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HOT TAKES: The Blame Game Starts up Front

Monday, December 2, 2024 17:30
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Ravens offense punched in the mouth

One of the more frustrating things about the Ravens 2024 season is the team’s inability to play a complete game. In other words, save for the Buffalo game in Week 4, you’d be hard-pressed to find another performance when the offense, defense and special teams won their respective battles on a regular basis.

Early in the season the offense carried the defense. Special teams? The best thing you can say about them is that they’ve been inconsistent. But more times than not, Chris Horton’s unit has been a liability. Clearly that was the case on Sunday against the Eagles.

But ever since the Ravens benched Marcus Williams, a long overdue demotion, the defense has played much better and they’re trending in the right direction. Zach Orr’s group had a solid outing against Philadelphia. Unfortunately, nowadays, the offense has become inconsistent, and it starts with the guys up front. And that’s an indictment on the team’s front office that failed to collect the required talent to protect inside the tackles.

Tyler Linderbaum is a stud. No problem there. Patrick Mekari and Daniel Faalele. They are duds. We know Mekari to be a warrior and perhaps he’s playing hurt because the production has fallen off a cliff. Faalele is really a position-less lineman who the Ravens are trying to groom, albeit at the expense of the offense’s consistent success. He’s not athletic enough to play on the edge and he’s too big and lumbering to stay with interior defensive linemen that provide any explosiveness to their game. Quite simply put, Faalele plays guard with the style and grace of a Sumo wrestler on the ballroom dance floor.

Check out some of these clips shared by Cole Jackson and Coach Evans on X:

When all was said and done, PFF.com recorded 25 pressure plays against Lamar on 45 drop-backs. That’s a ton! No wonder the offense looks like street ball too often. Making matters worse, the Eagles accomplished that by blitzing just 6 times. That allowed DC Vic Fangio to drop 7 defenders in coverage. It should therefore surprise no one that it seemed as if there was a sea of defenders around the Ravens’ receivers all night!

These things then begin to take their toll and manifest themselves into the geometry of the offense. Lamar may be forced to take deeper drops which throws off the timing of receivers’ routes. Passes might not have the same zip, or they might sail because Lamar can’t step into his throws. Some of the blame assigned to Lamar might simply be him trying to make something out of nothing.

It’s a trickle-down effect and it all starts up front – a front that the Ravens did little to improve coming into the season. Instead of boosting the offensive line, they bet on Lamar to do his magic and make a suspect line seem competent. It might work against teams with weaker defensive fronts, but it won’t work against teams like the Eagles and Steelers.

For the Ravens to have largely ignored that this offseason while letting an accomplished and affordable player like Kevin Zeitler escape via free agency, is either unforgivable or it wreaks of arrogance – perhaps both.

Oh but Coach Harbs isn’t too concerned…

Bully The Bullies

The Ravens once had a well-earned reputation for being bullies. They were physical and seldom did teams match their physicality. But times have changed and so has that reputation. The Eagles were the more physical team on Sunday and while I’m not a fan of Nick Sirianni, he was spot on during this press conference.

Ravens Offense Refuses to Use Their Johnson

You have to wonder if GM Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh are as chummy these days. DeCosta burns the midnight oil trying his best to fortify the roster by the trade deadline, makes a deal with the Panthers that really represents a charitable donation by Carolina in the form of Diontae Johnson. And then the Ravens choose not to play the guy.

Johnson isn’t Ja’Marr Chase. He isn’t Zay Flowers. But he sure is a lot more accomplished than Tylan Wallace and was added to the roster specifically to provide depth if the team’s No. 2 WR Rashod Bateman can’t go. Well, that situation played out yesterday. Johnson was dressed, ready to go and do what he was acquired to do. Instead, Wallace and Nelson Agholor had 40 snaps apiece.

Meanwhile…

Keaton Mitchell was a healthy scratch. His speed to get to the perimeter could have been an asset to help stretch the Eagles defense. Instead, Mitchell probably stood along the sidelines wondering why he busted his ass to get back on the active roster after a devastating knee injury last November. In case you’ve forgotten, Mitchell had 47 carries in 8 games in 2023 for 396 yards and two scores. That’s an average per carry of 8.4 yards.

But let’s not dress him in favor of a receiver that you had no intention of using.

I guess that makes sense in Harbaugh’s world.

[Related Article: Ravens Get Tucked Up!]

The post HOT TAKES: The Blame Game Starts up Front appeared first on Russell Street Report.


Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/12/02/tltakes/ravens-offense-struggles-up-front/


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