ExtremeRavens Posted 4 hours ago Posted 4 hours ago The Ravens played the NFL’s worst defense in the modern era, a group which ranked 31st in run defense, and didn’t give Derrick Henry the opportunity to muscle his team to a win. Leaving the field late Thursday night having watched Baltimore’s offense perish against the Bengals, coach John Harbaugh grabbed a score sheet. He scanned the numbers staring back at him — Henry with 60 yards and a touchdown but only 10 carries — and thought, “OK, how did this exactly happen?” Henry was on the field for 24 of 60 offensive snaps. That’s his second lowest mark of the season, the other being 21 in a Week 4 loss at Kansas City. On Thanksgiving night, Henry turned his third carry into a 28-yard touchdown. He was given the ball on first down each of the next two drives; one ended in a Lamar Jackson fumble and the other a three-and-out backed up near the goal line. Henry did not touch the ball again until after halftime. He played one snap in the second quarter. Collectively, against a defense allowing 5.1 yards per play, the Ravens logged 22 total carries, their fewest attempts in nearly two months. “Those are not the numbers that we want at all,” Harbaugh said. Harbaugh dove into a lecture of something he’s hammered home many times over the years: “We want to run the ball. We’re a running team — that’s a fact. And we are a throwing team, too. We have Lamar Jackson; we have receivers; we have tight ends; we have all that — but we want to always be a team that runs the ball and stops the run. That’s been the case since 2008. It’s not going to really probably ever change.” Offensive lineman Ronnie Stanley similarly voiced his displeasure while holding court in the postgame locker room. “We make sure that’s our identity,” he said, “and we have to make it work.” Stanley said he would’ve liked to see the offense stick by Henry and the ground game. On paper, it’s a bad look to have your future Hall of Fame running back who showed to be the most promising piece of Baltimore’s first-half offense sit for nearly an entire quarter. Henry said postgame, “I’m not one to cry in the media or complain. Whatever I get, try to take advantage of it.” Harbaugh’s argument Monday was there weren’t many more obvious spots to feed the 31-year-old Henry in what they strive to be a high-variance offense. The Ravens ran 13 plays over three second-quarter possessions (omitting a last-second kneel down before halftime). First was a seven-play sequence that ended in an Isaiah Likely fumble inches from the end zone. Keaton Mitchell handled their only run, which he took for a single yard. The second drive was a two-minute offense, implying play caller Todd Monken was mindful of the clock and pushing the pace, having Jackson throw the ball six times before ultimately punting it away. The third, with 30 seconds before halftime, lasted one play: Jackson’s second fumble of the night. “We didn’t have any plays in the second quarter to have a chance to even run the ball,” Harbaugh said. Mitchell finished with two carries for 19 yards and a touchdown, his first score since returning from knee surgery. “I could’ve cried out there,” he smiled after making the most of eight offensive snaps. But with Justice Hill on the injured reserve for a neck injury, it was former fifth-round pick Rasheen Ali who filled in on pass protection and third-down situations. Ali, the team’s fourth-string running back and kick returner, had more offensive snaps (29) than Henry or Mitchell. Harbaugh thought Ali “played really well,” admirably holding up his assignments chip blocking and route running. Ali ran the ball four times for 17 yards. There were plenty of fans watching Ali in the backfield Thursday night wondering why Henry wasn’t out there more. Henry turned five carries into 27 yards in the third quarter then again didn’t get a touch in the fourth. “There just weren’t enough opportunities,” Harbaugh argued. “It wasn’t like every time we were in first and second down, we were going to run the ball 100% of the time. To get to 18 to 20 runs, we’d have had to run it every time on first and second down, just about.” By the final frame, the Ravens were behind on the scoreboard in need of pushing the pace through the air to give themselves a shot. By the 9:38 mark of the fourth quarter, the Ravens were already in their up-tempo approach. Harbaugh pushed back against ire from box score watchers explaining how Baltimore ran 21 plays — a third of their offense — from Monken’s two-minute offense call sheet in the loss. “That’s way too high,” he said. “I don’t mind two-minute plays at the end of the half, but I’m not really fired up about two-minute plays at the end of the game because that means you’re trying to come back.” Given some room to operate, Henry can be the catalyst in a win. But Baltimore’s offensive line hasn’t made his life any easier. His rushing figures have dipped: He has four 100-yard game compared to six by this point a year ago and his 4.7 yards per attempt are way down from 5.9 in 2024. Still, Harbaugh believes in the power of Baltimore’s run game. “That’s the bottom line,” he said. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. Ravens running back Derrick Henry, shown at practice earlier this season, only had 10 carries in Baltimore's loss to the Bengals. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) View the full article Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.