I’ve always said “You win and lose in the trenches,” and last week was a glaring example of how that still holds true in the age of spread offenses and offensive juggernauts.
Both the Ravens’ offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage and it paid off in a big win over a divisional foe in the Bengals.
Well, the Ravens have a deep defensive line and an underrated offensive line coming into the Bank on Sunday, and it’s all the same… win the trenches, win the game.
Let’s break it all down.
Preparing for a Deep Rotation on the Colts DL
Patrick Mekari and Sam Mustipher stepped up and delivered two outstanding performances against Trey Hendrickson and DJ Reader.
It looks like they’ll be stepping into the starting spots again as Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Linderbaum remain absent from practice. However, their performance last week has eased the anxiety of Ravens fans.
Kwity Paye is the main Colt to keep an eye on. The 2021 first-round pick comes into this contest with two sacks and six pressures in the first two weeks and looks poised for a breakout season. He has aligned over the RT on 100% of his snaps so far, so look for Morgan Moses to be handling the bulk of Paye’s pass rush snaps.
DeForest Buckner moves up and down the interior defensive line and will be a key challenge for John Simpson, Kevin Zeitler and Mustipher. The former 49er has two sacks and five pressures in the first two weeks and looks to keep the momentum going.
The real threat of the Colts DL is their depth though. Six Colts defensive linemen (Paye, Dayo Odeyingbo, Samson Ebukmn on the edge and Buckner, Grover Stewart and Taven Bryan on the inside) have four pressures or more and the DL has racked up nine sacks in two weeks.
The pass rush is dangerous, but I do believe this team can be run on. The Colts bottled up Dameon Pierce in Week 2, but Travis Etienne was able to find daylight, primarily on gap running concepts. Look the Ravens to run power, duo and pin-and-pulls to take care some pressure off the passing game.
Preparing for Minshew-Mania
At the penning of this article, Anthony Richardson has not exited concussion protocol, so we’re going to be focusing on attacking an OL that will be protecting the less-mobile Garner Minshew.
This is super important because Minshew has struggled against the blitz in his career.
Minshew had a great debut for the Colts last week, throwing for 171 yards on a 76% completion percentage and a TD. However, when blitzed He was 4/8 for just 26 yards.
The advantage is that this fits well into what Mike MacDonald does so well. Against the Bengals, the Ravens only blitzed on 13 of 43 dropbacks, but that was mostly to use simulated pressure looks to mix up coverages against Burrow and his trio of WRs.
The Colts don’t have the same weapons and Burrow is much better against the blitz.
Ryan Kelly is currently in concussion protocol, but the Colts offensive line is a much improved group this year and has yet to allow a sack in the 2023 campaign.
Kelly and Quenton Nelson are a potent LG-C duo, and LT Bernard Raimann has had a great start to the season. The three from C to LT have allowed only three total pressures in two games.
The right side provides some exposure for pressure though. Will Fries, at RG, has allowed four pressures and Braden Smith has allowed three in the first two games.
Look to the Ravens to use Mike MacDonald’s patented overload blitzes against the right side of the OL to get after Minshew and force the ball out.
