Gratuitous self-pimpage - Air Coryell and the Ravens

[Ravenswintitle]

Very well written article. Growing up, Dan Fouts was my fav QB and I loved Air Coryell so I've studied it a bit. Don't forget the TE was and should remain a big part of that offense and I didn't see that mentioned.

I really grow tired of all the Cam bashing seeing as how a year prior, he was voted one of the top 5 OCs in the league. He didn't just all the sudden get dumb. I disagree with some play calls but it's easy to second guess when a play doesn't work.

With Flacco being not the most mobile, we need a solid Oline, he is not Ben. I think a true FB will help and Ricky Williams can add the power and keep defenses honest but I hope they're not done with Oine upgrades.

[Ravenswintitle]

You mean great QB's like Manning and Brady who have had veritable "walls" in front of them most of their career?

Show me most any "great" QB, and I'll show you a QB that had time to throw.

Only a very few have been able to achieve much of anything behind a shoddy line. That is what is really concerning me about this year's team.

Manning gets the ball out in 3 seconds. He has not had a great Oline at all.

[Shas]

You mean great QB's like Manning and Brady who have had veritable "walls" in front of them most of their career?

In Manning's case, I think it is more a case of getting rid of the ball so quickly.

In Brady's case, you're right, he's protected by a wall...of officials.

[Jsmoove]

What the Cams system entails we don't have the correct pieces for therefore we will struggle until he starts playin our unit to its strengths. Like Gota says some things you can't put math to.

[zing!]

I'm not big on advanced stats (though I guess I should because I'm an accountant in training lol) because it is hard to account for all variables that occur in a game. Nonetheless a good read.

My own little research about the receiving corps and Air Coryell--

Anyone who noticed the Ravens passing game saw that the WRs rarely ran across the middle and they ran deeper routes than usual. I looked at our receivers’ history in terms of their yards per catch and averaged their 3 years prior to working under Cam Cameron.

• Boldin (12 yards)
• Mason (11 yards)
• Houshmandzadeh (10.5 yards)
• Heap (10.5 yards)

Boldin and Houshmanzadeh are for this year, but Mason and Heap are averaged 3 years during Cam Cameron as OC.

• Boldin (13)
• Mason (13)
• Houshmanzadeh (13)
• Heap (12)

You may say that one or two yards aren’t that big of a difference but considering they are different from prior years it means a lot. These are three possessions receivers + TE who aren't very fast or explosive and excel in the short passing game. I also looked at the YAR for the WRs during Cam's tenure as the Chargers offensive coordinator. All their WRs and TE averaged 13 or more yards per a catch.

OC are known as sticklers for their schemes and rarely divert from their game plan. Maybe with trimming of the offensive coaching staff to just Cam Cameron and Joe Flacco will create a stable offense and improve it from last year. Adding Lee Evans + having a rookie in Torrey Smith could be valuable additions to making the offense run smoothly.

[ActualSpamBot]

Jsmoove, we spent all offseason getting the correct pieces. When we moved Yanda back to G we upgraded our interior line, and replaced a subpar blocking fullback with the best run blocking FB in the league. All of which will in turn improve the power run game.

We replaced two slow possession options in Mason and Heap with downfield big play guys in Evans and Dickson/Pitta.

In short, we changed our pieces to fit the puzzle.

[GOTA]

In Manning's case, I think it is more a case of getting rid of the ball so quickly.

In Brady's case, you're right, he's protected by a wall...of officials.

Did you see the quotes from Gerald McCoy on Brady from last night?

Check it out. Great stuff

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ry/rumor-mill/

“[Adrian] Clayborn came to me and was like, ‘Oh my god, it was so fast!’ I said, ‘I know! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!’ It was a reality check, we needed that,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said via Greg. A. Bedard of the Boston Globe.

“Man, I’m telling you man, they came out, they’d turn around huddle, snap, oh, ‘There’s the Mike, Go!’ I was like, ‘Dang! Um, Mr. Brady, can we line up?’ He didn’t care. He was like, ‘You’re not going to line up.”’ McCoy said. “When we turned around one time I checked back around and my hand was going to the grass and they were like, ‘Hut!’ And I said, ‘Noooooooooooo!’”

[RavensNTerps]

You mean great QB's like Manning and Brady who have had veritable "walls" in front of them most of their career?

Show me most any "great" QB, and I'll show you a QB that had time to throw.

Only a very few have been able to achieve much of anything behind a shoddy line. That is what is really concerning me about this year's team.

Manning has never had a great OL in front of him.

[GOTA]

Manning has never had a great OL in front of him.

He did in 2006. That was a real good group. Once Tarik Glenn retired it went downhill

[PTORaven]

The Coryell offense was predicated on a power back because the goal was to bring defenders down into the box to bring the big guy down before he just grinds his way down field.

If the Ravens can accomplish the same thing by sending Rice between the tackles and being too slippery for one linebacker to bring down, then they've accomplished the same thing. They force the defense to bottle up the run, then they force the defense to respect the deep ball, then they kill you with the underneath throw. We saw it work well in the Kansas City playoff game. Problem for the Ravens was that they were so weak running the ball all year, they rarely got to the third phase of the attack -- we rarely saw the crossing pattern underneath because they rarely could get either of the earlier phases going. They never put teams on their heels.

When run right, the Coryell offense forces a weakness in a defense because the defense must either bring an eigth man into the box to stop the inside run game (opening up the vertical passing game) or cover the speedy vertical receivers (opening up the inside run game). When people say that Air Coryell requires a power back it's because that's traditionally the sort of back who excels in between-the-tackles, north-south, inside running. I'm pretty sure that any type of back can be effective in this scheme if they are dangerous enough on inside routes to require an eigth defender.

[Shas]

Did you see the quotes from Gerald McCoy on Brady from last night?

Hilarious.

[Dave Lap]

Nice article, but I thought everybody knew that the ineffectiveness of the OL was the main reason the Offense did not do as well as expected.

It's been discussed before that the long ball was tried quite a bit and was actually fairly successfull when you look at the stats. Good analysis in your article.

I think what your article might be missing is that Cameron did not call alot of quick slants that may have compensated for the poor O Line play somewhat. Flacco doid not show the quick release as much as other "elite" QB's.

Also, I think Flacco's ball handling skills may have added to the inefectiveness of the running game, not the main reason mind you, but it still detracted from it. Many times he ran back a few yards with his arms fully outstretched. It looked like he was telegraphing the play and what gap it was going toward. That gap was filled quickly most of the time. Flacco coulld also have been better on his fakes. He was okay but there were a number that were not sold at all. This makes the actual handoffs even more predictable.

I think you may be onto something here. I have felt, for the past, three seasons that some teams are anticipating the run aginst us a little TOO effectively. When we play Indianapolis, for example, it's almost like the defense is in the offensive huddle for the play call on runs. They are not a great run stopping team but play like all stars against the run on us. I know their quickness could be a matchup problem but beyond that-they seem to have a sixth sense for where to plug the gaps before it's reasonable to expect a team to be able to read the play.

BTW, good article PSU.