Top thoughts & suggestions for Ravens going into the bye

[tnsmith90]

Or, they can put Fluker in at RG. I think you're right about Tyre not being as good as Yanda, and hurt Skura not as good as healthy Skura, but your solutions are much more than just "put Fluker in at RG, the position he has played in the NFL for the last few years. He was a first round pick, he was known to be good at run blocking from the RG spot, and I bet that him and Zeus can do some powerful run blocking on that side of the OL. On the other side of the line, Stanley and Bozeman are doing well.

My guess is that if the solution to the team's offensive issues were that simple, the coaches would be competent enough to recognize it. Therefore, I think they need to think outside the box, and change the way they approach the problem. Rather than asking guys to do what they are incapable of, find ways to move the ball without asking them to do what they cannot. A good coordinator will ofcourse have things they want to do; but will also adapt their scheme to their players. Now, is the time for Roman to adapt, IMO.

[BRfan96]

I think the list of things that needs to happen is extensive, but the most important things are these:

Find out what it'll take to get the offense back in a groove and having fun. The OL getting healthy should be good, but getting chemistry and rhythm on offense is paramount.

Work with the safeties and Marcus peters about how to cover certain routes and route concepts.

Work with the front 4 about stunting and pass rush moves.



I think getting these things moving in the right direction will help a lot. If they can get these things up to par, or get these things to difference maker status then this team will be able to show up in the playoffs and take people out. If those elements of the team get fixed then I feel good going up against KC, Ten, Pit, Buffalo. I think being able to protect, rush, and cover better (notice I didn't say perfectly) will help this team be more dynamic and balanced which is what you need in the playoffs.

I think this second half of the season will be labeled a success if:

we can get to 12 or 13 wins (I think we split with Pit, and lose to Ten/Indy)

Lamar and the offense has more flow and rhythm and explosivity. Also if they can average 28 points on offense over this last half I'd be happy

The defense show an uptick in sacks from the front 4

the defense stops giving up huge plays (anything over 25 yards)

4 things! that's all I want to see. Even if it's ugly, I want these things to happen. I'm not looking for the WR's to suddenly become the monstars, I'm not looking for Lamar to start producing 400 yard passing games, I'm not even looking for the run game to start getting 150 every game. I'm just looking for better execution.

[edromeo]

Fluker and Mekari have similar PFFs, Ben Powers PFF is significantly higher than either of those 2. Phillips PFF is much lower than those 3, at least 10 points lower.

There is no reason to think that the reason a player is playing at a certain spot at a given time is because he's the best there and then. He could be the worst (not saying he is) and the Ravens could be curious how they do when they aren't putting their best out there.

I like your posts. I really do but c'mon. Sample size. Powers has only played 31 snaps.
Also who does goes in 1st at OG Mekari or Powers?
Also, Mekari was the top depth IOL C or OG last year.
And he actually played and played well in actual games last year Powers played next to nil.

[Bhcforlife]

I'm not going to post the full blurb about him because you should go to Film's site to read it, but...

Mekari: Patrick played 14 snaps and was bad.

...

Because he was short of the 20-snap minimum, he does not get a grade. However, he would have needed approximately 22 additional blocks without a miss or charge to get to a D-.

For those keeping score at home

Rams: D
49er's: B-
Bills: C
Jets: D
Browns: D-
Steelers: B
Titans: F

Bengals: D+
Eagles: Not enough snaps, but terrible in the snaps he played

So a failing grade in 6 of 9 games. But apparently I am wrong and misinterpreting his grades, I guess.

[YoCo757]

November will tell us a lot about this team. No shitty NFC East or winless opponents. The next 5 games are the real deal. If the Ravens fall flat, it doesn’t bode well for January. On the other hand, they finished the 2019 regular season best in the NFL but crapped the bed immediately in the first playoff game. So who knows what to think with this group? The KC demons have clearly gotten in LJ and Harbaugh’s heads. Can they shake their postseason demons and finally win a January game?

[leachisabeast]

I'm not going to post the full blurb about him because you should go to Film's site to read it, but...



For those keeping score at home

Rams: D
49er's: B-
Bills: C
Jets: D
Browns: D-
Steelers: B
Titans: F

Bengals: D+
Eagles: Not enough snaps, but terrible in the snaps he played

So a failing grade in 6 of 9 games. But apparently I am wrong and misinterpreting his grades, I guess.

I keep trying to tell people around here about this... but mekari for whatever reason is quite overrated on this board. A lot of that is because he stepped in for Skura last season and didn't look out of place and had a couple of good games. The thing with that is, he was next to a future HOF right guard and a fairly solid left guard and was also playing in a scheme that benefitted him. I think Sunday exposed him a little when he was asked to play right guard and was totally hopeless. I really think we need to try something different at right guard, why not give Powers or even Bredeson a shot?

[BcRaven]

November will tell us a lot about this team. No shitty NFC East or winless opponents. The next 5 games are the real deal. If the Ravens fall flat, it doesn’t bode well for January. On the other hand, they finished the 2019 regular season best in the NFL but crapped the bed immediately in the first playoff game. So who knows what to think with this group? The KC demons have clearly gotten in LJ and Harbaugh’s heads. Can they shake their postseason demons and finally win a January game?

YC757, you said it! The 5 - 1 Ravens are on the BYE week. Pretty much healthy, but everyone can use a break. We just acquired Pass Rush help and the coaching staff can try to tweak the offensive system. In perfect shape to take on the Steelers (11/01), @ the Colts (11/08), @ Patriots (11/15), Titans (11/22), and
@ Steelers on Thanksgiving (11/26 - when I'm not sure I can get the turkey down my throat until the game is over). That's 5 games (3 away/2 in Baltimore) against tough opponents. If we can go 3 - 2 (splitting with the Steelers), taking us to 8 - 3, then I'll be satisfied... Bc

[organizedchaos21]

Good stuff Chaos. Have you noticed anything of the sort to tip off defenses?

I meant to come back to this before, but obviously I forgot. To start, I'll remind everyone that the Ravens have one of the most advanced analytics departments in the league, and I'm sure they do a ton of self-scouting. It's highly unlikely that I'll find a tell that they haven't. That doesn't mean they don't have tells, but I'd lean toward them being intentional.

Tracking snap participation is the one thing that I've been able to do consistently this season. There are some things there: the Ravens dropback on 72% of Dobbins' snaps, 66% of Andrews' snaps, and 34% of Ricard's snaps (those are the biggest outliers of players with a reasonable number of snaps). Those seem like pretty big tells, but I think it mostly works in the other direction. When the Ravens want to pass (i.e. it's a passing situation like a two min drill or they're trailing in H2), they want to put their best pass players on the field (Dobbins over any other RB, Andrews over Boyle). When it's 3rd&short and they want to pound the rock or they're down near the goal line, they bring in Ricard to run.

So I'd argue it's not so much tipping off the defense (who already know what the situation calls for) as much as it's getting the right personnel on the field for what they want to do. In 2019 at least, and especially when running the ball, it didn't seem to matter that the defense knew what type of play was coming. They went 8/8 on 4th&1 in the RS in 2019 (includes 2 fake punts). The 1 pass they threw went for 36 yards.

I'm working to chart formations and motion, but even there, I've already seen Roman do some tricky stuff. On Sunday, the Ravens converted a 3rd&11 with a 17 yard screen to Duvernay. They went empty, with 3 receivers (Boyle, Duvernay, Snead) bunched left, Andrews flexed out to the right, and Dobbins wide right (Q1, 10:09). They came back to the same formation at (Q2, 06:20). The Eagles CB (Robey-Coleman?) recognized and closed on the screen, but Lamar was targeting Andrews anyway (ball tipped at the line, knocked down by Gerry). While the 2nd play was ultimately unsuccessful, it's nice to see Roman show something early and riff off of it later (and it's not the only example either).

They've also shown tendency breakers based on personnel groupings. The long pass to Brown against CLE in week 1 (Q1, 01:34) was a dropback snap with Ricard and Boyle on the field. The Ravens showed a heavy PA fake (not just a mesh but a full turn), then sent Brown deep from the slot. It ultimately didn't matter on the play, but all 3 LBs bit HARD.

I get the impression that a lot of us (myself included) end of judging Roman based off of results. When the offense was amazing in 2019, everyone loved him and was scared that another team would hire him away to be their HC. After the loss to TEN, he received a ton of blame (most of which I think is unwarranted). And now that the offense is struggling in 2020, we're already talking about firing him and replacing him with Culley (some of the cooler heads suggest waiting until the offseason and then bringing back Kubiak instead). For the most part, I think he's doing as good a job as he did in 2019.

That's not to say that I love everything he's doing. As an example, I was unimpressed with the routes and personnel on the 3rd down play at (Q4, 03:40). I don't think he put anyone in a position to succeed on a crucial play late in a game. I'm sure I missed some tell, or maybe the Eagles got lucky and covered the play perfectly by accident. Hell, maybe he was out of 3rd&long calls (he dialed up 3 very solid ones to start the game). But I think he's getting a lot of blame for the offensive "struggles," and it's not clear how much of that he deserves. At some point, the players have to make plays.