Ravens Thoughts Heading Into Jacksonville

The Ravens victory over the Rams was marred by some heretofore uncharacteristically poor defensive play.  The offense was inconsistent.  Below are some Ravens thoughts heading into this week’s road matchup with Jacksonville.

Ravens Thoughts: What’s Happening on Defense

Several things really jumped out from the Rams game.  Let’s touch on a few.

Geno Stone

Last week I cautioned that the play of Geno Stone deserved more scrutiny.  Against the Rams, all of Stone’s flaws were on display.  Pundits are enamored with Stone’s six interceptions earlier this year.  Fans are calling on Stone to receive a nice multi-year contract from the Ravens next year.  Performances such as we saw against the Rams underscore the concerns regarding Stone.

The Rams’ first series of the game highlighted several of the deficiencies in Stone’s game.  I’ve bemoaned Stone’s run support (or lack thereof).  The second play from scrimmage had Stone taking a very poor angle in run support, missing the tackle, and leading to a ten yard gain.  Two plays later he again missed a tackle in run support, resulting in a big gain.  Five plays after that he missed another tackle on a running play.  I saw other running plays where Stone was simply too slow to react.

On the Rams third series Stone was badly fooled by a play action pass, highlighting some lack of discipline in his reads.  Stone’s failure left Cooper Kupp all alone in Stone’s assigned area, causing a big gain.  On another big gain to Puku Nacua when the Rams were in a trips formation, Stone jumped to the wrong player, abandoning Nacua.

Stone is peeking too much at the quarterback.  His physical skills don’t grant him the recovery time he needs when he is wrong.  At this juncture the tape can’t hide the warts in Stone’s game.  I suspect he’s going to be tested from here on out.

The Loss of Kyle Hamilton – Arthur Mallet

Hamilton’s injury thrust Arthur Mallet onto the slot for the balance of the Rams’ game.  Mallet’s struggles were evident, as the secondary thereafter committed more mistakes than we’d seen over the last several weeks combined.  Though it wasn’t all terrible, Mallet’s mistakes were both physical and mental.  He was beaten badly by a double move early in the second half.  Pass-offs to him in zone coverages were inefficient resulting in wide open receivers.  He found himself out of position on another play.  His poor read and reaction on a pre-snap motion was way too slow, allowing a completion to Kupp, topped off by Mallet’s missed tackle.

It’s easy to see why Pepe Williams was activated for the Jags game.  Mallet has had his moments this year, though typically on limited snap counts.  He wasn’t up to the challenge of larger minutes against the Rams.  Breakdowns in the secondary, which had been infrequent, were too plentiful with Mallet on the field.  Will Williams offer more?  There’s no way to know in advance but he’s likely going to get the chance if Hamilton can’t go against Jacksonville.

One thing is for sure.  Stone’s mistakes and Mallet’s mistakes won’t cut it come playoff time.  (Did I say playoffs?).

Marlon Humphrey

Humphrey obviously missed two big plays on the Rams’ final field goal drive.  He fell down on one, and was fooled by a double team on another.  Earlier in the game Marlon reacted very slowly in coverage leading to a completion.   Yet, there were a bunch of plays where Marlon’s’ coverage was outstanding, locking receivers to the sideline and blanketing them more generally.

Let’s remind ourselves who Marlon Humphrey is as a corner.  He’s not the lockdown elite corner who you can task on an island for an entire game on the league’s top receivers.  He lacks top-end recovery speed.  Humphrey is very physical and will pay the price with yellow flags on occasion.  He can punch the ball out, is a strong tackler, provides top-end run support, and is smart.  He’s been injured quite a bit this year, and I don’t think he’s in the type of game shape that the Ravens would like.  But that will change.

Humphrey is still a strength on this defense.  With Mike Macdonald playing so much Cover-2, we should expect a disciplined Humphrey to provide more lock down help underneath.  How strong will the Ravens secondary turn out to be after playing against two of the league’s best offenses ?  Geno Stone, Marlon Humphrey, and the slot corner are the keys.  Communication was sensational on the back end for most of this season.  It wasn’t against the Rams.  Will it continue to be the strength it must?

The Defensive Line – Who Can Hold Two Gaps?

I don’t want to get too far over my skies on this one.  In prior posts I pointed out how Cover-2 shells frequently leave only six men in the box for the Ravens against run plays.  Patrick Queen’s diminished effectiveness, combined with some comparatively poor support from the safeties have yielded some big gainers.  Roquan Smith (dare I say it) also bears some of the blame, though nowhere near to the extent as Queen.

But run defense all starts with the front linemen, especially on the interior.  And what we’ve witnessed recently is inconsistent (if not disappointing) play in maintaining gap discipline by both Michael Pierce and Justin Madubuike.  On many play designs against the Ravens, either or both of Pierce and Madubuike are tasked with taking on double teams.  In those instances their responsibility is to occupy both blockers, allowing the inside linebackers to stay clean.

Over the course of his career Pierce has been an exceptional anchor against double teams.  For Madubuike, well that really isn’t his strength.  Pierce’s effectiveness in this regard has declined, especially in recent weeks.  Put images of his exceptional performance against the Cardinals out of your mind.  Second blockers are getting off of him and down the field to Queen/Smith.  With only six men in the box, this leads to some poor outcomes, especially without fast run support from the defensive backs.

Travis Jones

On the other hand, Travis Jones is really putting it all together.  He needs to play more.  Jones is effectively occupying double teams in the mold of Brandon Williams.  Jones is more athletic than Williams, though not yet as consistently stout against the run as Williams was in his prime.  But instances of his winning against these double teams are popping up more frequently on the tape, as they did against the Rams.  And Jones has brought some solid pocket penetration and a pressure or two as well.  His sack, after beating two blockers, was a thing of beauty for a big man.

The Pass Rush

For the first time in a while the Ravens had few individual wins in the pass rush.  Odafe Oweh’s progress has slowed, though I did see a nice spin/reverse spin move.  I’m a bit surprised that Oweh’s play count hasn’t increased.  Every time Tavius Robinson attempts to rush the quarterback I’m thinking that Mike Macdonald is just giving the play off for either Jadaveon Clowney or Kyle Van Noy.  There’s no mixing words here.  Robinson is completely ineffective as a pass rusher.

There’s a lot of football yet to play.  The older pass rushers must remain in a rotation to keep them fresh.  Out of the group of exterior linebackers, by all rights Oweh should play more.

Ravens Thoughts on the Offense

From the Dolphins surprise loss to the Titans, I saw a couple of Dolphins’ play designs that have Keaton Mitchell’s name screaming all over them.  Todd Monken should steal them.

This Week’s Play Designs for Keaton Mitchell

Two Dolphins plays, designed for the very speedy 4.32 forty, and 5’9” De’Von Achane, look perfect for Mitchell.  On the first, Achane line up in the backfield, went in motion to the right but before he cleared the offensive tackle, reversed field back to the left and received the handoff.  Because of the quickness in the reverse cut, and with Achane’s speed, he blew by reacting defenders for a strong gain.

On the second play, Achane lined up on the outside shoulder of the left tackle.  On the snap, the Dolphins brought him back across the offensive line for a handoff.  It’s a simple jet sweep, last second action from the closer position adjacent to the offensive tackle.  This type of last second movement, with a player as quick and fast as Archane (and Mitchell) is very tough on a front seven.  Of course, this play can be run from either side of the offensive line.

The Ravens could add a wrinkle to this second play.  Zay Flowers could be set wide on the other side of the field.  Pre-snap Flowers could bring strong jet sweep action in the other direction while Mitchell takes a handoff back against Flowers’ side of the field.  Mitchell could be lined up two yards behind the offensive tackle, to allow clean fake jet action for Flowers.  Fun.  But we need more creativity in getting Mitchell into mismatches in open space.

The Weekly Ronnie Stanley Report

Stanley graded out extraordinarily well by Pro Football Focus in the Rams game.  All of that must be tempered.  For one, the Rams brought no challenges against Stanley.  Byron Young (the Rams third rounder) matched up frequently against Stanley.  Young has absolutely nothing to offer at this point as a pass rusher.  He is simply a bull rusher, and a high-pad bull rusher at that, aka Tavius Robinson.

On just one occasion the Rams brought a true edge rusher against Ronnie.  Stanley was easily beaten.  He was left reaching, as we’ve seen so frequently this year.  It’s great that Ronnie held his own against the Rams.  I’m not expecting this type of performance over the next four games.  I hope I’m surprised.

Ravens Thoughts – There are Wide Open Receivers Everywhere!

The Rams pass defense was defenseless.  Everyone ran free for the Ravens.  Rashod Bateman, Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham and Nelson Agholor – Lamar had his pick for most of the afternoon.  Unfortunately, as everyone saw, Lamar just couldn’t hit any of numerous wide open deep balls.  On some of these throws it seems as if Lamar is just heaving it as far as he can.  Odell Beckham’s sensational catches illustrates that Lamar should just let his receivers run under some throws.  We’ve also witnessed Lamar throwing the deep ball over the wrong shoulder of the receiver.  Or leading the receiver back towards coverage.  It’s a pity.

Jackson’s inaccuracy last week wasn’t limited to the deep ball, however.  Lamar also missed a bunch of intermediate passes.  And in scramble situations he frequently failed to locate wide open receivers for what would have been big gains.  Principal among those was . . .

Isaiah Likely

The guy who was open on almost every play was Likely.  Deep, intermediate, short, Likely was just open, open, open.  Unlike against the Chargers, Monken did not put Likely in motion very often.  But when he did early in the game, Likely had his big touchdown catch and run.  The motion design confused the Rams secondary leaving Likely alone for his scamper.  I expect motion plays with Likely will remain a feature of the offense.

On breakdown plays, Likely is not (yet) filling the Mark Andrews role.  What a shame, because Lamar could have had his choice of big completions to Likely against the Rams.  No one can replace Andrews.  But Likely brings an element of speed and elusiveness for a tight end that, combined with the Ravens outside receivers, really challenges defenses when plays breakdown.  Likely in an open, broken field should himself be open time and again.

Another Plea for Rashod Bateman

Bateman is no more than the third or fourth worry for most defenses.  They have to stop Flowers, Beckham and Lamar before they focus on Bateman.  Against the Rams, Bateman should have had two long scores, with a bunch more receptions.  Bateman remains an underutilized, if not hidden, arrow in the offensive quiver.

Final Ravens Thoughts – The Jaguars

High ankle sprains are really painful and almost impossible to run with.  Trevor Lawrence, who allegedly has one, was running freely as a scrambler last week.  It’s hard to believe his ankle is so damaged.  The Jags are without Christian Kirk, a blessing for the Ravens particularly if Kyle Hamilton can’t go.  I expect the Ravens to rest his knee this week.

The Jags are very weak in the secondary.  If the Ravens can pass protect, I expect Todd Monken will again attack down the field.  Now, if only Lamar can hit one or two of those . . .