George Pickens - Zero targets.

Should have put Mitch in. He wouldn’t be afraid to throw it in there

 

Mason even said he was doubled most of the night. It was also pouring down rain all game.

 

The defense took him out of the game. That’s why Johnson was open.

 

This is where good offensive coaching comes in. Do we think that Jerry Rice and Randy Moss were not double covered in virtually every game they started? A creative OC will have route concepts going in designed to defeat double coverage. Pickens better get used to being double and triple covered and figure out how to beat it. I do understand why Rudolph would look to DJ and others because if GP is getting doubled that means you’ve got single coverage elsewhere.

 

Strange thing to care about after a win in those conditions. Wow.

 

Johnson wasn’t open all game. The slant pass was just perfect in every way of the play design.

 

Yeah, i wouldnt consider Pickens a stud right now.

 

He forced the Ravens to play two deep safeties the whole game. Which is why Nagee was able to gash them up the middle. While he may have been one on one, there was never a safety far from him.

 

The Ravens have the #1 defense by points (4th in yards). They still had almost all of their starters in the game. This wasn't like the preseason, with an entirely different 2nd squad.

This reminds me of AB and his streak of 35 consecutive games with at least 5 catches and 50 yards.
This would seem to be easy to do... if you only think of a single game.
Yet none of the HoF receivers were able to make a streak of even 20 games. (The next longest streak was 19 games, by Laveranues Coles.)
Even the really "stud" players can get shut down, if the defense commits to it.

 

The weather was terrible and the Ravens game planned against him. Mason didn't suddenly start hating on Pickens.

Have to take what the defense gives you, and this team actually has a lot of weapons on offense to spread the ball around.

 

AB in his prime was dominant and in a league above many other players. Him and Ben were lighting it up for a bit there defenses couldn't stop them. They were in a Montana/Young to Rice and Manning to Harrison category.

 

He had 90 yards, they were clearly focusing on Pickens

 

In a way, it is like TJ Watt's common situation. When Watt has a game with no highlights it is often because he is being held, double teamed and is the guy that they want most to shut down. When that happens, it opens it up for other players on the defense to get some camera time as they are less well covered......Today was a bit like that with Pickens. Baltimore put good cover on him and always had the safeties cheating in his direction. Even not getting targets, he was helping to pull the defense away and open it up for the running game and DJ.

 

It was a fantastic throw. Hit DJ perfectly in stride in the only spot that was not covered by purple.

 

That was before injuries crippled the Steelers' defense.

 

I don't think Mason is ready to have Ben's 2-3 Int games where he is forcing the Ball to AB, when AB has 3 guys on him. You are going back in time where Ben was putting up 400 yards per game getting the ball to AB. This ain't your father's offense.

Although, I think a better OC, would have found a way to force the Ravens into getting Pickens 1 on 1 on the outside. But, that is probably not in the playbook right now.

 

18/20 for 157 for a 1 TD and 0 Ints in THAT WEATHER and on the road... is pretty damn good.

 

Yup. Bad teams be good teams in the NFL. The Ravens have done nothing but get better and better as the season went on.
Ravens-Steelers regardless of how good or bad each team is that particular year only comes down to one score most of the time.
All mean is that this year the Ravens are really good and losing to them wouldn’t have been a surprise.

 

Pickens is just not a great route runner. he has speed and incredible hands but needs work on his routes.

 

The near interception in the first quarter was to Robinson. The guy covering Pickens fell down but Rudolph was staring down Robinson the whole time, which is why the safety came up.

 

yes, but part of the issue was the way the elements (weather) played in this game as well. MR praised Pickens post game for his attitude and maturity displayed to throw to DJ,ward the team. That said if this happened for a couple game stretch then his attitude may be different, and perhaps rightfully so. This game had one significant throw to DJ for a long TD, the rest were very measured.

 

Ravens gave the rest of the league, the blueprint to neutralize Pickens going forward. Expect our playoff opponent to copy the Ravens defensive game plan to neutralize Pickens

 

I hear stuff like that in other situations ("blueprint to stop Brady!"), and it rarely turns out that way.
If other teams had the players to do what the Ravens do, then their defenses would be on par with the Ravens (instead of being significantly weaker).
That defensive plan also requires a winter monsoon during the game.
And ultimately they lost, so maybe not the best game plan.

(The Ravens probably went vanilla since the game was only about their pride, so I'd expect more than a few differences if they meet again in the playoffs.)