Well, so that sucked. It sucked worse than anything has sucked before. I'm sure that, when the Browns beat us 51-0 in 1976, the feeling of suck in the Steel City was more prominent than it is today, but not by much.
It breaks down on defense like this: We couldn't get pressure on McNair and they beat us. It really has nothing to do with the cornerbacks. It does a little, but this defense has always been about how much pressure we can bring. And we're not bringing it this year. And we're getting shredded. Maybe Cowher and Colbert should've drafted some linebackers on the first day of the draft the last few years, huh? Maybe they shouldn't be changing the starting cornerback tandem every game? Could just be they need to change up the starting linebackers. Especially the outside guys. They've sucked a big suck-ass suck all year.
Either they need to play better or we'll get shredded for a bunch of yards every game.
On offense, it's all about the offensive line's inability to block and adjust. You can say the Ravens confused our guys by varying their fronts. You could say that. Only one issue. THE RAVENS USE A 3-4 AS THEIR BASE DEFENSE AND SO DO WE!!!! All game, I knew where the pressure was coming from and who was going to get the first shot at sacking Ben. The Ravens knew that we couldn't block anyone coming off the edge and that Fast Willie can't pass protect. So they brought pressure from the outside. When the entire line was obsessed with who was coming from the outside, they ran delayed blitzes from the inside. At this point, the line looked completely bewildered and Ben was getting hit so much he swore he saw Lee Harvey Oswald picking off cheerleaders from peanut heaven.
From there, they started calling different blitzes of the same variety and all of them worked. They worked because the line didn't know who was coming from where and certainly didn't have any concept of how to block them. If this strategy sounds familiar, it's because the Steelers used it to dismantle the Browns and Colts (and the Bengals in the second half of the Wild Card game) on their way to winning the Super Bowl.
Why didn't we use this tactic to shut out the Browns last week? God only knows. Well, God and Dick LeBeau.
The bottom line is that the Ravens treated it like a playoff game and we didn't. They had a solid game plan that they executed flawlessly and we... looked like a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob. And now we're 4-7.
And now the season's over. Even at 4-6, it was a LOOOOOONG shot. The Chiefs made sure we'd face long odds by beating the Broncos Thanksgiving night. Both were 7-4 at that point. You can count on Jake Plummer (even though he's no longer Denver's QB) for honking a late season game and Herm Edwards for mismanaging the game clock at a crucial juncture, but there's no way you could count on either to drop TWO games and there's no way in hell or heaven that you could count on both to drop two. So there's that on top of that.
This'll be the true test of this team. These last five games are winnable. If we finish strong and end up 9-7, it'll be proof that all the high character guys didn't leave the team last year. I figure 8-8 or 7-9. And that sucks. But, with a coach that has ceased to care, an offense that turns the ball over too much and hasn't come together along the offensive line or the wide receiver position, and a defense that got too old and slow to execute the system, that's what we deserve.
We got lucky last year. We won the Super Bowl. Let's focus on that.
Well, that and the fact that, if this year is just like 2003, maybe next year will be like 2004. And maybe, just maybe, we'll get to face off against Cowher's Cowboys in the Super Bowl.
One other thing:
The Cowboys are going to win the Super Bowl. They're coming together at the right time, everyone's contributing, Parcells finally has the right personnel to run his defense, and everyone's smiling and hugging. They're a game up on the Giants, the Redskins are imploding, and the Eagles don't have McNabb. They'll be two games up on the Giants after Sunday.
You're telling me the Bears can beat these guys? The Seahawks? The Panthers? The Saints?
And hey, the Colts couldn't beat them, either.
I say the Cowboys lose to the AFC champion in the super bowl, but that won't be the Colts, it will be the Chargers. They're defense will be even stronger with Philips and Merriman back, and even if they go down 21 pts, they still win. unstoppable. (if LT stays healthy for once in his career).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I was forced to listen to this game on AM radio on my way home to NY and didn't have to watch us get pounded. by the HATED Ravens no less.