Ravens Review: Terrance West powers to the house

Welcome to Baltimore Beatdown’s newest series, Ravens’ Review. Each week I will be writing about and breaking down at least one big play from the Ravens’ 2016 season. These big plays can be touchdowns, turnovers, sacks, long gains or interceptions. To kick off the series I selected Terrance West’s 18-yard touchdown run against the Dallas Cowboys in a Week 11 loss.

Above is an image of the pre-snap alignment of both the offense and defense. The Ravens come out with three receivers, two to the right and one to Flacco’s left with Flacco in the shotgun with two backs. The Cowboys come out in a two-deep shell in a nickel package with five defensive backs, two linebackers and four down lineman. Cover 2 work well to defend against deep passes, but it’s susceptible to the run as it takes a man out of the box. Add in the fact that the Cowboys are playing with two linebackers instead of three and you have a formula for success if you elect to run.

Now that we’ve taken a look at the pre-snap formations, lets take a look at the play itself. The Ravens are running a simple Power/Counter play. The counter comes from the misdirection that the play will be ran toward the right side and the power comes from there being two lead blockers. Typically the lead blockers in a power run are a pulling guard and fullback, but it can be a TE or any form of an H-back. The right guard Vlad Ducasse pulls across the formation to wash out Sean Lee and Kyle Juszczyk blocks out the other linebacker, forcing the defensive back to make a play which he unable to do. Ideally you want your HB to get into open space against a DB and thats why coaches often don't even scheme for them in the play. Below is a diagram of each blocker and their responsibilities on the play that they executed to perfection.

I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of a common staple run concept that many teams utilize. As I mentioned before, I hoe to make this a weekly series, so if you have any suggestions for a play you would like to see, make sure to mention it in the comments or tweet it to me at @tjack94!