It may seem harsh to criticize a QB who completes 21 straight passes and 72.5% for the game, but this wasn’t Joe Flacco at his best.
Let’s start with the good:
– The 21 straight completions are a Baltimore record. Bert Jones had 17 in a row for the Colts in 1974 vs the Jets and Flacco held the previous Ravens record with 14 in 2009.
– Joe led the team on the game-winning final drive (7 plays for 22 yards), including a clutch 4th-and-2 conversion to Steve Smith.
– Joe recovered his own fumble on Ngakoue’s strip sack.
– The Ravens got just the right amount of offense for the pass/fail grading that is every NFL W/L result.
On to the bad:
– The 21 straight completions included 3 failed 3rd-down conversions and the Ravens went just 3/13 on 3rd down for the game.
– There were times during the completion streak when it looked like Flacco was not taking the normal amount of risk for medium-distance throws. The 6 catches for 12 yards for Forsett form an awful line. The Jags clearly had the outlet covered, so there must have been some 1-on-1 matchups downfield. See also the “New England” formation described below.
– The offensive line provided an above average number of ATS opportunities, but perhaps not quite enough given the Jags vanilla rush schemes (more below).
– Flacco underperformed his opportunity set by approximately 68 yards (details below).
– Joe threw 2 interceptions in the 4th quarter, both of which were significantly impacted by front-side pressure. The blind-side strip was all on Stanley, but when pressure comes from the front side, extra onus is on the QB to tuck the football. I don’t have numbers, but I’d wager a significant sum that QBs who throw 2 interceptions in Q4 are on the losing team more than 95% of the time.
Here are Joe’s results against the Jaguars by ATS:
Summarizing his results relative to expectation:
Summarizing the Jaguars pass rush by numbers and ATS:
Additional notes:
– Along with a couple of games versus the Bengals and Broncos, this one of the plainest “here we come” pass rushes I’ve ever scored.
– Harbaugh commented that the line needed to provide better protection for Joe and I’d agree that 55% ATS is not sufficient for a game with so little schemed pressure.
– The Jaguars, like the Ravens, did not play any dime, even after Philip Rivers took Posluszny to the woodshed in Week 2.
Offensive Line Scoring
The Ravens ran 63 scored snaps versus the Jaguars (excludes penalties and 1 kneel).
Stanley: Ronnie took a step back in a game with 2 penalties and allowed his first sack. He was beaten by the cat-quick Ngakoue to the outside for a sack/forced fumble (Q2, 0:39). Fortunately, Flacco recovered and Tucker converted his FG attempt after Fowler’s leverage flag. Aside from the sack, he had a holding penalty on Fowler, committed a false start, and was bulled by Ngakoue for another pressure. I scored him for 2 highlight blocks, the better of which was a combination on Malik Jackson then Telvin Smith to lead West’s 15-yard run (Q3, 15:00). He made 3 of 6 blocks in level 2.
Scoring: 63 plays, 55 blocks, 6 missed, 1 pressure, 1 sack, 1 offensive holding, 1 false start, 38 points (.60 per play). With adjustment for quality of competition, that’s a D.
Lewis: Alex played his best game to date, but left the game with a concussion suffered on Gibson’s interception return (Q4, 5:31). His only pressure event was a QH allowed to Jackson when he was bulled and shed by the Jags DT. Alex pulled successfully all 3 times, made all 5 of his blocks in level 2, and had 2 highlight blocks.
Scoring: 54 plays, 51 blocks, 2 missed, 1 QH, 48 points (.89 per play). That’s an A after adjustment. It’s always great to see that first top-shelf performance from any lineman and this should put to rest any talk of him being replaced until at least the bye.
Zuttah: Jeremy had his 2nd poor game of 3. When he missed Friday’s walkthrough, rumors grew about a possible change at center, but he was a captain for the coin flip. He surrendered a sack to Jackson on a difficult reach block created by Yanda’s pull to sell a run left (Q2, 8:02). Unfortunately, he surrendered 3 other pressures (1 to Jackson, 2 to Jones) as well as a QH to Jackson that ended the first drive (Q1, 13:22). He made 1 block in level 2.
Scoring: 63 plays, 54 blocks, 4 missed, 3 pressures, 1 QH, 1 sack, 39 points (.62 per play). That’s an F at center by .11 after adjustment. There were extenuating circumstances for some of the pass-blocking failures, but the game simply wasn’t close to passing. If there is a positive to take it’s that Jeremy made all but 1 of his blocks (a miss) in the 2nd half.
Yanda: Marshal had his 4th flag of the season, but otherwise played well. The holding call on Marks came on a screen pass and appeared unnecessary (Q3, 4:59). Yanda continued down the field and made a block in level 2, but the play was negated. The only full pressure I charged him with came on the very next play (Q3, 4:26) when he appeared unable to decide between helping Zuttah or Wagner and was pancaked by Fowler. He connected on 1 of 2 pulls, made 1 block in level 2, and had a highlight when he pancaked Jackson on West’s 6-yard run (Q4, 6:09).
Scoring: 63 plays, 60 blocks, 1 missed, 1.5 pressures, 1 offensive holding, 51 points (.81 per play). With adjustment, that’s a B at guard.
Wagner: Rick continues to be the Ravens’ most effective lineman. Unfortunately, however, he had a hand in the pressures on each of Flacco’s interceptions. Wagner was not in position to handle the stunt handoff of Jackson from Yanda (Q4, 5:31) on the ball Ramsey tipped to Gibson (I split the charge). On the following possession, he was beaten outside by Fowler, who tipped Joe’s hand as the ball popped out to Posluszny for his interception (Q4, 3:27). This is a game where Wagner would have scored significantly lower had the leverage of those situations been factored into his grade. He made 2 blocks in level 2, including a highlight combo versus Jackson then Posluszny which led Forsett’s 6-yard run on the game-winning drive (Q4, 2:00).
Scoring: 63 plays, 58 blocks, 2 missed, 2.5 pressures, 53 points (.84 per play). That’s an A- after adjustment.
The Ravens didn’t run any traditional unbalanced line in this game as they had the previous 2, but they did run a “New England” set (Q3, 11:56) with Yanda lined up wide left (but ineligible) and Gillmore lined up in a 3-point stance immediately to the right of Wagner and Zuttah. Jacksonville did not bite on the trickery and ignored Yanda while covering the 2 eligible receivers on the left. Gillmore turned quickly for the ball and looked open for a short completion, but Perriman appeared to be breaking open 15 yards downfield as Flacco delivered to Forsett short right for no gain.