Week 1 Running NFL Thread (Warren Moon edition)

Flacco looked pretty bad as well. It was just not a well played game at all by either offense.

 

Flacco knows how to throw the passes most-likely to draw pass-interference calls, which is
a very valuable skill, indeed.

 

The Ravens could be very good offensively this season. Wide receiver had been a major weak spot for years and now they have three good ones. Flacco just has to step up and take advantage. He was ok last night, but he made some big mistakes and still managed to lead his team to only two scores despite all the penalties against the Jets' defense and special teams. The touchdown was a gift, thanks to Braylon Edwards getting tangled in the kicker's feet and a shaky interference call.

Baltimore's secondary is very vulnerable, especially as long as Reed is out. Any game plan that doesn't at least attempt to exploit that is a mistake. Lucky for the Ravens, the Jets either couldn't or wouldn't do that. They are going to get the same break three weeks from now against the Steelers if Dixon is still taking the snaps.

 

Yes.

 

A lot of stuff, very little of which would be obvious on a TV broadcast - expanded concourses, a brand spanking new Chiefs Hall of Fame (which was necessary because they brought down the Ring of Honor and replaced it with those ribbon advertising boards) renovations to the executive offices and suites, and a new entrance plaza.

 

I can't believe the NFL offered a Super Bowl if they built a roof. Does KC have enough hotel rooms? It's not like there is another city within reasonable driving distance or they can bring cruise ships up the Missouri.

 

True, but I have seen better passes at recess than the one he lobbed at McCain on the goal line.

 

Um, don't you have that reversed? Did the NFL offer a SB, or did KC say they'd put a roof IF the NFL would give them a SB? Big difference.

 

I forgot about that. They got away with it, but that could have been an extremely costly mistake. You have to give your back at least a chance to catch the ball when he is that wide open. It looked like Flacco let the pressure disrupt his throw even though nobody was touching him yet.

 

I want to see both the Ravens and the Jets offenses against different defenses before I make any major judgments about how good, or how bad, either will be. Sanchez looked horrible last night, but the Jets are the kind of team that plays right into the Ravens hands. Ground-and-pound isn't going to work against them. But if you can throw the ball to the boundaries from the opposite hash, you can give them trouble. (At least until Ed Reed is 100 percent.) The don't rush the passer particularly well, but they will suffocate the line of scrimmage.

The Jets offense won't look this bad against most teams, since it's predicated on grinding the ball forward in five yard chunks. Sanchez is still a mediocre QB, but the Ravens were dropping eight into coverage last night knowing he couldn't make the kind of throws necessary to beat them.

All that said, I loathe how quickly so many people have been to jump on Rex Ryan for having the audacity to be interesting the minute his team doesn't play well. It's almost not worth it to be interesting in sports anymore because people are actively rooting for you to get your comeuppance when you're not a marble-mouthed, cliche-spewing turnip. The Jets were good last year because Ryan is really good at scheming on defense, and because he convinced them to have a little swagger and play beyond their abilities late in the season. That's still going to be true, provided the offense isn't a total joke. The penalties and the supposed "lack of discipline" doesn't have anything to do with Ryan's penchant for throwing out one-liners. That's just a silly connection to draw, but far too many people do it. Eric Mangini is a humorless dick, but the Browns hardly play disciplined football. Same with last year's Patriots.

Cromartie killed them last night as much as Sanchez did, and when Santonio Holmes is playing, they'll probably look a little better on offense. The Jets are an aggressive team, and sometimes that's going to hurt you when there is too much emotion involved. The only really stupid play was Braylon Edwards hitting the kicker, and even that was a pretty iffy call.

Lastly, Ray Lewis isn't the linebacker he once was, and he might be one of the phoniest individuals in sports, but the man is still a bad mofo on the football field. And I'm not even talking specifically about that hit on Keller. The play where he blew up the run in the second half by crushing the fullback and forcing Green to change directions -- a play where he didn't even make the tackle -- was bad ass.

 

Jets will have to make the Super Bowl without Kris Jenkins. Done for the season with a torn ACL:

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5571834

 

Flacco was Tom Brady compared to Sanchez. Jet fans have been saying all he did was throw passes up and hope for pass interference. The Ravens played man, why wasn't Sanchez doing the same?

20-38 for 248 is pretty damn good considering the defense he played against.