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PostGame Notes Week 4

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A lot of the big plays through the air were as a result of the Ravens doubling OBJ and leaving someone else wide open. It reminds me of how Love's gravity opens things up for the people who play around him on the Cavs. OBJ has that same gravity.

And we won the game by 15 and would have won by over twenty if not for a meaningless garbage time touchdown. OBJ played a big part in that, as those two huge passes to Seals-Jones were entirely because he was open due to OBJ making a move that drew in RSJ's defender.
I’m not giving him a trending up for gravity

He’s an elite receiver and when he produces himself as well as opening things up for others (which is what elite receivers constantly do) I’ll give him a trending up

And I truthfully don’t particularly care because it was a huge team win, I just feel like OBJ’s bar is at the floor if after any game he doesn’t produce it’s just going to be “but he opened things up for others”

So does Julio Jones, Adams, etc but they still produce themselves. It’s not like OBJ is the only receiver who does this

I simply don’t agree OBJ was a big part of the win, he was behind many other players in that game. I know we haven’t had an elite WR in forever, but the standards should be that he opens things up for everyone else AND produces at a high level himself. It’s what the elite receivers in this league including OBJ do. I just don’t think it was a good game from him and I don’t like the idea that anytime he doesn’t produce he’s going to get the built in excuse of he opened things up for others
 
I don't recall the drop.
I’m looking for it but it’s not showing up in any of the recap videos I’m checking

Very good chance it wasn’t classified as a drop as the DB made a play to break it up, but it’s a pass that I think most of us would agree we’d expect Beckham or Landry to make.

Again, it was a great team win and I don’t want it to look like I’m just looking for something to be negative on, I just think we should expect better from OBJ. He’s going to have that gravity every game, but it doesn’t mean he will play well every game
 
I remember the drop. It’s a ball he catches 99% of the time. Cost us about 10 yards.

At the end of the day, he was being doubled and/or held the entire game. If teams continue to do that, we’ll continue putting up 40 spots with 500+ yards.

I don’t think its fair to say OBJ played great, but I don’t think he played bad either. He was essentially a decoy.
 
I remember the drop. It’s a ball he catches 99% of the time. Cost us about 10 yards.

At the end of the day, he was being doubled and/or held the entire game. If teams continue to do that, we’ll continue putting up 40 spots with 500+ yards.

I don’t think its fair to say OBJ played great, but I don’t think he played bad either. He was essentially a decoy.

I thought the game plan was pretty great. Force them to respect OBJ and then kill them every time they do it by throwing to the guy they left open.
 
I’m looking for it but it’s not showing up in any of the recap videos I’m checking

Very good chance it wasn’t classified as a drop as the DB made a play to break it up, but it’s a pass that I think most of us would agree we’d expect Beckham or Landry to make.

Again, it was a great team win and I don’t want it to look like I’m just looking for something to be negative on, I just think we should expect better from OBJ. He’s going to have that gravity every game, but it doesn’t mean he will play well every game

It wasn't considered a drop because there was illegal contact downfield on the play. Happened in the first quarter. Unless you are talking about the one where Humphreys broke up the pass. I'd agree that probably should be caught, but it's really, really hard to call that an outright drop.
 
I’m not giving him a trending up for gravity

He’s an elite receiver and when he produces himself as well as opening things up for others (which is what elite receivers constantly do) I’ll give him a trending up

And I truthfully don’t particularly care because it was a huge team win, I just feel like OBJ’s bar is at the floor if after any game he doesn’t produce it’s just going to be “but he opened things up for others”

So does Julio Jones, Adams, etc but they still produce themselves. It’s not like OBJ is the only receiver who does this

I simply don’t agree OBJ was a big part of the win, he was behind many other players in that game. I know we haven’t had an elite WR in forever, but the standards should be that he opens things up for everyone else AND produces at a high level himself. It’s what the elite receivers in this league including OBJ do. I just don’t think it was a good game from him and I don’t like the idea that anytime he doesn’t produce he’s going to get the built in excuse of he opened things up for others

Eh, you’re also comparing him to two guys that have Hall of Famers throwing to them. Not only that, but this team has played a total of four regular season games together, and exactly zero of them have been with their entire offensive arsenal. Higgins, Callaway, and Njoku may not necessarily be in that Pro Bowl/All-Pro tier with Landry and OBJ, but this team definitely misses them.

Baker himself is still growing, but the team as a whole was able to take advantage of the Ravens plan to make everyone else beat them.

With those additional points thrown in, I do agree with your overall point of good team win, poor individual performance. As long as he’s not sulking about it and is fine with sacrificing stats for wins (and I get the sense that he is), then I don’t see the issue, so long as it doesn’t become a weekly occurrence (and past history, as well as his volume of targets in this offense thus far seem to indicate that it won’t). In fact, getting those other guys going in the offense can only mean good things for him on an individual performance basis, as teams will be less apt to double and triple team him when there’s multiple other receivers that can burn them.
 
I’d disagree on OBJ I thought he was a down

He didn’t come down with a pass that an elite WR should make just about every time. He had 2 grabs on 7 targets and was mostly a non factor.

At the very best he was a neutral. The whole opening things up for everyone else argument is true, but if you’re an elite receiver and total 20 yards on 7 targets including a drop im not patting you on the back

The way I looked at it was if OBJ wasn't on the field, would we have had as much success through the air as we had? I'd say no.

This is a fair critique, though, which is why I was careful not to say he played great (as you and others have stated, he was about neutral/decoy), just that his fingerprints were all over the game.
 
Chubb doesn’t make the “Ups” is the only thing that I would critique, although you did mention him later in the Ratbird Droppings.

This is cool.

The thing that struck me this game was the payoff of our depth. It isn’t perfect but RSJ, Whitehead, and crew really showed how important that depth is. I mean, Ward is a Pro Bowl corner and Njoku is a feared receiving target and Greedy is an incredible talent, and without that we just shut them down.

Hats off to Dorsey.

That was a mistake on my part. I edited some stuff & forgot to add him back in the "Ups". I didn't even realize it til you pointed it out lol.

This is clearly the most depth this team has had in years. Not only did the backup secondary play well but they executed the game plan going in to near perfection.
 

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