The loss to the Seahawks was a familiar story in many ways, but one all-too-hackneyed plot element is more frustrating than the others. The Seahawks used primarily a 4-man rush to frustrate Flacco.  They rushed 4 on 36 of 54 pass plays and only once rushed more than 5. Flacco had ample time and space (ATS) on 36 of 54 drop backs (67%).  To say a day of fine pass protection was wasted would be an understatement.  With ATS he was 22 of 36 for 202 yards 1 TD, 0 … Continue reading →

It could fairly be stated that Joe Flacco was both the Ravens’ best Offensive player and their best defensive player on Sunday. His 14 for 21 on 3rd down held the Steelers to 9 offensive drives including their last 2-play possession.  The Steelers lost despite 8.5 yards per pass play (YPP) and 6.8 yards per play on all plays (YPPA). The 14 conversions are a franchise record.  That shouldn’t be surprising when you think how difficult it is to get 21 3rd-down opportunities in a game.  For starters, that requires … Continue reading →

Once again, we’re not ready for a full discussion about the Wild Card this week, but it’s fun to consider the division tiebreaker with the Bengals in the event they are tied with the Ravens for the division lead after their New Year’s Day meeting.  After 9 weeks, this single division tiebreaker is enough to consider.  First, let’s look at the results and upcoming opponents: Ravens (6-2): @ Sea, Cin, SF, @ Cle, Ind, @ SD, Cle, @ CIn (2-0 in Div, 1-0 vs. non-common opp, 4-2 in Conf, 2-0 … Continue reading →

It’s easy to be giddy after Sunday’s big win, but it shouldn’t mask a serious problem. The Ravens pass rush had a bad, bad night. You folks are probably familiar with what I’ve defined as Ample Time and Space (ATS) for a quarterback.  I score a pass play as ATS when the QB is untouched for 3 full seconds and has a 150 degree arc in front of him with enough space to step into his throw.  In cases where the QB throws earlier than 3 seconds, I project whether … Continue reading →

The Ravens are 2nd in the NFL with 25 sacks in 7 games.  That’s a big step forward from last year’s disappointing pass rush and begs an obvious question. Where are the extra sacks coming from? The easiest answer to this question would be to simply show the difference in absolute sacks by player, but you don’t need me to do that for you.  The question should really be rephrased. In what situations are the additional sacks occurring? To that end, I thought it would be fun to compare 3 … Continue reading →

We won’t get into a full discussion about the Wild Card, but I want to look at the tiebreakers strictly with the Steelers in the event they are tied with the Ravens for the division lead at season’s end.  In doing so, we are ignoring the Cincinnati Bengals.  That is dangerous to say the least, but if we can address just 1 tiebreaker issue per week, this is the one I’m choosing after 8 weeks.  First, a look at the results and upcoming opponents is useful: Ravens (5-2): @ Pit, … Continue reading →

It’s difficult not to get excited about the Ravens’ new-look offense. Summarized, here is what I saw from the spread/shotgun/no huddle offense: ·         The Ravens didn’t run it every play without a huddle and made some substitutions ·         The Cardinals made some substitutions both when allowed by reaction and on the fly ·         The Ravens ran 79 offensive plays for the game, excluding the kneel. ·         The first 28 had very little shotgun.  The last 51 were almost all shotgun (44). ·         The last 51 included 20 no huddle plays … Continue reading →

There is much more about which to be excited than concerned from this game.  The comeback masked a game that was not as close as the score would indicate.  Is it troublesome that some key mistakes are keeping opponents in games?  Of course.  Are most of the mistakes correctable?  Absolutely, and by the 2nd half they were.  Sunday’s seemingly unimpressive win came despite an awful punt coverage with several missed tackles, a fumble to set the Cardinals up at the 2-yard line, and a dropped pass which gave the Cardinals … Continue reading →

Who’s to blame for the offensive meltdown at Jacksonville?  It was a unit-wide effort to be sure and I’d cite 4 plays as examples of the breadth of the ineffectiveness: •             Rice’s fumble (Q1, 8:59) was his first in 520 touches and Jacksonville’s first recovery of the season. •             Rice had broken through the line into level 2 (Q2, 1:56) where McKinney and Gurode were in front of the play.  They each passed up an opportunity to block (Posluszny and Landry respectively) as Rice was taken down for a gain … Continue reading →

Do you remember Mad Libs?   I’ve seen them referenced on some sitcoms recently, but I’m not sure if those were nostalgic table scraps for children of the 1970’s or they are still being produced and sold regularly.  Sometimes I think it would be helpful for NFL players and coaches each to go through some Mad Lib training in the off season or at least at the rookie symposium.  Case in point, Monday’s game. With emotions high after the defense carried the offense, it’s natural that a player will be … Continue reading →

The Ravens had been both opportunistic and somewhat lucky with turnovers in the first 4 games.  They had recovered 8 of 11 opponent fumbles and deflected 2 passes at the line of scrimmage that went for interceptions. The Texans first TD was scored as Wade Smith drove Ngata backwards into level 2.  Haloti slipped off the block and hammered Myers while Wade stood flat footed without a partner as Webb stripped Tate.  Smith fell on the loose ball, but it’s unusual for the offense to recover a fumble past the … Continue reading →

Gamblers will tell you that your results will often be a function of the results on your large bets.  For example, if you typically bet $50 on 10 games a week, but bet $500 the 10 times all season that you think you see a good opportunity, your overall results are going to be highly skewed by your success on those 10 bets, even if you post an outstanding winning percentage (let’s say 55%) on the 170 small bets. How does that relate to Sunday night?  Flacco had 4 throws … Continue reading →

Maureen and I enjoy hockey and were watching a Caps/Flyers game in one of the last 2 seasons.  The broadcast cut to a fan in the stands with a sign that read Briere = [picture of a cat].  I turned to Maureen and said “Briere equals cat?”  She just looked back sideways at me and I said ‘oh…OH!” Since then, when we see less than manly behavior on the football field, “Briere equals cat” is all we need to say to each other. On Sunday night, the phrase had a 4th-quarter … Continue reading →

I think it’s worth a minute to review the 3 Torrey Smith scores, because each was something special in terms of both athletic effort and design, but this was a game that virtually every Ravens receiver was targeted on a 9 route. Torrey Smith’s 3 TDs: ·         (Q1, 12:30):  Stewart lined up as the single high safety on the left hash.  Mikell covered Dickson in the slot.  King had press coverage on Smith outside right.  Rice picked up the blitzing Laurinaitis, but was driven backwards to Flacco.  Joe released off … Continue reading →

The Rams entered the game having run the football with only marginal success and facing the Ravens formidable front 7 and beleaguered secondary.  Given the Titans’ success in week 2, this figured to be a game where the Rams would try to test the Ravens deep. The Ravens countered with blitzes that were more a function of numbers than deception as well as some press coverage to disrupt routes.  Chuck Pagano’s unit ran 2 blitzes I scored as deceptive during the first half, but more significantly, they rushed less than … Continue reading →

The Ravens could not duplicate their fine effort from week 1 and lost in Tennessee.  The offensive frustrations are great and we’ll get to some of those later, but I need to do some housekeeping first. Let me start with a few comments about the scoring system first, because it’s intended to provide a transparent, objective measure to go with my subjective analysis.  I’ve seen it quoted elsewhere and I think there are some misconceptions in play. It primarily penalizes pass-blocking errors and is necessarily simple, because I wanted a … Continue reading →

2007 was a miserable year for the Ravens and their fans.  Coming off a 60-sack year in 2006, the Ravens lost Adalius Thomas to free agency and then lost Trevor Pryce to injury.  The secondary was a MASH unit with McAlister and Rolle missing much of the season and unlikely candidates such as Willie Gaston, David Pittman, Derrick Martin, and Corey Ivy forced into starting roles on the outside.  We should have no desire to relive it. For one game, the 2011 Ravens looked like that team.  The Ravens generated … Continue reading →

The Ravens revamped offensive line opened with a rousing effort versus a talented opponent with each of their linemen back at their strongest position.  You’ve been reading that all week and no doubt are either telling your friends “I told you so” with regard to the McKinnie acquisition and line reshuffle or finding a way to backpedal and qualify your previous remarks.  One of the Ravens’ major weaknesses down the stretch in 2010 was a dearth of blocking from any eligible receivers.  That limited their options with regard to an … Continue reading →

A Game Worth Rewatching The Ravens 4 biggest defensive stars played their finest ever game as a group Sunday.  Let’s recount: Suggs:  He is an obvious choice for defensive player of the week, even with all the competition on his own team.  It was one of the 2 finest performances of his career with the other coming 12/5/10 in the game at Baltimore versus the Steelers.  He had a career-high 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 3 other QHs (4 total, including 1 not recorded in the Gamebook), pushed Scott into … Continue reading →

Play in the 4th preseason game is inversely proportional to a player’s chance to make the roster and particularly the 45.  As in years past, I have graded the players from +3 to -3 to gauge how I expect their respective performances on Thursday to impact the 2011 Ravens. The second number you see is their cumulative total for the preseason.  I didn’t waste time rating starters, players who have no place on the team, or anyone for whom I don’t think I have any data for a judgment.  The … Continue reading →