Tough Stretch

We have a pretty tough 3 game stretch coming up. We have Cincinnati, Baltimore, then New England. Two division rivals always tough grind it out games. Especially with Baltimore no matter eithers record. Then of course New England. Of course we all think it’s going to come down to the Pats game, but we have to get through Cincy and Baltimore first. Do we win both Cincinnati and Baltimore before we play New England? And do we beat New England finally?

 

One game at a time. Play them all differently.

 

Honestly, these next two games will be tough because they are divisional games... not because they are particularly strong teams. The ravens haven't beaten a team with a winning record yet (have been beaten badly a few times) and the Bengals only above .500 win is the 6-5 Bills. Again have lost fairly badly to good teams.

I know we tend to play down to the competition, but I honestly think having two divisional games before the pats is a good thing. The players really want to win these games. Less of a chance that anyone looks past the week ahead. If we were playing the broncos or redskins I'd be more worried about looking ahead.

I think we beat the pats twice this year. Both at home. Improved secondary and strong play from the DL will be the difference.

 

We will lose all 3 by blowouts and Brady is already planning his honeymoon with bill.


-Heinzsteel


Lol honestly at this point I don’t care. It’s getting too hard to worry this much.

Jk I’m drowning in my pee lol

 

This truly is the litmus test for this team, this will be a playoff atmosphere sampler. The Steelers talent is undeniable, there mental makeup is more questionable. If this team comes in motivated and focused there îs not a team we can't beat.

The biggest thing in these next 2 games is coming out unscathed and not losing key pieces to the team. That is always a problem in the AFC North. This really is the edge the cheats have over us that they are in a division with 3 teams that are just weak and pitiful and year in and out continue to roll on their backs and offer no resistance what so ever. No matter how bad Baltimore or Cinncy are they always show up to play us and seem to make it a mission to take a player out of our Lombardi run equation. The Browns on the other hand....

 

I`m worried about the Ratbird game because it`s the game before the NE game and the Ratbirds are fighting for a wildcard.

Even if we are stupid enough to lose one of the next two games, it still comes down to beating NE then winning the last two to get home field.

 

The added question is do we get through these games without injury to Ben.

I’m feeling more confident on that front - the o line has been keeping him quite clean thus far.

 

We played the bengals in week 15 and the rats in week 16 back to back last year and won both games, nothing new for this team to do it again this year, win those two games again and we win the division, win or lose the putz game will only impact the seeding but winning the division is goal one.....

 

Iron sharpens iron.....hopefully these games will set the tone for the rest of the season. We have to bring our physicality to its peak... to go where we wanna go. The only way to beat "that other team " is to dominate them physically

 

Me too, because they have a really good defense and a decent running game. You saw what happened when Ben went up against a really good defense, ala the Jags 5 picks. We are as Ben goes. If Ben plays well will win 2 of 3, possibly 3 of 3. It’s funny how Gronk only got 1 game for that nasty late hit. They want him back for us. I’m with them I want them at full strength when we beat them. Although we HAVE to mix man and zone coverage instead of straight zone. We’ve seen that movie to many times. Brady licks his chops when he faces our D playing nothing but zone. One down two to go. Hope Ryan is okay!

 

I still don't think we have the players to play man.

 

Well we need to in order to slow the Pats offence down. We need to find a way to play man and be aggressive on D.

 

I hope your right, but what I’ve seen from the secondary in the last two weeks isn’t good at all. I can’t imagine what Brady will do. The Packers came into Pittsburgh with Bret Hundley and threw all over us. Then Cincinnati with Dalton and Green went crazy. That Green 3 TD doesn’t get called back for a very questionable holding call we probably don’t win that game. We were lucky to pull off both. As they say though a win is a win!

The bad thing about playing two divisional opponents before the Pats is injuries, and we’ve seen already what one divisional game did. The Ravens vs Steelers might be more physical than any matchup in football. So I hope we’re at full strength when we play the Pats.

 

Atleast what's left of their full strength, losing shazier was a huge blow. Already down Haden... D was already iffy after Haden now with Ryan out, well it's really taken a hit! Coaches and players need to elevate the gusto and play HARD and do some outside of the box thinking. Ravens are up, need to keep everyone healthy in this upcoming slugfest.

 

Exactly. It’s such a slug fest that someone always gets injured. Hopefully it’s not anyone that’s going to cripple us even more. I mean you don’t want anyone to get hurt but it’s sad to say you’d rather it be someone who isn’t critical to our team. Hopefully nobody gets injured and we’re as healthy as we can be at this time of year.

 

Not to lose focus of the Ravens game today, a few rays of hope regarding Pats game - they will be coming in after their 3rd road game in a row and off of a short week (MNF) and we will be in the Burgh two weeks in a row. We can use all and any angles leaning our way.

 

Ryan Shazier was probably the one player on defense we could lose and not recover from... offense will have to carry the load the rest of the way. If Bell thinks he's worth 15 the has the rest of the year to prove it. There's no reason why the killer B's can't take us all the way.

 

I think they need more lab work and for Moats and Spence to have more time to prepare, although against the Evil Empire they might not have that time

 

I think the Moats at ILB experiment may be over. He was really bad out there tonight. Hopefully dirty red gets healthy or they bring fort and spence fully up to speed. No way moats can carry Lewis or Burkehead out of the backfield this week.

 

I think getting Haden back will help some too. Won't need to cover for the corners as much and can be more aggressive with our safeties in the run game. In all honesty though we just don't have the speed and playmaking in the LB corps without Shazier. Dirty Red is a disaster, moats wasn't good, we just picked Spence up off the street... none of them bring half of what Ryan brings to the table athletically.

 

I don’t know about that. We have to have some sort of defense to stop the other teams offense. From what I saw last night I’m not to sure we can. The Ravens are the 30th ranked offense and they put up 38 points in Pittsburgh. I know we can score like crazy but we have to be able to get stops as well. We shall see go Steelers!

 

Speaking very generally, Baltimore’s offense has been pretty up-and-down. They’ve been limited by teams with reasonably good defenses (MIN, etc.), but they’ve lit up other teams (DET). I figure playing a division rival for the second time factors in, too, as do playing to preserve a wild-card berth and playing against the Steelers.