Mike Preston's report card

Quarterback: D Joe Flacco was intercepted twice, and a third was nullified. He had trouble completing outs to wide receiver Derrick Mason as the Ravens had no long or intermediate passing attack.

[Dumb Idea Detector]

It's too soon to give up on Stover. Sure, he's missed a few, but he also boomed a kickoff into the endzone, so you can't blame age or leg strength for the misses.

Who could we get that wasn't a reject somewhere else? And what guarantees would we have?

[Dumb Idea Detector]

BTW, good job on the grading. You get a B+. Don't want you to get a fat head.

[Stengel]

Dumb Idea Detector wrote:

It's too soon to give up on Stover. Sure, he's missed a few, but he also boomed a kickoff into the endzone, so you can't blame age or leg strength for the misses.
Who could we get that wasn't a reject somewhere else? And what guarantees would we have?

that boomed kick off was b/c it was moved up 15 yards b/c of a personal foul on the extra point. Stover has only hit 4 of 7 this year. We need someone that can hit beyond 40 yds

[chris]

Dumb Idea Detector wrote:

It's too soon to give up on Stover. Sure, he's missed a few, but he also boomed a kickoff into the endzone, so you can't blame age or leg strength for the misses.
Who could we get that wasn't a reject somewhere else? And what guarantees would we have?

there are only 16 games in football season, there is no time to wait for him to turn it around.

[Truth]

Stover had two k/o into the end zone - he wasn't talking about the one after the penalty.And Preston shows just what an A$$ he is by making a stupid joke about Stover at the end of his column. What a jerk!

[JAS]

ummm. wow people in this town and their undying loyalty to players who cannot play currently. Stover is D-O-N-E DONE. Kicks over 40 yards should be ROUTINE for an NFL kicker. He did a great job for the ravens in the past but this league is and should be about "what have you done for me lately" and stover lost this game for us by badly missing a completely makable 45 yard field goal. Oh and his kickoffs are ROUTINELY ten yards short of the end zone. He can't kick off and he can't kick MEDIUM range field goals. What is he good for?

[Cornell]

Flacco needs to develop an awareness of the consequences of throwing into traffic. He is maybe too confident at the wrong times. Clearly he is rookie and has pretty good intangibles, however he makes some of the same mistakes Kyle made and needs to corrected ASAP or he wiil be a prototype of the fallen warrior. Also the Ravens seem out of sink when the 2 min drill is needed. They are slow to get back and run the next play with the clock ticking. They use too many time outs early in the games and need them late in the games. What's the man doing in the booth, drinking Bud? Haubaugh needs to stop the celebrations on those routine plays as the player should make the play anyway. They still have that showboat image and the boat sinks everytime they display that look at me lack of focus. Three plays later the opponent has scored. Then they have their heads in hands wondering, what went wrong. I'll tell you plain and simple, "You just lost the game". You can't possibly have that much energy to be runnning around pumping your chest and lose the game in the final minutes and think we the fans can applaud your efforts, when you know your lack of focus just cost us. Remember Baltimore is not a well respected team both by the league office, officials, teams and soon too be fans.
I keep wondering what the heck are you all thinking when the game hasn't been won yet. It would be nice for us to be able to cheer with you then watch the game slip away due too selfishness and boneheaded plays. P.S., the captains on these squads need a demotion. They have not shown real leadership when crunchtime is at hand. Let someone else taste that role and maybe a true field general will emerge.

[GHT]

and now 5 out of 6 games on the road starting in Indianapolis next week. We all know how the Ravens do on the road don't we? We needed this win to keep pace very badly

[Hungry blue mule]

Mike is right about the lack of a vertical passing game. This troubling thing about this is two-fold. When you have a guy who can throw like Flacco throw the ball downfield. We don't. Secondly, this is not a new problem. That leads one to question the ability of our WR's. After four games way too many of the Raven's passes are thrown between the hash marks and the sideline and still too many are medium to short. The Ravens are making it too easy for opposing defenses to cover and contain and the roll outs by Flacco(whether by design or breakdown) are taking away the whole field from Flacco as a passer. THis style of passing offense and an apparent offensive mind-set of "trying-not-to-lose" as opposed to "trying-to-win" is getting old and produces nothing. Stop babying Flacco as a QB and turn him lose. Ravens have nothing to lose but more close games.

[Motorhead Fan]

Stover misses a field goal

The bad call on Suggs

The shortfalls on defense on the last drive

Flacco throws 2 interceptions

I'm still a Raven's fan.

Harbaugh will work on this stuff REALLY HARD.

Billick would be making excuses for it.

[jeffro]

The Ravens have no passing game, they have never had a passing game or offense...ever. They have a rookie QB, Mark the ghost Clayton, Todd the glass man heap and Derrick 10 yard Mason. 2-5 mid season. I always felt sorry for that defense. O line looks good, great corp. of running backs. You must be able to pass more than 10 yards in the NFL, most pop warner teams do.

[Poe]

When the new Special Teams coach came in this summer, he changed the timing on field goals. WHY? After all of these years of solid kicking, why mess with Stover? Did he really need to stroke his ego that badly? I think that is partially to blame for Stover's tough go at it so far this season.

Frank Walker made a couple of plays, but I don't see Leohnard getting the job done. Yes, he's always around the ball...but it's to make the tackle after the first down has been gained.

On that last interception for Flacco, Heap was wide open down the field. A bullet thrown to his left would've gotten us at least 30 yards, and that's all prior to Heap running after the catch. I partly blame Flacco, but I also blame the coaching for conditioning him to always look to the sidelines. The Titans sat on that all day, and sometimes its as if Flacco doesn't even see defenders in the area. We've got some work to do...

[Jack Lee]

JAS wrote:

ummm. wow people in this town and their undying loyalty to players who cannot play currently. Stover is D-O-N-E DONE. Kicks over 40 yards should be ROUTINE for an NFL kicker. He did a great job for the ravens in the past but this league is and should be about "what have you done for me lately" and stover lost this game for us by badly missing a completely makable 45 yard field goal. Oh and his kickoffs are ROUTINELY ten yards short of the end zone. He can't kick off and he can't kick MEDIUM range field goals. What is he good for?

LOL. If you'd actually followed the Ravens, you'd realize that Stover has been short on kickoffs most of his career. We've carried 2 kickers in the past - one just for kickoffs.

Now, this year he's missed 3 field goals and you guys are ready to give him the boot.

[Jack Lee]

Poe wrote:

When the new Special Teams coach came in this summer, he changed the timing on field goals. WHY? After all of these years of solid kicking, why mess with Stover? Did he really need to stroke his ego that badly? I think that is partially to blame for Stover's tough go at it so far this season.
Frank Walker made a couple of plays, but I don't see Leohnard getting the job done. Yes, he's always around the ball...but it's to make the tackle after the first down has been gained.
On that last interception for Flacco, Heap was wide open down the field. A bullet thrown to his left would've gotten us at least 30 yards, and that's all prior to Heap running after the catch. I partly blame Flacco, but I also blame the coaching for conditioning him to always look to the sidelines. The Titans sat on that all day, and sometimes its as if Flacco doesn't even see defenders in the area. We've got some work to do...

I think you've hit the nail on the head with Stover...

[Parkville]

Jack Lee wrote:

<quoted text>
LOL. If you'd actually followed the Ravens, you'd realize that Stover has been short on kickoffs most of his career. We've carried 2 kickers in the past - one just for kickoffs.
Now, this year he's missed 3 field goals and you guys are ready to give him the boot.

I have to agree. Stover has been money for us for quite a while. Unfortunately, his misses are magnified because its so rare that the Ravens are in scoring position.

[Pete I]

Wrong again Mike. Don't pin this loss on Flacco. The defense deserves a D grade across the board. They couldn't stop the Titans when they had to. And it wasn't because the offense had a bunch of 3 and outs.
Your prejudice shows.

[bajadad]

I wanted to vote in the Poll that asked "who to blame for Raven's loss" and the person I wanted to blame wasn't there. At the end of the 1st half, the Ravens were moving the ball VERY well. Then, some VERY AMATEUR clock management and we lose an opportunity to put 7 on the board. In the beginning of the 2nd half, still tied 3-3, the offense MARCHES down the field and McClain finishes the job. Ravens 10-3. After that - the Titans get 3 more, and the Ravens turn OFF the jets.

Who is to blame for the poor clock management and the lack of cajones to play the game with a lead??? Cam Cameron.

Maybe it wasn't Schottenheimer that wasn't able to put the hammer down in SanDiego. Maybe it really was Cameron all along. Any wonder why the only game Cam won as a head coach was against another HC (Billick) who was also known for "playing it safe".

I AM TIRED OF PLAYING IT SAFE!!! STOP PLAYING NOT TO LOSE, AND START PLAYING TO WIN!!! I DONT CARE IF FLACCO THROWS 5 PICS, JUST DONT PLAY IT SAFE WHEN YOU ARE WINNING BY LESS THAN 3 SCORES! OUR DEFENSE IS GREAT, BUT NOT IF THEY CONTINUE TO GIVE UP 3 MORE POINTS THAN THE OPPONENTS!!!

[Poe]

The kickoffs is no new thing. When they have brought in rookies to challenge Stover, they always labeled them as kickoff specialists. Today though, his kicks were fairly deep. Also, when he missed today it wasn't a lack of leg. That ball was more than halfway up the posts when it crossed, it was just wide right.
And you know what...what is going right with our special teams lately? Lsat week the steelers blew through our protection schemes and usually got to Figurs well before the 20. Today that Carr git lit us the heck up on returns. While we weren't the best coverage unit last year, we weren't anywhere near the bottom. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If you try to fix it, you'll wind up confusing the whole squad, and that's what I think has happened. Figurs isn't finding any lanes, the opposition is getting a few timely kickoff/punt returns on us, and Stover is wide right or left. NEVER short though. The knock on him was his distance, not accuracy, and now it's the opposite. Trying to be too cute and we're getting caught with our pants down.

[Poe]

kid*. That Carr kid*

[POPSinPA]

Were wasting a great D on a rookie QB.