Baltimore D Good, But Not Impenetrable

just one note, it’s Josh Wilson, not Williams. He’s a pretty solid player too, got to be careful of him he likes to go for the ball.

because of his ability to play the run dominantly, and he is also one of the best past defending linebackers in the league. Suggs basically does everything. He’s a stud, and the guy you have to really know where he is before every snap, without Reed, imo.

I agree with this… Sanchez needs to step up.

And you’re right he locks on like he has tunnel vision… If you look carefully, even his good passes he locks on (TD to Keller agst skins).

What also worries me is Shonn Greene with 108 carries last yr got hurt twice — ankle and rib. There’s no guarantee he’ll stay healthy when adding on another 150+ carries. If he does go down.. then we got LT who is also injury prone.

This game could be a microcosm of our season———resting on Sanchez’s shoulders.

Not that Ngata and Gregg aren’t formidable in their own right, but its sure better than having those two plus Cody.

Although passing the ball is important in this game, with sanchez facing a pretty shakey secondary, The run will be the clincher. Against passing teams the ravens showed superior. perfect example was last years wild card weekend game against the Patriots. with pressure coming coming down the middle brady had little to no space to make a differance with the pass. This happened because there was no run and the ravens were able to double man the outsides. We will win if we do this:
1. unleash the ground game early: even with all the crazy talk about a Jets passing game emerging if we stick to our identity we will win big yards.
2. Bring out 81:Keller proved to be more then a secret weapon during the post season catching a touchdown in all 3 games. Id look to try and get the ball to the special TE and solidify this recieving corp. Keller is not only a redzone threat but a 3rd down target that could gain the yards.
3.Let the D play its Game: Even with rice in the back field the Jets are a flex but we will break your ass type team. I dont see stopping the run as crucial, but more so forcing the ravens to be one diminsional. this starts with getting to the QB. Screens will happen but with Cromartie and wilson well have little to worry of if we can force plays on there side of the ball.

Just did a run through of their games last season and it seems that teams with a decent rushing attack were able to run the ball effectively.

Cincy (1) — 34 attempts for 142 yards (Benson 27-120)
Vikes — 31 – 167 (Peterson 22-143 [6.5 pc])
Cincy (2) — 39 146 (Benson 34 – 117)
Indy (?) - 25 – 76 (Addai 19 74)
Steelers (1) - 38 – 153 (Mendenhall 24 95)
Packers - 27 – 94
Bears — 30 – 122

I’m guessing its not out of the question for us to be able to run the ball on them. Ngata lines up away from our strength on the o-line, and we know that Mangold can handle Gregg. Running to the right behind Woody and Moore could pay big dividends.

all of those teams have a capable QB that you have to plan around. Not exactly where Sanchez is at right now…

If Sanchez and the passing game is the key in this game , what has not been focused on enough for me is Schotty’s playcalling. Not only did Sanchez improve when Rex reeled him in but the game planning improved whe Rex started popping into the Offensive meetings. Shotty got a little pissed but down the stretch he seemed to follow the KISS rule, (keep it simple stupid). During the palyoffs he played to our strengths and threw in just enough creativeness. Too many time he goes off on the genuis mode and puts Sanchez in bad positions, (there was no reason to keep airing it out with Sanchez in his first cold weather game against the Bills after he threw his 3rd int and the rushing game avg 9 ypc).

If we win this game… then turnaround and beat the Pats on short rest… everyone’s going to jump on this bandwagon. No one’s going to think Rex was all talk. Media (ESPN) is pretty much going to crown us champs. Funny thing is, it’ll only be week 2.

We will only win this game if Sanchez plays….

I think if we are hoping that in anyway Sanchez wins this game (either through play making or great consistency) the Jets aren’t going to win. The guy has looked overloaded in preseason on almost all series, for whatever reason, and the amp of the first game is just going to bring more. I honestly hope that they revert to last years pound, pound, pound philosophy for the first 4 games. The guy is still very young in ways more than his age, and the idea that he has to be the difference maker can have detrimental effect. The guy needs to play more red light green light (though not to that extreme). Short passing game, air it out three times.

For a significant portion of the first quarter, the Ravens run defense must have felt as if it were stuck in a time warp with the needle squarely on Nov. 16, 2008.
That’s when the New York Giants ran for 207 yards — the third-most in Ravens history — and running back Ahmad Bradshaw led the way with 96 yards and Brandon Jacobs compiled 73 yards.
That scenario eerily played out on the Giants’ second possession of Saturday night’s preseason contest against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium….

…Paired with the 142 rushing yards the Carolina Panthers had recorded in the first preseason game, the Ravens run defense could be in need of some fine-tuning. But middle linebacker Ray Lewis did not seem troubled by the defense’s performance in the preseason, pointing out that the first defense had still not surrendered a touchdown.
“Honestly, I think we’re right where we need to be,” he said Tuesday. “And that is, a few mistakes here and there, correct them and then just get ready, bottom line. When you turn on our defensive film, one thing that you do like is [that] we haven’t given up a touchdown all preseason. That’s a bottom line fact, no matter what big plays or what happened. The bottom line is you bend, but don’t break.”

here.

Chris Carr: 5’10" 182
Fabian Washington: 5’11 175
Ladarius Webb: 5’10" 182
 

Go with a single-back set and bunch Keller, Cumberland and Braylon to one side and just beat on those corners all game.

Braylon: 6’3" 214
Keller: 6’2" 250
Cumberland: 6’4" 260

Still like a deer in the headlights. If Ray is in his face Monday Night, he’ll start dropping dueces on the field and throwing picks. I really hope he proves me wrong. Also, I find it curious that we only kept three receivers on the roster (Brayon, J-Co and Smith) but I wonder what’s gonna happen there…

Hopefully our run game can penetrate the front 7 or 8 and get to the secondary. lol

No one seems to be accounting for the crowd factor in this game. It’s the opening game in our brand new stadium with 80,000 fans making sure they can’t speak on Tuesday. You can’t ignore the effect this will have on Baltimore’s offense.

Anyone remember the New England game last year in a stadium that held about 20,000 fewer people? Outside of Penn State (which sits over 100K) it was the loudest game I’ve ever been to. And it clearly rattled Brady and his offense. I think the same will be true come Monday.

I know this is off topic, but I’ve been wanting to make this point since I haven’t seen anyone else mention it.

yeah, sanchez needs to set the tone early with some play action, screens, to go with the ground and pound. Ravens probably will stack the box and see how sanchez does. He can burn them but I think they want him to prove it. Im preseason he look like crap, but someone in another post mentioned that during preseason they never really did any play action so maybe they were not showing their hand. Schotty better have a good game plan and take advantage of the hurting ravens D and sanchez better perform under pressure, then we’ll have a good game.