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Ravens Find Their New Identity

Monday, September 30, 2024 18:45
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Ravens Steamroll Bills 35-10

The signs were there. The Ravens had a commanding 21-3 lead at halftime. By the 11:26 mark of the 3rd quarter it was 21-10. Then on the Ravens next possession, three plays produced minus 1 yard. Following a Jordan Stout punt, the Bills took over at their own 19. Four plays later Josh Allen had the Bills looking at a first-and-10 at the Ravens 47. Might the Ravens let another one slip away?

Two plays later, the bleeding stopped. The Bills pulled out a gadget from offensive coordinator Joe Brady’s playbook. Unfortunately for Buffalo, the gadget looked like a broken top, spinning out of control and ending with a strip sack of Allen, recovered by Kyle Hamilton.

The hemorrhaging was over. The comeback fell flat on its face. The rout was on!

“I can’t lie; we came out of the half, [and] I think offense went three-and-out, and then [the Bills] scored that touchdown, and everybody was like, ‘Alright, we don’t need to do this again,’ so I think everybody locked in at that point locked. Offense did their thing, and I think defense settled down. There was a mistake that happened, but I think we did a good job of resetting and then doing what we needed to do to finish.” ~ Kyle Hamilton

THE GOOD

Offense

Sometimes stats don’t tell the entire story of a game. But on Sunday Night against the Bills, they certainly provided plenty of clues as to who won the game.

Ravens v. Bills

Lamar Jackson was nearly perfect. He ran the offense with complete efficiency and command throughout, save the fumble. He was 13 of 18 by air for 156 yards, 2 scores and a passer rating of 135.4. He added another 54 yards by ground including a touchdown to push his season total to 308 yards… When the bright lights of Sunday Night Football come on, Lamar has few peers, particularly when playing at home. He’s now (9-1) in home prime-time games, including 7 straight.

Justice Hill should be doing State Farm commercials. Whenever the Ravens need a key third-down conversion, like a good neighbor, Justice is there. Hill chipped in with 96 all-purpose yards, 18 by ground and 78 by air including a TD on a 19-yard wheel route, during which he juked the defender…Isaiah Likely only had 1 catch for 26 yards but he was outstanding when run blocking…Ditto for tight end roommate Mark Andrews…On the Ravens very first offensive play of the night, Henry ran 87 yards untouched, for the game’s first score. And it was Pat Ricard who got things going, like he was the first tile in a well-choreographed cascading dominoes chain reaction.

Leaning on the run the past two games has seemingly done wonders for the offensive front. Ronnie Stanley and Patrick Mekari were pile driving on the left side…Every play when drawn up on the chalkboard (or tablet), is schemed to go the distance. During the Henry run, Pat Ricard caved in a D-lineman; Roger Rosengarten stood up the edge defender, sealing him off; Linderbaum took care of the Mike backer and Andrews handled the safety. Just a thing of beauty and a reminder of the 83-yard scoring run by Ray Rice during the Wild Card Round of the 2009 playoffs.

Defense

I remember when the Ravens drafted Travis Jones with the 76th pick of the 2022 NFL Draft. Reflecting on their haul of picks, GM Eric DeCosta made it clear that Jones was their preference over Jordan Davis who the Eagles selected with the 13th overall pick. I used to think that was typical GM-speak. In this case, maybe it wasn’t. Jones had a terrific game against the Bills and the tandem of he and Nnamdi Madubuike is blossoming into a highly disruptive force…Kyle Van Noy was once again very active, contributing 2 sacks, 3 QB hurries and a forced fumble that flipped the game’s momentum that for about a ½ quarter had shifted Buffalo’s way. KVN in his 18 games as a Raven has 15 sacks. Let that sink in. Last season his cap number was $1.4M. This season it is $3.625M. Let that sink in.

Odafe Oweh showed his athletics skills with an amazing burst to sack Josh Allen. He had 2 tackles on the night to go with 2 pressures…Oweh was part of a great effort by the Ravens defensive front which regularly flushed Allen out of the pocket, forcing him to cut the field in half by throwing on the run to his right…Kyle Hamilton is so decisive and explosive in short spaces when he diagnoses a play. Watch below as he drops Khalil Shakir. Hamilton also made a nice shoestring tackle to prevent a big play from James Cook during a nice cutback run. Later on in the second quarter Hamilton dropped Dawson Knox short of the sticks to force a punt…Marlon Humphrey spent more time inside the numbers as a slot corner where he seems to impact the game more. He had another nice game and had a terrific, diving PD on a 3rd-and-2 play inside of 2 minutes in the first half…Nate Wiggins is coming along nicely. He had a PD in the end zone and he nearly picked off two passes, one by Allen, the other by Mitch Trubisky. He’ll spend some time with the Jugs Machine this week during practice.

THE BAD

The fumbles by Lamar and Henry didn’t prove costly but in tighter games, they could have made a big difference. Need to clean up the ball security. In Henry’s defense, fatigue may have been a contributing factor while the Ravens seemed overly concerned about getting him a 200-yard game… The Ravens continued their march towards being the league’s penalty champs. Chalk up 8 more for 79 yards bringing their season totals to 39 for 357 yards…Mark Andrews dropped his only target on the night. It should have resulted in a sizeable gain.

Brandon Stephens regularly runs stride for stride with receivers. But on Sunday, he reverted back to an old habit, failing to turn his head to look for the ball. Consequently, Allen to Keon Coleman burned him twice on back-shoulder throws, one for 24 and the other for 21 yards.

THE UGLY

Following a nice play at the 1:16 mark of the second quarter (video above), Humphrey sat on the ground for an extended period, seemingly injured. It cost the Ravens a timeout. During the ensuing fourth-and-2 attempt by Buffalo, John Harbaugh didn’t like the look, so he signaled for a timeout. Because the requested timeout came immediately after the charged timeout for Humphrey’s temporary injury, the Ravens were penalized 5 yards for delay of game, and the Bills had a new set of downs. A head coach should know better. But at least he owned it.

COACHING

Todd Monken

The Ravens OC deserves credit for coming up with creative ways to run the football. I also thought he put Lamar in position to make easy throws for chunk gains by using boots and play-action. Placing Lamar under center more frequently eliminates one of the keys used against the Ravens offense. Too often in the past they’ve only gone under center during run plays. That wasn’t the case last night nor should it ever be…Props also are due for the innovative way that Monken is employing Hill’s talents…The variations in looks even with the same personnel packages create slight hesitation allowing receivers to gain measurable separation during play action throws.

Mr. Monken, I think you’ve discovered what the Ravens offensive identity should be.

Zach Orr

Zach was a much better play caller against the Bills and that’s a tough task given the multi-talented Allen. He disguised coverages giving Allen one look pre-snap and another post-snap. It seemed to force Allen to hold the ball longer than he wanted and when he did, pressure forced him to move and that shifts the geometry of any play design. The results usually aren’t good and for the Bills, that was their reality last night.

John Harbaugh

The double-dip on the consecutive timeouts notwithstanding, it was good to see the Ravens keep weight on the gas pedal and not repeat the mistakes of last week in Dallas. Let the players do their thing and the energy level rises. Clearly that was the case for 60 minutes last night.

Can we try this again on Sunday?

The Paige Spiranac Award

From the very first offensive play right on through his 24th carry, Derrick Henry punished the Bills defense. The King had 199 yards (1 shy of his 7th all-time 200-yard day, which would have been an NFL record) while averaging a spectacular 8.3 YPC.

Together with Lamar Jackson, Henry is part of a rapidly developing one-two punch that few, if any team can rival. Those two at the top of their game and the Ravens playing stingy, physical defense, is the franchise’s identity. Until teams stop it, why do anything else?

Oh, but here’s a guy who has a better idea.

Hey if you want to make some money using ESPN BET, listen to Jason. Really. Listen closely. And then do the opposite of whatever he says. Remember how his league sources said that Kyle Hamilton would be a bust; that Tyler Linderbaum was over-drafted; that Zach Orr’s press conference years ago was to announce a contract extension when it was really to announce Orr’s retirement? The list goes on. So, cash in on JLC.

If only the guy would admit he was wrong every now and then. But if he did, Ken Weinman and Tim Barbalace would never get a word in, know what I mean?

Other Odds & Ends

The AFC North

Props to Joe Flacco for dealing against a familiar foe, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Yinzers dropped to (3-1) on the season. It will be interesting to see if Mike Tomlin is true to his word and names a healthy Russell Wilson as the team’s starting QB. Meanwhile, admire Joe Cool’s interview (below) with Aditi Kinkhabwala.

Last night at The Bank a few former Ravens were in the house, most notably Steve Smith, Sr. and Mark Ingram. SSSr. Is now an accomplished percussionist.

Props to #RavensFlock

To those who were in attendance last night, you earned the exciting show the Ravens put on. The Bank is RARELY mentioned when it comes to the league’s best home field advantages. But that’s ok. We’re used to the lack of respect. Embrace it. Wear that chip on your collective shoulder. Then let the next visiting team, the hot Commanders and their rising star QB Jayden Daniels experience it.

“It’s good to see everybody. I appreciate you being here. Let’s go O’s [Baltimore Orioles], let’s go. I can’t wait for that game tomorrow afternoon at Camden Yards. I have to be honest, I probably won’t be watching it.” (Laughter) “But I’ll be monitoring it very closely. I support those guys, we’re excited for them, and we can’t wait to see them go get after it in the playoffs.” ~ John Harbaugh

Best of luck to the Ravens Camden Yards neighbors. Oh, and let’s not forget this!

The post Ravens Find Their New Identity appeared first on Russell Street Report.


Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/09/30/gbu-paige-spiranac/bills-lose-to-ravens-35-10/


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