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How Can the Pats Stop the Ravens?


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I am certain that teams are diligently looking at film and can scheme against the Ravens offense.
The question is who has the man power to take on their lineman?
 
Shame they can't freeze over the natural grass like they did to Peyton that one year in the playoffs.
 
Key is first down..Most every completion by Jackson last night was short yardage throws. Let's see how he does 3rd and 7 or 8.
 
When are the people with the full 20-20 hindsight going to realize that HAD Jackson been chosen in the 2018 draft, he STILL would be sitting behind Tom Brady and no one would have heard of him except to laud him for the great job he'd been doing running the scout team.

Get over it. This sh!t is worse that the JG garbage I've had to endure on these pages. Timing is everything so I guess we'll have to learn to live with the QB we got. :rolleyes:

Now children just listen while Grandpa Ken schools you on some football history tonight.

What you are seeing from the Ravens isn't anything new at all. In fact it is very VERY old. The Ravens offense is just a rehashed version of the old single wing offense that was all the rage in the 20's, 30's, and 4o's, and didn't become dated until the early 50's when the wing-T formation. Back when I coached, there was still ONE team in the area that ran the wing T into the late 70's. North Quincy HS still ran it, and it was a tough thing to stop since you only saw it once a year. And as the DC it was my job to stop it.

I wish it was 20 years ago when I still had boxes of my old game plans. I remember I had a great one for that week that worked beautifully, but that just about all I got. Here's what I DO remember about the single wing.

a. In its base form you'd have 3 backs in the backfield, 2 TE's. With a direct snap to a QB who was both the primary runner and passer. With all kinds of backfield movement and counter off it, you generally could create numbers advantages to one side or another. You could also run options off of it, and almost EVERY pass comes off a play action pass. The Ravens do the same thing only using a TE and RB, and sometimes 2 TE to go along with Jackson in the backfield.

b. I recall that we determined that looking into the backfield was a fools errand, though reading the line proved to be a solid key. So that would be my first thing. Break down what they are doing and come up with some line keys that give the LB's their first direction.

c. Some of this is coming back. IIRC when they were in a run situation, which was most of the time, we lined up in a 6-2. For the Pats it would come out as a 4 DL and 2 ILB's with 2 OLB's on the LOS with 3 DB's. With the secondary guys we have vs the receivers they have we can play something like this effectively, especially if they use the 2 TE's in the backfield like they did when they played us. I don't see us playing a 3-4 front.

d. WIN the LOS. It's actually coming back now. I had my 6 down linemen play head on the G, T, and TE's. I had my the guys on the OT's play off the LOS a yard, like the Cowboys of the 70's did with their DL. Then based on the keys, formations and motions the LB's would call out prearranged gap numbers and the DLmen would twist or hit gaps and really screwed up their blocking schemes. Hard to explain in words.

At any rate it worked far better than I had a right to expect. It was a one week fix. We ran a pretty standard 5-2 Oakie which is what they called the 3-4 back then every other game. In those days the 5-2 and the Penn State 4-4 were what most H.S's ran. AND now I'm rambling. Sorry

Here's the thing. Bill knows what this is. I know Jackson threw for 5 TD, but he STILL threw for only about 160 yds in total. So this is ALL about stopping the run, and stopping it from a SINGLE WING offense.

Give Baltimore credit for creating the perfect offense for the talent they have on hand. But this is working BECAUSE it is new, just like Bears' 4-6 terrorized NFL teams for 2 years, and Walsh his West Coast offense for a while. Remember the run and shoot. Well you probably don't but it killed for a nanosecond as well. There was even a moment in time when the triple option was used and was effective.

I bet Bill has guys researching old archives for the kind of single wing offenses that MOST resemble what the Ravens are doing and WHAT defensive concepts were most effective in stopping them.

We saw what this defense did to the top offense in the NFL last Sunday. I don't care if the Ravens beat the rest of their schedule 50-0, I trust that Bill will have them ready to play a special game against them.

I won't mind if the Ravens have their hour in the sun. Let the media crown their asses in December, JUST like they did KC last season. I LIKE being the underdog for a change, and I'm sure Bill will let his team know how much everyone wants them out of contention every week from now on.


Thanks for the response. A few points

1) Even if Lamar was till sitting behind Tom until the end of this year, we still would have hime for the next 3 years on his rookie contract (assuming Tom moves on). LJ's unique talents were pretty obvious at the time of the draft. Whatever happened to taking the best player available? No one on this board believes or believed Sony Michel was the best player available at 31

2) I think that LJ's talents are other worldly and I am pretty sure that back in the 20, 30's or 40's no player running the single wing had the speed or elusiveness that LJ has

3) I think the Ravens have built their entire team around LJ's unique skill set. To make the decision to do that takes vision and imagination

4) I have not seen any evidence of McDaniels demonstrating innovation or adaptability. So I give Harbaugh tremendous credit
 
Key is first down..Most every completion by Jackson last night was short yardage throws. Let's see how he does 3rd and 7 or 8.

We did...
 
Key is first down..Most every completion by Jackson last night was short yardage throws. Let's see how he does 3rd and 7 or 8.
Do all you can to score first. They are taking leads and just running 8mins plus drives. It is insane, the frustrating thing is that they don't have any go to guy that you can plan to cover. I guess you let the RBs go and always go and tackle LJ?
I think their games vs the Bills, Jets will be challenging. That Jets defense is no joke.
 
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Really not trying to pick on you but it's almost 2020.

People really aren't familiar w this fact?

Like Big Ben & Cam are the definition of a healthy QB? Manning?

Wilson has been running & running for his life since day 1.

Going through this thread is hilarious. We'll just kill & hit the QB, that'll do it lol.

Agree that’s a ridiculous game plan and extremely reminiscent of how other fan bases think you “beat” Brady. Your post was interesting about QB injuries not correlating to higher run rates, but I do wonder there what qualifies as an “injury.” Many players and coaches cite the physical toll of the season and agree that the postseason seems to be played slower, perhaps due to aggregate injuries adding up, colder weather, and better defenses (the last point is the only one that can be proven.). I think Gurley is good example here of a guy who wouldn’t really qualify as injured but whose slightly slower speed/burst means the whole Rams offense is a shell of its former self. There don’t seem to be a lot of guys who are 100% in the postseason, and Jackson is relying on some truly marvelous footwork.
 
Its simple in design but harder to implement. You simply get in your run fits and do not chase, hunker down and wait for him to come to you. You start chasing then you miss and he is gone, right through the hole the defender that missed him just vacated.

Let the pocket close in around him naturally and the DE's/Edge setters cannot get to far up field. I know this will sound a bit silly or presumptuous, but I coached AYF and middle school football for a long time, and the quick fast, running QB was more the norm. A couple of those kids are playing D1 ball now. It was always the game plan I laid out to our guys for a shifty running QB.
The old cliche's "stay home", "Boot, Cutback, Reverse" but in this case they hold true especially for the edge guys.

The Ravens are running a College/HS offense, its all RPO's mostly out of the pistol.

Also, when they get a ball tipped in the air they have to come down with it. The game a few weeks ago they had 2 or 3 of those and didn't come away with any of them.
 
We had the Ravens figured out after the first quarter and would have won if not for the Edelman turnover and the inopportune offsides calls.

The Defense is giving up about 4.3-4.4 yards per play for the year but during the first quarter, they allowed 9-10 yards per play. After the first 17 points, they allowed 4.5 the rest of the game.

I think we will need to score 27 or 28 to win but this is doable against the Ravens D.

HFA will also be important. The Ravens still have SF, @CLE and PIT, all of whom may have a lot to play for and the latter two know the Ravens well.
 
That's true, Eric Mangini hasn't been a coach at the NFL level in a few years. Probably doesn't know what he's talking about.
 
Why is everyone acting like Edelman fumbling the ball accounts for a 17 point loss? The Ravens, I’m sure, can equally point to cleaning up some mistakes and getting more luck on tipped/intercept-able balls in their second meeting. The Patriots offense has its work cut out against any opponent. Let’s face it, this isn’t an ideal matchup no matter how you look at it the Ravens are playing close to this level and Jackson is still unscathed. When you’ve built a historically great defense designed to shut down passing games, and the other team couldn’t really care less about the secondary, that’s an indication that this will be a tough challenge...and not just the Patriots with this issue but almost every team. Defenses are designed to shut down something other than...that. But this is now and that theoretical game is then. Last hear the Rams were putting up 54 points in the regular season before stalling out down the stretch while the Patriots hit a low point losing to Miami and Pittsburgh. The NFL’s unpredictability is what makes it so fun and interesting, as opposed to something like the NBA.
 
The ravens are legit. I can't even take anyone seriously that tries to say otherwise. They will be a problem if we face them in the playoffs. I hope we don't. That's all I have to say on that for now.
 
The misery on this board is just depressing. I don't think Mangini was claiming that focusing on hitting Jackson is a replacement for a defensive scheme. It's one piece of a puzzle, like roughing up Marshall Faulk every chance you get. I think you just want to twist it so you feel superior to the idiot strawman you've constructed.
 
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