O-LINE pushed Bengals around

[TBird]

Since Ravens fans need some hope on something, lost in the aftermath of the game Sunday and

the scandle is that the o-line shined vs Bengals. KO is back and playing like he did in the SB and

Ravens finally have a RT, Wagner, who held his own. FS charges him with a sack on the next to

last play but I don't think he is officially charged with a sack.

 

Film Study posts his grades on most ofl the boards and he is usually right. He played college football

at Syracuse. Everyone looks forward to his grades.

 

 

 

Amidst the difficult loss and scandal, Ravens fans need hope.

It was there Sunday, in the form of a much improved offensive line.

The Bengals ran primarily vanilla 4-man pressure on 14 of the Ravens’ first 17 pass plays. When that produced ample time and space (ATS) on 12 occasions, they switched to frequent double-A-gap blitz looks with some combination of Rey/Maualuga/Lamur standing to either side of Zuttah.

I can’t help but think how helpless Gradkowski was in such situations a year ago, but as we’ll see, the 2014 Ravens line was up to the challenge.

The Ravens did not employ any jumbo formations and each lineman played all 84 snaps.

Monroe: Eugene had a lousy game as a run blocker, but it didn’t really cost the team. In fact, his 6 missed blocks came on runs of 3, 3, 5, 6, and 2 as well as a missed screen block on a 7-yard play. As a pass blocker, he was pancaked by Atkins for a QH (Q3, 8:55). He was also flagged twice, once for a tightly-enforced illegal formation (Q3, 0:51) and another time when the referee called his number for Zuttah’s hold (Q4, 6:59). Scoring: 77 blocks, 6 missed, 1 QH, 1 illegal formation, 71 points (.85 per play). Despite the quality of the Bengals’ defensive line, I can’t credit as much as .05 adjustment for opposition, because my system isn’t penalizing him enough for his bad run blocks, so that’s a B effort.

Osemele: Kelechi returned from a miserable and abbreviated 2013 to play his best game since SB XLVII. He got the best push of any lineman and showed ability to find blocks in level 2 where he was 7 for 9, including 2 pancakes. He had only 2 bad plays, a pressure surrendered when beaten inside by Atkins (Q3, 14:30) and a penetration allowed when he tripped over Pitta while pulling (Q2, 8:45) that allowed Burfict to take down Pierce for a loss of 4. Scoring: 80 blocks, 2 missed, 1 penetration, 1 pressure, 76 points (.90 per play). Based on the quality of the Bengals’ interior, I adjusted him by .06, but he grades anA without adjustment. His play is the best reason to believe the line can return to the top-8 form it enjoyed for most of the playoff years.

Zuttah: His hold (Q4, 6:59, incorrectly charged to Monroe), was his 20^th in the last 4 seasons. He did, however, pitch a clean slate as a pass blocker with no pressure events allowed. I charged him with 2 missed blocks on plays where he gave ground in the pocket, but the ball was out quickly. It would also be fair to credit him with some of the overall success of the line against a challenging opponent that sought to confuse with A-gap pressure. A point of potential concern from the games I reviewed from last season was his inability to find and deliver blocks in level 2. He’s supposed to be mobile, but connected on just 3 of 6 such blocks on Sunday. Scoring: 78 blocks, 6 missed, 1 holding, 72 points (.86 per play). With an adjustment of .06 for handling Gilberry, Atkins, Peko, and the linebackers, that’s a B at center. Sometimes addition is by subtraction. Sometimes addition is by addition. In the case of Gradkowski for Zuttah, it was both.

Yanda: It’s unusual when Marshal turns in the worst pass-blocking game, but that’s what happened against the Bengals. He allowed a PD to Gilberry (Q2, 8:07), a half pressure to Atkins (Q3, 6:20), and a full pressure to Atkins (Q4, 10:46). He finished the afternoon by allowing half of the final sack by Gilberry and Nelson (Q4, 1:00). On the plus side, he made all but 1 of his run blocks. Scoring: 77 blocks, 3 missed, 2.5 pressures, ½ sack, 69 points (.82 per play). He had a tough draw, lining up opposite Atkins on the majority of his snaps, so I adjusted him by .06. B.

Wagner: The Wagner/Dunlap matchup was like a hard 17 at blackjack, meaning a push would have been great. Wagner was bulled by Dunlap which contributed to Atkins’ PD (Q3, 6:20). Dunlap also bulled him for what I believe was a QH (Q4, 12:47, will confirm with coaches video). I charged him with a very slow-developing sack of Flacco on the Ravens’ next-to-last play (Q4, 1:09) when he may have held his block of the stunting Gilberry in excess of the 3-second standard. He missed just 1 run block while making 5 level-2 blocks and connecting on his only pull (Forsett’s 13-yard TD run). Scoring: 79 blocks, 1 missed, 1.5 pressures, 1 QH, 1 sack, 67 points (.80 per play). I adjusted him by .08 for having to face the Bengals’ pressure machine, but he still scores a high B. Had I not charged the borderline late sack to him, the game would have graded a solid A.

The other major blocking contribution cam (unexpectedly) from Justin Forsett, who made 8 of 9 set blocks (plus 1 chip) effectively. The Ravens used eligible receivers to set block just 16 times in 65 pass plays (4.8 eligible receivers in the pattern per play).

So, why didn’t the Ravens offense pile up 500+ yards with such a dominant blocking effort?

Flacco had Ample Time and Space (ATS) on 38 of 65 drop backs (58%), which is substantially more than his 2010-13 average (50%). That’s an extra 5.5 attempts with a clean pocket for 65 drop backs. Here’s a summary of Flacco’s pass plays both with and without pressure:

 

Flacco and his receivers came up approximately 88 yards shy of expectations for the opportunity set afforded by the offensive line.

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ABOUT KEN MCKUSICK

Ken comes to us via area message boards where he has consistently posted some of the most insightful and memorable posts that you'll find anywhere. Known as "Filmstudy", Ken is a lifelong Baltimorean and rabid fan of Baltimore sports who grew up about 1 mile from Memorial Stadium. He attended...more

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