Offensive Line Scoring and Notes vs. Patriots

[Filmstudy]

Offensive Line Notes—Ravens vs. Patriots

The Ravens ran 72 offensive plays Sunday.

Oher: I’d like to pick something positive from his performance, so I’d say his play after halftime was excellent with no negative plays and just 1 missed block as I have it scored. For the game, however, Michael played as poorly as he ever has, essentially matching his very poor game at Minnesota (10/18/09) vs. Jared Allen. He again had a tough draw, opposite RDE Wilfork. His first false start was a flinch where he stayed down, but was flagged. On his second false start he beat the snap by 4 clicks (0.13 seconds), but the first of Grubbs, Chester, Yanda did not move until 0.4 seconds later (.27 seconds after the ball), which helped to sell the flag. Scoring: 63 blocks, 6 missed, 1 pressure, 1/2 QH, 1 sack, 2 false starts, 1 offensive holding, 41.5 points (.58 per play). If I split his scoring at halftime, I get 7.5 points on 37 plays (.20 per play) prior to the break and 34 points on 35 plays (.97 per play) after.

Grubbs: Ben played well again despite some responsibility for both Wilfork and Warren. I credited him with a block on all 6 pulls, which means he’s now found a block on 17 straight pulls since last missing in the 4th quarter at Pittsburgh. He had 3 blocks in level 2. His only negative play was a penetration surrendered to Wilfork (Q2, 12:32). Scoring: 67 blocks, 4 missed, 1 penetration, 65 points (.90 per play).

Birk: Matt has been playing well, but turned in a mediocre performance Sunday. While it doesn’t excuse his individual effort, he was fortunate that neither of his negative plays hurt the Ravens. His false start put the team in a 1st and 15 hole, but Flacco hit Boldin 3 plays later for the TD that put the Ravens up 17-7. He was driven back, allowing pressure (but not a QH) when Flacco hit Heap for the Ravens first TD (Q2, 11:53). Scoring: 68 blocks, 3 missed, 1 pressure, 1 false start, 63 points (.88 per play).

Chester: An interesting on-field discussion occurred after Wright’s sack (Q1, 4:08). Yanda slid outside to make a block with Rice, but Wright moved by in right B gap vacated by Yanda and Chester’s double with Birk. Wright recorded the sack despite Yanda tying to peel off late to stop him. After the play, Chester was staring down at the pile and Yanda turned him around to discuss the play. It wasn’t violent nor did it draw attention, but it was communication. It’s one of those plays that lead me to believe Yanda could be the line’s leader when Birk retires. While I’m still hopeful he can return to guard, the Ravens’ season depends on the 2 men now playing tackle staying healthy. Scoring: 68 blocks, 3 missed, 1 sack, 62 points (.86 per play).

Yanda: I thought he played well, but I have him scored for twice allowing pressure on Flacco on late 3rd downs (Q4, 1:03 and OT 13:36). He had a solid game of run blocking, but he doesn’t get the opportunity to get a running start and steamroll the 2nd level as he would as a guard. This week he made 3 blocks in level 2 and pulled successfully on each of his 2 opportunities. Despite the handicaps, I would make the case that Yanda is playing more above expectation (for his current position) than any other Raven. Scoring 68 blocks, 1 missed, 2 pressures, ½ sack, 65 points (.90 per play).

Cousins: Oniel entered for 1 play as a 6th lineman (OT, 10:52) on 3rd and 1 and made a block as McClain made the 1st down. Where was he on 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 (Q4, 9:10)? With 59 defensive snaps, I understand why the Ravens wouldn’t use Ngata on offense, but could Cody and Cousins have participated to a 7-man line? Scoring: 1 block (1.00 per play).

Individual Offensive Notes:

• Flacco did not have a comfortable game in the pocket. From a qualitative perspective, I charged his 2nd sack (0 yards) to him, because he left early and scrambled out of bounds. He had room to step up on the sack fumble. When he leaves the pocket to run left, he is as helpless as any right-handed QB you’ll see. That’s not unusual, since a right-hander moving forward towards the left sideline has a greatly reduced triangle in which to find a receiver. Roethlisberger is still dangerous in this situation, because he looks to reset the pocket. Brady and others are effectively able to drift backwards to the left and maintain vision over a greater portion of the field. I see Joe doing more turning to run left which reduces the total area of the field to which he can throw.
• I scored Flacco as having ample time and space to throw on 15 of his 38 attempts (39%). That’s not a good number at all considering how little the Pats brought the blitz. For the game, the Patriots rushed:
o 3: 14 times, 9/14, 65 yards, 4.7 YPP
o 4: 14 times, 12/12, 142 yards, 2 sacks, 1 TD, 10.1 YPP
o 5: 6 times, 3/5, 38 yards, 1 sack, 1 TD, 6.3 YPP
o 6: 3 times, 3/3, 32 yards, 10.7 YPP
o 7: 1 time, 0/1, 0 yards, 0.0 YPP
• I do not have a single time where I have the Patriots marked for deceptive pressure. One measure for that is the number of players who set up on the LoS, then drop to coverage. There was only 1 case where the Pats dropped 2 to cover (Q4, 11:02) and that time they only rushed 3. I certainly may have missed a play, but by any measure, the Patriots had a straightforward pass rush.
• So the pass rush was similar to the Cincinnati and Pittsburgh games with a pass rush of 4 or less on 28 of 38 drop backs. Joseph and Hall shut down the Ravens’ passing attack when the Bengals got decent pressure with 4. The Pittsburgh corners aren’t as good and weren’t successful. McCourty and Arrington are not special players either at this point. However, the Patriots were significantly more effective rushing 3 than 4+.

[davver]

Can you confirm two things for me:

1) Why are we still seeing pressure on Flacco with 3-4 rushers. Shouldn't he be able to hold it a long time and reach his 3rd or 4th option.

2) Shouldn't we be able to run against that kind of rush? How did NE hold Rice to 3 YPC? Are we not running to the outside enough?

[Kyle Cactus]

Any insight as to when players like Brady and Roethlisberger became effective at throwing/locating receivers while scrambling to their left? Is it something they struggled with early in their careers, but have learned to be effective at? Any hope that Joe gets much better at this?

[RavNMadMan]

The analysis points to a specific problem IMHO. Joe gets "ample space and time" to complete a pass slightly more than 1/3 of the time. The Patriots rushed 3 or 4 men approximately 1/3 of the time each respectively. How did they get this much pressure? With 3 coming, it's a 5-3 scenario maybe 6-3 or better depending on whether a RB and/or TE has a blocking assignment. Similar with 4 coming. The Ravens will have to figure out better blocking schemes (and execution obviously) but they should also help Joe move the pocket effectively ALA Brady, Roethlisberger et al. If Joe has to move left and protection breaks down, he should release to checkdown or throw it away

[Filmstudy]

Any insight as to when players like Brady and Roethlisberger became effective at throwing/locating receivers while scrambling to their left? Is it something they struggled with early in their careers, but have learned to be effective at? Any hope that Joe gets much better at this?

Kyle Cactus and RavNMadMan,

I don't recall if Roethlisberger was setting up in a secondary pocket as a rookie, nor when Brady developed. That's worth a trip to the 2004 Ravens/Steelers videos. The Ravens didn't play the Pats in 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003, so I don't have much if any early Brady video to review.

davver,

Yes, the Ravens should have had perhaps 55-65% ample time/space to throw given the Pats pass rush. It's interesting to note that the Pats spent the first half trying to create pressure with numbers and despite 3 sacks, only rushed more than 4 one time after halftime.

[Purple4ever]

Filmstudy, thanks for another great analysis! I notice one aspect that begs for more explanation, please. You give the O-line very high marks, except for Ohre in the 1st half (when Flacco was on fire!), yet for some reason Flacco had good time to throw only 38% of his drop-backs. My question is, since the O-line was doing such a good job, I don't understand only 38% of attempts with ample time. And if Joe only had time on 38%, how does the line get high grades? This in not in any way a dispute with your analysis...instead, I feel that somehow I am the one who is mis-interperting your scores. Could you explain futher, please?

P4e

[JimZipCode]

Great post as usual. I look forward to this one every week, even more than the defensive one. Nice info on Cousins -- I didn't notice him. Maybe his appearance during OT signifies the coaches being more willing to use him and the 6-man line in the coming weeks.

Flacco did not have a comfortable game in the pocket. ... I scored Flacco as having ample time and space to throw on 15 of his 38 attempts (39%). That’s not a good number at all

Presumably that's on the whole day. You're talking as if Flacco had a bad day overall.

Yet Flacco's performance on the day was excellent. With 10 mins left in the 4th Q, Flacco had thrown 25 passes, and his stats were:

21 of 25 (84%) for 244 yds (9.8 yds/att) with 2TDs, for a passer rating of 134

Unbelievably efficient and productive play. Bert Jones won the MVP when he had a yds/att over 9. Flacco was having an MVP-like day.

He threw 10 more passes the rest of the game, for a total of 41 more yards, which is terrible. We all want to know, what the heck happened? What changed? Did the Pats change their scheme significantly in the 4th Q? Did Joe just turn cold, because you really can't stay that hot all game long? Did something else happen?

[Stealthbirds80]

Good observations Film. Also interesting is that they put Wilfork over Oher for alot of that game. I really starting to think that Ray Rice has been gamed and not Oher. On TV, you notice that Rice always wants to bounce outside over Grubbs and Oher. What the Pats seemed to do was just shift their DT/NT to that left side that negates Rice bouncing on his favorite side. I akin this to a basketball player who only crosses over to his right hence you play him to that side. You take that away and they are seeming lost. I hope that hasn't happened with our run game. I personally think that McGahee with his slash runs could have helped that out. Am I alone in this thinking?

[AirFlacco]

HI STEALTH:

I said this on the other thread but according to outsiders.com, the Ravens run over
50% of their plays up the middle over Birke, 23% over Oher and just 9% over Yanda.

Only 23% over Oher.

With all those plays up the middle, think teams don't know this?