Week 10, Ravens Fast Five: What, in the Actual…

…only I didn’t say fudge.

It’s late. No beating around the bush. Ravens lost because…a lot of reasons. Football. Any given Sunday, or Thursday. Just plain not good. 22-10 loss at the hands of the then 2-6 Miami Dolphins. Five thoughts. Here we go.

Discuss your thoughts on these topics on our message board.

1. The Ravens need to break tendencies.

The slow starts this season. The offense spinning their wheels in the first halves. It means the opposing defense has keyed in on something early, meaning they planned for it, cause it’s on tape, a lot.

It’s someone’s job on every staff to watch many weeks of the oppositions game film and track everything they do on every down and distance and figure out what tendencies they have. Pass on that info to the senior members on the coaching staff, and the coaches figure out a game plan for attacking that and install it during the week.

The Ravens are putting something on film that teams are keying in on as to why they seem to struggle out of the gate. Why they get exposed for big plays on defense. Tonight, the struggles lasted the whole game.

On the other hand, could be just an atrocious offensive line being put on film that teams are foaming at the mouth to go against.

2. How does the offense have no answers for a blitz?

Does Greg Roman’s unit not practice against the blitz happiest defensive coordinator in the NFL every single week? All through training camp? How are they not ready for blitz pressure? It’s also not like having to overcome a bad offensive line is something new that just caught them by surprise this game. It’s been an issue for a while.

You have to have more than “screen to Hollywood”, and “run for your life LJ” in the playbook.

There was little to no pre-snap motion to move defenders around. No going up tempo until the game was well out of hand, to maybe put some pressure back on them. Take them out of the comfort zone a little. No adjustments to the blocking assignments. The Dolphins literally put seven guys on the line of scrimmage who pinned their ears back and teed off. Combined with four DBs 8-10 yards off the ball, the Ravens either had less than seven blockers or fell into the quick pass trap they baited you into every single time.

Zero adjustments made. Rarely tried the middle of the field which is open in that type of defensive set. They just let Miami do what they set out to do. Blitzed 51.1% of the time. That doesn’t include when they got home with just four guys either.

3. Healthy scratch Watkins instead of Proche the rest of the year.

I was disappointed to see James Proche a healthy scratch for this game. He doesn’t get the play behind the talented Rashod Bateman and Marquise Brown. Devin Duvernay is the kick returner and ahead of him in the WR pecking order while Sammy Watkins was out.

However, we’ve seen the chops Proche brings to the table when asked. And it’s so much more than what Watkins does. It’s a good problem to have a full stable of capable receivers. Including Duvernay, and the untapped potential of Tylan Wallace on special teams for now, but maybe in seasons to come.

But the effort put forth by Watkins is unforgivable. Gave up early on what should have been a touchdown. He didn’t lose the ball. He put his head down, slowed up, and gave up. The ball landed arms reach away just inside the endline, where with effort, a catch and two feet in is a score.

Then the fumble that went for a Dolphins defensive scoop and score.  

Watkins is in my doghouse. I hope he’s in theirs. Has done zero to earn more snaps at this time. I can live with drops. We’re human. Lack of effort? Not on my team.

4. What did the booth see on replay on the Andrews “catch”?

I don’t want to say a turning point in the game, because there was a lot that went wrong in the grand scheme. But the Ravens were struggling just to sustain a drive for more than four plays. Get a first down to Mark Andrews that is called a catch on the field. Goes to replay. Not a single camera angle shown on television shows the ball hitting the ground. They always say, “they have the same angles you get at home”. But Mike Pereira chimes in that he sees it hit the ground. The refs overturn the call that they saw it. No one watching on television has seen the ball hit the ground yet.

I’d like to see in the highlight packages to follow in the coming day(s) when this game is analyzed, the clip of the ball hitting the ground, inserted, incase the guys in the truck didn’t get the clip to the viewing audience in game. I can live with that. Otherwise, what are we even doing? Guessing? Making it up?

Anyway. Goes from 1st down and moving in the right direction for once, to 3rd and long and another sack. Punt. Theme of the night.

5. Thursday Night Football sucks.

Other than the season opener, or Thanksgiving Day, no one likes these games. Well, 32 people like the$e game$. To tie this in with thought number one, it’s got to be a rush job, especially for the team traveling on the road losing a half a day in the process, to prepare properly. The Ravens had two walk-through practices between Sunday’s game and this one. It’s just not normal.

Coach Harbaugh shouldered all the blame in his post-game presser. They weren’t prepared properly, and it was on him. Players played their hearts out. Coach speak coach speak coach speak.

It’s not an excuse. Short week for Miami too, though they are home. The Ravens are better than the Dolphins and no matter when they played this game they should win. Every team is subject to Thursday game treatment, so they all must deal with it. I love football. But if this wasn’t the Ravens, I’m watching anything else on a Thursday night that isn’t a marquee matchup.

Bonus Thought: The Steelers can now earn the top spot in the AFC North by beating the Lions on Sunday. Fun times Ravens Nation.