The Ravens probably had a great set of plans for their secondary heading into the 2014 season.
Lardarius Webb and Jimmy Smith would be locking down the corner spots with an improved Chykie Brown and Asa Jackson coming in when needed. Matt Elam and Darian Stewart would be roaming the back line of defense, and all would be perfect for the Dean Pees led defense.
Injuries happened. Wrenches were thrown at the Ravens coaching staff.
Webb obviously hasn’t shown that he’s game ready (something Harbaugh would neither confirm nor deny in Monday’s presser), Brown has been shaky at best in his on-field action, and Jimmy Smith has had to handle opponents’ number one wideout for a few weeks.
Improvisation is something John Harbaugh and his staff have done pretty well throughout his tenure in Baltimore, and their skills are being put to the test this season.
Quite possibly the most notable difference in the secondary was shown on Thursday against the Steelers when Matt Elam was often moved from his traditional in-the-box strong safety spot, to a third cornerback in the nickel packages.
In August, CSN Baltimore’s Bo Smolka noted that the team was giving Elam and rookie Terrence Brooks limited looks in the nickel package in the preseason. Now that the season has gotten underway, the team appears to be following through with this experiment and giving a significant amount of trust to the former Florida Gator.
What happens here is pretty simple. With Jimmy Smith and Chykie Brown on the field to begin with, the Ravens opted to use Elam as the third corner when they transition to their nickel package (five defensive backs on the field) in obvious passing situations.
Here’s how it all happens:
- Instead of having seven men in the box in their traditional 3-4 defense, the Ravens either pulled one linebacker, or all of their defensive tackles and inserted Courtney Upshaw and Pernell McPhee instead.
- Elam would shift to the corner spot, inserting Jeromy Miles to be the second safety next to Darian Stewart.
The defense had significant success when they went for this package, and there’s no reason to believe they won’t continue to do it if they feel comfortable with Jeromy Miles up on top of the defense.
Harbaugh noted in his Monday presser that they can do things like this often, and expected as much when they drafted Elam in 2013. He said the team was blessed with safety depth, and made it seem that if there were any problems with Miles back there, a guy like Terrence Brooks could pop into the safety spot and fill in admirably.
It will be interesting to see what Pees will want to do when/if Webb comes back this week. If he is sidelined, expect to see the Elam/nickel package make its way onto the field early and often.
