Each lineman played all 66 competitive snaps (excludes 1 spike):
Monroe: Eugene turned in his worst performance as a Raven, primarily at the hands of Harrison. He allowed parts of 7 pressure events:
- (Q1, 13:53): He was bulled by Moats for a QH.
- (Q1, 3:37): He was beaten outside by Harrison for a sack. Eugene received 2/3 of the charge.
- (Q3, 12:22): He was beaten inside by Harrison for a QH shared with Supernaw, who was unable to stop Allen.
- (Q3, 8:24): Zuttah allowed a pressure to disturb the pocket, but Monroe made virtually no effort to stop Harrison, who came delayed.
- (Q4, 5:33): Monroe was again beaten inside by Harrison for a pressure.
- (Q4, 4:15): He was beaten by Timmons for a QH.
- (Q4, 1:07): Eugene was beaten once again to the inside by Harrison for a pressure.
There really isn’t anything positive to say about this performance other than it’s a significant deviation from his norm. Scoring: 53 blocks, 6 missed, 2 pressures, 2.5 QH, 1.33 (2 x 2/3) sacks, 33.5 points (.51 per play). That’s an F before or after adjustment.
Osemele: Kelechi held up better than those next to him, but also had his worst game of 2014. He had a brutal knockdown of Heyward on the screen right to Forsett (Q4, 9:26). Both he and Zuttah avoided a chop block call (Q4, 0:38) which might have lit off more fireworks. He had 6 blocks in level 2 and 3 pancakes. He got the sole charge for the QH when unable to pick up Harrison’s stunt (Q2, 1:59). Scoring: 61 blocks, 2 missed, 1 penetration, 1 pressure, 1 QH, 1 holding, 48 points (.73 per play). With an adjustment of .06 (Heyward a common opponent), that’s a C.
Zuttah: Jeremy played a game worthy of early-2013 Gradkowski. McClendon and Heyward both had their way with him as he surrendered parts of 8 pressure events, including portions of 3 sacks. Let’s make this racing-form easy (and I am going to assume you are looking forward to re-watching these plays about as much as your next colonoscopy)…bulled by 90, bulled by 55, beaten left by 55 (sack), bulled by 97, bulled by 97, bulled by 97, pancaked by 99, bulled by 90. Scoring: 55 blocks, 3 missed, 3.5 pressures, 1/2 QH, 1.33 (2/3 + 2 x 1/3) sacks, 1 unnecessary roughness, 29.5 points (.45 per play). F. He finished .32 shy of a D-. Without the unnecessary roughness call and after adjustment, he still would have been .13 short of passing. For the record, Gradkowski’s worst raw score of 2013 was .49 at Buffalo in week 4.
Yanda: Marshal wasn’t as dominant as a run blocker, but avoided the pass blocking mistakes all around him. He made another 7 blocks in level 2, but missed on his only pull of the night. I gave both he and Wagner 1/6 of the sack by Moats (Q2, 0:43) for getting bulled by Heyward and Keisel respectively for pressure. Scoring: 63 blocks, 2 missed, 1/6 sack, 62 points (.94 per play). Because he got to face Cam Thomas for more snaps, he gets an adjustment of just .03. A.
Wagner: Rick was working on a near perfect game entering the final drive, but then surrendered 1.5 QHs to Worilds (Q4, 0:27 and Q4, 0:02). His highlight was a level-2 pancake of Spence (Q3, 9:33) on Forsett’s 6-yard run left. That block didn’t directly impact the play this time, but make them enough and the running backs will have some extra open-field opportunities. Scoring: 63 blocks, 0 missed, 1/2 pressures, 1.5 QH, 1/6 sack, 56.5 points (.86 per play). With an adjustment of .05 for Worilds, that’s an A.
Hurst: He entered for 1 jumbo set and made his block.
Flacco had ample time and space (ATS) on 21 of 48 drop backs (44%). There were times when Joe appeared unable to focus due to pressure, but he delivered a performance approximately on par with the opportunity set. Summarized:
Summarizing the results relative to expectation:
The problem was the opportunities, not the quarterback.
