Ravens Week 14 Recap: Defense Holds On In A Slopfest In Buffalo
Two weeks in a row the Ravens have played in ugly games that came down to the wire. Two weeks in a row they’ve faced tough difficult defenses that will be playing postseason football. And two weeks in a row they’ve dug deep and pulled out a W.
These two wins say a lot about what kind of football team the Ravens are. They can win in a multitude of ways. They can beat you in a track meet. They can beat you in a defensive slugfest. They can beat you in the rain. They can beat you in the cold and the wind. And they can beat you everywhere in between. Yesterday was a day when the offense didn’t bring their best and the defense was challenged to make a stop when it counted and they did exactly that. It’s refreshing to see that the Ravens can bring their C game and still get a W on the road against a playoff team.
Other thoughts and observations from yesterday:
Offense
– Overall this may have been the offense’s worst game to date, save for maybe the Steelers or Browns’ games in weeks 4 & 5. Their 257 yards gained was their lowest total of the season. The Bills did an excellent job of challenging the Ravens’ run game and forcing them to reconsider their plan of attack. For the first time all season, I found myself scratching my head as to what Greg Roman was calling. He’s been the best assistant coach in the NFL all season, but he seemed to be overthinking his playcalling on early downs.
The biggest factor in the Ravens’ offensive success has been their ability to pick up chunks on 1st and 2nd down. They’re best in the league on 3rd and 4th down conversions because they’re constantly close to the sticks in those situations. The Bills did a great job taking that away from us in the first half and I think Roman started to panic a bit and got a little too pass-happy on early downs after halftime. In real time it was frustrating as hell but it becomes a bit more understandable when you look at how effectively the Bills were stopping the run. We averaged 3.6 yards per carry on the day, which is way below our 5.5 ypc on the season. I’d like to see Roman force the issue a bit more in the future when the run game struggles, especially when we have the lead (and at times, a two score lead). These teams’ defenses wear down as the game goes on and I think G-Ro overcorrected by going to the air too much in the 2nd half.
– Lamar Jackson had himself an okay day, but made enough plays to get the job done. He was 16/25 for 145 yards, 3 TDs and an INT. Added 40 yards on 11 carries on the ground. None of this is terribly impressive, but he was able to execute 2 out of 3 times in the red zone with TD passes to Boyle and Snead. That’s below the red zone standard that we’ve set for ourselves this season, but I think most teams would be pretty pleased with a 2 for 3 performance.
The ball to Hayden Hurst was perfectly thrown. Hurst did have a good 3 steps on his man, but the way that he hit Hurst in stride allowed him to beat the defense to the end zone. This type of thing is commonly overlooked and inexperienced QB’s often underthrow receivers that wide open just to ensure the completion, which obviously comes at the expense of yards after catch. It reminded me a lot of the touchdown throw to Mark Andrews last year at the Chargers. Good on him to recognize a home run when he sees it and give his guy an opportunity to show off the wheels.
Lamar also passed 1,000 yards rushing on the season despite being mostly shut down on the ground. He’s the 2nd QB to ever accomplish the feat, and he’s likely to pass Michael Vick for the single season record on Thursday night. Even when he struggles to consistently run the ball, he provides us with a ridiculous highlight where he snatches somebody’s soul.
The INT was a little bit fluky, but those things happen. He threw a bad ball to Snead and Snead’s effort to one-hand it gave the Bills an opportunity to pick off a tipped pass. These kinds of things happen from time to time and Lamar would be the first to tell you that it was a bad play.
– What really irritated me on the INT was that we never should have been in that scenario in the first place. The Ravens were up 10-3 midway through the 2nd quarter and were moving the ball effectively. They had 1st and 10 at midfield when Gus Edwards broke a 21 yard run to put the Ravens in scoring range…. when suddenly a phantom holding call on Pat Ricard brings it back. It was such a routine block, I have no fucking clue what they were looking at. So now we’re at 1st and 20 at our own 40 and running out of an empty set when Lamar throws that pick. I would argue that we should’ve gone right back to the ground and not forced a throw in that spot, but it’s obnoxious that we were put in that situation anyway. It took points off the board for the Ravens and the Bills eventually benefitted with a field goal from the field position shift. The Ravens thrive with 2 score leads and a 2 score lead at that point would’ve completely changed the complexion of the rest of the game. The officiating was trash and it only got worse as the game went on.
– Mark Andrews going down was tough, and I’m sure it affected some of the playcalling as the game went on. Lamar went to Andrews deep a couple times early and almost connected with him in the end zone, and I think it was only a matter of time before he made a big play. It’s likely that Hurst’s touchdown catch was a play originally designed for Andrews, so it was good to see Hurst step up in his spot. But we’ve got a short week and I’m honestly hoping that Andrews just takes it easy and sits out. Reports are that it’s a leg contusion and not a serious knee injury so we’re thankful for that. The Jets shouldn’t be too much of a threat, so I think it’s important that he makes sure he gets healthy at this point in the season.
Defense
– This game was really about the defense and the way they made life hell for Josh Allen. There’s a lot of kudos to go around here but in general, this defense is so different since we got Marcus Peters (and got Jimmy Smith back from injury). I’ve said it a million times at this point. Those guys are unbelievable in man coverage and it allows Wink Martindale to be really aggressive in his blitz packages. They were able to sack Josh Allen 6 times and put him on the ground a total of 12 times. He had a bad time and the numbers show it.
It’s well documented the pass-rush was a major concern coming into this season with the departures of Z Smith and Sizzle. The way to mitigate that is to send more men after the QB, which obviously leaves you less men in coverage. You have to have a lot of trust in your guys on the back end in order to blitz as much as the Ravens do, and they’ve been doing an unreal job staying on their men. And honestly when you’re playing man in single coverage, there’s less opportunity for blown coverages. It’s just you and your man, all you have to do is make sure you communicate on who has who. The Ravens got burned a bunch of times early in the season on blown coverages. We haven’t seen that in months now. Everything on the defensive end is in perfect harmony right now.
– Just because we’re sending more men after the QB doesn’t mean that the pass-rush hasn’t been without some incredible individual efforts. Matt Judon has been playing out of his mind and yesterday may have been his best game of the year. He had the strip-sack to force the Bills’ only turnover, and notched another half sack and 2 QB hits to go with it. He added another TFL setting the edge in the run game too. He’s truly developed into a 3-down player who can defend the run and get to the QB. It’s a big contract year for him and he’s going to get paid by somebody and I hope it’s us. Every week his price tag is climbing. Guy’s going to be swimming in crunchwrap supremes and cheesy gordita crunches come March. It’s concerning in the long-term, but right now let’s try to enjoy him while he’s here.
– Jaylon Ferguson deserves a lot of credit too. He’s made a lot of strides at a position where you usually don’t see progress in a player’s rookie season, especially as a late 3rd rounder. He actually lead the team in QB hits with 3 yesterday, one of which was a sack that knocked the Bills out of field goal range. The Ravens have needed somebody to step up alongside Judon, especially after Pernell McPhee was lost for the season, and Ferguson has been that guy. He’s got the size at 6’5, 270 lbs to be a game wrecker and he may be on his way.
– Every week I’m impressed with Chuck Clark. I don’t think anybody is having more fun in this defense than him. He took over headset duty on the field from the injured Tony Jefferson and the defense has been thriving ever since. It feels like half a dozen times a game, the Ravens play cover 1 with Earl Thomas in centerfield and the rest of the secondary in man coverage and Clark is the guy who gets to blitz the QB. I know that’s an exaggeration and it’s not just him blitzing from the secondary (even Earl has been that guy), but he’s laid a hit on the QB in consecutive games and he always seems to be around the football. Brilliant 6th round pick by Ozzie Newsome that’s paying huge dividends now.
– Marcus Peters was the hero in the secondary, making the big pass defense to finish off the Bills. Just a week ago he was the biggest liability for the Ravens against the 49ers. It was his missed tackle that allowed Raheem Mostert to make their biggest play of the game. But I made sure to mention that you take the good with the bad with Peters. We got so much good early on with his two pick-6’s that I figured we were due for some bad and we got it against SF. It took virtually no time to get him back on the good side of things. He’s brought a lot of attitude to this secondary and it’s hard not to love him when he’s shotgunning beers before the clock even hits zero.
– I could continue to go on and on and on about the officiating in that game. It was a joke and I covered it in my postgame yesterday. We should put it into context though. It gave the Bills life in a game where they should have had zero of it. The Ravens have thrived on controlling possession and closing out games offensively. Yesterday was refreshing in that it gave the defense that opportunity for a change, and we should keep in mind that the officials essentially forced them to do it multiple times. We learned that the Ravens defense is more than capable of closing out games because they had to do it twice in Buffalo. That’s an encouraging sign to say the least. So thank you officials, for allowing the defense to build up their confidence that much more.
So with the Patriots losing to the Chiefs yesterday, the math is pretty simple. Win 2 out of 3 down the stretch and the Ravens force the AFC road to Miami to come through M&T Bank Stadium. Nothing would make me happier than an AFC Championship game in Baltimore. But there’s still business to be done. Thursday we play the Jets on a short week and clinch the division in front of the entire nation. Then we go to Cleveland and avenge our most frustrating loss of the season. At that point we would have nothing to play for and Pittsburgh may have everything to play for. How we approach that game is going to be a major topic in Baltimore (and nationally), but we’ll save that conversation for later.
It’s an unbelievable time to be a Baltimore football fan. Let’s keep this train rolling. Lamar Jackson for MVP. Big Truss.
