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.
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.
