2023 Ravens Archives – A Marketplace for Ideas

Ravens-Chiefs Preview: Thoughts from the Chiefs Win Over Buffalo

Time to prepare for the big Sunday matchup. I start with thoughts from the Chiefs win over the Bills. What we can identify as focus areas for the Chiefs, and lessons learned for the Ravens.

The Chiefs Running Game

Readers well know that Mike Macdonald’s zone focuses create weakness in the Ravens interior run defense. The Ravens typically wind up with only six defenders in the box. In the Chiefs tight victory over the Bills, virtually all of their success in the run game was between the tackles. Isaiah Pacheco ran tough with arms flailing (a fumble risk) as the Chiefs pounded the ball. They had virtually no success with designed running plays wide. Pacheco looked a bit slower to me than I expected, just a tad less explosiveness than we’ve seen before. Continue reading “Ravens-Chiefs Preview: Thoughts from the Chiefs Win Over Buffalo”

Ravens versus Texans – A Few Pre-Game Thoughts

By all means the Ravens should win this game. There are no excuses this time around, even without Marlon Humphrey and Mark Andrews. Let’s consider a few pre-game thoughts before kick-off.

Marlon Humphrey’s Loss Should Not Be Critical

The Ravens are fortunate that Tank Dell’s place on injured reserve has him in civvies for this game because his loss leaves the Texans with only Nico Collins as a serious downfield threat. Robert Woods doesn’t scare anyone, and neither does John Metchie. Ron Darby will take Humphrey’s place. Continue reading “Ravens versus Texans – A Few Pre-Game Thoughts”

Ravens Early Comments Before the Rams Game

I hope to have a subsequent post this week drawing comments from the Chargers game and towards the Rams game. Below are a few idle thoughts coming out of the bye week.

Kyle Hamilton

Readers are aware of my view that Hamilton is really two different players. I’ve argued that when he’s aligned in the slot or in the box (i.e., when he is at the line and coming forward) he is outstanding. Hamilton has made a plethora of impact plays from that positioning; sacks, tackles for loss, beating blockers and disrupting plays, etc. But when Hamilton is aligned on the back end as one of the Ravens’ two deep safeties in cover two, he’s just ordinary. Continue reading “Ravens Early Comments Before the Rams Game”

Ravens Thoughts Post-Bengals Heading into L.A.

After a solid drubbing of the poor-old Bengals, it’s time to share some Ravens thoughts heading into the Chargers game. The loss of Mark Andrews was the only thing that went wrong against Cincinnati. As great as Andrews is – and he is – the Ravens have enough remaining offense to continue piling up the points. Let’s get into last week a bit, and extrapolate from there.

Give Me More and More Keaton Mitchell, Please

The Ravens didn’t highlight Mitchell much more than they had against Cleveland. But Mitchell’s reps against the Bengals jumped so far off the tape that I’m more excited for his (and the Ravens offense) upside than before. I’m focused on Mitchell’s third quarter effort. Continue reading “Ravens Thoughts Post-Bengals Heading into L.A.”

Ravens Cleveland Fiasco – What Does it Mean?

It takes a village to make a successful team, and no more was that evident than in the Ravens fiasco against Cleveland. We must not forget that a lot went right in this game. The natural response is to focus on what went wrong and why. I’ll take a crack at that first.

A Tale of Two Games

The Ravens dominated the first quarter of the game, played to a rough push in the second quarter, and were outplayed in the second half. There’s a bunch of bad in the second half, but on my game review much of that was isolated to poor play by a handful of players. So, what did I see? Continue reading “Ravens Cleveland Fiasco – What Does it Mean?”

Ravens – Comments From the Colts Fiasco

What a rotten day for the Ravens. Injuries notwithstanding, this was an unacceptable performance at every level. There were plenty of mental and physical mistakes. Here are a couple of comments from the couch.

Harbaugh and the Fair Catch

Coach Harbaugh has been captaining this ship into his 16^th season. How can it be that there is an on-field scenario for which he and his staff are unprepared? Frankly, it’s shocking how games are lost on his watch for the zaniest of reasons. Continue reading “Ravens – Comments From the Colts Fiasco”

Ravens Insights From the Bengals’ Game

Part of my goal in penning these little pieces is to offer a few insights that might not be obvious as we watch live games. Any success in this endeavor depends on the reader. Dare I say a little bit of what follows is this week’s attempt to add a little spice to your Ravens’ thoughts going into the Colts game.

Todd Monken’s Game Plan and Play Selection

Monken likely entered the Bengals game expecting his patchwork offensive line to have challenges in pass protection. He focused on a quick throw passing attack, to great effect, as Lamar consistently released the ball faster than any game I could recall. The enhanced receiving corps did an excellent job across the board, and Lamar’s accuracy might have reached a high point. Continue reading “Ravens Insights From the Bengals’ Game”

The Ravens After Week One: A Bit of Analysis

The old aphorism certainly applies: a win is a win. But the Texans game highlighted some problems with the week one Ravens that we didn’t anticipate, and others that lurk large. Let’s start with some pleasant surprises and hopes going forward before I get to the warning lights.

The Outstanding – Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen

Mike Macdonald is solving for the Ravens’ arguable lack of pass rushing ability on the outside by bringing Smith and/or Queen in various blitz packages. They both bring explosion and speed with the versatility to be used in different schemes to get to the quarterback. There should be a lot more coming. Continue reading “The Ravens After Week One: A Bit of Analysis”

Ravens 2023: The New Season is Here!

The blog has awakened now that the new season is here! Let’s jump right in with some quick Ravens thoughts.

David Ojabo and the Pass Rush

Yikes! I can’t mince any words here. Ojabo looked awful. Not only was there no explosion, I don’t think there was any evidence of lift-off. If you want to see textbook examples of a player who could not get off of a block just rewind any pass rush attempt by Ojabo in the pre-season. His spin move – which he demonstrated frequently and to great effect at Michigan – disappeared. A powerful punch and extension? Nope. Hand fighting? Maybe there was a bit of thumb wrestling that I missed. This was all massively disappointing. It was so bad that Ojabo was on the field for a play or two in the fourth quarter of last night’s game. He was no better in the running game. Continue reading “Ravens 2023: The New Season is Here!”

Ravens 2023 Big Board Part 2 – Rounds and Players

It’s draft day 2023! Finally, part 2 of the Ravens Big Board is here. Like last year, this 2023 Big Board is not a ranking of all prospects such as you typically see on the internet. That type of ranking is not useful in figuring out who the Ravens will target, as you saw in Part 1 of this year’s Big Board. Instead, the goal is to find who fits what the Ravens try to do, and which players bring to the table what the Ravens most need. The selections you see below are intended to represent which specific prospects the Ravens should draft, and roughly when.

2023 Big Board: It’s a Very Weak Year

This year’s draft class is very weak, in my view. The first round only goes only about 16-17 players deep. And as you’ll see below, there are a lot of players I reviewed who just shouldn’t be drafted by the Ravens. The depth in the balance of the class is arguably the worst in years. If ever there was a year not to have a boatload of picks, 2023 is that year. Continue reading “Ravens 2023 Big Board Part 2 – Rounds and Players”