It’s the Ravens’ second repeat divisional matchup of the season, so it will be my second start/stop/continue Battle Plans of the season.
This is where I look at the game film from the first meeting between the two teams and decide what the Ravens should start doing differently from that encounter, what they did a few weeks ago that they should stop, and what they did a few weeks ago that they should continue doing, in their matchup this week.
Ravens-Steelers, round two, here we go…
Offense
Start
In my Battle Plan for the first meeting between these teams, I wrote about how the Ravens should run some more Outside Zone – the staple of the Ravens’ running game are their Gap runs featuring pulling linemen. The predominant run play in the NFL utilizes Zone blocking, and specifically Outside Zone, which the Ravens run proportionately less of in their Greg-Roman-led offense.
This works serves the Ravens well against most opponents given that they are used to preparing for a very different running game. However, they often do run into a team when a little more Outside Zone looks like it would be a very good idea. The Steelers are one of those teams, and evidently, Greg Roman agreed with me.
The Ravens did roll with more Zone blocking in the first game, but they were flawed in their execution of it. The aiming point for the Running Back is just outside the Offensive Tackle, called a Bang read for the Running Back in Outside Zone. This point looked like the best way to attack the Steelers defense or even to attack the Bend read, which calls for a cutback against the grain. Outside Zone can be a pre-determined read for the Running Back or through reading his keys as the play evolves.
Crucial to the Bend and important for the Bang reads is the backside cut-off block. The Ravens are most likely to run Outside Zone towards Ronnie Stanley given his athleticism. This means Morgan Moses needs to cut off the 3-technique Defensive Tackle to his side – normally Larry Ogunjobi for the Steelers. This is a tough assignment for Moses, but crucial, as Ogunjobi, while not excelling as a run defender, can be a nightmare as a backside run defender in pursuit.
Moses has struggled to make this type of block all season. For the Steelers, cutting off the bend or affecting the bang by allowing Ogunjobi to invade the play-side will force the Running Back to bounce and into the waiting arms of their competent edge defenders.
The Ravens must find a way to make that block, as that type of run can be very effective against this defense.
Stop
One of the main reasons why Zone Blocking, or even using Duo, is preferable against the Steelers is due to the presence of Cam Heyward on the defensive line. While Montravius Adams and Ogunjobi are middling run defenders, Heyward is elite. When running Zone or Duo, you are able to get a double team onto Heyward and have far more chance of neutralizing him.
The Ravens did run some Zone in the first meeting, as already mentioned, and at times struggled to get one blocker to take over the double team when on Heyward. Ben Powers and Tyler Linderbaum worked well in unison, with Powers as the Post man on him, but it still took longer than you would hope for a release to the second level. They did though succeed in creating vertical movement and getting Heyward off the line of scrimmage which helped a great deal to open lanes for JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards.
Unfortunately, most of the time the backside wasn’t effectively blocked, and the run didn’t work, which is why they need to start getting the backside blocked (as already mentioned). When the Ravens ran their usual Gap scheme, with a pulling Guard and Pat Ricard coming across the formation, Heyward was able to wreak havoc and allow others to make plays.
Those type of runs from the Ravens just didn’t work effectively against this Steelers defensive front. It’s not that they need to stop these entirely; they’re too much of a feature of the offense and will work well to set up other types of run when used effectively in combination. But all teams run Gap and Zone, and while the Ravens needle is often pointed to the side of using more Gap than Zone, they need to redress that balance slightly this week and stop running as much Gap as we normally see from them.
Continue
Two things for this offense to continue doing: Firstly, they should continue to utilize their two most explosive players up the middle. That’s Linderbaum and Dobbins (and could be Lamar Jackson too if he manages to return for this game, though I think I would be on the side of bringing him back for the playoffs only at this point). The defense should run riot against Kenny Pickett this week, leaving little for Huntley to do to win the game if the Ravens get the running game going.
Getting that running game going will require patience, as the Steelers are an effective unit when defending the run, but the best way to break some big runs is for things to happen quickly at the line of scrimmage. This happened best for the Ravens when Linderbaum was able to use his explosiveness to come off a double team and spring to a Linebacker, with Dobbins and his explosion following behind him. This sprung the big run of the game that set up the early touchdown and can be used again this week.
The other thing that will be vital to get some semblance of a passing game going if Huntley is under Center is the Ravens’ use of motion both pre-snap and at the snap. The Ravens effectively used motion to indicate either a reverse or a screen to get the Steelers’ aggressive defensive backfield flowing towards the football. This, combined with Mark Andrews decoy routes and option routes into the soft spot in the Steelers underneath zones, worked very well to get the Ravens less heralded Wide Receivers open for easy, quick completions from Huntley.
Defense
Start
What the defense should start doing harkens back to my original Battle Plans for taking on the Steelers this year. It starts with defending the Quarterback position, and Mike Macdonald might have an easier time formulating a gameplan over Christmas given that he can just dust off the one from a few weeks ago. In fact, it won’t even need dusting off – just get someone to drive over to Pittsburgh and get it off the road team sideline after the original gameplan was discarded in the first quarter with Pickett’s exit from the game.
My original Pickett plan was to resurrect an old favorite gameplan for the Ravens – blitz a rookie Quarterback until he curls into a ball and cries. The universal, outdated, break-in-a-rookie-Quarterback playbook that Matt Canada is running, is scarily out of touch with the modern NFL. Most contemporary Offensive Coordinators will look to help out their rookie Quarterback with a solid running game, but where they differ from Canada is in the layering of concepts, putting smoke and mirrors in the offense through heavy use motion and perhaps even a good dose of RPOs to get their young Quarterback comfortable.
Canada, as I wrote for the Week 14 contest, is using far too simplistic an offense and is frankly, asking too little of Pickett in his first year. There is, of course, a delicate balance to draw with a rookie under Center, and I’m not advocating a sink or swim approach, but I do believe he could get more out of the first-year signal-caller with a different method.
Happily, for the Ravens, this can be easily combated through their rookie QB defense, that has worked for seemingly generations of Raven defenses. The fire zone blitz and the kind of chaotic pressure packages that Ravens Defensive Coordinators can perennially rely on, like the code passed down from coach to coach taking over this defense, can be fired up with abandon this weekend.
I also wrote about forcing man protection with 5-0 defensive fronts, only to bring second level defenders on the blitz or to run stunts inside. The Ravens should be able to work Okorafor and Moore on the outside with their pass-rushers, so confusing the interior of the Steelers’ pass protection with heavy underneath coverage should be a recipe for success too.
Stop
The Ravens, on the whole, defended the Steelers well, and despite a Quarterback change, and therefore in-game change of plan, kept the Steelers offense relatively quiet. They did allow Mitch Trubisky to be efficient (when he wasn’t throwing interceptions) but the majority of his completions were ten yards or less and they seemed happy to allow some underneath throws, knowing the real pain could come from Najee Harris and the Steelers’ running game.
Speaking of which, what I’d like to see the Ravens stop, is allowing so much vertical movement from the Steelers’ Offensive Line. They did manage to keep Harris in check, so this is nit-picking, but they did at times allow the Offensive Line onto their Linebackers. Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith have played exceptionally well since being paired after the trade. But, if they have one potential weakness, it’s the ability to get off bigger blockers in the running game.
Smith and Queen are adept at avoiding the need to get off blockers with their instincts and angles, but it is incumbent on the Ravens defensive line to keep them somewhat clean to allow them to do that. In the first meeting between the two, the Ravens struggled to occupy double teams and did allow the Offensive Line to get some shots at Smith and Queen. The duo played well in the face of this, and it didn’t hurt the Ravens, but it could have.
I’d like to see Broderick Washington, Travis Jones et al, do a little more to prevent that vertical movement, even if they are no longer playing such a disciplined 2-gap scheme. Calais Campbell and Justin Madubuike have been playing the run very effectively, so this doesn’t apply to them as much as to the secondary pieces on that Defensive Line, who are not as much of a wrecking ball as a Campbell or a Madubuike, so must play more controlled.
Continue
I wrote at length in the Battle Plans before the Dolphins game about how to combat the type of blitzing that the Dolphins had caused so much trouble with the previous year, in case they brought that again. As a recap, it’s when a Linebacker shows blitz pre-snap and then starts to blitz before then either bailing out or continuing with his blitz depending on what the Offensive linemen across from him does. This normally gives the Offensive Lineman an impossible choice to make as part of his blocking scheme.
I also wrote about it in the Offensive keys to the game in the Battle Plan for the Steelers, given that Brian Flores, the mastermind behind this approach, is now with Pittsburgh and seems to be part of a three-man defensive brain trust with DC Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin.
I’ve already mentioned a way to attack the interior of the Steelers Defensive Line; this was down to game film I had watched, and leading me to feel that part of their Offensive Line could be easily confused by misdirection and disguise from the defense as part of their pressure packages.
The Ravens, in the first matchup between these teams, found another way: Flores’ blitz-bail approach. The Ravens would not use it in its entirety, as Flores often used a multitude of defenders at the line of scrimmage pre-snap. They used it exclusively against the interior of the Offensive Line and would sugar the A gap with two Linebackers, both of whom had the same assignment as Dolphins’ Linebackers had under Flores. This worked very well, especially with Pickett in the game, and should be deployed again this week.
