As we’ve reached the first time the Ravens face a divisional opponent for the second time, I’ll need to reintroduce to you my format for Battle Plans when this occurs. Instead of doing a full-blown preview piece, I look at the first time these foes met and ask what both sides of the ball should start doing, stop doing and continue doing based on the first encounter.
So, here’s what I think for this Saturday’s matchup with the now-Deshaun-Watson-led Cleveland Browns.
Offense
Start
One thing I asked to see from the Ravens when writing Battle Plans for the Week 7 meeting between these teams was on old-fashioned formation with Mark Andrews in Y-ISO. This was to mess with the Browns coverage and would be combined with particular route combinations on the non-Andrews side.
The game against the Browns, and other recent games, shows the virtue of this approach with the Ravens current struggles in the passing game. Often Andrews is running routes into the vicinity of other Raven receivers. (No, this isn’t a rant about spacing in the Ravens offense, it’s slightly different.)
Teams know that Andrews is the primary receiver, and they know if they take him away, they have a good chance of shutting down the Ravens passing game entirely. The Ravens have, at times, helped those efforts by running Andrews and the bracket coverage following him into the area where other receivers might be.
Of course, the Ravens can’t simply isolate Andrews all the time, but they need to be more deliberate about using him as a decoy.
Stop
The Ravens ran an abomination of a Red Zone play in this game several weeks ago when they rolled Lamar Jackson out to the left, cutting the field in half and taking away any real chance for him to scramble due to the condensed field. The Ravens are having enough trouble as it is in the Red Zone without their helping opponents by giving them even less ground to have to defend.
It’s very simple: even with Tyler Huntley at Quarterback, the Ravens shouldn’t be limiting their offense against this opponent.
Continue
The Ravens did two things well that they should certainly look to continue Saturday night against the Browns. Their defense is decimated by injury in the Linebacker corps and was already not great up the middle, particularly against the run.
Without Sione Takitaki and now Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoah, they are extremely vulnerable up the middle and are one of the worst defenses in the NFL stopping the run. The Ravens running game with a returning and seemingly healthy JK Dobbins looked back to its best last week against a competent run defense; imagine what they could do against this deficient one.
Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney are still very good run defenders, but with such weakness elsewhere, the Ravens will be able to focus their scheme and marshal their resources towards neutralizing the Browns’ excellent edge defenders. In the first meeting they did this by pulling Ben Powers and kicking out Garrett, or by bringing Pat Ricard in motion, who is big enough and athletic enough to keep Clowney from making an impact as a run defender (including a very odd motion where Ricard runs on the spot before continuing his motion at the snap).
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The other classic way to attack the Browns is in the honey hole. The Ravens got an early completion to Devin Duvernay in this game down the sideline into the honey hole, which is over the top of the cornerback but in front of the deep safety in a Cover 2. This is something I referenced in Battle Plans before the first meeting, and the Ravens could do with targeting it again in this game, although that kind of touch throw is something at which Lamar Jackson is much more proficient than Huntley.
Defense
Start
The “start doing” for this defense is straight forward. The Browns ran the ball reasonably efficiently against the Ravens in Week 7. Nick Chubb averaged 5.7 yards per carry, but only rushed 16 times. While 16 rushes for Chubb was one of his lowest marks in the earlier portion of the season, the Browns haven’t run the ball all that much since Watson has been starting at Quarterback the last two weeks.
Given some of the struggles they’ve had in the passing game the past two weeks, with Watson’s first foray back into the NFL after his long absence, you’d think the Browns would want to run the ball some more to take the pressure off Watson. This is Watson’s home debut, and against a divisional opponent, a healthy dose of Chubb gives them the best chance of coming out with a victory.
I’ve written at length before in Battle Plans about the Browns approach to running the football, so I won’t cover old ground here. What I will talk about is how this Ravens team is far better equipped for stopping most potent running offenses in the NFL given the personnel turnover that we’ve seen since that Week 7 meeting.
That game marked the fourth time the Ravens had allowed a team to rush for over 100 yards on them. It was also the last time this defense was gashed by a rushing offense this season. Since then, they average only 53 yards allowed on the ground and no team has gone over 100 yards.
This can undoubtedly be put down to three things that they didn’t have in that first encounter with the Browns.
- The acquisition of Roquan Smith has made their defense far stronger up the middle and has helped to transform the play of Patrick Queen.
- The return of Tyus Bowser from injury has locked down a high-level of play in all facets of the game from just one guy instead of a committee.
- The usage of Kyle Hamilton more in and around the line of scrimmage.
All of this has transformed the defense and has allowed them to be less changeable with their personnel. All three players – Smith, Bowser and Hamilton – are versatile and excel in all different phases of the game. Keeping the same guys on the field and maintaining the same level of play despite what they face has been crucial.
The Ravens are no longer run all over as they try to mitigate their losses against the pass with lighter defensive personnel.
Against the Browns this week, this should serve them very well.
Stop
David Njoku’s lingering injury concerns were newsworthy for Ravens fans as it seemed to put his status in jeopardy for this meeting between the Ravens and Browns. Njoku, who hasn’t always lived up to the lofty expectations that his athletic profile had created for him, has always seemed to have good games against the Ravens and Week 7 was no exception.
The Ravens have been quietly better at defending Tight Ends this season, 13th most efficient in the league compared to being generally in the bottom third in recent seasons gone by. But Njoku is a player at the position to be feared.
The Ravens must stop allowing Njoku to get open quickly as a safety valve on option routes when the Ravens blitz. As with most things the Ravens do on defense, Bowser will be crucial for this. I might even let them have one early with Bowser rushing the passer before utilizing the Fire Zone later with Bowser dropping into coverage on Njoku’s side.
They also need to sacrifice some of their ability to get pressure, to get a hand on him at the line of scrimmage; allowing him a free release did not work in the first meeting between these teams.
You’ll see though, that I’m not suggesting an all-out plan to stop Njoku. That’s because the Browns use him well as a decoy too. There were times in Week 7 when the Ravens were too fixated on stopping Njoku and the Browns used it to open space for others. Donovan Peoples-Jones is having a quietly good year, and Amari Cooper is a savvy veteran receiver. The Browns got the ball to Cooper deep once when the Ravens were oversold on an Njoku route across the formation.
The Ravens having Marcus Williams back for this game will be a bonus for these situations, and Hamilton’s improving play is also key for stopping Njoku. The Ravens defense looks very different, and between all these different component parts, they should be able to stop Njoku getting such easy looks.
Continue
One thing the Ravens did exceptionally well against this Cleveland offense in terms of stopping the run, was to attack the Center. The Center back then was Ethan Pocic, who had been having a career year as a run-blocker but this was due more to utilizing his athleticism in space as a puller. When the Ravens used some of their excellent Defensive Linemen to get into his pads early when he wasn’t pulling, and rock him backwards, the Browns struggled to get their run game going. This should be able to be the case against Hjalte Froholdt too, who should be the Center on Saturday.
Wyatt Teller being back for this game does complicate this approach somewhat, but the Ravens will need to set a hard edge anyway, which they certainly did in the earlier meeting between the teams. Calais Campbell was particularly important in this regard and the Ravens will need that again this week. That should give Smith and Queen the best chance to make plays in the backfield.
