ExtremeRavens Posted yesterday at 11:30 AM Posted yesterday at 11:30 AM Lamar Jackson will make his 100th career start Sunday against the Vikings in Minnesota. It will also be his first against their coach, Kevin O’Connell, a former third-round draft pick of the New England Patriots and journeyman NFL quarterback who joked with reporters earlier this week that he would play the role of the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player on the scout team during practice. It will not, however, be Jackson’s first time facing Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores. In November 2021, Flores, then the coach of the Dolphins, blitzed the daylight out of Jackson en route to a 22-10 upset by Miami. In that game, Jackson completed 60% of his passes for 238 yards but threw just one touchdown pass, was intercepted once and sacked four times as Baltimore scored its fewest points all season. What do the Ravens expect in the rematch? “We’re probably focused more on the last four games than four years ago,” coach John Harbaugh said earlier this week. “But we certainly remember that game. “It definitely was a key game in the evolution of the offense, for sure, handling [cover] zero blitz, and they still run some of those blitzes, but they’re much more evolved now. They do all kinds of different things, and they disguise their blitzes probably more than they used to, and he is running different variations where he is running simulated pressures, he’s running four-man rushes with both inside backers coming, and he’s playing man or zone behind it. He still does the zero stuff, too. You have to be prepared for everything. Offensively, we have all the tools to do that.” None more important or potent than Jackson. Blitzing him this season, as in recent ones, comes with peril. Through the first nine weeks this season, no one has been more effective than Jackson, who has a league-high 136.4 passer rating against the blitz. That includes his performance in last week’s win over the Dolphins in which he was 9 of 11 for 90 yards with three touchdowns and zero interceptions against Miami’s blitz, per Next Gen Stats. “Early on in my career, I was getting sacked like crazy,” Jackson said Wednesday of the key to his success against pressure. “Me just getting older in my career — eighth year — it’s like, man, we have to get the ball out, have to know where the protection [is], where the hots are and just execute.” It sounds simple enough. But in the throes of a defense that blitzes more than any other in the league (42%) and with a pressure rate (46%) that’s also tops in the NFL, having success can also be easier said than done. Add in U.S. Bank Stadium being one of the loudest venues in the league, and the difficulty is exacerbated. “It definitely can be [confusing], especially how they bring blitzes from all over the place,” Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard said. “It’s not just one guy. You’ll play teams and it’s, This guy is the guy that always blitzes. For them, they blitz everybody.” Lions star Jared Goff, also one of the top quarterbacks in the league against the blitz this season, found out firsthand. In the Vikings’ 27-24 upset in Detroit last week, Minnesota used a series of misdirection blitzes up the middle that forced running back Jahmyr Gibbs to stay in to pass block rather than release as a receiving threat. Linebackers Eric Wilson, Blake Cashman and Ivan Pace Jr. accounted for 11 of the team’s 18 pressures, per Next Gen Stats, and Goff had a pair of touchdown passes but was sacked five times and had a negative expected points added per play of minus-0.074. In particular, Flores likes to use a lot of six- and seven-man fronts and bring pressure between the guard and center or guard and tackle while dropping defenders into a soft cover zero or split safety look with an emphasis on taking away quick throws — especially in the middle of the field — as well as deep ones. That will undoubtedly then put a spotlight on guards Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele, both of whom have struggled often this year in pass protection. It also means an emphasis on film study, anticipation and then communication, Ricard said. To ready for the noise, meanwhile, the Ravens have cranked up the music as loud as it can play during practice and have frequently utilized an air horn to simulate the environment they expect to encounter in Minnesota. “The whole premise of blitzing is to try to put pressure on the offense and get them on their heels,” Pro Bowl center Tyler Linderbaum said. “We have to start the fight. We have to be the ones to dictate the game.” One way to do so is for the offensive linemen to successfully alert one another before the snap of who is where and who could be coming and of course block them. Another is for Jackson, who appears to be fully healed from the hamstring injury that kept him out of three games, to do what he has done all season. In five games this season, Lamar Jackson has completed a career-high 72.9% of his passes for 1,073 yards and 14 touchdowns with just one interception. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) In five games this season, he has completed a career-high 72.9% of his passes for 1,073 yards and 14 touchdowns with just one interception. His 136.7 passer rating leads the NFL, as does his 11.08 yards per attempt. “There’s not many quarterbacks that can do and see the things that Lamar can,” Linderbaum said. “Certain pressures, he’s going to be throwing hot. Certain pressures, he might have to extend the play. It’s a blend of everything, just pure talent and understanding of the game and seeing certain things other people can’t see and then obviously his ability to extend plays and getting out of the pocket to give our playmakers a chance.” That also takes being on the same page as the quarterback, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins said, “because one mistake could be bad.” When it comes to NFC opponents, though, he has made few of them. The Ravens are 24-3 against NFC with Jackson at quarterback. In those games, he has completed 66.3% of his passes for 1,931 yards and 50 touchdowns with just nine interceptions. He has also averaged 71.5 yards rushing per game and scored nine more times. That kind of success and Jackson’s elusiveness are just two of the reasons that O’Connell is letting the scout team quarterback play “long past any whistle I would blow” to signify a sack, he told reporters this week. “There’s a reason why he’s an MVP-caliber player,” O’Connell said. “It’s not just the skill set to cause so many problems athletically, he’s an elite thrower of the football. We’re going to have to be as good as we’ve been all season. “I want to make sure the guys on the back end are plastering in coverage and understanding that some of the big plays that they make are not how they were drawn up.” While Jackson has enjoyed immense success against the NFC, his record isn’t without a few blemishes. One of those losses came earlier this year to the Lions, who used stunts, among other things, to rely mostly on a four-man rush to rack up seven sacks, tying Jackson’s career high. In all, they generated 30 pressures on 41 drop-backs, per Pro Football Focus, and they also used a spy on at least 10 occasions to keep him contained from breaking loose. Jackson still managed 288 passing yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, albeit in a 38-30 loss at home in the Week 3 contest. But that was then. Baltimore has won each of its last two games and has Jackson back. For that streak to continue, he’ll likely have to once again be magnificent against the blitz. “We’ve been locked in for the last couple of weeks, and we have to stay that way,” Jackson said. “I believe we turned a new leaf.” They’ll find out Sunday. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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