Ravens Pass Defense vs. Broncos Pass Offense
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 8, 2010 11:22 AM EDT
Email
PrintWhat happens when a great pass offense comes up against a great pass defense? They say that offense makes highlights but defense wins championships, don't they? This Sunday afternoon the unstoppable offense (Denver) meets the immovable object (Ravens). Something has to give, so which will it be?
The Denver Broncos' passing offense is ranked #1 overall, averaging over 339 yards per game, with QB Kyle Orton leading the way with over 1,400 yards in the first three games, nothing less than 300 and a high game of 476 yards in the loss to the Indianapolis Colts. He's thrown six touchdowns with three interceptions and a QB rating of 96.
Despite the loss of WR Brandon Marshall, Orton has not missed a beat and though he is generally not thought of a great passer with a rocket arm, his accuracy has always been his biggest asset and he is completing passes at an over 67% clip.
On the other hand, he has not faced a defense of the Ravens proportions.
Baltimore is ranked not only #1 overall, but #1 against the pass. They are giving up a total of only 235 yards a game, while only allowing a paltry 119 yards passing per game, almost a third of what Orton has been averaging. Although the Ravens are only the 20th best run defense so far in 2010, uncharacteristically allowing over 116 yards per game, they are seemingly in no danger of hurting that, as the Broncos rank dead last in rushing offense at a measly 55 yards per game on the ground.
All this adds up to the simple fact that if the Ravens can stop or even slow down the Broncos aerial attack, they should be able to win this game with their offense, which is much more balanced than the Broncos. The Ravens overall offensive rank is 22nd (306 yards/game) , their passing offense is ranked 15th (222 yards/game) while their usually effective run game is only ranked 24th at just under 90 yards per game.
Conversely, the good news is that Denver's defense is only rated 16th over (322 yards/game), their pass defense ranked 17th (221 yards/game), and their run defense is ranked 12th at just over 100 yards a game. However, as I've always said, the most important stat is points allowed and while the Broncos allow just over 21 points a game (20th in league), the Ravens are only giving up just under 14 points per game (6th in league).
All together, that should add up to a victory for Baltimore, if they can keep Orton in check, pressure him into throwing interceptions and not give up the big play or penalties in key situations. Underestimate Orton and he can burn you, but something tells me the Ravens will be prepared to show their home fans a great effort, perhaps as good as last year's 30-7 beat down of the previously undefeated Broncos. Sounds good, eh?
41 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Well needless to say
Our run defense should be ranked quite a bit higher after this Sunday.
I thought I had an appetite for destruction. Turns out, all I really wanted was a club sandwich.
by StuckInUtah on Oct 8, 2010 12:26 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
and theirs even lower
oh, wait,…it’s already at the bottom. Oh well, gotta drop their pass offense a few notches instead, right?
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 8, 2010 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Yup
That’s the spirit
I thought I had an appetite for destruction. Turns out, all I really wanted was a club sandwich.
by StuckInUtah on Oct 8, 2010 12:57 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
????
Denver’s run defense isn’t at the bottom. They just held Chris Johnson to 53 yards. I think they are at least in the top 15
Josh McDaniels-All he wants to do is win a MF'in game!
by RockyMountainThunder on Oct 8, 2010 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions
All teams plan to stop Johnson...
If you make a team one dimensional,obviously the Broncos planned to make the Titans beat them thru the air.They did an excellent job of stopping the run,but Joe ain’t Vince Young and the Broncos better respect the play action or its gonna be a long day for Denver which I thin k since the Broncos have given up 11 sacks so far,its gonna be a long day for them on both sides of the ball.Ravens 27 Broncos 10
All them passing yards...
is great for fantasy football…but when you can only get 6 TD’s throwing it…it shows just how pathetic they are in the red zone without a running game. Orton is their leading rusher….I’m serious, their leading rusher per attempt is Orton. This is going to be a one sided, brutal, whupping. I’m sure Orton will be able to get 300+ yards…8 sacks…one hell of a concussion…and at most 9 points.
As long as our offense even plays at half speed, this should be a game styled from the 2000 season.
33-9 Ravens.
"The ball always seems to find Ed Reed...The man is a menace"
Oh...and do we no longer invite over someone from their blog
to preview and take questions? I kind of miss that.
"The ball always seems to find Ed Reed...The man is a menace"
by UMBC Oriole fan on Oct 8, 2010 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions
http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2010/10/4/1730379/j-man-comes-over-and-taiks-denver-w-5
Most of the questions being asked there.
We've been answering questions in j-man's thread
No use making multiple posts when you can keep all the goods in one place. There are a handful of us from MHR that always watch our opponent’s blogs on game week.
"Bombs dropping down overhead. Underground. It's instilled to want to live." -EV
I think it is a one sided win as well. Not to take anything away from Denver and what they have done, but it just seems like one of those weeks where you gotta lay an ass whoopin on a 2-2 team. There will be no running game from them, I expect 50 yards or less. So that mean Orton is probably going to throw the ball about 35-40 times. With a constant pressure on their hurting O-Line, we will allow for Orton to hand the game over to us. This will finally be the game we see Webb get an interception.
Offensively, I think this is going to be a Heap game. Not sure why, but just get the feeling he comes out for 2 TD’s and has a solid game. Joe will throw 280, 2 Tds and Rice breaks for 100.
I had my score set at 33-12.
Heap I Agree
Had the same felling.
Not so sure about Rice as I am not sure if he is healed up yet. Heard anything about his status?
He’s expected to take the starting role back from McGahee this week, so I imagine we’ll see plenty of Rice after we jump up by two early scores.
Ravens 31-9
I thought I had an appetite for destruction. Turns out, all I really wanted was a club sandwich.
by StuckInUtah on Oct 8, 2010 3:07 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
14-0 at the end of 1? I think so!
Would also like to see Cundiff get some confidence under him this game and kick 4 FG. That is where I get the 33 from, 2 Joe TD’s, once Rice TD and Cundiff 4/4 on FG including at 51 yarder.
Cundiff
Is fine. He has missed, what, three FG’s this year? And each of those, I was like, “…meh, big deal…” I never really felt like his misses really hurt us, yet.
Besides, I would rather have him miss a 45-yarder in the first half on the road, kicking into the windy end of the stadium than say shank a 29-yarder in the fourth at home when the game is on the line, which is what many of us would be fearing had ginger-head man been the kicker rather than Cundiff.
Don’t get me wrong, I love having Cundiff as our Kicker. He is professional all the way with his approach to the job and has really made an impression so far. I don’t mean my comment to sound like he needs to get his act together or anything of that sort, but I think it would be great for him to have a game where he nails 3-4 field goals.
Good call on Heap
I don’t like your chances on your WRs having a big day against our secondary….although Housh in the slot may make things difficult.
"Bombs dropping down overhead. Underground. It's instilled to want to live." -EV
As usual, Champ may sow Boldin down
as he does to most teams’ #1 wideouts, but I love our match-ups with D-Masoe, Housh and Heap, much less Rice.
aka 'Rexx'
Were going to throw a monkey wrench this week
Orton is going to show his versatility and we are going to run the wishbone. He’s been hot dogging his speed all these years.
Ladarius Webb-Some Ravens fan said to me that he is a good corner for a guy from Nicholls State. I said bull, he’s a good corner period. I really like his skills and recovery.
Josh McDaniels-All he wants to do is win a MF'in game!
by RockyMountainThunder on Oct 8, 2010 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions
I do think you'll need a wrinkle
when you run the ball as poorly as Denver has so far, you have to wonder about the risks that may create for you in a Ravens game.
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
Simmons rarely shows us love.
but I liked his reasoning on picking us this week.
“RAVENS (-7) over Broncos
Because you can’t take a one-dimensional offense into Baltimore in 2010 and live to tell about it.”
"Cam, we're not going to have any issues because we're going to be winning."
--Joe Flacco
"Just win baby. Yeah, I stole that."
--Jon Gruden
Agreed
Buckhalter & Maroney will probably be splitting carried for Denver. Neither one scares me one bit.
I thought I had an appetite for destruction. Turns out, all I really wanted was a club sandwich.
by StuckInUtah on Oct 8, 2010 7:03 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I don't know...
Buckhalter was very hard to stop in Madden ’05…
by GrumpyOldBird on Oct 8, 2010 7:30 PM EDT up reply actions
There is one thing that is worring me a bit....
…. and that is Carr. I don’t know if anyone noticed but QB’s have been picking on Carr a lot and the receivers have been able to make plays. Hopefully we can start Washington and Webb, keep Wilson as a nickle, and then only call up Carr/Williams when they go to a 4 receiver set.
Carr doesn't worry me too much
At least not nearly as much as he did last year. His man-man coverage has improved drastically. Carr probably won’t get out too much if Webb and Washington play the majority of snaps with Wilson at nickel. I think he can hang on when he does play just fine.
by Roa on Oct 8, 2010 8:38 PM EDT up reply actions
Haruki may be starting at free safety. Zbi was on the injury report. Look for all our corners to see action against broncos 4 wide sets. Also someone else at punt return maybe one of our corners. Anxious to see what zbi can do starting.
by Raven_all_day on Oct 9, 2010 12:51 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
I don’t know if anyone noticed but QB’s have been picking on Carr a lot and the receivers have been able to make plays.
Looking through the stats for the first four games, the pass distribution for our opponents looks very homogeneous among all the receiving threats (against Pittsburgh, five players had two receptions, and nobody had three or more). In fact, Baltimore’s opponents’ most prolific receiving threat to date has been some guy named Peyton Hillis, with seven receptions in one game; correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Carr bares a lot of responsibility for that one. Given the fairly even passing distribution against our defense and the fact that we’re averaging 119 passing yards per game against, I don’t see where Carr is being targeted “a lot” or that they’ve been able to “make plays.”
If you want to know what an exploited cornerback looks like, watch Boldin’s highlights from the Cleveland game.
Water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Ed Reed covers the rest.
I think they have been picking on Fabian
a lot more than Carr. He has been the same guy he was when he was replaced by Webb mid year in ’09. We need Josh Wilson to get his act up to speed and take over opposite Webb for the next 5-10 years! (PS-Sorry, Domonique).
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 9, 2010 10:14 AM EDT up reply actions
fabian is a bigger worry...
the guy cant tackle shit. denver is doing well because of YAC due to broken tackles.
Webb, on the other hand, could tackle a Mac Truck
Silly Sun blog
This is so ncredibly misleading, and while you might not want to argue about Fabian’s tackling abilities, it does prove he is being targeted because he had so many oppoertunities to make tackles as his coverage skills must suck. Any stats, B. Sun, or how many completion he gave up and was so out of place someone ELSE made the tackle!?
Ridiculous comparison and typical main stream media cluelessness.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Oct 9, 2010 10:16 AM EDT up reply actions
Where Fabian lacks tackling ability is in space (like against bubble screens) and in run support. He’s not terrible tackling receivers after the catch because he is a good cover CB and, therefore, usually near the ball when it is caught instead of being hung out in space.
In other words, he is not very physical tackler. He’s a speed guy. I give Pagano credit this year for designing coverages which take advantage of our CBs strengths and not exposing their weaknesses.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate."
in the steelers game....
Did anyone see when Webb hit Wallace and he went to the sideline in pain for a few plays. Wouldn’t be surprised it he had some bruising on the ribs. Webb I think will start. Fabian missed practices this week cuz of illness. That’s just what the coaches were waiting for.
by Raven_all_day on Oct 9, 2010 12:55 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Webb seems to have zero problem
throwing his body around recklessly. Hopefully, he is close to 100% and will not hurt himself.
aka 'Rexx'
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Baltimore Beat Down
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
SB Nation on YouTube
SBNation.com Recent Stories
In Association With
Shutdown Corner - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
- Jonathan Vilma sues Roger Goodell for defamatory statements made during bounty investigation
- New York Giants receive Super Bowl XLVI rings
- Lawrence Taylor’s Super Bowl ring can be yours, unfortunately
- The Shutdown Corner Interview: New York Giants DL Justin Tuck
- AFL quarterback misses game to attend wedding
