HappyDays

It definitely was not intentional but how funny that we won this game because Knox did a volleyball set into a basketball rebound from Coleman.

Last night was definitely not an indication of that. It's his first ever pro game, against the absolutely last offense you'd ask to welcome you to the NFL as a DT. In general I think fans are way too quick to want to make sweeping personnel changes based on this game. If it still looks the same in a few weeks yeah you look to make some changes. Personally though I think the defensive coaching staff needs to do a better job getting the guys they have prepared for the opponent. Ravens offense looked like a well oiled machine while our defense looked like day one install of training camp. The number of mental mistakes and missed responsibilities goes above and beyond the players IMO. We flat out were not ready on that side of the ball.

Actually after rewatching the endzone all-22 view I think it was Milano's gap. Williams is playing the edge I think. Milano runs right by the gap that Henry ends up going through, and you can see him almost panic as he realizes what he just did but by that point two big fat men are plowing into his back and pushing him out of the picture. Also as the ball is being snapped Bernard is still actively communicating with the defense so nobody was ready. Baltimore got us with their cadence on that play as they did a few times throughout the game, and that 1 second head start gave their OL time to get into position and threw our whole 2nd level into disarray. Hopefully they get these mental errors fixed soon. We were not just flat out physically dominated which is good, that means the problem is fixable with the current personnel. These guys just weren't ready to execute their responsibilities.

That and I also didn't like punting on 4th and 3 on our second drive. Yes we hadn't even gotten to midfield yet but you have to know what type of game you're in. We had run three rushing plays in a row, to me if you're going to do that then you have to go for it on 4th and short and give Allen a chance. Instead we punted, Baltimore ripped off an easy TD drive, and we were chasing that lost possession for the rest of the game. But overall I thought McDermott's game management was quite good. The end of both halves were managed and executed to perfection and he absolutely deserves credit for that.

The difference is Baltimore was just running their normal offense picking up chunks and long TDs almost at will. Lamar only had to make one special play. Most of their receptions were made with wide open space around the pass catcher. They were opening up truck-sized gaps in the run game. Meanwhile on our side our pass catchers were usually tackled right after the catch, if they were able to separate at all. Cook had very little space to work with in the run game. Allen had to pull a rabbit out of a hat like a dozen different times just to keep us in the game. So it was pretty obvious watching the game that their defense was performing much better than ours, Allen just happens to be a one man machine who can and did singlehandedly erase that gap.

Just watched that clip from the endzone all-22 view and if Oliver didn't push his man into the backfield, Henry was going to house that one from 70 yards out. Had a wide open gap with a blocker in front of him and nobody in the 2nd or 3rd level to even slow him down. Oliver played like a Hall of Famer in this one and we needed him to or else they would have put up 50.

I'm fine letting DBs put their hands on jerseys, mainly because I hate how easy they make it for WRs these days. If DBs can't make little grabs like that they have no chance to orient themselves against some of these freaks. I think the best officiating crews understand this. What they should be looking for are holds where the DB is restricting the WR's movement at his route break, or blatant tugs that are affecting the WR's ability to get to the catch point. I thought the officials in this one did a good job keeping their flags tucked away except for that one early bad call against Dorian Strong.

Hopkins had his arm fully extended pushing Benford away on his one handed TD catch. I don't mind them letting DBs play a bit. Missing a textbook OPI is the one call that frustrated me. You can kind of see it here if you slow it down 3 seconds in but it's even more clear on the all 22:

If it continues the way it did yesterday, yeah I do. Ben Johnson isn't tethered to him and he isn't going to waste his head coaching opportunity on a QB he didn't pick and doesn't believe in. Williams has time to prove me wrong but as of now I see way too many flaws that haven't gotten any better since week 1 last year.

I'd be interested to know your opinion on this TD run: Looks like someone totally misplayed their responsibility here. Rapp immediately puts his back to the play side anticipating a crosser, which takes him out of the play. Bernard is penetrating upfield and gets taken out of the play. Looks like Benford is going to play edge contain while Dorian Williams already has the edge. It's not immediately obvious to me who screwed up here but clearly someone was supposed to take that truck-sized gap that any RB in the league could have coasted through. The coaches need to get this stuff straightened out, and fast. The Jets are going to see this on tape and lick their chops. This is not a play where our guys got beat 1v1 and I suspect this sort of mistake was the bigger issue on Sunday than everybody losing their matchups.

You don't think projecting a player's evolution is part of the draft evaluation?

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.