Based on Flacco's performance in the first half, do you think Harbaugh is regretting announcing that Flacco would be the starter for the rest of the season? Seems like Smith should have a chance to compete.

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Pete's reply: I doubt it. The whole team got torched today, not just Flacco.

A first year flacco should have never even been given a chance to compete with Boller. Why was boller playing so late in the game when he got hurt? Kyle should have been the starter from day one! When he got hurt we should have traded for a Jeff Garcia type. This kid is not ready for an explosive defense like the colts have.
Also why are we three db's down already? These guys play like pansies! My sister tackles better than rolle/walker/ivy.

What does it say when you hire an unoffensive coordinator who's team was 1-15?(what is Miami's record so far this year?). Down 31-0 and you hand off on second down? No pressure on Manning and we have defensive linemen dropping off in short coverage... We run offensive plays with 3 or 4 wideouts once every other series...Joe Flacco doesn't make these decisions, or call the plays.

Flacco is completely demoralized. When down 31-0, we are still throwing 5 yard slant patterns. What a joke...either the guy can throw downfield, or he can't. If we can't figure it out when we're down by 30 points, we never will. And to think we talked playoffs just two weeks ago...

Pete, you'll have to ask your buddy Mike Preston that question. He's the one who got everyone thinking that Brian Billick was this team's only problem. When are you guys going to admit that the witch-hunt that led to Billick's demise was misguided?

Flacco is way out of his league. He has just thrown pick 3. This team is on it's way to 2-14. The rest of the league will play 7 to 8 in the box and dare him to throw. He will and they'll still intercept him. I feel bad for him but the NFL is far more talented then the Bungles and the Brownies.

Chris McAllister worries me...he has gotten absolutely torched today. You would think that an 11 year pro wouldn't fall for a double move EVERY TIME.

Figures it would be overreaction time on this site. As Peter said, the WHOLE TEAM got destroyed today. It's too bad, but it's clear that this team has some big flaws. Namely, we need a real receiver that can stretch the field and some depth in the secondary. The cast of characters that are behind Mac and Rolle on the depth chart shouldn't be in the league.
The only player I'm ready to write off for good is Figurs. And maybe McGahee.

never mind flacco, we need some decent backup corners. i mean seriously corey ivey is 5'9" and cant cover. dont even get me started on frank walker.

To Drew:

If you take a look outside of Baltimore, you'll see that most of the top DBs get injured. A LOT. You can get 3, maybe 4 good years out of a DB, then say goodbye to a full year of health.

As for tackling, it's already a fact that 60% of NFL defensive players can't tackle anymore, but that percentage has gone up since Goodell and the refs have been cracking down on anybody who gets anywhere near another player's helmet.

To hungry blue mule:

Can I ask you a stupid question? What year did Cam Cameron come into the league? I mean his first year as a coach of some sort. If you said 2007, the year he coached Miami, then you are WRONG.

Actually, he started in 1984 as an assistant in Michigan, where he helped lead the team to 6 Big 10 titles and 10 Bowl games and then made the jump to the NFL in 1994 where he coached Gus Ferotte and Trent Green (who are pretty good QBs and went to the Pro Bowl under Cam's supervision) and most famously, was the offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers from 2002-2006. Go look at some of those stats on offense.

Just because Cam cannot turn a rookie QB into a 10-year-veteran in a month, does NOT mean he is a bad coordinator.

Also, why in the world are you blaming Cam Cameron for getting pressure on Manning?

Indianapolis has a better team. That's what it comes down to. Not Flacco and not Cameron. How can we expect Flacco to compete with Peyton Manning. It's not going to happen.

Cam Cameron was given a pretty inept team at Miami. Dont forget he was the Ofensive co-ordinator at San Diego and they had one of the best Offenses. I agee with Drew, we should have considered getting a veteren. Its not too late ,we have until Tues. I think ,but I dont know whos out there. Anyway GO RAVENS

wait a second. Is there really some fo commenting here that Boller should have been the starter this year and complaining that Boller was hurt playing too late in a PS game?? BOLLER? Please tell me this is not the type of idiocy that characterizes our fan perspective now.

Numb sculls: Flacco is a rookie. If he goes 2-14 as a rookie he is off to a better start than Manning, Aikman and a ton of other great and HOF qbs. It's this kind of short-sighted non-sense from our fans that puts us on par with the idiots drawing personal fouls 4,5 times a game, and it is this same dumbass contingency that actually cheered an injury to Boller at home.

Baltimore fans: GROW UP. IF YOU CANT COME UP WITH A MODERATELY INTELLIGENT PERSPECTIVE, BE QUIET AND LISTEN TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A CLUE...learn a little. Flacco is going to make mistakes. You've been seduced by wins over two winless teams into thinking we're good this year? Then the 5th, 6th players in our secondary get smoked and you're ready to start Kyle Boller. My god. Pathetic fan intelligence.

Boller. Seriously.

The game was so bad the northern networks switched over to " a more compettitive game" in the beginning of the 3rd quater. If were going to give Flaco a loosing season making and learning from all of his mistakes, then let his learning come from THROWING DEEP like P Manning. Also, now that we know Jim Harbaugh does not posess the caliber we came to expect, we need to pull all of our Starters for the sake of injury. ( I can't believe we passed up Chad Johnson ) I think we need a Coaching staff from GM down (minus Rex Ryan ), Newsome is a significant factor for the blame the last 12 years. Look at Miami with Parcells. On our way to another Loosing year. Sorry fellow Ravens fans and Sorry Big Ray !

No surprises here really. Won't be the last time this year.
Hey Pete, why do you blogs sometimes disappear like Mcallister's arms when he has to make a tackle?

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Pete's reply: Don't know what you mean. I'm here seven days a week, morning and night. I do have to eat and sleep occasionally. Mostly eat, of course.

We lost. Too many mistakes on offiense, defense and special teams.

Wether you lose by 1 or 30 its only one loss.

We move on.

Dave

No offense to Raven fans, Flakeo is the only NFL Division 2 starting QB, he could not make it at Pitt so he went to Delaware to play against the likes of national powerhouses like Monmouth, Towson, Hofstra............. Good luck Ravens!

Strong work D. Putting a rookie qb in a 17-0 hole is tough. Joe made some poor decisions but should have never been playing that far behind against a team like Indy. Elite defense is a stretch.

flacci sucked as so did the rest of the team

The tackling on this team has become a real problem. Hitting receivers with your hip (Frank Walker) will not bring my 14 yrs old son down. I think the secondary is a real issue for the off season. The defense which was playing with zeal has loss the intensity. They are getting tired of busting their backs for an offense that might tally 10 points a game. Laugh if you will at this notion but if the offense does not get better the defense will continue to falter. Too m uch time spent on the field, usuallly a short field at that . Cameron become more creative. Peter Schmuck guarantees a win in Miami for the ravens. Do not bet on it.

You play a rookie QB and this is what you get. If not careful you will see a repeat of what happened to Boller. This not a good football team and is in the process of changing. The next few years will not be pleasant.

This is no time to lay it all at Flacco's door or the coaching staff for that matter. Look at the man behind the curtain who is responsible for assembling the constant disgrace on offense! Coaches change, players change, the GM stays the same as do the rsults. He must go before the next draft. Why does he get a pass?

"Chris McAllister worries me...he has gotten absolutely torched today. You would think that an 11 year pro wouldn't fall for a double move EVERY TIME."

This is a trickle down effect of the injuries.McAllister was not going to get any help today because of Walker and Ivy starting.By the way it wasn't a double move he got beat on,he just got caught looking in the backfield,Not that it makes it any better,just being factual

Schmuck, keep in mind that your MAJOR DEFICITE lies in the fact that your BRAIN (?) contains LESS THAN 3 grey cells. I am sure you do not have any comprehendson of what "grey cell" identifites but you are well short of the necessary capacity for any thought process. Try admitting that you sleep through ALL of your assignments.

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Pete's reply: Since you are rude, I no longer am going to correct your spelling.

The Bengals and Browns have better teams than the Phony Ponies. This means we just lost to our weakest opponent in the AFC thus far. I blame this loss on our Coaching Staff.

I had more fun watching the Cardinals torch the Cowboys today.

Please Listen to me here people. I have 10 statements to make and I am sure that most of you will agree with them including Pete.

1. The Cots are a very good team with a HOF QB. The Ravens are banged up in the secondary and got beat by a better team.

2. On the two TDs C-Mac gave up, he was peeping in the backfield instead of staying with his reciever.

3. Joe Flacco came from Delaware and is a rookie, he will make mistakes and have MORE games like this. You need to accept that he will not turn the Ravens offense into the Patriots offense overnight.

4. If teams are going to put 8 or 9 men in the box the Ravens need to start throwing mid range passes to counter the defense.

5. Yamon Figurs better get his act together because he is costing us field position battles.

6. The 17-0 hole was not all of the defenses fault. The D-Line was able to get to Manning but C-Mac had one of the worst games in the past few years. Fabian Washington better feel better soon.

7. I think after the 2-0 start a lot of you people started expecting the Ravens to go 13-3 again. We have a young offense with a lot of talent. Our Defense is old but is still the best in the league.

8. Cam Cameron needs to open up the playbook and start letting Flacco throw the ball downfield. That will start opening up holes for our RBs.

9. I feel that if that the Ravens need to make a trade for a big WR before the deadline. It will open up passing lanes and force double coverage.

10. I feel that Ravens will finish 9-7 or 8-8 and be in the hunt for a wild card spot like in 2002. When we were rebuilding.

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Pete's reply: Can't take issue with much of that, though I think 9-7 is very optimistic.

That's pretty funny that a guy calls Pete dumb because he has a deficite of comprehendson. Next!

Anyway, why all the crying about the Ravens inability to tackle while giving "Big Ray" a pass? Anyone see the tackle he made on that Rhodes run when the Colt RB broke literally 6-7 tackles? No? Me either. All I saw was Ray Ray bouncing off of him, along with Bart "I'm going to kill you" Scott and several others.

I did not watch the game. So, I am happy.

Not to press a point, but didn't you have a part ll blog post last week? I cannot remember the subject. Was it just me? I could not find part one when I came back.

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Pete's reply: Just go to the "Just Football" link on the lower right side of the main blog. Click on it and scroll down about four or five items. Part 1 isn't called Part 1. It's called "Robbed, jobbed and kabobbed" and it's right below "Part Deux."

I think flacco is just a taller version of boller, he is terrible and just a mistake that we drafted him out of the University of delaWHERE??? We should have just traded up to get Matt Ryan who is winning games for the Falcons, its crazy how any NFL team could think this random dude from Jersey who couldnt even start at Pitt could be a winning QB in the NFL I feel sorry for him but he needs to get the heck out of baltimore, GO TROY SMITH

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Pete's reply: Do you really want to make that kind of judgment after five games?

When Flacco had his decent games, where were you guys who are calling him Boller 2.0? He won't be Boller. Look up Boller's stats in college; he completed fewer than 50% of his passes at Cal, even though Jeff Tedford was his QB coach. No matter what system, Boller never would have made it in the NFL level.

I think Flacco will be a great NFL QB in time. He's accurate, mobile, has poise, and a strong arm. He's also a hard worker. He can overcome the interceptions; it's very much correctable. If he were having accuracy problems, then we should all be concerned. As Preston has pointed out with Boller, accuracy, pocket awareness, and poise can't be taught.

I do wish Flacco wouldn't put so much air under some of his passes. Any time he throws deep, the safety has had the time to come over a make a play. He also puts way too much air on screen passes. This gives a defense time to cover the screen. Very correctable.

Matt, the Ravens tried to trade up for Matt Ryan, but the Falcons wanted way too much in return. Although he's having a great year, you have to consider that he has Roddy White and Michael Jenkins, two quality WRs. If you put Matt Ryan on the Ravens, I don't think he's as successful. Truthfully, despite Ryan's success, I'd rather have Flacco. In two years, I think Flacco will be as good or better.

Everybody calm down.

Kyle Boller was never any worse than Joe Flacco was today. After 5 games, one TD and 7 Picks. When will they learn that very few rookies can make a go of it in the NFL. When they had the chance to sign Chris Simms or another real veteran, they signed Todd Bauman. WHO?

McCallister is getting old, Rolle may never be back, Corey Ivy just isn't that good. Ed Reed, as great as he is, can't carry them all.

Harbaugh was sounding quite Billickesque in the post game.

Do the Ravens have to play the Colts every year? This is torture.

man that was embarrasing. Did the Ravens practice this last week?

no, i'm not going to say that flacco is a bad qb. he's a rookie for goodness sake. but whether he's ready for the nfl or not, when you're down by 28, you have to start throwing deep. look this stat up, before the long pass to mason on the last drive, flacco had a better completion percentage than peyton... but averaged only 7.3 yards per completion. hello!!! you've been down the whole game by at least 17 points, you can't run, and you're still having your recievers run 7 yard routes!!! rediculous. cameron has to let flacco play sooner or later. he can't do this the whole year. just because you have a rookie qb doesn't mean you have to give up on a game.
no, i'm not saying cameron is not a good coordinator, he's one of the best offensive minds in the league, but he's being waaaaay too conservative. look at matt ryan in atlanta, he's making roddy white into a pro-bowler. white is an average reciever in this league but ryan has been throwing the ball deep and getting results. it's also opening the running for turner(because it's definitely not that o-line!).
in closing, we're 5 games in, flacco has made progress but he's no allpro yet. however, if we are ever down by 21 again, he better be airing it out, otherwise cameron is forfeiting our season.

Damn, poor Flacco is taking all the blame!! Everybody played horrible!! Peyton Manning is THE BEST QB in the NFL and if he wants to TORCH a team, he can do it with EASE!! He knew the Ravens secondary was banged up and he brought his A game as usual and torched them. No Surprise!!

I am convinced that after five games it is time for Flacco to watch from the sideline. I feel that he can now benefit more from holding the clipboard. I am alright with him making mistakes, because that is what a rookie does. He is the quarterback of the future. I just don't believe that the future is now. Let's not make the same mistakes as we did with Boller.

Joe Flacco isn't the problem. When the Ravens finally started throeing the ball downfield Joe did better. The lack of productivity is a lack of talent and results from the WR position. Check the Ravens draft history under the OZ and see how many impact/quality or Pro-Bowl WR's he has drafted. Another nail in the draft coffin of The OZ. Wouldn't you think a HOF receiver could draft a quality receiver? The ongoing saga of "Rebuilding the Offenssive Line" may end up running longer than Gunsmoke. Hey Bisciotti, you left the house cleaning half done. One down and one to go.

what makes anyone think Troy Smith who started what 2 games is going to come in and lite it up. Its hard to get down the field when the defense is on you quicker then you know what.

For those wanting Chris Simms or Tim Rattay or whoever, there's a good reason why no other team has picked them up yet (and no, it's not because the Ravens are the only team who need a backup QB).

And hey, no matter what anyone says, no matter how bad it gets, there's always a positive to take out of any game. And that positive among anything else is this: At least they're not the Detroit Lions.

Ok wait.. i was just looking up the stats for yesterdays game..PASS: Flacco (BAL): 28-38, 241
Highest Yards so far in a game for him and bout 74% completions on road... dude.. players can't keep the ball.. if u turnover the ball like that, even manning on brady teams will not win?...so the kid is getting better.. i dont really know wht else to say bcoz they've had many chances to score BUT as always.. BOOOOOOO :|..
so i hope they learn and become better.. GO RAVENS!

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Pete's reply: Of course, a lot of that yardage was when the Colts were backing off later in the game.

The Ravens need to make a move for a proven QB. Stop Tryin 2 rely on these young guys. None of them ever get it Done. JEFF GARCIA is a proven QB that all he does is WINNNNNNNNN.