One of the more frustrating things about the Ravens 2024 season is the team’s inability to play a complete game. In other words, save for the Buffalo game in Week 4, you’d be hard-pressed to find another performance when the offense, defense and special teams won their respective battles on a regular basis.
Early in the season the offense carried the defense. Special teams? The best thing you can say about them is that they’ve been inconsistent. But more times than not, Chris Horton’s unit has been a liability. Clearly that was the case on Sunday against the Eagles.
But ever since the Ravens benched Marcus Williams, a long overdue demotion, the defense has played much better and they’re trending in the right direction. Zach Orr’s group had a solid outing against Philadelphia. Unfortunately, nowadays, the offense has become inconsistent, and it starts with the guys up front. And that’s an indictment on the team’s front office that failed to collect the required talent to protect inside the tackles.
Tyler Linderbaum is a stud. No problem there. Patrick Mekari and Daniel Faalele. They are duds. We know Mekari to be a warrior and perhaps he’s playing hurt because the production has fallen off a cliff. Faalele is really a position-less lineman who the Ravens are trying to groom, albeit at the expense of the offense’s consistent success. He’s not athletic enough to play on the edge and he’s too big and lumbering to stay with interior defensive linemen that provide any explosiveness to their game. Quite simply put, Faalele plays guard with the style and grace of a Sumo wrestler on the ballroom dance floor.
Check out some of these clips shared by Cole Jackson and Coach Evans on X:
Pressures allowed by the #Ravens, per PFF:
9 – Patrick Mekari
4 – Ronnie Stanley
2 – Daniel Faalele & Tyler Linderbaum
1 – Roger Rosengarten#RavensFlock— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) December 2, 2024
You won't convince me Ben Cleveland is worse than this.
Zach Baun is very good, but my lord this is bad. pic.twitter.com/kBswMgV0Og
— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) December 2, 2024
77 needs to be evaluated during the bye week pic.twitter.com/P45zx2tpRu
— Ivan Evans (@CoachEvans9) December 2, 2024
man this is ridiculous. If we didnt have 8 … pic.twitter.com/CnQuobl6Cs
— Ivan Evans (@CoachEvans9) December 2, 2024
GET UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/M16gNhkp4Y
— Ivan Evans (@CoachEvans9) December 2, 2024
Alright Andrew Vorhees.
You're up.#RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/HPvpDLNoUf
— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) December 2, 2024
Holy fuck, there's more whiffs on this film then kindergarten tee ball.
Wtf. pic.twitter.com/2K8ejUi7An
— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) December 2, 2024
When all was said and done, PFF.com recorded 25 pressure plays against Lamar on 45 drop-backs. That’s a ton! No wonder the offense looks like street ball too often. Making matters worse, the Eagles accomplished that by blitzing just 6 times. That allowed DC Vic Fangio to drop 7 defenders in coverage. It should therefore surprise no one that it seemed as if there was a sea of defenders around the Ravens’ receivers all night!
These things then begin to take their toll and manifest themselves into the geometry of the offense. Lamar may be forced to take deeper drops which throws off the timing of receivers’ routes. Passes might not have the same zip, or they might sail because Lamar can’t step into his throws. Some of the blame assigned to Lamar might simply be him trying to make something out of nothing.
It’s a trickle-down effect and it all starts up front – a front that the Ravens did little to improve coming into the season. Instead of boosting the offensive line, they bet on Lamar to do his magic and make a suspect line seem competent. It might work against teams with weaker defensive fronts, but it won’t work against teams like the Eagles and Steelers.
For the Ravens to have largely ignored that this offseason while letting an accomplished and affordable player like Kevin Zeitler escape via free agency, is either unforgivable or it wreaks of arrogance – perhaps both.
Oh but Coach Harbs isn’t too concerned…
Coach Harbaugh on the O-line: pic.twitter.com/BlQlZyf632
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 2, 2024
Bully The Bullies
The Ravens once had a well-earned reputation for being bullies. They were physical and seldom did teams match their physicality. But times have changed and so has that reputation. The Eagles were the more physical team on Sunday and while I’m not a fan of Nick Sirianni, he was spot on during this press conference.
Nick Sirianni is asked how the Eagles did matching Baltimore’s physical play
“They had to match our physicality….I’d like that message rephrased a little bit”
Says the message this week was they were the physical team #Eagles pic.twitter.com/oLLW6EWWPY
— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) December 2, 2024
Ravens Offense Refuses to Use Their Johnson
You have to wonder if GM Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh are as chummy these days. DeCosta burns the midnight oil trying his best to fortify the roster by the trade deadline, makes a deal with the Panthers that really represents a charitable donation by Carolina in the form of Diontae Johnson. And then the Ravens choose not to play the guy.
Johnson isn’t Ja’Marr Chase. He isn’t Zay Flowers. But he sure is a lot more accomplished than Tylan Wallace and was added to the roster specifically to provide depth if the team’s No. 2 WR Rashod Bateman can’t go. Well, that situation played out yesterday. Johnson was dressed, ready to go and do what he was acquired to do. Instead, Wallace and Nelson Agholor had 40 snaps apiece.
Meanwhile…
Keaton Mitchell was a healthy scratch. His speed to get to the perimeter could have been an asset to help stretch the Eagles defense. Instead, Mitchell probably stood along the sidelines wondering why he busted his ass to get back on the active roster after a devastating knee injury last November. In case you’ve forgotten, Mitchell had 47 carries in 8 games in 2023 for 396 yards and two scores. That’s an average per carry of 8.4 yards.
But let’s not dress him in favor of a receiver that you had no intention of using.
I guess that makes sense in Harbaugh’s world.
7 Responses
I await Johnny Boy being told time to move on. Only at least 2 years too late?
Harbaugh is so frustrating… why he doesn’t have many fans anymore. Listening to his presser today and its the same old try hard, hard working non sense. Tucker has blown 3-4 games atleast. Fix him&STs overall or get a kicker in here that’ll do the job. As far as OL they always get whooped vs ELITE DLs. And hbauh won’t put Cleveland in or Voorhees etc. “Everything is ok nothing to worry about” .. Harbaugh fantasy land
All the talent in the world will never compensate for poor coaching!
I had season tix for 25 years, from the beginning, and from this teams 2nd or 3rd year, I always went to the bank with the feeling that the Ravens were going to win. I gave those tix up because for last 7 years, it has been that when the rubber meets the road, the Ravens fold. Poor performance, undisciplined play, inexplicable play calling, head scratching game time decisions always prevail. It is “groundhog day” time and time again. I stopped going, I am on the verge of stop watching.
I agree about our two starting guards and like many fans I’m perplexed why Cleveland never got a shot. But in terms of the GM, we have to also consider as Lamar’s contract goes along there’s less money to do the things DeCosta did in past years. Like, where were you going to find the $6 million to pay Zeitler? It’s not a lot of money but it just wasn’t there, especially after you pay Henry $15 million or whatever it was. That’s why last year’s playoff flop was so painful, because last year was probably our best window, given talented coaches and players, and salary cap. Of course, the Williams hire is a huge stain on DeCosta’s otherwise very good record. And letting Elliot go adds to the pain. With Lamar’s contract, you have to see the value in players like Elliot, and not go opening the cash drawer for players like Williams.
EDC gets a lot of credit but I am not sure he deserves as much as he gets. He maybe hits on 1 player a draft. Loves to amass draft picks that sit on the bench for 3 years before they have a good year and sign somewhere else. He has some great FA signings but also some terrible ones. Is he too close to Harbaugh to make the call? The Ravens seem to be built to just make the playoffs and if they win a playoff game it is icing on the cake.
I’ve given up on the Ravens winning a Super Bowl, far less reaching the Super Bowl as long as Johnny H. is the HC. Agreed that it starts up front. You win in the trenches.
Many want to blame Lamar and the King but it starts up front. We had the opportunity to keep or add to the OL in the off season and before the trade deadline. Nope. Now we have 2 holes in the OL and have to wait until the off season.
So we can’t win a SB with holes in the OL. The decisions by John are always slow and he’s too stubborn to make changes when necessary. Just look at the OG situation. The Stover situation, while I like the guy, will end up costing us eventually. In the end it falls on the HC.