Jarret Johnson: back to technique
Linebacker Jarret Johnson today dispelled the notion the Ravens need to make personnel changes in the wake of a three-game losing streak.
"Absolutely not," he said. "We have proven players, really good players, guys who've been successful in this league. Not only successful, but dominant. I think we've lost some confidence in a lot of areas, but a change in players, in my opinion, is ridiculous. ... We just have to get back to playing sound, technique football."
Johnson took encouragement in the fact the Ravens' defense has played poorly the last three weeks and still nearly won all three games.
"We've given up a lot of points and a lot of yardage, which we're not accustomed to doing," he said. "I think it's more a state of awareness: we better get this thing fixed, or we're going to lose more ballgames. But we know how good we can be. Hell, we played bad and still almost won every game."
Comments
Johnson is right, but only partially. If our defense can step up some, we have a good chance to win every game. We do have some proven players who are under-achieving and we know can perform at a higher level than they currently are (Suggs, Landry, the D-Line as a whole). However the CBs are far from a proven commodity. Washington did well backing-up Rolle last season, but still had struggles. Foxworth.....lets just say he's got a whole lot of proving to do, about $24 mill over 4 years worth.........
Posted by: James Salisbury, MD | October 20, 2009 5:48 PM
Jarret Johnson must not be looking at the guys playing behind him with the exception of Reed! The only guy in the secondary who has had any success in the league is Reed, the others stink and they were terrible where they played before they got here! Noi one proven defender in the secondary except Reed, and this year he has gone back to his old ways of of leaving guys with there pants down when he freelances and gets way out of position. If he played within the scheme the way he did last year he would have similar results like last year!
Posted by: MikeB | October 20, 2009 6:19 PM
Itelligent thinking,Jarret.Now that you put it that way it does make sense about the defensive situation.I'm more comforted about the fact that certain players need to re-evauate their techniques and you recognize that fact.Sorry we were all kamakazi with the team so quickly but we thought we finally had that game won-after 2 bittersweet consecuative losses.One minute the tv room was exploding with boisterous joy and then about 90 secs. later we were all" what the hell just happened?" when Favre heaved that Hail Mary over Walker.
Posted by: Dan R. | October 20, 2009 7:38 PM
We need to bring back the "Organized kayos " That we have had in the past this base d isn't fooling everyone Mattison needs to swallow his pride and change it back & Harbaugh needs to swallow his pride and call Chris Mc. and do what it takes to get him in shape. But thats just what I think...
Posted by: Norm weber | October 21, 2009 12:10 AM
@Norm - Chris McC is no longer healthy enough to play in the NFL. Maybe the Ravens would consider bringing him back to school the secondary on technique from the bench if that was the ONLY issue (which by the way, I don't agree with either - we already have an oft-injured veteran this year in Rolle). However, when you consider this plus his attitude issues, negative affect on the locker room, etc, it seems like a no brainer not to pick him up.
Every other evaluator of talent on every other team in the NFL realizes this. These guys get paid to make these types of decisions. Maybe those fans clamoring for this guy on the Ravens again should take heed to what they are saying.
Posted by: kopacetic 1 | October 21, 2009 12:47 PM
I agree with Norm that we need to disguise the defensive alignment much more to improve the pass rush. Reducing the time the opposing qb has to find an open receiver will improve our secondary play. How many of the long pass plays we've given up have been when the qb has had 7-10 seconds to survey the field.
Posted by: Ray M | October 21, 2009 6:44 PM