12/9/07 More Misery in the Rain

With the Ravens play over the last few seasons we have certainly been conditioned to hate both rain and night games. From the 4th play of the game (after the minor injuries to Scott and Ngata and seeing that neither of our starting corners was playing), I was ready to unload with an expletive laden game that would have rivaled our 2005 trip to Detroit (21 $@%# peanalties). By the numbers:

Overall: 47 plays, 336 yards, 7.1 YPPA
Best: Prude 7/16, 2.3, Gordon 14/52, 3.7, Edwards 37/202, 5.5
Worst: Pittman 16/173, 10.8, Barnes 15/164, 10.9

Vs. the Rush: 25/61, 2.4 YPC (you know by now that all these stats exclude kneels, right?)
Best: Gordon 9/15, 1.7 was the only Raven substantially under their game average
Worst: Barnes 6/24, 4.0. No one who was in for more than 5 rushes was particularly worse than the team as a whole

Vs. the Pass: 22 plays, 275 yards, 12.5 YPP absolutely terrible, and it might be the worst ever for the Ravens
Best: Gordon 5/37, 7.4 YPP, Edward 16/150, 9.4 YPP
Worst: Barnes 9/140, 15.6 YPP, Ngata and Pittman were both 14.5 YPP

By number of Pass Rushers
3: 1 play, 6 yards
4: 13/159, 12.2 YPP
5: 4/81, 20.3 YPP
6: 4/29, 7.3 YPP

By number of Defensive Backs:
3: 1 play, 1 yard (TD by Addai)
4 (standard): 25/146, 5.8 YPPA
5 (nickel): 18/133, 7.4 YPPA
6 (dime): 5/56, 11.2 YPPA

Notes:
• Nothing worked defensively. The Ravens failed with both many and few rushing the QB. They played primarily 4 DB sets in the 2nd half when Dungy had invoked the mercy rule, or the defense would have looked bad in all categories. There were no turnovers or sacks to cloud the yardage per play issues.
• 12.5 YPP vs. 2.4 YPC. Let that soak in a moment. For the season, it’s now 6.8 YPP and 3.0 YPC on non-kneels.
• Pittman had a game he won’t be telling his grandkids about. He was burned early and often before being benched in the 2nd quarter in favor of Ronnie Prude. It will be interesting to see how Ryan utilizes Pittman down the stretch. He’s a player the Ravens need to know more about, but he simply does not appear ready now to contribute.
• Unlike the Pittsburgh game, Martin played quite well. In part because of Manning’s desire to exploit Landry, Martin was not often tested. He played soft and allowed 1 easy first down to Wayne, but the long plays were not his assignments.
• In watching the video again, it was clear that Manning found he was able to exploit Landry and worked to his side of the field most of the night. The long pass plays allowed by Ivy and Pittman were to his side. Was this a leftover from Reed’s monster game vs. Manning in last year’s playoff?
• I’ve never been happier having the Ravens down 21-0 when Ngata returned on Addai’s TD reception. Ngata played just 27 of 47 snaps while Kelly Gregg was forced to work a double shift, playing 43 snaps.
• Lewis was replaced by Greisen for the last 2 snaps (2 Sorgi kneels) for Indianapolis. While those stats don’t count for statistical purposes here, they are the first plays he’s missed since the opener.
• Jarrett Johnson has been reduced to a part time player with the hand injury. After playing 98.6% of snaps for the first 11 weeks, he’s been on the field for just 44 plays the last 2 combined. He’s off in nickel and dime situations. Against a team like Miami, I would expect him to return to a more or less full time role with the Ravens playing a much higher percentage of 4-DB sets. By the way JJ, Sonic the Hedgehog called, he wants his defrackulator back. That is one scary looking cast.
• With the Ravens terribly depleted at DT, Chris Chester came on for the Ravens 3-safety/4-DT alignment on 1st and goal at the 1. You may recall the Ravens stuffed Matt Hasslebeck on 4th and 1 with under 1 minute left versus Seattle in their great comeback in 2003. Key to that play was the insertion of offensive tackle Orlando Brown who submarined effectively as a DT. Chester, apparently has not been schooled in the technique of a playing DT on the goal line, but he did throw one of the best blocks of his career, standing his opponent straight up and driving him back as Addai raced by for the score.