It All Starts With The Pass Rush
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 21, 2009 10:42 AM EDT
21 comments
Complain all you want about the secondary or the linebackers, but we all know the games are won or lost in the trenches. On both sides of the ball, as goes the offensive and defensive lines, goes the game. The Baltimore Ravens are no different than any other team and looking at the offensive success we have enjoyed this season is a result of the improvement in the five guys in front of Joe Flacco. The addition of rookie Michael Oher has bolstered the time that Flacco has to throw and opened bigger holes for the running backs. Take Oher out of the picture, especially with an injured Jared Gaither and see how average our offense would return to.
Same goes, perhaps even more so, with the defensive line.
(More on "It All Starts With The Pass Rush" after the 'Jump')
In 2006, when our team went 13-3 in the regular season, the team had 28 interceptions. Contributing to that stat was the 61 sacks that the team had, including four guys with at least 10 sacks. The Ravens were absolute beasts on defense that year and the opposing QB's knew they had mere seconds to drop back and release the ball or else find themselves flat on their backs with their facemasks buried in the grass. Therefore, they released the ball earlier in the play than they wanted to and thus the increase in interceptions. My, how good our secondary looked that season, huh?
Move up on year to 2007, and the totals dropped to 17 interceptions aided by 32 sacks, resulting in a embarassing 5-11 record. Fast forward to last season (2008) and while the interceptions went up to 26 the sacks stayed about the same at 34. However the pass pressure was still there and while if the sacks went up, some of those interceptions might not have resulted. We made the playoffs and were four minutes away from the Super Bowl and that was without much of an offense.
Therefore, as I've said so often this season, improve the pass pressure and the rest will fall into place. The opposing QB's won't be able to sit back there or move around like Brett Favre did this past Sunday and wait for one of the wide receivers to break into the open ,thus making our secondary look foolish and either lost or commit the painful penalties that have us cursing the TV or jumping up and down on the sofa like idiots. You'd be amazed how good our corners would look with pressure on the QB by our front four or five. In front of any great corners in the NFL stand a group of pass rushers that get to the quarterback on a regular basis.
So what can the Ravens do in this Bye Week to regroup and improve the pass rush that has not gotten either the sacks or the pressure necessary to help the secondary look better? Whether it be the schemes or the personnel, it just has not been working as 14 sacks and seven interceptions, which puts us on target for mediocre totals of 37 sacks and 18 interceptions. More importantly, this team has proven so far that while the sacks are not the issue, the pressure has not gotten to the opposition and their QB's are racking up great stats against us, especially in our frustrating three losses.
Regardless of the improvements in the offense, unless we improve in the defensive pass pressure, the team will continue to make the highlights, but not the post season.
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I’ve discussed this with my friends and looking back at last year, our defensive backs were worse than what we have this year. Think about it…Martin, Oglesby, Ivy, Washington and Walker and C-Mac was hurt for most of the year. Foxworth is a better DB than any one of those players. And, it’s possible that Carr is as well. Leonhard is not an All-Pro safety either, he just benefited from playing next to Reed and only having to drop in coverage for a fraction of the time that Landry is forced to this year.
It really does start up front. If the pass rush gets better, then so does our pass defense…it’s really that simple. Mattison needs to stop playing basic defensive schemes and instead go back to complex blitzes. Less time to throw results in opposing QBs committing more mistakes.
by hellerja2 on Oct 21, 2009 11:35 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
i wonder with mattison being new if the defensive veterans pushed him to simplify the game. it seemed like ray was for getting back to basics in some of his interviews and playing more straight up. i know it had to be difficult running Rexx’s schemes in loud stadiums etc.. I am sure Mattison will run whatever Ray wants. I remember a conversation between Ray and the coach on the sidelines of one game the coach basically said for Ray to let him know what he sees etc..
if i were a player i’d much rather concentrate on simple straight up talent vs. talent football than x’s and o’x overkill.
by raven on Oct 21, 2009 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Trust me, Ray calls the schemes
as much as Mattison does with his audibles on defense.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 21, 2009 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
I’ll never trust you Rexx/Bruce whoever you are…
by raven on Oct 21, 2009 7:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Why should anyone?
Look, I’m the guy that in my double elimination “Last Man Standing” (Suicide) Pool, took the Bills to beat Cleveland (lost at home 6-3) two weeks ago and got my second loss this past Sunday when the Eagles lost in Oakland (14-9). So what the heck do I know, right?
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 22, 2009 8:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
You are right Bruce
Bruce you are so right. Unless we truly start to pressure QBs and make them make mistakes we can give up now. All our losses can be attributed to lack of pressure on the QB. Carson Palmer had all day as did Phillip Rivers in that near loss. We don’t have a dominant DE and even though Trevor Pryce is solid he doesn’t have the speed and quickness he used to have. Just looked at the official Ravens roster on their site and there is only one DE listed – Paul Kruger and he has that dreaded LB/DE tag and he is not even playing! We have become predictable to other offenses and they have no problem keeping us off the QB. We need someone to step it up on the line or they will keep picking us apart.
by Rayfan1 on Oct 21, 2009 11:38 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
This is a bit off topic.
But who else has been impressed with Dannell Ellerbe when he gets in. T-Good is simply too talented and fast to lose his spot to him, but I can really see Ellerbe turning into another undrafted rookie gem. I havent seen enough to be sold, but his open field play is great, Im really liking the guy.
Scott Hines
by shines on Oct 21, 2009 12:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
ellerbe
he stood out in pre-season as a strong tackler. he made some nice wrap ups of players. the way your supposed to tackle. i’d give him more shots without a doubt!
by raven on Oct 21, 2009 12:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Ellerbe was a top 125 draft pick
until he got hurt his senior season. Now he’s showing why. But then again, where’s Jamell McClain been?
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 21, 2009 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
on bretts 60 yard bomb we had a 4 man rush vs. 6 blockers and 3 in the LB position who did not rush.
on the overview camera shot it looked like an okay scheme with the slants and mid range passes taken away but when brett rolled out right it put 1/2 the field in the wrong position. ed reed went center first and then tried to make up the ground to the outside but it was too late.
kelly gregg just couldn’t get by his man to pressure brett on the roll out and actually ended up turned around when brett threw it. from afar it looked like gregg was dragged by his face mask for 5 yards as you can see his head being pulled down and the blockers hand on his face.
by raven on Oct 21, 2009 12:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Would have offset with the PI anyway and Rice still caught the ball.
by klunker18 on Oct 21, 2009 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
You're right.
It would have offset the PI, but in offsetting penalties they replay the down, not go with the result of the play.
Jioe Flaacco, Hon!!! "He’s like a live JUGS machine."
by dayzd toe on Oct 21, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
To me can't blame the secondary
when Favre roamed around the pocket and had all day to throw.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 21, 2009 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well, we already knew
that they had staff (staph) infections, right? Ha, get it, staff/staph! I slay myself. Thank you, I’ll be here all week!
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 22, 2009 8:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
Bart Scott and Rex Ryan
A combination of Rex and Bart leaving, Lewis getting old and Reed being hurt are all adding up!!!
Week 6 Wrap up…Tell me what you think
http://tightend.blogspot.com/2009/10/week-6.html
"Don't Be Afraid to Stand on a Pile of 'No's' for one 'Yes'"
by curiousg87 on Oct 22, 2009 12:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
I'll tell you what I think!
I’m sick of hearing how Rex Ryan is the answer to all our defensive shortcomings! Sick of it, I tell you! Perhaps Bart’s blitzing is lacking but he is not the player that Adalius Thomas was and we can replace him if we had a better pass rush.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 22, 2009 7:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
arrrgh..rex ryan nevvvvvvver won anything and finished most games on his heels.
by raven on Oct 22, 2009 10:52 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Rex, or Bart are not the answer
The truth is we have a lazy D this year, many missed tackles week in week out. They just seem to be missing discipline, no containment on the run, too many foolish penalties.
As far as blitzing, we are missing the shifts, and position changes of our LB’s, CB’s, and S’s; we never had a big blitz threat with our line it has always been LB’s and DB’s putting the pressure on.
If we can’t get back to having the movement and shifts in our defensive backfield we will no longer have the “Ravens defense” we all love and miss, the one other teams fear…
As far as our CBs they suffer from QBs having too much time, but we do need to pickup at least one taller more physical CB if we can. No matter how good they play if a WR can get higher in the air than they can the WR gets to the ball. You have to have a balance between speed and physical coverage so you need to have at least one taller CB…
Just my opinion if we could get one or two CBs that were taller with good speed Walker and Carr would say goood-bye because neither seem to have the split second decision making ability when in coverage. Carr has proven himself to be useless on special teams, so he would be the first to go.
You still hear on TV about “our need for a big WR”, sorry that is total BS but we do need to replace Mason and keep the balance we have. Our offense is balanced across the line the only time we have had problems it has been the play calling, that is always a learning experience which was proven against the Vikings in the 4th quarter.
Hopefully they learn a lot during this bye from watching and studying tapes and come back with the right changes…
by Asmodeus1971 on Oct 25, 2009 11:56 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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