Offense
First Down Turnaround
It was a tale of two halves last week for the Baltimore offense. The first half featured two scoring drives, two big plays from outside targets Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman, and a Joe Flacco who was efficient and controlled the tempo. If the offense didn’t have the pre-snap penalties, they would have been even better.
The second half was a horror show. The offense couldn’t move the ball and Flacco looked uncomfortable in the pocket. Outside of a 27-yard completion to Dennis Pitta, they had nothing.
If you’re looking for one culprit for the poor performance (there were several), the first down offensive inefficiency was right up there. The Ravens only had one second down in which they had less than five yards to go. Otherwise, every second down was at minimum six yards or more, with six first-down plays resulting in no gain or a loss of yardage. Any offense that has to dig out of that hole on second down is going to struggle to sustain drives.
When you look at the play-calling, offensive coordinator Marc Trestman opted to throw the ball to Steve Smith on four of those first down plays, and the overall first-down passes weren’t high-percentage plays.
Trestman needs to go back to the quick-hitting drive starters that he dialed up during the preseason. Specifically, sit down routes and crossers over the middle, and simple hitches and stop routes are higher-percentage pass plays on first down.
The Browns are likely to follow the same script that Buffalo used (plenty of man coverage), so Trestman needs to use more motion, stacks, and interference route combinations to free up his receivers on early downs.
Shotgun Spread Running Game
It was interesting to read and hear the criticism levied against Trestman for not using a smash-mouth approach against the Bills’ front seven. Instead of running the ball out of a spread, shotgun look (which is a Trestman staple), the call was for the offense to operate out of more power sets.
The reality is that the only time the running game showed much life came in the Ravens’ four-minute offense on their final offensive drive of the first half when they exclusively operated from the gun.
All in all, whether running from an open look or a closed look, the ground game was ineffective. But what the shotgun looks present is the opportunity to work against a lighter box (five-man and six-man fronts). Against a bigger Browns’ front – led by second-year nose guard Danny Shelton – facing a loaded box isn’t the best way to get the run game going. Spreading the field will get some of these big boys off the field.
Trestman should continue to mix in some shotgun runs (alternating from base rush attempts), but he needs to run the ball more often in obvious second-down passing situations to create third-and-manageables. He should also try to use more coordinated pulls, traps, counters, and sweeps to attack the edges against a front that lacks sideline-to-sideline speed.
Take Your Shots
Flacco said it. Trestman said it. The Ravens should have taken more deep shots against the Bills’ Cover Zero looks. That’s not a profound observation. Especially given that two of the verticals they attempted (the 35-yarder to Perriman and the 66-yarder to Mike Wallace) resulted in 10 points. The Wallace play, of course, came on a third-and-one check from Flacco.
The Browns (led by the venerable Joe Haden) will play their share of man coverage in Cover 1 or Cover 0 sets. Expect to see Flacco test the deep waters more often when he sees these coverages, especially in short-yardage situations. Those deep shots are actually higher percentage than you would expect because the safeties are usually playing the run, and on second down, you can afford an incompletion while still having third down to work with.
The offense should play aggressively and take their chances because they have the big-play potential on the outside to make the Browns pay.
Defense
Covert Operations
Josh McCown is no ordinary backup, as Ravens fans know all too well. The resourceful journeyman QB tormented the Baltimore defense in 2015. He especially had their number in obvious passing situations and engineered a gaudy 63% third-down conversion rate.
McCown was especially good in the pre-snap phase. In the first matchup (in which the Cleveland QB threw for 457 yards), defensive coordinator Dean Pees blitzed him relentlessly, but the blitzes were poorly timed, his rushers blitzed the wrong gaps, and there was no secondary adjustment to McCown’s hot reads and checks. If the blitz was declared, it was coming without a doubt.
Hopefully Pees cleans up the rush scheme and varies how he comes after McCown. He can’t dial up as many all-out blitzes. Last week the timing of the pressures Pees called were as well-executed as I’ve seen, particularly the edge pressures. It’ll be crucial that the blitzers don’t show their hand to McCown too early in the snap count or he’ll make the protection and route adjustment.
All in all, Pees drew up creative disguise looks in the pre-snap phase against Buffalo, exchanging blitzers with droppers, and that’s the same approach he needs to use this Sunday. Either keep McCown guessing on who’s rushing and who’s dropping, or don’t bother moving around at all.
Keeping McCown Contained
Against the Ravens in 2015, the Cleveland signal-caller was just as dangerous using his feet to buy time and even scramble as he was working from the confines of the pocket. The Baltimore defenders were sloppy in their rush lanes and took awful pursuit angles to close on McCown when he took off.
Fast forward to last week and the Ravens just put on a clinic on how to contain Tyrod Taylor. They not only did a great job of taking away Taylor’s rush lanes (the down front didn’t push the pocket past Taylor and stayed in front of him), but outside of a broken play pass completion to Charles Clay, they kept the elusive Buffalo QB from extending plays.
The pursuing defenders that get after McCown need to play with discipline. Like last week, the front should be focused on compressing the pocket instead of flushing McCown out, and the secondary needs to be aware of receivers breaking off their routes when the quarterback starts to move.
Misdirection and Open-Field Mismatches
The Ravens know Browns head coach Hue Jackson all too well – both as a friend (as a former quarterbacks coach) and an enemy. Most recently, Jackson drew up exotic offensive packages as an offensive coordinator for the Bengals to keep the Baltimore defense off balance. Jackson has done everything from running the pistol to running read-option to running jet sweep fakes and handoffs to turning to a fast-paced no-huddle.
The Ravens struggled to contain the Bengals’ misdirection plays, and going back to the preseason this year, the defense also struggled to handle the misdirection end around and read-option plays the Panthers and Lions ran to challenge contain responsibilities on the edges.
Between rookie Corey Coleman, receiver Artrell Hawkins, and tailback Duke Johnson (who created fits for the Ravens last year and has a similar skill set to Giovani Bernard), Jackson has the speed to employ a similar horizontal attack against Baltimore. Look for all of these players to be featured often in space, either as pass catchers or on handoffs.
One-on-One Matchup to Watch
TE Gary Barnidge versus Safety Anthony Levine
It’s Week 2 and I’m already featuring Anthony Levine in the one-on-one spotlight. But that’s how much of an influence the safety turned dime backer has made for the new-look Baltimore defense. Last week against the Bills, Levine played inside and outside, and moved around quite a bit to cover underneath routes. There is a good chance that Pees will continue to run the dime package with Levine playing the cover LB role to check Barnidge on seam routes. The tight end torched the Baltimore secondary last season. He’s not the best athlete, but he understands how to set defenders up at the top of his routes and is a big target over the middle.
