HappyDays

Yeah fair enough you got me there. Still more points even with that taken off the board though.

It's his first ever game as a head coach and he just led an offense with a bottom tier QB to more points than his previous team scored in their week 1 matchup. Once they move on from Williams next year he'll be able to show what he can really do in that position.

People got way too critical about him giving up contain a couple times. Think of how many NFL defenders Allen has made look silly including other superstars. You can live with that against a talent like Lamar. The important thing is he was regularly getting push and disrupting the backfield in the run and pass game. And it's no coincidence Oliver had maybe the best game of his career with Bosa rushing next to him. I loved the signing and yesterday confirmed my feelings. Please just stay healthy.

Caleb Williams never looks comfortable on any snap. He has happy feet on every drop back and you can just tell he wants to immediately bail. Over the course of an entire game that play style just isn't sustainable. I'd bet on Chicago moving on after this season and then Ben Johnson can get his handpicked QB.

I saw a video of Bosa after the game with a big smile on his face jumping up and down waving his arms like a 12 year girl at a Taylor Swift concert.

As someone that has criticized the defensive coaches for yesterday's performance (and they deserved it) I have to say this is a great play design and call on the one play we absolutely needed to make. I'm not sure if it was fully designed this way but Oliver is almost faking his rush to Lamar's left, which takes the LG's attention so that Taron can run right by him. Then as soon as Taron runs through that gap Oliver is looping back to what looks like a wide open gap up the middle. If Lamar spotted that gap and started running Oliver would have been there to meet him. Meanwhile the entire line to Lamar's right is just playing contain and Rousseau is doing the same on the left edge. So Lamar had no escape route and we actually were baiting him to take one that was about to disappear as soon as he tried to take it with Oliver in front and Taron closing from behind. Ultimately the pressure forced a throw short of the sticks. Remarkable play design. Not sure I've seen anything like it.

In those situations I always want Allen with the ball in his hands for at least 2 seconds. I hate the immediate read where you're relying on the defensive play call to be wrong, or a pass catcher to win their 1v1 matchup. I'd rather Allen have the ball with the ability to run it in or do his patented scramble right until someone breaks open. Run the fade on 1st or 2nd, I'm fine with that. On 3rd/4th or a 2PC don't make it so that somebody other than Allen decides the play.

So to me this is a coaching problem. Our small MLB looks like he is trying to penetrate into the backfield instead of maintaining a gap, and immediately gets taken out of the play by a guy that probably weighs 200 more pounds than him. You've got Benford strafing right and towards the line as if he needs to play edge contain but Dorian Williams already has the edge. The job of the coaches is to instruct the players on how to execute against this play call. That didn't happen. Henry was gifted an easy wide open gap. I really don't want to hear about personnel issues on the defense this year. I don't see that as a reasonable excuse for the massacre we watched last night. Over the last two offseasons we spent the vast majority of our resources on that side of the ball. The coaches need to make it work with this group.

It's hard to tell because sometimes the Ravens defense makes their own check in response to our audible: It's not so much that Allen gets "fooled," it's that he's making the audible according to what the defense is showing pre-snap and sometimes the opposing DC just has a great play call that goes against pre-snap expectations. That's what great DCs are supposed to do. Would be nice if we could see some of that from our own side. I still would like these screens and quick swing passes to be less common even as the check, especially on 3rd down. Because then you're basically leaving all of the success of the play up to the defensive play call vs giving your best player a chance to create with the ball in his hands. When we let Allen create later in the game good things happened.

Here's another good example: This is a good defensive play call designed to get a sack and possible safety. They overload pressure to the left but have Kyle Van Noy hang back and then loop to the right. The idea is that Allen will look to bail to his left and will run directly into KVN for the sack. But watch Allen's head - he anticipates the loop and has eyes on KVN the whole time. As soon as KVN loops right Allen runs up the middle through the vacated gap and flips the ball to Shakir.

So that's kind of the problem, right? Our offense as constructed could work if it had a strong defense backing it. KC had a middling offense last year scoring just 24.1 PPG, in part because of below average weapons. But they went 15-1 because they had a clutch defense. Our problem is we have a middling group of pass catchers paired with a defense that looks like it is going to give up 35+ to any top tier offense. It's the definition of non-complementary football.

I think the play you're thinking of was to Palmer. I'm talking about a different one, I think it came on the series after Allen got out of trouble and flipped the ball to Shakir. On 3rd and 8 the pass hit Shakir right in his hands but there was contact and he didn't complete the catch. I don't know if if will officially go down as a drop because of the contact, but my point was his WR had a chance to make a play for him in a critical moment and couldn't do it. Shakir otherwise had a pretty good game. So did Coleman although his almost all happened in the 4th quarter. I just question if we can sustain a bunch of WR3 types (maybe Coleman can keep developing into a WR2) and not one pass catcher that is your go to guy on a critical play, while also trying to get by with a defense that once again looks a complete waste of investments. We have a defense where you'll probably need to win some shootouts paired with an offense that isn't built to win them, save for Josh going god mode.

I like this breakdown because it shows two plays on the final drive where Allen beat Baltimore with his mechanics and then with his brain. It's a perfect snapshot of how far he's come as a player.

Zero problems with the officiating night. They let both sides play. They had one bad spot on Allen's slide and nothing else to complain about.

Baltimore has maybe the best secondary in the league so this was always going to be a tough game to evaluate. But the separation just wasn't there until the very end. And when they had opportunities to make individual plays they couldn't do it. Shakir had a chance to make a big catch on 3rd down but dropped it after contact. Coleman stepped out of bounds before his 2PC, then failed to make a contested catch on the next try. Palmer supposedly has these great separation metrics but none of that showed up tonight. The one bright spot was Coleman heating up in the 2nd half. We saw glimpses of the guy that had reportedly been dominating training camp, and he and Allen clearly have developed a good connection that should only get better from here. I'm not sure that is going to be enough though.

My only concern with him is he's 41 years old and that leg might die as the season goes along. That being said in the Allen era I've never felt more comfortable watching a kicker line up than I was with him tonight. That last kick I actually was extremely confident it was going through. With Bass I would have been waiting for it to hook wide right. I appreciate Bass' ability to hit the occasional 60 yarder but that is a rarely needed skill. Give me the guy that hits 100% of the <45 yarders and 90% of the 50 yarders. That's the more consistently important skill.

Easy one tonight: Allen Oliver

Lamar had an incredible game. Yes he obviously had a more help around him than Allen. But credit where credit's due.

Not exactly breaking any news here but the defense remains a massive concern. I don't know that our coaches can fix it. A lot of players had poor fundamentals and some of the play calls in critical moments were head scratching.

I just remember Baltimore missed an XP too. I don't know I should feel about this game. Allen's play is the only part of it that's sustainable. But if it helps us get the #1 seed that's all that matters.

It's 12:01AM. I call that tomorrow 😁

ESPN is recapping the game, talking about how Baltimore's pass defense was their problem. But that isn't true. Their pass coverage was incredible, barely gave any space until they were worn down at the very end. Allen playing at that level is just literally unstoppable.

Celebrate the win but also acknowledge the faults that made it literally a 0.9% win percentage odds with 4 minutes left.

The 4th down to Coleman and Henry fumbling were both like 1% percentage plays that just randomly happened one after another. Jackson freaking Hawes catching a seam pass to the goalline. We didn't deserve this win but we got it.