The never ending joke about the National Football League is that NFL also stands for ‘Not For Long.’ Careers are short. Memories also have to be short, because there is no time to dwell on anything.

A player goes down? Who is up next?

You won a game? Great, celebrate in the locker-room, and start focusing on next week.
You lost a game? It’s over, attention immediately pivots to next Sunday.

Suggs is done for the year? That’s horrible. There are 15 games left in the regular season, what is the adjustment?

Baltimore lost a winnable game at Denver yesterday? You don’t get a replay. From 1990 through 2013; only 8% of teams that started 0-2 made the playoffs. Better get things corrected before heading West to Oakland.

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

Quick Hits:

1) I do feel bad for Suggs. Father Time gets everyone, and it’s brutal for him (and the Ravens) that he’s lost for the year. You lose his leadership. You lose his ability to set the edge. You lose his pass rush. There should be even more snaps available now for Courtney Upshaw. Za’Darius Smith was not active yesterday, that figures to change Sunday. He has to be able to bring some rush on 3rd down. No ‘Redshirt’ year this year, he has to perform. Additional pressure on Elvis Dumervil to perform, and he now doesn’t get the benefit of Suggs coming from the opposite end. I see some fans suggesting Dwight Freeney. The 35 year old would give the Ravens a lot of experience, but would he bring any rush? He had 3.5 sacks in 16 games last year with San Diego.

2) We got our first glimpse of the Carl Davis, Brandon Williams combo yesterday; and they impressed. Playing in that high Denver altitude, with field temperatures said to be 115 degrees – they performed well, before tiring late in the 4th. Would have been nice to have also had Timmy Jernigan. Jernigan has a lot of ability, his next task is to show he can stay on the field. Without Suggs, there will also be more pressure on Jernigan to collapse the pocket from the interior.

3) The Ravens highly touted Offensive Line did not play well yesterday. I don’t know if that can be considered a real surprise. Losing Eugene Monroe to the early concussion impacted things. So did facing a capable Denver pass rush. Another issue was the lack of separation from the Baltimore’s WR’s. Denver was not scared about being beat over the top, so they could stack the box. Hard to run. Hard to protect.

3a) If Monroe were to miss any significant time, I like the idea from of my BSL colleague Mike Randall who suggests moving John Urschel into the starting line up at Guard, and sliding Marshall Yanda out to Tackle.

4) Breshad Perriman effectively missed all Summer, and now Week 1. Torrey Smith is in San Francisco. Perriman has to get on the field, and use his speed on long vertical routes to help keep opposing defenses honest. Having that threat will open up the running game. A running game, helps open up play action. Clearly you want to take advantage of Flacco’s arm strength. Everything builds off each other. Even if Perriman is suddenly able to play in Week 2, what can you expect from him? Outside of last year’s rookie WR class, typically we’ve seen that rookie WR’s go through an adjustment. By missing the Summer, his growth was further stunted. Seems to me, that the best case scenario for him is hoping he’s ready to consistently produce after the Week 9 Bye.

5) Until Perriman is on the field, and producing – how do the Ravens adjust? Fellow Rookie Darren Waller was active yesterday. Seems to me that you have to give him a chance to get deep.

5a) As we’ve written several times in the past Month, there are plenty of guys on the Ravens roster that can help. What is lacking are elite play-makers who you know (expect) to win 1×1 match-ups. Kyle Juszczyk, Maxx Williams, Crockett Gillmore, Mike Campanaro, Kamar Aiken, Marlon Brown. Each of those guys can help. Who can you depend on? You have to spread the ball around to these guys, and get something from each of them. It should be expected that other teams will be targeting Steve Smith Sr. with their coverage. As such, I’d like to see Trestman and Flacco scheme to get the other WR’s open. For the Ravens to reach their goals as an organization this year, Flacco has to make this group better.

5b) I’m wondering if we might see the Ravens be conservative with their offensive approach this year. A lot of 2 TE, and FB sets? Some ground and pound between the tackles with Allen now, Taliaferro later as the bigger backs?

6) If Smith Sr. is back on Kicks and Punts to fair-catch, fine. I don’t see any potential benefit of the hypothetical return he could provide, worth the risk of using him in that capacity.

7) We saw Kyle Arrington used on the blitz multiple times yesterday. With Suggs going down, Dean Pees is going to have be creative in finding ways to bring pressure. My preferred style of play would be to be ultra-aggressive with the pass rush, and if you get burned with that at-times so be it.

8) I had anticipated that it might be until mid-Season that Jimmy Smith looked like he did prior to his injury. I think you have to be very encouraged with his play yesterday. Feeling good about him back there should help Pees be more aggressive.

8a) CJ Mosley picked-up right where he left off last year. He is the man.

9) The Raiders were ripped yesterday in Oakland, falling to the Cincinnati Bengals 33-13. They also lost starting QB Derek Carr to a hand injury (severity tbd). The Raiders were not expected to be good this year, but there has been a perception that they are an organization on the upswing. If Carr is back, I wouldn’t be shocked if they played better than yesterday’s debacle. Just on the idea of wanting to show some pride. The schedule makers were not kind to the Ravens this year. Heading back across the country won’t be particularly easy. It’s as much of a must win game as there can be in Week 2 though. The Ravens have to return to Baltimore at 1-1.

10) The remaining schedule up until the Week 9 Bye is:
@Oakland
Cincinnati
@Pittsburgh
Cleveland
@San Francisco
@Arizona
San Diego

To me, the overall focus for the Ravens has to be getting to the bye at 4-4 or better. If Baltimore is .500 at the bye, they should be in position to reach another level in the 2nd half (5 home games).

Bonus) Whatever happens in Oakland, there will be no time to dwell or celebrate. The focus will have to immediately turn to defending the home-field against AFC North Rival Cincinnati.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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