I find it hard to believe as much as you do after watching him be pretty average at the Browns and having 3 (?) fumbles in as many touches with the Titans lol, but apparently he's out-performing everyone and it isn't close.

Maybe having to fight for his spot on the roster and/or being close to home is keeping him motivated. You know he had to be disappointed being courted by the Ravens all pre-draft, growing up a local fan, and then having to go to a total mess of an organization in Cleveland lol.

Towson ran a ZBS, unlike the Browns, and now he's back in a ZBS with the Ravens. That might help too. I went to TU back when he played; never met him though.

Kind of surprised Mike Wallace has been the biggest stand-out in TC among the WRs. He and Flacco have been connecting on some bombs.

Also, I'm wondering what they're going to do when it comes to keeping WRs and TEs for the 53 man roster. Usually they keep 6 WR and 3 TE. But with the latest depth chart, you'd likely have

WR: SS89, Wallace, Aiken, Perriman, Chris Moore, Campanaro (Reynolds on PS)
TE: Watson, Pitta, Maxx, Gillmore

They might have to make a tough cut in the WR corps to accommodate one more TE.

/and since Hako was wondering about Buck Allen, he wasn't even mentioned here lol



Someone is going to be cut (or possibly Dixon stashed on IR) between Forsett, Buck Allen, West, and Dixon

This post was edited by Terps on Aug 8 2016 02:01pm

Ravens schedule looks easier then the packers schedule to me.

Even with all of the injuries and veterans being out/not starting, I still like our chances of beating the Panthers tonight (not that it really matters lol). Panthers will supposedly start their starters for a couple drives, whereas Harbs will most likely sit ours, but I really like our depth in key areas like OL, backup QB (supposedly Mallett is getting outplayed by Josh Johnson), CB, and pass-rush.

Really looking forward to watching the following:

-All of the rookies, obviously
-Young pass rushers Victor Ochi, Matt Judon, and Willie Henry. I was really high on Ochi pre-draft (reminded me of McPhee a lot). Judon is raw talent who could become a good rush-LB. Henry could be an interior pass-rush specialist. Also want to see Brent Urban do well.
-OL battles at LT and LG. Rookie Alex Lewis has been a hot name at LG/backup LT. I want to see if he can surpass John Urschel at LG. We should still keep Lewis, Urschel, and Jensen all as backup OL regardless, but only one will be the starting LG. Hurst will *hopefully* and most likely be cut.
-Runningbacks, specifically I want to see the hype surrounding Kenneth Dixon and especially Terrance West.
-I want to see if Josh Johnson can outperform Mallett, as was rumored
-Kind of hoping Waller and Boyle have crappy outings so I don't have to be disappointed when they get released coming off their suspensions lol ;(
-The ILB battle between Correa, Orr, and Arthur Brown. Doubt Brown makes the roster; this preseason should be the nail in the coffin. He should go to a 4-3 team to be a WILL LB when he gets cut.
-Who wins the final safety spot between Elam and Terrance Brooks (or do they keep both, since Pees loves having a lot of safeties and not enough CBs lol)

/Madmartigan post

Sorry for the tl;dr, but figured I'd dump these notes here if anyone cares. Watched the game a second time, noticed the following players:


Defense

Jerraud Powers seems to be pretty terrible in coverage, though he's better than Arrington, who will probably be done in the NFL after we cut him.
Sheldon Price made some good plays (timely tackles and passes defended) and some bad plays (2 holding penalties near the endzone).
Sam brown, rookie UDFA CB, seems like he made some pretty good plays and maintained good coverage. Might develop into a decent player since he looks back for the ball.
Will Davis was kind of bad, which sucks. I'm pulling for him
Elam still hits but doesn't tackle. He was in the right place on 2 plays at least, diagnosed them correctly. Terrance Brooks made some tackles but generally always seems to be a split-second late getting to a play.

Orr looked a lot better than Arthur Brown, as expected.
Judon looks like he could be a good rush-LB. He seemed pretty disruptive, even if he didn't always get there. He made good effort to chase-down plays, showed good effort.
Willie Henry seems really explosive for a DT. Just burst off the line and has quickness to get around guys and strength to bull-rush and collapse the pocket. Blew up two running plays and hurried a throw on another. also got a half sack when he swim-moved the Panther's guard easily. Chased-down a WR on a screen pass, which showed really good effort--Harbs will love that.
Z.Smith made a nice FF, but he needs to seal the edge better. Was a problem for him last year.
Didn't really notice Correa much. He sealed the edge well on one play but seemed otherwise unremarkable.
And idk who Chris Carter is, but he was easily the best player of the night. Very explosive pass-rusher. Only knock is he's a veteran who's been passed-around between the Steelers and Bengals. Never heard his name before so maybe it's just an aberrational game.


Offense

Terrance West will definitely make the roster. Seemed to be the best RB on the field.
Kenneth Dixon looks exciting, but he clearly needs to develop his pass-pro. Looks like he could break a big play on any carry. Got that Ray Rice center of gravity to keep his feet after getting hit.
Buck allen made a nice TD reception, but it was mostly just well blocked. Allen didn't look great running between the tackles tbh.

Waller was force-fed the ball a lot for some reason and made a lot of catches, but he really doesn't seem all that impressive. Seems like he wants to body-catch (the pick-6 that was called back hit him in the chest) and doesn't reel-in tough catches away from his body, though he does make good diving/sliding catches into his body. He doesn't use his size as good as he could.
Boyle still seems like a pretty good TE, but I have to wonder if he'll make the roster when he comes off susp. after week 10 (it'll probably depend how many TEs are on IR).
Jeremy Butler made some decent catches and got open pretty well. He's going to be fighting with Campanaro for that final WR spot.

Mallett and Josh Johnson both seemed like equal-caliber backups. Both made good plays and bad plays. Johnson was probably slightly better because he can run, and he really made only 1 really bad throw, whereas Mallett made a couple bad throws. Coaching staff will probably give Mallett he job anyway.

This post was edited by Terps on Aug 12 2016 12:05am

Thanks for this. Didn't get to watch

Wait really? I was there too haha. I graduated in 14

so you're saying Pats were smart to get rid of Arrington? ty ty

I graduated in 2014, took a semester off to take the GRE and apply to grad schools, went back to study as a grad student for 1 semester, and then went to UMD, which is where I am now (going on my 3rd semester here)


He was ok in the slot last year to start the season, then injuries forced him to play outside where he struggled. Can't really speak on behalf of the Patriots regarding whether they needed another slot CB; not familiar enough with their secondary situation.


On the Ravens fan forums, several of us post a list of our observations like this, if you care to read more: http://boards.baltimoreravens.com/topic/69453-the-good-bad-and-ugly-pre-season-1/?page=1

I respect the opinions of quite a few of the more tldr posts on there, like joey flex and boldnpurplenblack. It's interesting to see if we're noticing the same things