Okay, Enough already with the "Vaunted Ravens D"

  Chad will be smart, the defense will rattle Flaco into some stupid decisions, and once again Chad yells for the Victory Formation to end this game

looks like we should squeak out with a win…the ravens will most likely fall behind at some point in the game and when they do they will be screwed, Flacco cannot handle the pressure and the more they fall behind the less they can run the ball, which is their lifeline…furthermore, Flacco will be shitting bricks and will make a ton of mistakes that our D will surely take advantage of….Chad will be cool, calm and collected and will be smart against this defense and like against every other team he played this season he wont make mistakes against this D…..Dolphins win, end of story

There is some well founded optimism!! Go Fins!!

Great stuff Lefty, it really shows how even these teams are. And I think, when two teams are evenly matched, it comes down to coaching and discipline. I take Sparano over Harbaugh, and I take Henning over Cameron. Sparano has shown the ability to rally his team and have them focused and playing hard in every game this season. He’s been able to gameplan effectively and make the proper in-game adjustments to give his team a chance. And every guy that is plugged into the game knows his job and is able to execute it.

Henning has thrown out all the unwritten NFL rules about what does and doesn’t work against pro defenses, and has really opened up the offense creatively. He’s been able to design plays to maximize Pennington’s effectiveness and minimize the opportunities for mistakes. He’s kept both our running backs fresh and healthy, and used a variety of WR’s and TE’s so defenses can’t key on one guy to stop.

The main difference between the two teams is this: Miami can gameplan to take away the run, and if they execute, they win. Baltimore can’t gameplan for anything specifically, because Miami has been able to win running the ball, passing, kicking FG’s, Wildcatting teams, and every other way you could imagine. We’re not a one-trick pony, and that creates problems for any defense. If we stop the run, Henning will find ways to score points, and Pennington will not turn it over or make bad decisions that cost you points.

I see a win in the cards, because we have a better TEAM, in the total sense of the word, than Baltimore.

let me be the first to congratulate you on the Front Page

is a charter member of the Frontpage Club. Wear that jacket proudly buddy!

Nice info, bro… Changes my perspective a little.

and Ohio has a new story to tell us lol

MOSUL….PERMISSION TO FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH WHAT LADIES YOU DIDNT KNOW WE HAD SOLDIERS UP IN HERE WITH TANKS THAT HAVE CHAD PENNINGTON PCIS ON THE SIDE???

CLICK…MOTHER BLEEPING CLICK………..PLAYOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
!!!!!

(lefty style bitches)

You want to come here and talk trash, fine. But be prepared to back it up or get beatdown. Your little blog doesn’t have the corner on the beatdown, ya know.
As far as making fun of your name… c’mon Rexx…. it’s all in good fun. No offense intended. Aren’t you having fun? I know I’m having fun. I hope you aren’t going to go away mad. Are ya rrrrrrrrEEEEEEEEXXXXXXXX?
:)

it really got it rolling. :)

So the Miami D allows 4.6 more points per game. Baltimore has the edge, but not exactly a blowout there either.

That’s a bit of an understatement. There is a 4.6 point difference between the 3rd ranked Ravens and 9th the ranked Dolphins. There is also a 4.6 point different between the 9th ranked Dolphins and the 25th ranked Oakland Raiders.

You know, you can talk about Yds. Allowed all day long, but the real indicator of performance is points. And from what I can see here, these teams look pretty competitive. While there is a lot of talk about the “great” Baltimore Defense, the Dolphins are pretty close in this season’s performance.

I’m sorry, but 4.6 points is significant. Your argument just proves that there are a few elite defenses that sit atop the league, and the rest of the teams are bunched together.

Okay, how about Sacks by the D? This is certainly indicative of pressure on the QB,
right?

Hmmm…. Dolphins by 6

I beg to differ. Just because the Ravens do not have one guy with 18 sacks does not mean that they don’t get pressure on a quarterback. Irrespective of whether you consider our defenses somewhat close, Baltimore’s D is still top 3 in the league, and they can get by easily without the sacks.

We get tremendous penetration, but don’t get sacks. That’s fine. It’s possible. I’m not going to go into our schedule and point out that we’ve faced numerous extremely mobile/elusive quarterbacks, but I just vehemently disagree with the premise that sacks = pressure = success.

Close. Fins score more. Ravens rely more heavily on the running game.

So you’re trying to flaunt the fact that Pennington is so much better than the rookie Flacco, yet you openly acknowledge that the two teams are essentially equal when it comes to overall scoring.

I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather depend on my running game than my quarterback in the playoffs. A QB can have an off day and really stink things up, but three proven running backs are not all going to collectively shit a brick.

But still, you have to ask yourself, “Who would you want at QB for this big game?” Personally, I would take CP every time.

I’d take Pennington as well, but I’d also choose our running backs, our offensive line, our wide receivers, and our entire defensive unit. It’s an overused, annoying cliche, but a team that possesses a strong running game and a superior defense is built for the post season. Peyton only won his ring after he had two threats in the backfield and a red hot defense.

Chad is clearly playing much better right now!

Arbitrary. Although Pennington is putting up better numbers, Flacco has done what he has needed to do in order to beat the Redskins, Cowboys, and Jaguars, with a narrow loss against Pittsburgh. Because we have a good ground attack, Flacco hasn’t needed to average nearly 30 passes a game like Pennington.

Although I agree Chad has been hotter than Joe down the stretch, the word “clearly” is just untrue.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Please don’t judge our entire fanbase based on what one poster thinks/says.

I’m not a big believer in statistics as they pertain to football. This game is a complete team sport, and numbers cannot be used to judge players in the NFL like they can be in the MLB, and to a lesser extent, the NBA. To me, stats in football are only nice as an aside and cannot be used to draw conclusions like

From the numbers, looks like we should squeak out with a win

first off let me agree with the b-necks 4.6 points per game IS a signicant difference… i guess think of it in terms of point spread… 4.6 covers a heck of a lot of games…

I’d even concede that baltimores defense is better than the dolphins, they certainly have a heck of a lot of individual talent on that side of the ball, but that said miami’s defense is more about team defense as a unit and a high degree of specializations… there is a lot of rotation and match up changes where as the b-necks stick to their base guys… so i’m going to agree with you that defense is the core of both of these teams and that the difference will end up being offensive execution… i.e. the team that executes their offense better will win….

now to your points on offense… i’d have to say that some of the stats are meaningless… in particular the last 4 games ones… it’s pretty clear that miami has played on of the weakest SoS in the league and baltimores was a wee bit harder (nfc east vs west & afc south vs. afc west) – so flacco’s stats are kind of skewed having played against pitt twice, the titans, washington, philly, & the giants…

all of that said, and this may come as a surprise to some, pennington is the better QB on THIS sunday. Rookie QB’s making their first playoff start are not a reliable element that teams can count on. yes flacco may rise to the occasion but being able to handle the demands of the post season (extra distractions and excitement) while doing your prep work likely give the more experience QB the huge edge….

so this game will likely come down to the factor of "can miami stop the run and force flacco to beat them, something that would be a highly unlikely varriable considering the situation….

by too much i mean each comment is like 2 paragraphs

Great analysis….thanks for putting the time in, looking forward to game-time on Sunday!!
What a year it has been…..and it is not over!

I wasn’t too sure if vaunted is even the right adjective, considering the torturous cliches used in football banter,,,

Actually, vaunted is the right word.

Webster defines vaunt: " The cavernous hairy vagina of the larger species of raven. See also twat"

I dunno, he scares me..

So the Miami D allows 4.6 more points per game. Baltimore has the edge, but not exactly a blowout there either

The funny thing is that that’s like saying the difference between a 3.00 ERA in baseball isn’t exactly a ton better than a 5.00 ERA based on the fact that it’s simply 2 runs per game. It’s all relative. The truth is that a 3.00 ERA is A LOT better than a 5.00 ERA.

When you compare the points allowed per game to THE BEST DEFENSES in the league, PIT, TEN, NYG, the Ravens are closer to them in points allowed per game than the Dolphins are to the Ravens.

PIT-13.9
TEN-14.6
BAL-15.2

MIA-19.8

The fact is, on the surface 4.6 pts. per game may not look like a lot (just like 2 runs per game doesn’t), but when you factor in how difficult it is to score points in the NFL (just like how difficult it is to score runs in MLB), 4.6 pts IS a lot. Not to mention that 4.6 pt. difference would require a TD to overcome it, not just a FG. Factor in the offensive scoring, BAL-24.1 pts/game to MIA-21.6 pts/game (difference of 2.5pts/game), the total points differential becomes more than a TD and that is huge.

Also, as I blogged over at baltimorebeatdown, I broke down the schedules and how much each of these teams won by or lost by and the bottom line is the Ravens played a tougher schedule (as is witnessed in their opponent overall records, and the records of the teams they beat and lost to compared to who the Dolphins beat and lost to), won by more points/win, and lost by less points/loss. What that showed me was that the Ravens wins came against tougher teams than the Dolphins wins and they won by more points than the Dolphins did and the Ravens losses came against tougher teams than the Dolphins losses and they lost by less points than the Dolphins lost by.

One more thing; Have the Dolphins played the Steelers Twice, Titans, Giants, Colts, Cowboys, and Eagles or anyone comparable to those teams… and before you tell me “no, but they played the 11-5 Patriots twice,” go take a look at who the Pats played this year.

And even squirrels eat birds.

Guess no video embeds allowed.

Follow link if you like.

This is the best analysis I’ve seen for this game.

Then again you’re only competing with the idiots at ESPN and NFL.com.

;-)

Well done Lefty!

sorry..