/PCL rebuild. Many athletes have a bad year after such a surgery. That doesn't explain his post-signing slump from early 2015, but he's hardly the first pro athlete to get paid and then slack off. Albert Haynesworth is the poster child for that, but you see it all over baseball and football (and probably basketball and hockey, too, but those sports interest me far less).