Author Archives: Ken McKusick

About Ken McKusick

Ken McKusick

Ken comes to us via area message boards where he has consistently posted some of the most insightful and memorable posts that you'll find anywhere.  Known as "Filmstudy", Ken is a lifelong Baltimorean and rabid fan of Baltimore sports who grew up about 1 mile from Memorial Stadium.  He attended all but a handful of Orioles home games from 1979 through 2001.   Ken bleeds orange in more ways than one.  He's a graduate of Syracuse University, where he earned degrees in both Broadcast Journalism and Math and now works locally as an actuary. The message board member name "Filmstudy" comes from his collection of video from every Ravens game ever played and his player-participation-by-play tracking system for defense that he developed in 2006.  This system is the cornerstone of his thoughtful and one-of-a-kind analysis of the complex Ravens defense.  

FILMSTUDY: Defensive Notes vs. Browns 11/4/12

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Brandon Weeden throws v Ravens
I read an excellent piece on the early days of football which described a game in which Jim Thorpe had a huge punt that essentially won a football game in an era where the basic strategy in football was “Wait for your opponent to screw up.” The same can be said about the Ravens series history with the Cleveland Browns. On Sunday, the Ravens rolled up an early 14-0 lead, but then played bend-but-don’t-break defense the rest of the day to hold Cleveland to 15 points despite a horrific offensive … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Team Notes vs. Texans

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Birk bloody nose
In an interview with Adam Schein, Bryant McKinnie tossed gasoline on the Ravens’ OL debate that should continue to rage during the bye week.  John Harbaugh then added comments regarding rotation on the offensive line. Rotation by series is an interesting idea if it leads to some experimentation by position to find a good combination.  I don’t believe it is as likely to raise the level of individual performance unless the Ravens are going to change the focus of their offense to be much more run-centric. You don’t have to … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Suggs brings back sizzle but it’s hardly enough

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Suggs warmup v Texans
Defensive Notes vs. Texans 10/21/12 Much is not right, but we’ll leave that for the coaches and the bye week. There is also plenty of blame to be dealt, but I’m going to focus on the Ravens’ lone (and very significant) positive. The broadcast of Sunday’s game would have upset me if I were a Texans’ fan. Dan Dierdorf maintained four quarters’ worth of shock on the return of Suggs peppered in with some praise of the courage of Osemele (after the crew missed him re-entering on the Ravens TD … Continue reading →

Ranking the Ravens’ 2nd round draft picks

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Jamie Sharper SBXXXV
The release of Sergio Kindle closes the book on an unsuccessful draft pick. Whether or not he can be resigned to the practice squad, the Ravens have exposed him to the remainder of the league, so any residual play value he may have can’t really be ascribed to the fact the Ravens drafted him. I thought it would be fun to go back through the Ravens draft history and rank the 2nd-round selections.  In each case, I’ve given the year drafted and overall number of the selection along with some … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Chiefs and Cowboys

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Rice v Cowboys
The week’s biggest move was Williams’ insertion at LG for Harewood. While I think it’s possible Harewood will provide depth at some point this season, he dropped from starter to inactive versus the Cowboys. The scores below include the game against the Chiefs (53 snaps excluding 2 kneels) and Cowboys (48 snaps, excluding 1 kneel): Oher:  Michael had 2 games which left his season score nearly unaffected.  Versus the Chiefs, he surrendered half a sack (Q1, 6:14) and a pressure to Tamba Hali.  He didn’t fare much better against Justin … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Defensive Notes vs. Chiefs 10/7/12

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Ray Lewis v Chiefs
The defensive analysis of this game is fairly simple given the Chiefs’ straight-forward game plan.  In the first half, the Ravens surrendered 179 yards rushing and despite a 3-3 tie, the Chiefs would continue with a similar plan in the second half. I think it would be a mistake to call the Chiefs’ running attack conservative.  Given the wide disparity of results (lots of big negative plays with 17 plays of 6+ yards) it is more similar to a passing game, but without much of the big-play upside available through … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Browns 9/27/12

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Ravens Offensive Line 1
With the new alignment, I think it’s worthwhile to examine not only the game against the Browns, but also the performance of each lineman to date this season. The Ravens’ starters played all 77 offensive snaps. Oher:  He had a night of negative visibility but Michael’s penalties kept his score down this week in what would otherwise have been his best game of the season.  The false start was one where it appeared he knew when the ball was to be snapped (perhaps by something he initiated, but he beat … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Defensive Notes vs. Browns 9/27/12

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Ravens Defense v Browns
If you wanted more variety for the Ravens’ pass rush, you got it Thursday. The Ravens used a blend by scheme and number.  While they only sacked Weeden once in 53 passes, they knocked him down on 9 other occasions, generated an intentional grounding penalty, and induced a hold.  It’s not time to start worrying about the pass rush after a game where the QB takes that sort of a beating.  Weeden played well, but his 59.8 rating was impacted by the Ravens’ rush. By my scoring method, Pees attempted … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Patriots 9/23/12

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Ravens Offensive Line
What a great game! I couldn’t stop saying it and on the way back to the car, but Maureen suggested 2 other home games in Ravens’ history with that sort of drama.  The 44-41 win over Seattle in 2003 was a bigger comeback that featured a litany of extraordinary plays.  Similarly, the win over Jacksonville in 2000 capped by Sharpe’s game winning TD was the milestone first win over what was thought to be the biggest divisional obstacle at the time. I’ll watch all 3 of these games many more … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Eagles 9/16/11

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TrentCole1
An effective 4-man pass rush is perhaps the single most valuable defensive asset in today’s game.  Teams that can get pressure with 4 will find a way to stop the passing game of virtually any NFL team.  Conversely, teams that can’t stop the 4-man rush are almost universally unsuccessful. The Eagles rushed exactly 4 on 34 of Flacco’s 44 drop backs.  Every one of those 34 plays was a simple rush of their 4-man front without any blitzers or zone drops.  On those plays Flacco was afforded Ample Time and … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: 13 Plays that would haunt the Ravens

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Celek jumps Ed Reed
Breakdown of the big pass plays v. Philadelphia Eagles (9/16/12) One of the new Tuesday night pleasures is the release of the coaches’ film for the Sunday games on NFL Rewind.  Given how the Ravens lost Sunday’s game, I thought it would be worthwhile to review the biggest plays from that game. The coaches’ film is available with the Season Plus package.  It’s a newly-offered $70 per year package that I recommend.  If you read my column regularly, I include the quarter and time references so you can follow with … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Defensive Analysis v. Eagles

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Eagles vs. Ravens
Let’s avoid the clichés, because there are a number of other places on the web to read how: The officials had difficulty spotting the ball, did not know the proper distance on offensive pass interference, and simply called a weak, inconsistent game. The Ravens pass defense is in shambles (which I don’t believe to be true). With the number of quality QBs the Ravens will face this season, they are in big trouble (again, I would not infer this from Sunday’s result). To summarize Sunday’s loss, I’d say the Ravens … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Bengals 9/10/11

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The Ravens entered the opener with no greater question mark than their offensive line.  When the game was finished, the offense had an impressive list of accomplishments: ·         They looked comfortable in the no-huddle offense and tired the Bengals defense despite a modest play count ·         The skill position players bailed out the line for some bad blocking (particularly on the 2nd drive) to score ·         They did not turn the ball over and took advantage when Cincinnati failed to capitalize on turnover opportunities ·         The offensive line was not … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Ravens v. Bengals Defensive Analysis

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Cincinnati_Bengals_v_Baltimore_Ravens_5eaIjc62-qAl
Unanswered Questions The season opener means as much to you as it does to me, I’m sure.  However, because I’ll spend more time watching this game (because there aren’t others from this season to review right now) than most, there is a special significance. Last year’s opener left very few questions as to the strength of the Ravens either offensively or defensively as Flacco had one of his best games, the team rushed for 175 yards vs. the Steelers, and the defense had 4 sacks en route to a 7-0 … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Preseason Game 4—Why Watch a Preseason Finale?

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I’m on vacation and ended up watching the Rams feed of the game.  It’s a different perspective, which really gives you an opportunity to focus on the Ravens’ negatives because the replays are primarily Rams’ highlights.  To summarize: ·         Ross Tucker, who is one of several morning drive analysts for Sirius does the Rams preseason games and is outstanding.  He doesn’t tailor his commentary for the least common audience, and will frequently discuss key blocks at the point of attack and when the edge is lost. ·         Marshall Faulk isn’t … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Preseason Game 3—The Stars Come out to Shine

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It’s easy to get excited about this game and I don’t typically bother commenting on the regulars during the preseason, but I can’t help myself from providing some bullets: ·         Flacco had Ample Time and Space (ATS) on 28 of 38 drop backs (74%) which was a higher percentage of ATS than any game in the last 2 seasons (previous high 71%, 2-year aggregate 49%) ·         On throws with ATS, Flacco was 21 of 28 for 233 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT (8.3 YPP) ·         Without ATS he … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Individual Defensive Grades and Notes v. Jacksonville

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(Game Rating/Cumulative Preseason Rating)–Defense Brown, Omar (0/+3):  He replaced Cook (Q3, 9:04) after his injury and delivered a vicious undercut of Parmele to hold him to a gain of 2 (Q3, 3:13) on a pass right. Brown, Ricky (0/+2):  No notes, but he had 2 tackles. Carr (+2/-2):  Nigel bounced back from one of the worst preseason games I can recall against the Lions.  He worked off the pull of Brewster to take down Parmele for a gain of 3.  He pursued well to take down Murphy for a gain … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Individual Offensive Grades and Notes v. Jacksonville

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Pierce_v_Jags_640
(Game Rating/Cumulative Preseason Rating) Allen (0/-3):  I only noticed him in for 1 snap offensively and he did not have a touch.  He was in on kick coverage.  I assume this means he is no longer part of the RB competition. Bajema (0/0):  He has the 3rd TE position secure.  On Friday he was targeted 5 times with 3 catches.  Balasavage (0/-4):  No longer part of the discussion.  Berry (+1/+2):  Berry had a solid game as a receiver versus the Lions, catching all 6 passes thrown his way for 59 … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Ravens pass rush doesn’t deliver v. Detroit Lions

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upshaw_kruger
Ravens Fail to Get Home versus Lions With the loss of Suggs and just 2 sacks in the first 2 preseason games, Ravens fans are understandably concerned about the pass rush. New Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees already has a reputation for complex blitz schemes.  I wanted to see if I could come up with an objective measure to analyze that tag.  We spent a couple of hours Saturday charting the pass rush including: ·         Identification of each player at the line of scrimmage in a 2 or 3-point stance … Continue reading →

FILMSTUDY: Atlanta Browned out by Ravens–Preseason Game 1 Review

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A number of camp battles are now in progress with the Ravens, and the injuries Thursday increased that total.  However, I don’t think there is anything more important than figuring out how the Ravens will maintain their defensive dominance versus the run after losing the premiere edge-setting tandem in the NFL over the last decade (Suggs and JJ). The Ravens didn’t give up any big runs on Thursday as the Falcons ran just 21 times for 71 yards (long of 9), but in the biggest surprise of the opener, Albert … Continue reading →