flapgreen
Footballguy
wonk wonk wonk...
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Dennis Pitta (2 Viewers)
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paytonsdaman
Footballguy
Exactly why he's on the waiver wire in our league. Who starts a non-elite tight end unless you want a goose egg? Ray Rice and Vontee Leach or better pass catchers than him.
TidesofWar
Footballguy
Picked him up in a shallow league 30 minutes before KO and played him over Pettigrew.
Figured CLE would be honed in on Smith, that Boldin is old and can be contained, and that Pitta would explode.
Instead, Jacoby Jones and Vontae Leach would have been better plays
Figured CLE would be honed in on Smith, that Boldin is old and can be contained, and that Pitta would explode.
Instead, Jacoby Jones and Vontae Leach would have been better plays
DesmondBishop
Footballguy
I started Pitta and obviously hate the result, but clearly is not his fault, he had 2 targets, one he ran out of bounds and it wouldn't have counted even if he caught it. So really 1 catch-able target for a game, hard to post great numbers like that. Rice is a very good receiver out of the backfield, but no way Leach is better than Pitta, that just sounds like anger talking there.
TidesofWar
Footballguy
You do know Pitta led the Ravens in targets coming into the game?Maybe Pitta took Flacco's Sonic tater tots?
SameSongNDance
Footballguy
You play in a 8-team league with scrubs?
MAC_32
Footballguy
We do not cover the TE well, we just cover WR's worse. It will correct once Haden comes back.
Here's my theory:
Flacco and Pitta are best friends.
Flacco makes Pitta the 3rd most targeted player in the NFL through 2 weeks.
By doing this, he leaves out other weapons in the Ravens passing game (Rice, Boldin, Smith, Jones).
Coaching staff and execs take notice.
Players take notice.
Players complain that their QB can't just throw it to a guy because they're best buddies off the field.
Flacco says, "OK, I won't throw it to him as much."
Closing in on the end of the first half of week 3 game, Flacco is true to his word. Not many targets for Pitta.
They move towards the red zone.
PITTA!
Harbough shakes his head.
He gets a few more looks in the second half.
Another good game for Pitta.
Another bad game for Boldin and Rice from a receiving standpoint.
Flacco is castigated.
Flacco needs to get other players involved.
Flacco gets Boldin 6 balls for 120 yards.
Flacco gets Rice 10 meaningless catches out of the backfield like hes become accustomed to.
Flacco gets Smith downfield.
Flacco even gets Jones involved.
Boldin, Rice, Smith like.
Jones too busy dropping key punts to like.
Everyones happy.
Flacco doesn't get castigated over the long week.
How will the rest of the story unravel?
Flacco and Pitta are best friends.
Flacco makes Pitta the 3rd most targeted player in the NFL through 2 weeks.
By doing this, he leaves out other weapons in the Ravens passing game (Rice, Boldin, Smith, Jones).
Coaching staff and execs take notice.
Players take notice.
Players complain that their QB can't just throw it to a guy because they're best buddies off the field.
Flacco says, "OK, I won't throw it to him as much."
Closing in on the end of the first half of week 3 game, Flacco is true to his word. Not many targets for Pitta.
They move towards the red zone.
PITTA!
Harbough shakes his head.
He gets a few more looks in the second half.
Another good game for Pitta.
Another bad game for Boldin and Rice from a receiving standpoint.
Flacco is castigated.
Flacco needs to get other players involved.
Flacco gets Boldin 6 balls for 120 yards.
Flacco gets Rice 10 meaningless catches out of the backfield like hes become accustomed to.
Flacco gets Smith downfield.
Flacco even gets Jones involved.
Boldin, Rice, Smith like.
Jones too busy dropping key punts to like.
Everyones happy.
Flacco doesn't get castigated over the long week.
How will the rest of the story unravel?
Ketamine Dreams
Footballguy
Ouch... I'm not sure if this is a fluke week or what, but 0 points hurts pretty bad. May give him a week on the bench, but have to consider a trip to the waiver wire if something good pops up over the weekend...
Nucker101
Footballguy
The gameplan might have been to attack the corners since they were missing their top guy(Haden). It's hard for a TE(besides Gronk, Graham, maybe Davis/Gonzo) to put up good numbers every single week.
Boston
Footballguy
Putting up a 0/0 line when Flacco throws for 356 has to be a concern...there are only 16 games in a season and a goose egg in one of them is pretty painful...you can't panic and drop the guy...that's way too rash as maybe this is a fluke and he picks right back up next week...on the fipside you can't simply dismiss this since we're not talking about a guy with a long proven track record...what this does (at least in the short-term) is bring him back down to reality...instead of knocking on the door of the elite TE's he goes back into that mix of TE's (we all know who they are) that are #1's but you cross your fingers every week because you just don't know what you're going to get from them on a game-to-game basis...
LittlePhatty
Footballguy
Nope, that's definitely not why no one in your league has picked him up.
socrates
Footballguy
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Yes, that is always a big red flag when the offense does well but your guy in it does nothing.I might regret it but he goes to the bench for now.
th3f00l
Footballguy
He would have had a touch down had he not fallen. Instead flacco ran it in
The_Fonz
Footballguy
Ridgelake
Footballguy
Raiderfan32904
Footballguy
Keep the overreactions coming guys. I'd love to see Pitta dropped on my waiver wire. He sucks, drop him already.
Proximo
Footballguy
I don't get the logic.CLE is giving up 21most points to TE and top 3 most to receivers, and everyone expected Baltimore's gameplan not to reflect that?The WRs were gameplanned to get the ball in this game; it's all about matchups, and it was working (hence Boldin dominating his man).He will get back on track against friendlier matchups.My only regret is not going with my gut (Rudolph v. One of worst teams cs TE) and listening to the forum. Usually works out best if you consider other relevant factors instead of previous success.Picked him up in a shallow league 30 minutes before KO and played him over Pettigrew.Figured CLE would be honed in on Smith, that Boldin is old and can be contained, and that Pitta would explode.Instead, Jacoby Jones and Vontae Leach would have been better plays
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fightingillini
Footballguy
And it's not like Flacco threw to Ed Dickson and not Pitta. It was obvious that BAL wanted to attack downfield since Haden was out.....and when the WRs weren't open, Rice and Leach were good safety valves. BTW, Rice is pretty good in space, so while 8 receptions is high, Rice is going to get some love in the passing game. Makes BAL that much harder to defend.The Ravens have become a very good offense, with a lot of mouths to feed. Only two Ravens will get consistent fantasy production......Rice and Flacco. T Smith, Boldin, and Pitta will have ups and downs depending on the situation and gameplan. This was a downer for Pitta.....so I wouldn't be THAT concerned yet......but anyone who thought Pitta was going to be a top 5 TE this year got a real dose of reality last night. Pitta is one of a deep tier of decent TEs that a clear step behind the elite TEs who are the clear #1 or #2 options in their offenses. Pitta isn't the clear #1 or #2 option in this offense.
ImTheScientist
Footballguy
This crashed and burned. 
Warhogs
Footballguy
I started him in one league over Finley and Greg Olsen. I loved the matchup and he has been getting a ton of targets. These things happen. He is most likely back on my bench for a few weeks before earning consideraton for a start again but I'm not ready to claim the ship has sailed with him. I suppose this means Finley will go off with a huge week.
Bump Finley.
it's been a long time since I have had a use for the old bump Finley comment.
Bump Finley.
it's been a long time since I have had a use for the old bump Finley comment.
IdiotSavant
Footballguy
x4Glad I'm not the only one I guess...
Lord Fantasy
Footballguy
Not bummed but a good reminder why TEs don't always make great FLEX plays. Sometimes they stay in line all game and block.
dickey moe
Fingerpicker
GB starting Ben Watson against the Pitta owner.
Area51Inhabitant
Footballguy
It was a surprise to see him going from the clear target leader to zero catches on just 2 targets last night. The matchups must have dictated that the wr's were the place to exploit the Hadenless Browns last night. Just a reminder that wr's and te's are very much a slave to the gameplan sometimes.
just_want_2_win
Footballguy
From Rotoworld:
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Hipple Long Ware & Peete
Footballguy
'therush said:
Hipple Long Ware & Peete
Footballguy
He almost had a deep ball and a TD On 2 desperate plays. NFL is about matchups/schemes. They took him away based on his last 2 weeks and smith/rice/Boldin went nuts. He'll be fine next week. Buy low.'fightingillini said:
packersfan
Footballguy
Good news
He led the team in targets the first three games and only one TE in the league had more receptions. So the Ravens definitely like him and Flacco trusts him.
Bad news
The Ravens clearly took him out of the game plan this week. Nearly every route he ran was a decoy route or clearing out route for Rice and/or Boldin. By my count Flacco only looked to him as the primary read twice and that was on the wheel route which could've been a TD if Flacco had thrown a better ball and the play-action pass at the 1 where Pitta fell down and Flacco ran it in. If something like that can happen once, it could happen again.
Overall, I think Pitta remains a solid starting option in larger leagues and it's way too premature to panic and toss him to the curb. But this does put a damper on his upside although if he continues at his current pace of three good/great games and one dog for the remainder of the season he'll still end up having a pretty good year.
He led the team in targets the first three games and only one TE in the league had more receptions. So the Ravens definitely like him and Flacco trusts him.
Bad news
The Ravens clearly took him out of the game plan this week. Nearly every route he ran was a decoy route or clearing out route for Rice and/or Boldin. By my count Flacco only looked to him as the primary read twice and that was on the wheel route which could've been a TD if Flacco had thrown a better ball and the play-action pass at the 1 where Pitta fell down and Flacco ran it in. If something like that can happen once, it could happen again.
Overall, I think Pitta remains a solid starting option in larger leagues and it's way too premature to panic and toss him to the curb. But this does put a damper on his upside although if he continues at his current pace of three good/great games and one dog for the remainder of the season he'll still end up having a pretty good year.
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'th3f00l said:
Flacco could have easily floated it to him when the linebacker came off him. Not that the Ravens would have taken it if it was called, but he "fell" because the linebacker pushed him at the back of the end zone. I was interested after the announcer said he fell and saw the contact before the linebacker went to Flacco.Unfortunately, I had to start him or Britt against Houston (and nursing an ankle) because Roethlisberger was on a bye (QB can be flexed in case you care) and Pitta had a solid match up. Even with that bad result, he had 1 TD that easily could have happened if not for the contact and was wide open on a pass Flacco could have hit him that also might have been a TD if he didn't have to dive. He had the LB beat bad on that play and the safety was not that close. Those two plays happen a little differently and he has a great day.
Booooiiiiinnngggg!Runningman
Footballguy
He was Pitta-ful last night! See what I did there?
Wow dude. Did you come up with that all by yourself? It's such an original and unique joke.
Runningman
Footballguy
Nah you got me, my wife said it during the game last night and I copied it for your benefit.
Biabreakable
Footballguy
This was kind of what I was getting at with the lower catch % and YPC from Pitta than some of the elite TE's. That a good defense can take him out of the game. The Patriots did an alright job against Pitta although they did give up that TD. Which was a great effort on Pitta's part and poor tackling of the Pats defenders. The Ravens did a better job and instead targeting Pitta so much there were many more dump offs to Rice.I think it is because of Jackson at least partially.
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packersfan
Footballguy
I don't think the Browns did anything to take Pitta out of the game. It was all about the Ravens. They went into last night's game not wanting to utilize Pitta at all. He was a decoy on about 98% of the routes he ran. So I'm not sure I'd be worried about good teams taking him out; I'd be more concerned that the Ravens might employ a similar approach at another point during the season. My guess is that considering how good he was the first three games he isn't going to vanish and what we saw last night will end up being an outlier. But I do think there needs to be some concern the Ravens could employ a similar game plan against another team as the season goes along. Who that team will be and when it will occur is anybody's guess.
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MAC_32
Footballguy
The Browns secondary is awful without Haden, the Ravens decided to attack that rather than attack the safeties and LB's. I'd only be worried about deploying Pitta against teams in similar situations - ones with awful secondaries, especially at corner.
packersfan
Footballguy
I think that was a big part of it although the Bengals' secondary is also pathetic and Pitta had a great game against them in Week 1. But I agree the plan was to attack Cleveland outside with their speed WRs (Smith and Jones) and use Rice and Boldin underneath. Why the Ravens decided to go with Boldin more than Pitta is the question I'd be wondering about the most. Pitta had been the guy Flacco looked to a lot of times on third downs to move the chains but last night it was Boldin who handled a big chunk of that role.
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MAC_32
Footballguy
An attempt to keep everyone happy, under utilized Boldin the last few weeks and he's torn up the Browns before. And Cincy's worse vs. the TE than they are outside, they're not good in either area but they're especially bad at LB and S - when healthy Leon Hall is a player and Clements is at least a step up from Sheldon Brown.
Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
Flash, meet pan.
