15 replies to this topic

[Mike in STL]

BSL: https://baltimorespo...-of-the-season/

 

With reinforcements coming, and the team not suffering from insurmountable injuries, the team may be at the best it has in been in a number of years. The weak schedule ahead should equal a lot of wins ahead.

 

[MirzetSalihovic]

Hoping we can win the rest of these games. The only potential losses I see are the Browns and the Bengals. The Ravens should easily beat the other teams but you they’ll mess up at least one of those layups

[PrimeTime]

It's crazy what a difference a month makes. After the loss to the Giants, the Ravens were sitting at 3-3 and felt very rudderless.

 

Getting Ronnie Stanley up to full speed has made such a difference on the offensive side of the ball and then adding Roquan Smith, along with getting some guys back on defense has dramatically changed the feel of this year's team.

 

Of course, what appears to be an easy schedule down the stretch helps quite a bit, too.

[Mackus]

It's crazy what a difference a month makes. After the loss to the Giants, the Ravens were sitting at 3-3 and felt very rudderless.

 

Its even more recent than that.  They played a terrible game against the Browns, nearly blowing another 10 point 4th quarter lead, but managed to hold on and win that game.  They then played possibly their worst half of the season against TB to begin the next game.  Since then, 6 excellent quarters of football.

 

The team is playing better for sure, and getting healthier, but its the ripe schedule as much or moreso than the team really finding a groove that is so encouraging.  An average team should finish these final 8 games at 6-2.  If the Ravens can start playing really well there is ample room to outpace that.  Whether they will be good enough to beat good teams won't even have a chance to be tested until the playoffs (or perhaps Week 18 @ Cincy).

[TwentyThirtyFive]

There are waves in a season but this team has been good off the rip tbh. Have never been rudderless. I overreacted to the first 6 weeks as well so not trying to throw shade but the truth is the way in which weve lost the 3 games made it sting that much more.  This has been a Top 5 team all season

[Steve55]

I want to see the D this Sunday with Smith having another week to learn it. Would be nice for an easy win.

 

Watching the Thursday night game and wanting to see Smith hit Henry a few times and how he'd react. Kamara is not Henry, but Smith dropped him quick.

[JStruds]

This has been a Top 5 team all season

Except for four fourth quarters; those were not top 5 efforts. The future, however, looks great both because of health and schedule.

[bmore_ken]

Roman still makes me nervous.

[Mike in STL]

Roman still makes me nervous.

I can see that. He can be frustrating at times. But there have also been some play designs and timing of the call that guys get wide open and Lamar just misses on the throw. 

[hallas]

I can see that. He can be frustrating at times. But there have also been some play designs and timing of the call that guys get wide open and Lamar just misses on the throw.

Something i haven't been able to figure out with Lamar is that he definitely struggles with accuracy at times, but its pretty rare that his bad accuracy leads to picks. His rate of turnover worthy plays is better than average even while his on-target % is below average. This tells me that he is either really careful about not throwing into tight coverage knowing his limitations, or he innately does risk management with his throws and makes sure that an off target throw won't be in danger of getting picked. The former isn't always true because he is fine throwing it to Andrews all day unless he's quadruple covered. The latter might well be true but I'm not sold on it either.

[85Knight]

Something i haven't been able to figure out with Lamar is that he definitely struggles with accuracy at times, but its pretty rare that his bad accuracy leads to picks. His rate of turnover worthy plays is above average even while his on target % is below average. This tells me that he is either really careful about not throwing into tight coverage knowing his limitations, or he innately does risk management with his throws and makes sure that an off target throw won't be in danger of getting picked. The former isn't always true because he is fine throwing it to Andrews all day unless he's quadruple covered.

He's always been a low interception qb but his problem this year is that he's missed too many layups. If he just hits the wide open receivers he's completing 65% of his passes and we aren't having this conversation. I guess my point is he's missing his target when there aren't even any defenders around to make an interception. It's kind of unexplainable.

[hallas]

He's always been a low interception qb but his problem this year is that he's missed too many layups. If he just hits the wide open receivers he's completing 65% of his passes and we aren't having this conversation. I guess my point is he's missing his target when there aren't even any defenders around to make an interception. It's kind of unexplainable.

The thing is that he's missed layups most of his career, and not just on deep passes. But he's never gotten picked oft much.

I saw a stat that said he had like the 2nd fastest release of any QB, just 1/100 of a second slower than Brady. I wonder if that makes up for his inability to put a ton of zip on the ball. Or maybe he couldn't throw the ball hard because he tuned his mechanics for a quick release. That would explain why defenses can't react well to his throws to pick them off, especially on short to mid range throws.

Another thought I had is that maybe he is inaccurate but his inaccuracy has a fairly tight circle. Like if you were to put all of his passes on a bullseye he'd have fewer balls near the center, but his balls would be in a tighter circle versus other QBs.

[jamesdean]

The thing is that he's missed layups most of his career, and not just on deep passes. But he's never gotten picked oft much.
I saw a stat that said he had like the 2nd fastest release of any QB, just 1/100 of a second slower than Brady. I wonder if that makes up for his inability to put a ton of zip on the ball. Or maybe he couldn't throw the ball hard because he tuned his mechanics for a quick release. That would explain why defenses can't react well to his throws to pick them off, especially on short to mid range throws.
Another thought I had is that maybe he is inaccurate but his inaccuracy has a fairly tight circle. Like if you were to put all of his passes on a bullseye he'd have fewer balls near the center, but his balls would be in a tighter circle versus other QBs.

I don't think it requires any special analysis. He's just sloppy with his mechanics and he'll miss certain throws that most, more accurate quarterbacks would make in their sleep. It's a trade off with Lamar as long as he's still making teams pay with his running ability. All you can hope for is he completes enough passes to score enough points to win the game.

[hallas]

I don't think it requires any special analysis. He's just sloppy with his mechanics and he'll miss certain throws that most, more accurate quarterbacks would make in their sleep. It's a trade off with Lamar as long as he's still making teams pay with his running ability. All you can hope for is he completes enough passes to score enough points to win the game.

I think the fact that he misses more throws, yet also avoids interceptions at a better rate than most qbs, is an interesting quirk that doesn't really make a lot of sense and worth digging into. If you disagree I'm sorry?

[jamesdean]

I think the fact that he misses more throws, yet also avoids interceptions at a better rate than most qbs, is an interesting quirk that doesn't really make a lot of sense and worth digging into. If you disagree I'm sorry?

It could be that he just doesn't make as many risky throws as some other quarterbacks do. Maybe he doesn't feel comfortable throwing into tight corners where an interception possibility increases. Then again, maybe he does and has just been lucky in that regard. I really don't have the time or energy to analyze his passing to that extent. I just know what I see when I watch the games and his mechanics can get very poor at times. It definitely hurts his accuracy. Like I said, all you can hope for is he makes enough plays to help the team win. In his short career, I don't know how anyone can be upset with the results. Well, in the regular season at least.

[85Knight]

I think the fact that he misses more throws, yet also avoids interceptions at a better rate than most qbs, is an interesting quirk that doesn't really make a lot of sense and worth digging into. If you disagree I'm sorry?

I think interceptions are more about bad decision making than being inaccurate. You might be right about his lack of tight window throws but when he's on he's very capable of making them. When he came out of college his reputation was that he was really good at reading defenses and threw very few interceptions so we have to give him credit in that area as just having some natural ability. Lamar's bad misses are to wide open guys with the result being the ball hitting the ground.