[SPEAKER_00]: Hi folks, welcome to another episode of Film Study. [SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of a music and we're back for part two of the discussion against the off of the offense against the Green Bay Packers. [SPEAKER_00]: What an offensive performance it was as a Ravens rolled over the Packers 41 at 24. [SPEAKER_00]: You get to be happy for a day and then it found out less than 24 hours later. [SPEAKER_00]: We got to be happy for another week as we await the last game.
[SPEAKER_00]: It'll be New Year's Day. [SPEAKER_00]: on, was it Thursday? [SPEAKER_00]: I guess it is New Year's Day. [SPEAKER_00]: That will be the ninth anniversary of a game the Ravens lost to the Cincinnati Bengals on one, one, 17. [SPEAKER_00]: That game has some significance in Raven's history and I'd like you to send me what the significance of that game was. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: And send it to me in a direct message if you would. [SPEAKER_00]: I love to hear from you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll just announce who the winner is. [SPEAKER_00]: There's no price other than bragging rights. [SPEAKER_00]: And if you can tell me what that means, the deadline is New Year's, well, make it when New Year's Eve at midnight. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: So I can hear anytime by then. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll be good for getting an information out on now. [SPEAKER_00]: It's at then.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, the Raven's big win largely due to a fine offensive line performance, as I would stated, now we're getting to the grades a little bit here, and I want to preface things a little bit because this was a really good example of how two different grading systems can have two very distinct views on how effective the linemen were in this game, all right?
[UNKNOWN]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to bitch and moan about PFF system isn't good because of A or B or C or D or whatever it might be. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm just going to say, you know, the value of run blocks as I score them, particularly of missed run blocks is not nearly as serious as what PFF describes to them. [SPEAKER_00]: And the value of having no penalties, which the Ravens had across the offensive line, none in this game is very high.
[SPEAKER_00]: And normally, there are big source of the points lost. [SPEAKER_00]: And other than that, the Ravens, you know, the Ravens offense is pretty good, and we'll talk about why. [SPEAKER_00]: And some of the big differences by player that occur in one very big one in particular. [SPEAKER_00]: So in short synopsis, Huttly took just one sack in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: It was not on the offensive line. [SPEAKER_00]: There was a pressure in the putt, and I look back at that play.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember exactly what it was. [SPEAKER_00]: It was a sack for zero. [SPEAKER_00]: A curtain of believe on the third drive. [SPEAKER_00]: Yep, the third drive. [SPEAKER_00]: And [SPEAKER_00]: Andrews was beaten inside by 58 to force the flush and the eventual RL0 on the play, which was a sack zero. [SPEAKER_00]: So Huntley took the chance, held on the football, thought he could get away from the defender. [SPEAKER_00]: Look like he actually dove forward for about a yard.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, they marked it as no gain, which meant it was a sack since it was in attempt to pass to start the play. [SPEAKER_00]: So that was the [SPEAKER_00]: Now, it was still only 21 pass plays, and the offensive line allowed seven pressures and two quarter back hits, which is a lot for that new number.
[SPEAKER_00]: We did hear the first episode we were talking about the ample time in space and pressure that it was two ample time in spaces and 11 pressures will nine of the 11 pressures were the response to the offensive line, but they only let Huntly get hit twice and knock down, which is pretty good.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were not flagged in 73 snaps and I think maybe most importantly coming out of this game as I think the offensive line did a great job converting back to more power successfully as it was incorporated back in the offense. [SPEAKER_00]: you think you can just turn the switch on and off like robots.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, these guys got to got to relearn how to do some of these things or focus on doing some of these things even more successfully to make the power schemes work they did and it was extraordinarily successful against the Green Bay team dealing with their own health challenges in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: So [SPEAKER_00]: It was one of, frankly, the most lopsided rushing performances in team history.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave you a couple of games early on in that first season, the 2020 season finale against the Bengals, where they ran for 404, the 2009 wildcard game, where they ran for, I think it was about 250 in that game. [SPEAKER_00]: That was with Flacco, though, and they ran all over the New England Patriots in that game and Flacco only through 10 passes and they still won. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go individually to some of the performances here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ronnie Stanley probably struggled the most as a pass blocker in this game of any lineman. [SPEAKER_00]: He did give up three and a half pressures. [SPEAKER_00]: He allowed one and a half of the two quarterback hits and he allowed one penetration. [SPEAKER_00]: I was a. [SPEAKER_00]: play where he failed to make a run block, he actually wouldn't happen. [SPEAKER_00]: He failed to pick up Ennick Barray on the left side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually kind of took the trip over his left leg as he was trying to get over to make the block and Ennick Barray got back him and he blew up the play even though I don't think he made the tackle for a loss of two Mitchell. [SPEAKER_00]: He got turned around that he fell flat on his face and he pounded the ground without realizing it without thinking that he hadn't been touched yet and he could have gotten up and tried to make it in the yard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ended up getting touched down at that point and and that was a loss of two and a two point loss for standing on that play The pressures cost him 7 points according to back hits cost him four and a half points. [SPEAKER_00]: He ended up with 47.5 out of a possible 73 sets point 65 per play now one thing. [SPEAKER_00]: It's nice about a game like this [SPEAKER_00]: is there's a lot of time to make up for your problems when you have 73 offensive stamps that are scored.
[SPEAKER_00]: 74 in total on one was in heel, so he wasn't involved in that. [SPEAKER_00]: But you got to modest or moderate adjustment, I would say I had to tuck it down a little bit because he also got run out of a pressure by Huntley at one point, Huntley ran for a, [SPEAKER_00]: By VR, it was a nine yard game, actually on 3rd and 4rd on the 3rd play of Q4, but he was bold by Van Ness that flushed Huntley and then Huntley actually made a play out of it and ran for a first down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I'll see for the game for him, give you some of the nice things that we had five blocks and all too. [SPEAKER_00]: So Stanley has still been very mobile in his outstanding runs since the buy and pretty buy he was he was hurt and not playing well post by he's been terrific and.
[SPEAKER_00]: the mobility has been one of the really big things has been nice to see is running sideline to sideline he's running down field a fair amount and we're seeing good things happen in terms of that. [SPEAKER_00]: So five level two boxes is always nice to get out for that many against a tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: That was the fewest level two blocks of any of the Raven's offensive linemen. [SPEAKER_00]: So now you have some things to look forward to here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So pancakes he had nine poles. [SPEAKER_00]: One out of one mentioned they did some counters in this game and I think his pole might actually have been a pole left [SPEAKER_00]: Now, it was part of a two man, yeah, it was part of a two man pole from setter and left tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: And I believe it was going to the left on a play that was on their last real drive, when they had a three hour ground of the left.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, four highlight blocks was a bunch of different stuff, but it was, I think it was mostly combinations in his case. [SPEAKER_00]: So one, two, three combinations, [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it looks like four combination blocks in his case. [SPEAKER_00]: So nice ability to pin for the guy next to him, whether that was a tight end or Voorhees, but he made initial block at the line of screenage, then moved to level two and made a second block.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well done on his case and a sea overall you're going to get some season. [SPEAKER_00]: It's not that bad a situation. [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, there's some players. [SPEAKER_00]: You wish they just get a see every week and they'd be it'd be being improvement from where they are. [SPEAKER_00]: Stanley is a guy who's played better than that in the second half of the season and just looking at the offensive line score sheet as we go through for the year so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stanley's grades since we gate are now. [SPEAKER_00]: Stc-c-c-c-c-a-b-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c-a-c
[SPEAKER_00]: Mike put him to a to a higher level if you're thinking the old PFF scoring method say, but but I thought he gave up a fair amount of pressure in this game that was obviously With only 21 pass plays to give up as many pressure events as he did is it's not a good thing, but but I thought he looked good as a run blocker [SPEAKER_00]: It's move over to Voorhees, had a solid game despite a number of misblocks in this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he's similar to finally in this game in a lot of specs. [SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't make a bunch of past blocking errors, but he did have a bunch of misblocks. [SPEAKER_00]: So he missed 12 blocks, and then he missed two others that were pressure events. [SPEAKER_00]: One, a half a shared pressure with Stanley, the other a shared quarterback hit with Stanley, so he didn't get a full share of anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: which many only lost two and a half points on the total of his pressure events. [SPEAKER_00]: But then he had 12 missed blocks as well, which is 0 for 12 on those 12 blocks. [SPEAKER_00]: Works out to 0.77 per play. [SPEAKER_00]: Give him a small adjustment, got him up to 80 before or after adjustment he would have to see either way. [SPEAKER_00]: He did some nice things in terms of mobility.
[SPEAKER_00]: At eight blocks in level two, did not have a pancake made eight out of eleven poles. [SPEAKER_00]: He's dropped back a little bit from a just an outstanding pole streak he had at mid-season, which was near perfect for a number of weeks there. [SPEAKER_00]: He's fallen off that a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: But going out of eight out of eleven on poles, nothing wrong with that in a game. [SPEAKER_00]: Most times you would take that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those polls have higher value, and they're also more difficult blocks, and so when a player has an exceptional poll game, like they go 7 for 7 or something, I'll bang up their adjustment and extra point or 2 to reflect that. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, they had one highlight in the game, and that was it gets a seat for the game, same as Stanley. [SPEAKER_00]: And again, nothing wrong with that. [SPEAKER_00]: It's an average performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody else was better than the two guys on the left side. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about them. [SPEAKER_00]: So the next one is Linda Bomb, who had a simply amazing game. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we'll start with the bad news first, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Cause he always do that when you have to tell people good news in bad news. [SPEAKER_00]: He did miss eight blocks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you have a lot of run blocks that often will happen, is you're having to connect on these blocks. [SPEAKER_00]: You don't always get it done. [SPEAKER_00]: The center is usually the best at knowing exactly where he has to be on his run block and on his pass block. [SPEAKER_00]: Cause he's making that call for the line as a whole. [SPEAKER_00]: But Litterbaum still managed to miss so many managed to get beat on some.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this game, eight missed, you know, was a fair portion of the score he lost in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: I think about about 11 points came off of those, 11 points in terms of the deduction from 100 if you want to think of it. [SPEAKER_00]: Came on this miss box. [SPEAKER_00]: He also had a pressure allowed. [SPEAKER_00]: PFF did not consider this a pressure, but this is a difference in the, in the definitions of the systems.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was clearly in the cone within about one and a half yards. [SPEAKER_00]: of Huntley, Huntley had to have step into his throw on that play. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember if it was complete or not, but it's definitely a pressure in terms of Linder Ball. [SPEAKER_00]: So 62 points overall, 0.85 points per play, which is okay at center, it's not great, but it's okay, and then he had a 0.07 adjustment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never give a center that higher in adjustment, so I've got some explaining to do a why I would do that. [SPEAKER_00]: Again, 0.92 overall and an A minus. [SPEAKER_00]: He had 18, 18, one, eight, level two blocks in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: That is the highest total I can ever recall. [SPEAKER_00]: Any player, any game, I've been doing this for 20 years, 100,000 blocks, you know, I posted it on 20,000 blocks by now, and no guys ever had a game with 18 level two blocks.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had two pancakes, made all four of his poles, and had four highlight blocks during that as well. [SPEAKER_00]: So simply an outstanding game, he was a bully physically.
[SPEAKER_00]: that I haven't seen but he had some nice leap push downs that were like one notably on a pancake in level two on I think it was number 94 he knocked to the ground late love to see him finish loved it would love to see him do it even more I thought he did something this game that was better in terms of his combination blocking so even when he was climbing
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't do a lot of the kind of the bump and go climbs where I think he often times one of his weaknesses as a as a run blocker, even though he's very strong in general in that category, is that he doesn't do enough to engage and get the man at the line of scrimmage off balance so the guard can really finish him. [SPEAKER_00]: I thought he did a better job of that in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: He had some other place where he didn't even, it wasn't even a two o'clock.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you look at the, the first run by Huntley, the, the 25, it wasn't the first run of the game by Huntley, but it's a 25 yard quarterback draw where they basically baited all four the past rushers to take an outside non-containing lane on Huntley and the entire middle of the field was was open. [SPEAKER_00]: There were two players in front of, I believe it was him and Ali who had to make the [SPEAKER_00]: one inside linebacker.
[SPEAKER_00]: And basically, he let Ali make the block on the inside linebacker, made sure he had it and then passed him and went through into level three to find a block. [SPEAKER_00]: He would not see that kind of a patient normally. [SPEAKER_00]: I think it was the right call and end up being hotly getting a 25-yard gain on the play. [SPEAKER_00]: It certainly looked like the right call on that play and he did eventually find somebody to block and all it's to.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like he had to go [SPEAKER_00]: on Fed because of it, where is that 25-yard play here again? [SPEAKER_00]: Let's find it. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, right? [SPEAKER_00]: It's a middle, a late-cute quarter, two. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't have who he blocked on that play, but he did find a block in level two.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, outstanding game for Linda Bomb and A-minus, I think one of the things the Ravens really need to find out over the next few games is whether or not title a Linda talent is the right player if the power identity is going to be what they hold on to, whether it's for the playoffs or they're going to maintain more of the Roman DNA [SPEAKER_00]: for the 2026 offense, whichever way they're going with this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that Linda bombs performance with that's going to be very important. [SPEAKER_00]: Whoever he's got playing there, doesn't matter if it's Emory Jones, it probably will be Voorhees at left guard, more than likely I would say, not a sure thing, but certainly the majority chance, not just plurality chance, would be that Voorhees is the starting left guard for the Ravens next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're very limited chance that Daniel Falelli will be the right guard for the Ravens, but it could be somebody very much like him, like a bigger body, kind of slower-footed guy, like an Emory Jones. [SPEAKER_00]: He'll have to learn to work with that. [SPEAKER_00]: And he's played quite well now.
[SPEAKER_00]: for a number of weeks, so going back to the buy for him, after a really bad start for him the first few games, yet A-A-A-F-A-D-A-C-C and now an A-A-S in this game against Green Bay. [SPEAKER_00]: So he's had five grades of A-S or better. [SPEAKER_00]: um, in the last, was it out 10 games? [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a, that's a good way to get paid if you tie a little into bomb.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hasn't allowed a whole lot in terms of quarterback hits and sacks during that time, half a sack, one to quarter quarterback hits during that entire 10 game period, which is a nice run for him. [SPEAKER_00]: He has allowed some pressures. [SPEAKER_00]: I said hasn't been perfect, but 12 pressures in 10 games is actually pretty good even for a center. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think if you look at what he did, he had 1-5 yard penalty, the entire 10 game period.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's really helped his case to get paid closer to what he probably wants in the Ravens. [SPEAKER_00]: And after this game, [SPEAKER_00]: thinking about where the Ravens are. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd probably bump it about another million in terms of what I'd be willing to pay him. [SPEAKER_00]: So if the Ravens are coming in and he's at anywhere between 17 and 18 million, I'm probably on board with, or I'll be saying that's about the right price on.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there are a lot of people out there who say that's too much to pay for a setter and I don't [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to disagree entirely, but I think he's a really important starting point for rebuilding this line in a meaningful way.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't get that, you have to go to the probably use your second round pick on getting a center and you have to hope you really hit the hit the jackpot on a player like when you get Creed Humphrey, you'd more than hit the jackpot, you've hit the best player in the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you get a player like Zach Frazier, who's probably a better center than Linda Bomb at this moment of time, then you hit the jackpot as well and you have them for four years at that price, at almost no price. [SPEAKER_00]: One of the problems with Linda Bomb is not only as he earns some escalators along the way, which is improved as cost or may as cost worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: They certainly put himself in a position where they couldn't pick up the 50 year option no matter what [SPEAKER_00]: on him, even if they thought they could maybe pay left tackle money because of the probals and whatnot, and they all pro, you know, I think he isn't all pro yet, but from the probals they couldn't pick up the additional cost of that option. [SPEAKER_00]: So reducing those frictions is just an unfortunate nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish the NFL would do it right and separate the positions so that all the [SPEAKER_00]: They could put all the guards together, all the tackles together, and all the centers together, that would be fine. [SPEAKER_00]: But what they've done now is just it's hosing teams and it's making it less likely that teams will draft centers early on because of it because you don't have those natural friction to work with in terms of the, you know, keeping a star player around.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know what Linda Bum's head is right now, whether he's going to be [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, signing with the Ravens after kind of they've held them up a little bit on negotiations, but my guess is, they probably remain cordial. [SPEAKER_00]: He would probably like to stay with them or Jackson. [SPEAKER_00]: So we'll see how this plays out. [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, again, I think it's a case of right player right price. [SPEAKER_00]: If Linda bomb, thanks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, my my never's been going up while we've been going along to now it's 21 million per year. [SPEAKER_00]: It's good luck to you in future endeavors. [SPEAKER_00]: That's what it would be for me right now, but [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, anyway, they're going to go to the playoffs. [SPEAKER_00]: He's a very important player for them to produce during any playoff run.
[SPEAKER_00]: They may have and hopefully he makes himself a lot of money either way, whether it's here or somewhere else. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's move on. [SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk about Daniel Fowley, who I scored as a B- for the game, is right on the B-B line in fact for me. [SPEAKER_00]: He had one pressure allowed during the game, so not a significantly bad pass blocking game. [SPEAKER_00]: He did get beat on some other pass blocking plays by the way, but that was not a significant number.
[SPEAKER_00]: of his total misses in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: Most of these 11 miss blocks he had in the game were L2NB or misses on poles and I'm just going to read them off to you as I go. [SPEAKER_00]: So second play of the game 12 yard run L2NB, four plays later. [SPEAKER_00]: He had an L2 Wiff on 56. [SPEAKER_00]: Go to the second drive, late in the [SPEAKER_00]: Then he had a missed poll where Van Ness corkscrew down to, I mean, you may remember the play.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then took down, I think it was Henry for no gain on the play. [SPEAKER_00]: Reclose whether I would have called that a pancake and a scoring block for a file layer or not. [SPEAKER_00]: I looked at a few times. [SPEAKER_00]: I eventually decided I was not going to give him credit for it since Van Ness made the tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was Henry on that play. [SPEAKER_00]: Very next play.
[SPEAKER_00]: He whiffed on Van Ness on a pole, then he went L2 and B, then he was beaten inside and had his face crossed. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a bad one. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a loss at the line of Scrimma John on a run for four. [SPEAKER_00]: Then he whiffed on 56 and level two again, not as serious of a miss. [SPEAKER_00]: Then he was backed up by 91 on what ended up being a run play, not sure if it was that way to start with.
[SPEAKER_00]: on this one if this is a quarterback scramble of some sort because I don't have it marked that way, but he was backed up by 91. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a loss of the line scrimmers. [SPEAKER_00]: That's three of those in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: He had an L2 wiff on 56 again, then he had an L2 and B. [SPEAKER_00]: And that's all of them. [SPEAKER_00]: So he out of his 11 miss blocks. [SPEAKER_00]: You only had three losses at the line of scrimmage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those are the ones that are the killers. [SPEAKER_00]: You can't lose to the man opposite you one and one. [SPEAKER_00]: and get beaten left, beaten right, get driven back on past plays, where it maybe would have been a pressure if the ball hadn't come out quickly. [SPEAKER_00]: That obviously does not carry good portent for for the remainder of your polls. [SPEAKER_00]: So most of his problems were right at the, sorry, we're in level two or on polls.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the better kind of miss that you can add. [SPEAKER_00]: Neither's good, but it's a better kind of miss. [SPEAKER_00]: He did have six level two blocks in the game, had two pancakes. [SPEAKER_00]: When five of seven was pulled, so we've pulled his pants down on the two poles already, had five out of five otherwise that he got.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was still plenty of indecision in his game, but I'd say more than that, we saw more inability due to foot speed and quickness to get the blocks in level two. [SPEAKER_00]: And that could be a problem by the way for the power game [SPEAKER_00]: If you're going to leave Linda Baum as the trailing blocker on some plays and have literally be the climber, he's going to be less able to do the things you need him to do to go find that guy in level two.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think a lot of times it's going to be more often than not. [SPEAKER_00]: It'll be [SPEAKER_00]: good for file lay lay to be the trailing guy. [SPEAKER_00]: And if there's any ability for Linda Bob to get that guy a little bit off balance of the two of them to get them a little bit off balance, as that starts off as a dual block or him and Rosengarten for that matter, then file lay lay can be a good finisher and we saw him get much more push in this game I thought.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did notice that PFF scored him just terribly in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: They scored it in the [SPEAKER_00]: That's probably a, um, what I would call a problem of pyramiding of error, so they've got a set of rules that they'll give a minus 0.5 or a minus 1 as an underlying score to file a laylay where some of these L2 and B's and some of these other plays that were misses on poles and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't look at them nearly as harshly, that's pretty clear as I'm discussing. [SPEAKER_00]: So if you had, for instance, if all of those misses came on run blocks and they didn't, then he'd have missed 11 out of 53 possible points on runs and that would be not, you know, that would still be about 80% he would be scoring on those.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the way PFF looks at it, they're trying to get offset value there and I think the problem is that they're too harsh with their minus point five's and minus point ones on run blocks because they're not as important and they're too light on players who are getting penalties. [SPEAKER_00]: And penalties are enormously significant, and I've talked about this before, but but Faleida is one of the things he's really cleaned up well, generally.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Ravens have cleaned up that about their offensive line play, but Faleida has had a good year in terms of not having a lot of penalties assigned to these lost 12, sorry, 14 points for the year. [SPEAKER_00]: in 16 games on penalties. [SPEAKER_00]: So that's a that's a pretty good number. [SPEAKER_00]: I had one holding call. [SPEAKER_00]: I had two holding calls. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking back at the Kansas City game.
[SPEAKER_00]: You might have had a hold in that one or it might have been a five-year penalty and a another five-year penalty that could not be declined like a fall star. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, he said, he said a minimal number of penalties this year has been one of the good things about his game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked at it multiple times, I tried to figure out why is there such a big difference, but that's all I can come up with in terms of how PFF grades these things in a relative sense is that there's a pyramidting of value. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll just say a pyramidting of scoring that he did a lot of a thing that PFF puts a higher weight on than I do negatively. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a best way I can say it without saying that I don't think they're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just stand behind my waitings. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been, this is one of the things, this is my background is in trying to relatively valueize things and put a relative value on things. [SPEAKER_00]: And I feel very confident about the way I do it. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, let's move on. [SPEAKER_00]: Good game for Falelli anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I, yeah, I talked about this level two box and whatnot. [SPEAKER_00]: Talk about Rosengarten real quick.
[SPEAKER_00]: 73 plays for him 62 blocks nine missed a lot of one penetration that was towards the end of the game as I recall. [SPEAKER_00]: Now I haven't wrong is more like in the middle of the game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, when Henry was taking down for a five yard loss by anecd bar A, it seemed like an important play at the time because it brought up a third and 14 and they forced the Ravens to punt on their first drive the second half, but that run right for negative five was [SPEAKER_00]: a Rosengarten can beat him inside by Enigbari, who made that play. [SPEAKER_00]: And then he had one pressure allowed. [SPEAKER_00]: Still scored 58 points, that's 0.79 per play.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really close, whether or not he would have gotten an A minus or an A, even for this game, because he did a lot of other things well, but I ended up giving him a B with a 0.05 adjustment. [SPEAKER_00]: This is where it really gets incredible. [SPEAKER_00]: And I gave you the level two blocks, Rosengarten had 11 level two blocks. [SPEAKER_00]: That's a tackle with 11 level two blocks in a game. [SPEAKER_00]: It four pancakes. [SPEAKER_00]: He made four of his five poles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had two highlights there both highlight combination blocks. [SPEAKER_00]: look at him in the article if you want the better definition at got to be score overall. [SPEAKER_00]: I could have been more generous with him, but I didn't think his quality of opponent was as high as some of the other others that were faced in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: So I made it only 0.05 for the this year I should say.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I made it only 0.05 for this game and a B. [SPEAKER_00]: Again, another player who's playing a lot better, the Raven's offensive linemen in general have played pretty well since the buy, this four consecutive bees for Rosengarten. [SPEAKER_00]: Since the buy, he's had A minus A, C, D, B, C plus, and then four straight bees. [SPEAKER_00]: So nice run.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Raven's one of the nice things about this team is they go in the next year without a significant problem at tackle, which that boy, that is a place you want to be when you
[SPEAKER_00]: is not absolutely needing an offensive tackle, because you've got all those other teams who are gonna be biting their fingernails on offensive tackles, and they're able to say, oh yeah, let that corner back drop to us, or let that pass, pressure drop to us, or let that three-tech drop to us, this is a good year for the Ravens to not have a tackle need. [SPEAKER_00]: It feels like it's been forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: since they've been in that position where they really didn't need a tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean they won't take a swing guard tackle late. [SPEAKER_00]: They might do that, but there's three primary guys with Vincent, Stanley, and Rosengarten. [SPEAKER_00]: I go to war with those guys next year with no problem as them being one, two, three. [SPEAKER_00]: Where they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so that's it for the offensive line we did also Cory Bullock came in the game for one scored snap as a six offensive line man that was down in goal line on just a horrific play for the Ravens offensive line they missed everybody on that play, but they Bullock in particular. [SPEAKER_00]: Made his block on that play and A bunch of years around him Henry still got into the end zone actually didn't he came up short on that play and then he scored on the next one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, that was Bullock's one-stap, three of them got in for the final snap of the game. [SPEAKER_00]: It was not a scored snap because it was a kneel, so Bullock was in, Vincent was in, and Emery Jones was in all of that last kneel down. [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, that doesn't mean a damn thing in terms of the future. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about some individual skill position players because there were some good games around here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can feel my dog is going to make the rest of this episode very difficult, I might get you chair there, chair. [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, hopefully you're going to hear some clicking around, but not too much. [SPEAKER_00]: Flowers made a few decent plays. [SPEAKER_00]: He protected the football very well after the catch I thought. [SPEAKER_00]: The other thing he did well was he got in the end zone on a ten yard play. [SPEAKER_00]: It was a
[SPEAKER_00]: He had the first down I believe because I think it was on 3rd and 8th from about the 10 yard line, but it was a 10 yard touchdown pass reached across the line, got in the ball did come out as it is want to do, but it was in this case, since we knew the rules of the catch so well from like least unbelievable play versus the Steelers a couple weeks ago, he had step step extend in this case and that that clearly was enough to have made the football move to get across the goal line and
[SPEAKER_00]: and they granted the touchdown there without review, even though the packers are calling for it. [SPEAKER_00]: Flowers could be a much bigger weapon if you don't have time to hunt me in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: So Tyler Huntley minimizes the value of Z flowers. [SPEAKER_00]: He still does some things, tell the ravens in this game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's still the most dangerous receiver they have, but [SPEAKER_00]: If you're not willing to throw over the top of the defense and you're not willing to wait a little bit for a crossing route between level two and level three to develop. [SPEAKER_00]: Zaflower doesn't help you in the way you can help you. [SPEAKER_00]: If you have to come back to get the football that minimizes use as safe flowers, we saw a title, [SPEAKER_00]: during his time with Huntley in 21 and 22.
[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, it wasn't here in 22. [SPEAKER_00]: He traded in before the 22 season. [SPEAKER_00]: There's really during 21. [SPEAKER_00]: And I think that was probably one of the reasons why Marky's Brown wanted out a Baltimore and the Ravens made a great trade. [SPEAKER_00]: They absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he had a heist from Arizona Cardinals on that trade and then he's the pick on title of little bomb which still was a lot of value to get but it might not have maxed a value in that in that first round anyway flowers uh good game for him you know but he couldn't be he's not at his best without without without with out Lamar Jackson and the the opportunity to extend plays and and in fact the middle of the field between level two and level three.
[SPEAKER_00]: We got to talk about Derek Henry. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, he set so many records moved to the top 10 in rushing passing Tony Dorset, became the first Raven ever to have four rushing touchdowns in a game. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you remember that from from married with children? [SPEAKER_00]: That's what Albondio is game four touchdowns in one game. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would always bring that up whenever there was some talk of him playing high school football. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's so, six times, the Ravens had a guy who had three touchdowns in a green. [SPEAKER_00]: They ingramed, done it, and Gus Edwards had done it, and Jamal Lewis had done it twice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, all those guys wiped out of the record book, and he's the first with four, and he got it on the Ravens last, meaning full offensive play with a 25-year-in-run to daylight, to Peter. [SPEAKER_00]: That they got it done. [SPEAKER_00]: Great game for Henry didn't have a ton of mistackles as I mentioned in the first episode. [SPEAKER_00]: I believe Six on 36 carries is not particularly exceptional, but he did do Other things well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he took advantage and he extended some of the runs he had. [SPEAKER_00]: I still can't believe 56 ran him down for that shooting tackle on the right side line I thought he's gone for sure on that one But they got a little piece of him. [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe Derek Henry [SPEAKER_00]: five years ago, scores on that play. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not worried about it, but it was unfortunate that he missed out just a little bit on what had happened. [SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk a little bit about Keaton Mitchell. [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't have his good game, but he did have a nice burst to the outside. [SPEAKER_00]: The announcers were picked up right on right at way that that was entirely a speed play created by Mitchell to get to the outside as opposed to blocking scheme that set it up for him. [SPEAKER_00]: And it's really nice to have that. [SPEAKER_00]: It was almost a 90 degree outside cut and then another bump to the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he finally hits the edge and races past people. [SPEAKER_00]: Another case where he might have had a chance to burst through for a touchdown. [SPEAKER_00]: But he ends up getting caught for him for I think a 14 yard game on that right side line. [SPEAKER_00]: Talk a little bit about Walker in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, Walker didn't have a target in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: What I found interesting is Walker was in at wide receiver when the Ravens ran a push push play.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't have wide receivers on a touch bush play. [SPEAKER_00]: You have tight ends. [SPEAKER_00]: So Walker actually lined up tight to the formation and is acting like he's gonna knock somebody over as a tight end. [SPEAKER_00]: I like multiple things about that. [SPEAKER_00]: First of all, I love the fact that Walker seemed to be excited about doing it. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so that's a positive if he's in there wanting to block on a play like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second is, I love that the Ravens sold the play that way. [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you know, the packers are not stupid. [SPEAKER_00]: They knew some form of that was coming, but when they saw Walker on the field, they might have thought, oh, this might be something else.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember if the Ravens actually changed personnel for that play, but if they didn't, that would make the most sense is that they just left who they had on the field and then the Green Bay wouldn't have had a chance to bring on a bunch more heavies. [SPEAKER_00]: Or, you know, if they did so, they would take a significant risk of a 12 men on the field penalty. [SPEAKER_00]: to get it done.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, by the time they line it up, then, you know, the Green Bay helmets were basically all in the neutral zone. [SPEAKER_00]: One of them moved a little bit and Litterbaum touched him up with his left arm, which I think he's allowed to move anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: I talked about that in the first show as well. [SPEAKER_00]: So, very nice play there to get the NCI foul. [SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, Walker didn't have a ton of snaps in this game.
[SPEAKER_00]: We said, don't recall him having a ton of snaps. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a quick look at it here. [SPEAKER_00]: So Walker played, well, Walker did play 20 snaps. [SPEAKER_00]: That's 26% of the time, which actually surprises me a little bit. [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, flowers is out there for 52 snaps, statement for 40.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they weren't going all with the heavy personnel, but the fact that they used 2.19 heavies per play, [SPEAKER_00]: Tells me and that you've got slightly over one running back per play to add to that means they should have had less than two wider severs per play on and I guess that you know they one of the things is they had you know 70 plus snaps of those wider severs snaps are a little bit water down
[SPEAKER_00]: But they had, you know, bad enough snaps in the game to give you even a player like Walker who's fairly far down the depth chart 20 snaps Hopkins 19 and western 7 so they got guys on the field a little bit so would love to see western used at some point. [SPEAKER_00]: Where a package of three or four plays they have ready for him to get one of them used in a game.
[SPEAKER_00]: or two of them used in some game where he could be one of these gadget or but guys that you would use closer to the line of scrimmage instead of wasting flowers there. [SPEAKER_00]: So, be nice to see that done. [SPEAKER_00]: They have not done it as yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rashad Bateman kind of a missing man in this game had 40 snaps who's targeted once for a seven-yard completion It did something to make the most of it that's interesting because Bateman is a guy who should benefit from the fact that Huntley is a quarterback Bateman is the Ravens best route runner He's the guy who can get separation at the top of the stem [SPEAKER_00]: There is a problem with that though.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the other team always knows you're going to come back to the quarterback, as opposed to trying to beat them deep, then they don't respect the deep routes and they sit on the come back routes, they sit on the curl, they sit on the, you know, you kind of dig route that you might be running. [SPEAKER_00]: That's it dig is even a little deeper. [SPEAKER_00]: So you normally wouldn't, you know, might not be anything, even that deep.
[SPEAKER_00]: they sit on comebacks on the sideline a lot of the time and you know they play Tyler Huntley's arm as opposed to the wide receiver so the fact that Bateman is a great route runner and can run anything he'd ask him to it's not it doesn't come into play so you know Bateman of all the place should be least impacted by the fact that it's Huntley but in a sense they still are able to sit on on what he can do at the top of the stem. [SPEAKER_00]: Mark Andrews had a pretty good game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a very big play on that first drive to extend the football for a first down. [SPEAKER_00]: That was really one of the key plays on that drive. [SPEAKER_00]: They probably would have gone forward anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: He caught all four balls thrown to him for 28 yards. [SPEAKER_00]: So, and the longest was nine. [SPEAKER_00]: So you can tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the average is seven, the longest is nine, and he had four, that he was catching a lot of mid-range balls there, and those are effective extensions of the run game, as I would think of it, and contributions to the low variance output of the Ravens offense that made them so unbelievably efficient in this game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah likely did some good things so he caught three out of three balls for twenty seven nine yards uh here is the longest play of the day for the ravens it was eleven yard catch but then they tossed on a fifteen yard unnecessary roughness for a helmet the helmet hit that he took um and uh and that was a big play on that I believe the second drive to get him down closer let's see where the eleven yard play occur
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was actually in the, on the two minute drive at the end of the half, and that was, you know, getting those 26 yards was a big play along with a 25 yard run by Huntley in terms of putting the ravens down in range to score a touchdown there and they did finally with Henry running it in. [SPEAKER_00]: And you see, well, we're talking about all these individual receivers, and they didn't really have big individual contributions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Colour was in the game didn't had one target. [SPEAKER_00]: It was incomplete. [SPEAKER_00]: I think that was the one in the end zone, but he'd had, you know, a good blocking game. [SPEAKER_00]: He did some things positive that I think, you know, you've you've got a [SPEAKER_00]: include him in the group that helped produce a 307-yard Russian game and did some positive things.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blocking from tight ends by the way in this game is not all perfect by any stretch, but if a color did a pretty good job in terms of making some run blocking headway. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, who else we got to talk about here? [SPEAKER_00]: Alpatric record, decent game, I thought, you'd normally affect him to be just a tip of the spear in the run game, and I didn't think he was bad in that regard. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at the PFF score.
[SPEAKER_00]: They seem to really rate him down in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: And he had 36 run blocking attempts. [SPEAKER_00]: He had to make kind of a lot of mistakes I would think. [SPEAKER_00]: to get a grade in the 40s from PFF on this, but I honestly, I have not scored him individually the way I score an offensive lineman, so I don't know how they got there. [SPEAKER_00]: But undoubtedly, there were some misses there and everything was not perfect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ricardo also had a carry in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: Didn't he have one carry for a couple of yards to get a first down? [SPEAKER_00]: Not, I must have been the last game against doing this anyway. [SPEAKER_00]: He did not have one of the carries, but [SPEAKER_00]: You know, anytime you have 307 rushing yards, you make the kind of commitment with the snaps they have a card on the field. [SPEAKER_00]: There's on for 40 some snaps as I recall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, a record paid 43 snaps under the game. [SPEAKER_00]: So 57% of the time, he had to be a big part of that run offense. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm gonna take a few questions here. [SPEAKER_00]: Appreciate all the questions coming through hashtag, film, study, mailbag, Marina's greatest spreadsheet just today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've mentioned the first half of the show that those questions are now getting categorized and hopefully I'll be much more efficient at getting your question on the air. [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm very sorry to the degree that I've left some questions out there to dial the vine and hopefully that won't happen anymore. [SPEAKER_00]: I start with the first is from Dark Speed 9 on Reddit, and a lot of these are similar, a lot of overlap in here.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the incredible success of the run game yesterday, what exactly did our run blocking do so differently than the rest of the regular season? [SPEAKER_00]: Was it simply overpowering the Packers D line? [SPEAKER_00]: What was the blocking scheme changed slash more sound? [SPEAKER_00]: And will that success continue next week? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's a really compound question there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dark speed 9, you have a lot of overlap from other people, so I'm going to leave the next week for part of one of the other questions here. [SPEAKER_00]: They did a combination of both things, so they still, by the way, anytime you run them all 53 times, you're going to have some zone and some power, but they are higher commitment to power in this game, which means dual blocking is more pulling from the from the guards and you see.
[SPEAKER_00]: more attempts to to puncture the defense with point of attack football, and then get to level two for that first contact. [SPEAKER_00]: Stay ahead of the chains, which they did an outstanding job at in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: But yes, also, [SPEAKER_00]: Was it something about the Packer's defensive line? [SPEAKER_00]: I think it was. [SPEAKER_00]: The Packers were very hurt in this game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to look at the defensive line and see, I mean, and I borrow a place 79% of the snaps. [SPEAKER_00]: He's an end wouldn't play 68% of the snaps for a nest played 62. [SPEAKER_00]: And they had brinson play 45% Gary 45% he's really defensive end. [SPEAKER_00]: But Hannah played 20% Riley who got hurt early. [SPEAKER_00]: That was a big loss for them. [SPEAKER_00]: He only played 11 snaps. [SPEAKER_00]: And then Cox played 12% of the snaps.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it sounds like they actually did have a fair amount of dispersal with only their edge players. [SPEAKER_00]: Really taking the [SPEAKER_00]: absurdly high number of snaps, but they still had some scrambling to do to fill 73 or 74 offensive snaps with with with with a full with a couple of defensive linemen that they need to [SPEAKER_00]: Let's move on, Abbas Bokari, the Steelers didn't have Harman in the first matchup and still held Henry to 3.8 yards per carry.
[SPEAKER_00]: What adjustments should the Ravens make so that Henry can thrive on Sunday? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, a couple of adjustments will be made for the Ravens. [SPEAKER_00]: From starting from a game script perspective, the Ravens should not be as disadvantaged because the Steelers are extremely limited in what they can do offensively. [SPEAKER_00]: So they're missing key receivers, Calvin Austin may be out again. [SPEAKER_00]: And we know Metcalf will be out with this suspension.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm almost 100% sure that I haven't heard officially that Darnell Rob Washington is in, you know, enormous weapon for them at tight end. [SPEAKER_00]: And as a blocker, it really gives them a seventh offensive line. [SPEAKER_00]: They're a lot of place because they play six offensive line a lot. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, they'll be limited in terms of what offensive line.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just saw a game against the Browns, you know, where they [SPEAKER_00]: went in to Cleveland and scored six points. [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, there were some issues with weather and there was some kicker missed a kick there. [SPEAKER_00]: And the situation wasn't perfect. [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of the Steelers fans thought that the fix was in, by the way, you want to go out and see some real tin foil hat stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go out to the Steelers boards right now and take a read on like the Hinesfield forums [SPEAKER_00]: the Steelers Reddit board or whatever, you'll see a lot of tin foil hat ideas about how the NFL just set this up and they wanted a week-eight team game between the Ravens and we knew it was going to happen and we knew it was all set up and everything was unfair and the referee's killed us and whatnot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I point that group back to three weeks ago where the Ravens had [SPEAKER_00]: a set of very bad calls go against them in the game, including some that the league had to directly apologize one, and particularly had to directly apologize to Harball for in a one-hour phone conversation. [SPEAKER_00]: That was the Travis Jones over center attempt to on the kick that they rule whatever the unnecessary roughness or whatever the penalty is for going after the long snapper.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they, you know, the ravens are very clear and they may even told the referees what they're, or the officials what they're trying to do before the game. [SPEAKER_00]: then they had the likely call go again. [SPEAKER_00]: So, but I didn't really think was that bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then one of the call, it was though, it's the Rogers reception as a receiver where he did not completely meet the same standards that were applied to the likely catch was the flip side of that coin where I thought the Ravens clearly had an interception. [SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, the tinfoil had theories are out there. [SPEAKER_00]: Game is a big fix.
[SPEAKER_00]: The NFL wanted, you know, I love it when the NFL wants something to happen, but the NFL wanted this game to have meanings that they can have it in prime time. [SPEAKER_00]: And it will sure enough it's true. [SPEAKER_00]: The Ravens are, and the dealers are in prime time. [SPEAKER_00]: It is pretty much a dream scenario for additional revenue for the NFL, so that's a positive situation from that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also one of what 272 games [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not in enormous amount of additional revenue. [SPEAKER_00]: It's, you know, they basically, all the games would drop down one, maybe the Ravens and Steelers as a rivalry game would be played on Saturday, maybe not, maybe you played us up on Sunday and one of the more meaningful playoff games could be moved to Saturday, they had other games.
[SPEAKER_00]: They could have re-regigled and they of course have the NFC South Battle for the division title. [SPEAKER_00]: or the NFC Westbattle for the division title that they could have put in prime time on Sunday as well. [SPEAKER_00]: So they have other options probably the NFL wants a meaningful game that's probably not an unreasonable thing to say, but I don't think that they'll cheat to get there. [SPEAKER_00]: I just don't believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think credibility of the league is too much of a sacred commodity to screw with. [SPEAKER_00]: So, [SPEAKER_00]: You know, in terms of how can the Ravens do better with their country this time? [SPEAKER_00]: The most important thing is to have a healthy Lamar Jackson who's more healthy than it was the last time in its Steelers who could move around and threaten a meaningful read option presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think with Tyler Huntley, there is a big risk that the Ravens [SPEAKER_00]: won't have the ability to out physical the Steelers in the same way. [SPEAKER_00]: One of the things about Patrick Queen is you can get him to make a lot of unforesterers if you show him eye candy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember Patrick Queen is a rookie in a second year into his third year was still making a lot of mistakes in terms of not being able to stay with people in coverage [SPEAKER_00]: very very much useless against bunch formations and things where there was natural natural trickery and and picking and rubbing and the other things that we're going to go on out of those formations. [SPEAKER_00]: You show Patrick Queen anything involving the read option.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has trouble figuring out exactly where to go. [SPEAKER_00]: You get to level two against him with Derek Henry. [SPEAKER_00]: He's not real a real big fan of contact. [SPEAKER_00]: He'll try and twist him down. [SPEAKER_00]: He'll do the best you can to try and get him to the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Patrick Queen, in that playoff game last year, had one of the most embarrassing performance [SPEAKER_00]: one of the most embarrassing performance is he'll ever see from an inside linebacker in terms of a lack of willingness to fight through contact. [SPEAKER_00]: And it was to such a degree that is agent the next day posted that, yeah, I was sick or he was sick yesterday and that's why he played the way he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got called out by Bellachick in terms of what he was trying to do on some film study that was being done. [SPEAKER_00]: So it's a, it's a, um, [SPEAKER_00]: Patrick Queen is vulnerable and the Ravens don't have a linden robber at any more. [SPEAKER_00]: Peyton Wilson is a pretty good player. [SPEAKER_00]: So they do have, it's not like they don't have any tacklers, but they just don't have the guys in the middle of the field.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dishon Elliott is another guy who's missing now. [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, to make tackles, uh, the way they've, they've, they've, they've, they've had in the past. [SPEAKER_00]: It really has got to take care of the football. [SPEAKER_00]: They're going to have to make sure that every time the Steelers get any kind of score, they have to work the hell for it from the other side of the field, drive all the way up because it's going to be very difficult for them to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's their owners, so they're probably going to be, in order to do that, they're going to probably have to accept less yards per offensive play. [SPEAKER_00]: And it may mean less for Henry in terms of yards per play against a more healthy defense that has deer or Carmen back. [SPEAKER_00]: Of course, you know, the point has been, hey, TJ Watts probably not going to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: He might, if he does, he probably won't be the player he's been, so I think, you know, either way, you probably get a good result out of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other guys, the, the Steel is bad, and they're her big and Sawyer have looked pretty damn good, particularly in this last game against the, against the Browns, and the Highsmith, is a terror on the blind side, so it's not like the Steelers don't have plenty of weapons there anyway, and, and Derek Harman is a big addition back to the middle of that defense [SPEAKER_00]: find them with some gap of plugging value there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think the biggest thing is going to be having a little more jacks in back who can threaten the area behind the linebackers so that the stealers can't completely crowd the line of scrimmage as they feel as I feel like they could against Tyler Huntley. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, next question, Angela 85 and he's got two here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one, hi, Ken, I know Green Bay was banged up, but what changes in the run game did you see besides volume and how can we somewhat replicate that against the Steelers? [SPEAKER_00]: Also, will it compromise or inactive watt, cancel out harm in returning? [SPEAKER_00]: We've actually addressed most of this. [SPEAKER_00]: So, watt, cancel out harm in returning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that that's true, I'm not sure at this point, whether a, [SPEAKER_00]: 70% watt or 100% harm and I'm not sure he's at 100% either. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure who I fear more. [SPEAKER_00]: Harman is a pretty good player. [SPEAKER_00]: He's certainly an interior run stuff or if you look at tackling grades and whatnot on PFF, they're tremendously poorly skewed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So do this for me, if you wanna look at defensive interior and understand just how tackling grades are. [SPEAKER_00]: Take only the defensive interior players and order them by tackling grade and only for the players who have 50% or more of the highest snap total. [SPEAKER_00]: And you'll see that the average score is something like a 46 or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: So within that context, Harmon, Harmon looks, you know, better in terms of the tackling and [SPEAKER_00]: Travis Jones, frankly, is way undervalued as a tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: He's got a, you know, five percent missed tackle rate for the year, five and change. [SPEAKER_00]: That obviously is outstanding for an interior defensive player, but somehow the, the, the greetings out working properly. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, um, so Angela, I've, I appreciate that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that I have anything more to add to the run game. [SPEAKER_00]: I think the, I think that one of the things I'd say is that they'll probably stay heavy with heavier personnel. [SPEAKER_00]: After that works so well until the stealers prove they can stop it. [SPEAKER_00]: So we'll see a lot of attempts to replicate the kind of drive level success by getting more average plays and fewer shot plays.
[SPEAKER_00]: And with Lamar Jackson, that's really putting such a chance to develop on him in a certain way. [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe one that he's not really thrilled about, but I think it worked so well this last week in terms of the Raymond's efficiency. [SPEAKER_00]: I think that we want to see [SPEAKER_00]: More like Lamar in 2019 than what we've seen by Lamar in 2023. [SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, it's 2,000, 25 so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he's been okay at times, he hasn't had the season overall, obviously, that he had that year. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, Angela 85 also, how does 2025 have huntly in the running game plan match up against the 2025 Steelers defense? [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's terrible match up and that we need the LGA back ASAP, but the national media has been saying otherwise. [SPEAKER_00]: Agreed completely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think in order to have any kind of similar success, [SPEAKER_00]: Either what they had against the packers or even what they had against the Steelers and the last playoff game you need to start with having Jackson on the field and the ability to threaten everybody to grasp on that field. [SPEAKER_00]: Once you have that all misdirection options are back on the table and frankly the whole playbook is back on the table. [SPEAKER_00]: Henry should get a lot of carries.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not saying this shouldn't stick with him for more of the actual carries in the game and not, you know, [SPEAKER_00]: go to Mitchell or even on Lee as much in this game, but I think that they'll, you know, they really need to have the threat that the ball could be anywhere any time and you'll only get that with Lamar Jackson. [SPEAKER_00]: You really only get it with a healthy Lamar Jackson. [SPEAKER_00]: I will say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lamar Jackson's backer injury is such [SPEAKER_00]: that he's a shadow of even what he's been for the rest of this year. [SPEAKER_00]: I could see the wisdom in staying with Tyler Huntley. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's going to give their avance as good a chance to win the game as they are currently projected to have, which is about 62% by gambling markets. [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that percentage would drop.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it might be better than the chance Jackson would give them if Jackson is, [SPEAKER_00]: significantly below 100%. [SPEAKER_00]: But Harbaugh said, there's no inclination, I think, that he would consider playing Huntley over Jackson if Jackson is healthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think one possibility is, you know, that you might start Lamar Jackson, and if it is not working out for some reason, if you have to pull him and it's not due to injury, [SPEAKER_00]: Here's enormous organizational risk with a move like that. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I would want to do it. [SPEAKER_00]: So if you start Jackson, you're going with Jackson. [SPEAKER_00]: If you start Huntley, you could go to Jackson.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you say, well, I know you're only 70% Lamar, so we're not going to start to this game, but then we need you, it's second half or down eight. [SPEAKER_00]: You gotta find a way to find the mojo in this offense. [SPEAKER_00]: Again, I think you could do that. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I think if you if you pull Lamar Jackson, then your chance to extend Lamar Jackson probably goes way down. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's the organizational risk I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could have hurt feelings. [SPEAKER_00]: There is no buffer of an agent in between him who's going to talk him down out of the tree. [SPEAKER_00]: Talk him off the ledge in terms of his feelings about that. [SPEAKER_00]: So you're you're at risk. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think honestly the simple answer is just start Jackson. [SPEAKER_00]: Um, stay with Jackson, that's your only chance to have a really great playoff run.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tyler Huntley is not going to work the Ravens through this maze of, you know, difficult assignments they have facing at the FC. [SPEAKER_00]: The FC is wide open, but also means that every AFC team is pretty tough this year, including the Texans who is the most likely team that they'll face first. [SPEAKER_00]: They could then be facing Buffalo in the second game. [SPEAKER_00]: They could be facing, you know, on the road, either the two or three seed as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, they could be facing the one or one two or three seed as well on the road. [SPEAKER_00]: So any of those are possible and and none of them really look easy. [SPEAKER_00]: Going to Jacksonville is not easy. [SPEAKER_00]: Going to New England is not going to be easy this year. [SPEAKER_00]: going to Denver is not going to be easy, any road game against one of these very good football teams is going to be a legitimate challenge for this Ravens team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not not saying it's never an easy ride in the playoffs, but it's not even though people say it's wide open, it's not as it doesn't mean you can go in as a six point favorite everywhere you go. [SPEAKER_00]: Got one more question here. [SPEAKER_00]: I really apologize if I butcher the name here, but it's Jale, or it made Jale, Jale, Pedro, Boshat, I'll say, says, hi can, never got to contact you because I don't have Twitter, but hey, you're on Instagram now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been listening to the podcast since 2021. [SPEAKER_00]: It's been great to learn much greater depth about football. [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, I appreciate it. [SPEAKER_00]: I'll call you Pedro or JPB. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's call you JPB. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a Brazilian fan, been following the Ravens since the beginning of the 2012 season. [SPEAKER_00]: I have an idea about a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: We moved away from the pistol formation on our offense, which is more prominent in 2019, Lamar's MVP season, to a different formation where Lamar could threaten the middle of the field.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so that's running out of side cars, what he's referring to, where typically the mesh point is in front of Lamar, and Lamar has complete vision of the field [SPEAKER_00]: probably a better array of options to run the ball up the middle and it'd be able to see how those linebackers are reacting to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's definitely involved more injury risk for Lamar for him to be running in the middle of the field, but running the outside field, he had a lot more runs in 2019 where he never got touched. [SPEAKER_00]: when at about 789 yard gain, never got touched. [SPEAKER_00]: There were a lot of those in that 2019 season. [SPEAKER_00]: They haven't returned to the pistol, and you know, the running the pistol with a full back is even something the ravens have done at times.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can do that. [SPEAKER_00]: either on an offset eye where the fullback is next to Lamar or they can run a full everything's behind Lamar pistol where you have a fullback in tighter and he leads the way on place but they haven't run it much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mark Ingram was kind of a master of playing with the read option and he was the primary back in 2019 so Lamar could leave the ball in there until very late and Ingram's [SPEAKER_00]: position was that Lamar can pull it as late as he wants as long as he pulls it hard. [SPEAKER_00]: They did have some fumbles by the way, that year, that is something to consider as I make this pontification about how good England was at the mesh point, but they did have some problems with fumbles.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the pistol, you know, gave Lamar an option to take some low risk runs to the outside. [SPEAKER_00]: He certainly did a good job for it. [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't mind. [SPEAKER_00]: I think they could go back to the pistol. [SPEAKER_00]: So you know, you got a running back with a full head of steam going forward. [SPEAKER_00]: You're not looking to do a zone run typically under those circumstances.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're looking for him to pick a gap A or B between the tackles and make the most of the momentum he's already built by the time he takes that hand on. [SPEAKER_00]: So you do have options there that I think make a lot of sense in terms of the pistol for what the Ravens seem to have found in these last few these last couple of games with the increased use of power. [SPEAKER_00]: And that was of course in the Roman offense that they did that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So JPB really appreciate your question, please say hello to the other Brazilian fans and appreciate your listening in on a regular basis. [SPEAKER_00]: Last thing I got for you tonight is the MVP's from this game. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think there's anything. [SPEAKER_00]: That's the last thing I have. [SPEAKER_00]: I have two more things for you. [SPEAKER_00]: Number three, guys. [SPEAKER_00]: Number three, MVP is Tyler Lindervom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Outstanding game in the fact that he's number three really says a lot about the performances in this game and just how special they were. [SPEAKER_00]: It's a tough number two, number three call. [SPEAKER_00]: My number two guy was Tyler Huntley. [SPEAKER_00]: did a lot with his legs in this game positively ran for what about 60 yards in the game in addition to being extremely conservative and careful with the football of waiting turnovers ended up with a 105.6 rating.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think that really reflects his level of play. [SPEAKER_00]: He also ran the ball eight times for 60 yards with a long of 25. [SPEAKER_00]: So he had some big plays there, including one in the two-minute drill. [SPEAKER_00]: They helped them get down there. [SPEAKER_00]: But I thought his his game was [SPEAKER_00]: was central to the Ravens being as efficient as they were.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then number one, no doubt about it as Derek Henry with this 36 for 216 is records that he set in terms of touchdowns in terms of moving it to the top 10 in terms of [SPEAKER_00]: the most carries ever by a raven with 36 in the game. [SPEAKER_00]: He passed our tied Bamm Morris and Priest Holmes who had previously had 36 in a game. [SPEAKER_00]: So impressive game, any way you slice it for Derek Henry and he hadn't had a game like that all year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not, I'm obviously not in a game of 36 carries, but I don't think he'd had 25 carries in a game previously that the rest of the year. [SPEAKER_00]: So impressive, the three teams were able to lean on him and do so so effectively and for frankly for the entire game down to the last meaningful offensive play when he scored his fourth touchdown. [SPEAKER_00]: looking ahead to stealers briefly, I'll just get through this as quickly as I can. [SPEAKER_00]: Ravens get the Sunday night.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's their seventh prime time game of the year that might be a record. [SPEAKER_00]: I really don't know, but they're supposed to have a maximum of five schedule of prime time games. [SPEAKER_00]: That was part of the last CBA I believe, so I'm surprised that they were able to do this, but obviously there's a carve out for a week. [SPEAKER_00]: 17 and week 18 games that they want to have, you know, the best games be there.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Ravens didn't have a prime time game scheduled for either of those. [SPEAKER_00]: They ended up with seven for the year after a flex in week 16 as well versus the Patriots.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they've, they're really kind of gotten hoes with night football and [SPEAKER_00]: I know the analyst community probably dislikes it more, particularly the portion of the analyst community which still has another profession, other than analyzing football, so if you have a full-time job having night football makes it tough and it makes it longer to get the job done after the game. [SPEAKER_00]: And the plus side is an extra day of healing for Lamar Jackson.
[SPEAKER_00]: So coach made this point, I kind of had forgotten myself. [SPEAKER_00]: So you get one extra day of rest relative to Pittsburgh, which I think is good. [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, we'll also let Pittsburgh heal up from some of their injuries as well. [SPEAKER_00]: But I think the fact that they have Lamar coming back from injury potentially and that that extra day could make the difference is absolutely enormous. [SPEAKER_00]: So that could be a big reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope Lamar, you know, had fun on the sideline and it was really good about rooting for for Snoop as far as I could tell, and he put the cheese grater right there on a hopper. [SPEAKER_00]: He's head at the end of the game was a very, very nice touch that that was there and ready to deal with, but I hope Lamar and I'm sure Lamar wants to be back on the field and he's ready to go on Sunday night.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Steelers are very banged up relative to their week 14 game harmonious back. [SPEAKER_00]: Watt is out, Metcap out, Austin out, Washington out. [SPEAKER_00]: That's three awfully big receiving weapons, so it's disproportionate number of guys on the offensive side. [SPEAKER_00]: They still are missing their left tackle, Broderick Jones. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure Dylan Cook isn't better than him at this point. [SPEAKER_00]: So he's played fairly well since he's been in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a UDFA, left tackle. [SPEAKER_00]: Still remember the guy coming in and high-fiving everybody along the line. [SPEAKER_00]: And then he played pretty well and they're [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that just kind of sucked, but the steal is finding an answer like they have it left tackle is unfortunate, let's just say, for the ravens might be facing even more extreme weather conditions than they didn't green Bay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it'll be any, it could be a little colder, but the definitely could be more wind than there was at Green Bay and definitely in Pittsburgh is a stadium that is known for some extreme wind right there. [SPEAKER_00]: Rodgers in his first game against the Ravens made all sorts of bucket drop throws in week 14. [SPEAKER_00]: He also played well in week 15 and 16 as they won three straight games before he fell back to Earth in this week 17 game against Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which Aaron Rodgers the Ravens get is pretty damn important, but I will say not having Metcalf and Austin are going to make drop in the bucket throws more difficult period. [SPEAKER_00]: that the recovery speed of Nate Wiggins versus Marquez Valdez Scantling who got three of the targets right there on on of the four plays that they had to score the touchdown at the time of the game against Cleveland.
[SPEAKER_00]: He may be one of the guys that Rogers has tried to throw too pretty regularly and Pat Fryer moved as well as certainly not a speedy guy, but he knows how to get open between level two and three and the Ravens are going to have to really clamp down on that. [SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully the Ravens are aware of what the Steelers bring in terms of weapons and they'll be in good shape to at least stop their passing game.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Ravens have been pretty darn effective against most teams in terms of stopping the run. [SPEAKER_00]: I think this is a team where we'll see the Ravens play more. [SPEAKER_00]: Three down linemen against the certainly against the Steelers. [SPEAKER_00]: Six offensive line looks. [SPEAKER_00]: Now the Ravens just got over game with the Packers. [SPEAKER_00]: Radiant respect the packers six man offensive line at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: They only played two snaps of it But the Ravens never once in this game went to three down linemen They played every single snap of the game with two or fewer down linemen In fact, they played two snaps of the zero down linemen and when they had the race car on the field late in the game But they really they were looking to stop Malik Willis and actually were kind of slow to change to being lighter More looking like the the upfront personnel
[SPEAKER_00]: but they never had three defensive linemen on the line of scrimmage, so, you know, a nice adaptation by or that still obviously wasn't particularly effective against Green Bay for other than stopping the run. [SPEAKER_00]: They stopped the run from the running backs very effectively with seven carries. [SPEAKER_00]: For 19 yards they didn't stop.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll let's say all most of his was losing contained of the outside and particularly that left side and a few scrambles out of the pocket where he left the left the pocket flushed and was able to pick up some yards and some conversions. [SPEAKER_00]: So I [SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, Rogers does not pose that kind of threat. [SPEAKER_00]: I think we can fearlessly state that and they won't let them run around and extend and make plays the same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they should be in a position to better cover their severs that are on the other side of those passes as well. [SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of like the chances the Ravens have a defense to stop them. [SPEAKER_00]: And stopping the run, I'm sure it will be a priority.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, no matter what that bad weather probably does favor the Steelers, that anything that could risk potentially compressing the field takes away potentially more of what Lamar Jackson and then it takes away what Rogers can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'd be afraid of that, that if you take away the Ravens' misdirection in the run game, they're right back where they started and the Steelers will be able to compete in the game, and it could be a low scoring slog fest that ends up 13 to 10 or 16 to 13, and that's not the kind of score that Ravens want in this game. [SPEAKER_00]: They want to have a highly efficient, well-oiled offensive machine grinding the Steelers to dust in this game if they possibly can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, that's all the local head we'll do in this one. [SPEAKER_00]: We have episodes who have a matchup up here of matchups episode this week and I know you're following later this week or talk much more about that. [SPEAKER_00]: So look for those on Film Study Board and want to comment your favorite podcast platform. [SPEAKER_00]: As always, thanks for listening. [SPEAKER_00]: Happy New Year, be safe and use hashtag Film Study Mailbag for your questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, if you don't mind, write a safe five star 50 word review on your favorite podcast platform, that we appreciate and it drives traffic to the show. [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, March, and we'll talk to you next time on Film Study.