Week 5 Ravens Recap - The Fire Dean Pees Edition
It’s time for heads to roll. It’s a fucking mess and it’s Dean Pees that needs to go. Simple as that. I won’t delve too much into specifics of yesterday’s football game because you could read one of the recap blogs from the past few weeks and it would basically be the same exact blog. Ravens struggle, Ravens claw back, Ravens take lead, Ravens blow lead, Ravens lose. Rinse and repeat. The same shit over and over. That’s how a football team that came into the season with tons of promise and potential finds itself at 1-4.
It’s fascinating really. I’ve never seen a team look so competitive, yet utterly incompetent at the same time. All five games have come down to the bitter end, and we’ve ended up on the wrong side of just about all of them. We’d be looking at five losses if it weren’t for Josh Scobee puking on himself last week. It’s not luck anymore. It’s a pattern, and it isn’t even exclusive to this season. It’s the problem that was the death of the 2014 Ravens, and it remains unsolved. Let’s actually look back at the past 6 football games the Ravens have played.
January 10, 2015: Ravens stake the defense to 3 leads against the Patriots, including 14-0 and 28-14 leads and a 3 point lead with 10 minutes remaining. The defense blows all 3 leads, resulting in a loss that cost the Ravens a likely Super Bowl appearance.
September 13, 2015: Ravens stake the defense to a 13-9 lead in the 3rd quarter. Joe Flacco may have thrown a costly pick-6 that concedes that lead, but Denver does produce an 11 (ELEVEN!) minute 4th quarter FG drive. This drive featured three 3rd-down conversions and 11 run plays by an offense that clearly was incapable of throwing the ball downfield, and played a huge part in squashing a comeback effort by the Ravens in a loss.
September 20, 2015: Ravens stake the defense to a 33-30 lead with 2:10 remaining. Derek Carr drives the Raiders down the field with ease, completing short throw after short throw. Seth Roberts touchdown pass with 26 seconds left results in a Ravens loss.
September 27, 2015: Ravens stake the defense with two 4th quarter leads. The first occurred when CJ Mosley returned a fumble for a touchdown. The defense consequently squandered this lead when AJ Green was left wide open down a seam, and was unable to be brought down by two Ravens. The second lead occurred after a long touchdown drive by the offense with 4 minutes remaining. The defense concedes a 80 yards TD drive, resulting in a Ravens loss.
October 1, 2015: Ravens don’t stake the defense to any 2nd half leads, but do play poorly enough to allow a Mike Vick-led Steelers team to grab a 13 point lead. They also allowed a lengthy run by Leveon Bell late in the 4th quarter that should have resulted in a game-icing FG by Josh Scobee. Credit to them for making a few stops in the 4th and OT, but the Steelers clearly out-losered the Ravens that night.
October 11, 2015: Ravens stake the defense to two leads, including a 21-9 lead and a 27-22 4th quarter lead. The defense blows both of these leads by allowing Josh McCown to dink and dunk his way to a franchise record 457 passing yards, and very nearly allowed a 25 second FG drive to lose the game in regulation. The Browns drove right down the field in OT anyway, resulting in a Ravens loss.
That’s an ASTOUNDING recent track record (and that doesn’t even count the two debacles against Cincy and the one against San Diego last year), and something has to change. That something has to be Dean Pees. For a while, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt with all the injuries the defense has suffered to the secondary and pass-rushers. But enough is enough. A coaches’ job is to make adjustments. A coaches’ job is to find a way to get a goddamn job done, and Dean Pees hasn’t been doing that. Not even close.
Here’s the deal. This whole “bend and don’t break” thing that Pees has gotten by with the past few years doesn’t work without great pass-rushers. It honestly isn’t even great in the first place, but we got by more times than we didn’t. Problem is that those guys are gone. Suggs is out for the year. Dumervil got hurt yesterday. McPhee is busy tearing it up in Chicago. The situation is what it is, and it’s Dean Pees job to do something about it. He’s gotta make adjustments. And if Pees was capable of being the guy to mitigate these losses by switching some coverages up and getting creative, he would’ve done it by now. But he hasn’t. Opposing offensive coordinators have to be licking their chops week in and week out knowing that they can have their way with this defense with the underneath routes. So it’s time to get somebody in there who can do the job.
He’s had plenty of chances. If he just does his job just one time in any of those losses, I don’t feel so terrible about this year’s Ravens. I wouldn’t be pleased with 2-3, but it would have been very manageable moving forward with this schedule. 1-4 equals death though. Everyone in Baltimore is declaring this season to be over. And they’re right. It IS over, as long as Dean Pees is involved. In my heart, I look at the next 7 games and feel like we’re talented enough to go on a run and get back to .500 going into the home stretch. In my head though, I know that the shitty QB’s that lay ahead will have their way with this defense. Pees is what needs to change. With Dean Pees, I have no hope. Fire the fuck outta that dude.
PS: 137 points in 5 games ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME DEAN?!???????!!!!!!!!!!!???????????
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PPS: Marc Trestman is so fucking lucky that he can fall back on Dean Pees and the lack of receiving targets on offense. He’s been dogshit and he’s turned Flacco into dogshit, just like he did Cutty. I mean, 1 catch in the entire 2nd half by a WR, and it went for no gain? So sick of the short throws in this offense. Trestman is one week away from his own heave ho blog.