With the league’s worst-ranked passing offense, former Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith ripped into OC Greg Roman
Steve Smith has never been at a loss for words and he’s often happy to speak them. That didn’t change after the Baltimore Ravens’ playoff loss at the hands of the Buffalo Bills. While there was much blame to go around, former Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith zeroed his focus in on offensive coordinator Greg Roman.
On “NFL Gameday” the day after Baltimore’s playoff loss, Smith critiqued Roman’s offense in some pretty specific ways. While it’s been almost cliche to blame the Ravens’ wide receivers for not getting open, Smith said it was really Roman’s route combinations that made it easy for opposing defenses. Smith was also bothered by the complexity of the offense, saying it’s something his six-year-old could run.
"My 6 year old, who is asleep right now, can probably run this offense as well."@CutToIt has some suggestions for the Ravens offense moving forward pic.twitter.com/kZ6lhPQI36
Smith does have a point here. Though stats only tell a part of the story, the Ravens had the worst-ranked passing attack in the league. And Smith isn’t alone in his criticisms of this offense.
While Roman’s passing concepts leave a lot to be desired, it is also fair to place some of the blame on quarterback Lamar Jackson, a porous offensive line, and wide receivers that struggle to get separation. It’s far from a single issue holding Baltimore’s offense back, but it starts with Roman. Whether the Ravens decide to go in a different direction this offseason or make a bigger push to become a better passing attack will have to be seen, but Roman has a pretty big target on his back right now.
The Baltimore Ravens fell to the Buffalo Bills in the NFL playoffs. We dive into some major takeaways as Baltimore dives into the offseason
The Baltimore Ravens fell to the Buffalo Bills by the final score of 17-3 in the divisional round. It was a disappointing showing for Baltimore’s offense, as the team was held to just three points for the first time since January 16, 2010.
The Ravens struggled to move the ball on offense and squandered what was a pretty good defensive performance. Despite being placed in some bad situations, Baltimore’s defense held Josh Allen and the Bills’ offense to just 10 points, as seven of the points that Buffalo scored came on a pick-six thrown by Lamar Jackson.
The loss marks a disappointing end to a season unlike any other for the Ravens. Injuries, the coronavirus, and subpar play all played a part, but Baltimore fought as a team to make it to the playoffs, where they won their first playoff game since the 2014 season.
Though it’s a difficult loss to swallow immediately afterward, let’s take a look at some major takeaways from the Ravens’ season-ending loss.
Lamar Jackson has another offseason to process postseason disappointment. Here’s how he can use the offseason to live up to his potential.
Well, at least Lamar Jackson was able to help the Ravens win a playoff game this time around. Sort of. Jackson has made the postseason in each of his three NFL seasons, and Baltimore’s 20-13 win over the Titans in the wild-card round was the first time he was able to advance. In that game, Jackson completed 17 of 24 passes for 179 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.
Thus, coming into the Ravens’ divisional round game against the Bills, the 2019 NFL MVP was trucking along with these postseason numbers: 62 completions in 112 attempts for a 55.4% completion rate, 738 yards, three touchdowns, and four interceptions. The Chargers flustered Jackson in the 2018 wild-card round by doing what they did to him in the regular season of his rookie year — they threw all kinds of coverage concepts at him with a heavy helping of seven defensive backs on the field. Jackson completed 14 of 27 passes for 194 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and seven sacks. Jackson rallied late after a first half that was so bad, he was almost benched in favor of Joe Flacco.
Postseason nightmare No. 2 came in the divisional round of the 2019 playoffs, when the 14-2 Ravens and their unanimous NFL MVP were expected to cruise by the 9-7 Titans with very little trouble. But Tennessee defensive coordinator Dean Pees bewitched Jackson with late coverage switched, Jackson completed 31 of 59 passes for 365 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, four sacks, and another early postseason exit.
After a revenge wild-card win over the Titans this season that was more about Baltimore’s defense than anything else, it was on to Buffalo. The Bills looked like a decent matchup for Jackson, as they play a ton of zone defense and Jackson had played exceedingly well against certain kinds of zone in the regular season.
Per Sports Info Solutions, Jackson led the league with nine touchdown passes against Cover-4 (“Quarters”) coverage, and overall, against Cover-2, Cover-3, Cover-4, Cover-6, Tampa-2, and combo coverages, Jackson completed 167 of 254 passes in 309 dropbacks for 2,582 yards, 1,287 air yards, 18 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Only Tom Brady and Russell Wilson threw more touchdown passes against zone coverage in the 2020 regular season, and this seemed to be the ideal counter to opposing defenses realizing that they couldn’t play man against Jackson because he’d kill them in the run game.
The Bills came into this game thinking that if zone coverage was now like ice cream for Jackson, they were going to give him a tour of the ice cream factory. Per ESPN’s Seth Walder:
Bills ran zone coverage on 87% of Lamar Jackson's pass attempts in the first half.
As has been the case throughout his career, Jackson missed a lot of meat on the bone — he had open shots to his receivers and either threw the ball in ways that reduced the potential efficiency of the catch, or missed the open shots outright. We can blame offensive coordinator Greg Roman all we want (and blaming Greg Roman has become its own sport these days), but when we look ahead to what Jackson can learn from these negative experiences, it’s clear that as dynamic as he is, he’s got a lot of work to do as a pure passer.
If we’re creating an offseason shopping list for A Better Lamar Jackson (and it appears that we are), here it is.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson beat the Titans Sunday, 20-13, finally ending a whole two-game drought without winning a playoff game, and immediately raced into the tunnel.
Eventually he was lured back to the field to give a post-game interview.
It was pretty clear that the reigning NFL MVP, who turned 24 just a few days ago, was tired of the narratives he heard coming into the game. With good reason: They made very little sense.
The loss to the Chargers after the 2018 season was Jackson’s eighth game as a starter, and he was running an offense that had been designed for Joe Flacco. The Ravens lost to the Titans last year because they couldn’t stop Derrick Henry and Tennessee defensive coordinator Dean Pees painted an absolute masterpiece before waltzing off to retirement.
His plan was used again today — and it was, not surprisingly, stale. We’ll look at how Jackson and the Ravens figured it out, and the other factors that allowed the Ravens to move on to the divisional round.
The Baltimore Ravens could see an exodus of coaching and executive talent this offseason. The Texans are first up, interviewing Scott Cohen
The Baltimore Ravens have made the playoffs, officially making them one of the best teams in the NFL again this season. And with that continued success comes other teams poking around for the secret to that sauce. It’s still very early in the process but the first team to look Baltimore’s way is the Houston Texans.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Texans have put in a request to interview Ravens director of football research Scott Cohen for their vacant general manager position. Houston opened the job when they fired coach/GM Bill O’Brien after the team started the season 0-4.
Ravens fans probably weren’t expecting Cohen to be the first name to pop up in interviews this year. Defensive coordinator Don Martindale is expected to be a top coach candidate while offensive coordinator Greg Roman got some attention in coach searches last season. But Cohen has a long resume and is well respected in the NFL, rightfully earning him an interview.
According to Cohen’s biography on Baltimore’s website, he’s in his 29th season in the NFL, spending his first 23 years in player personnel. In the last six years, Cohen has been with the Ravens working with the coaching staff to prepare for each week’s opponent, including doing research and scouting, as a member of the analytics department.
With an offense that has made dramatic improvements and a pass rush that has been dominant, the Ravens might just be the hottest AFC team
I’d be lying if I said the Baltimore Ravens lived up to the expectations I had for them this season. Between an outbreak of the coronavirus and a ton of injuries — especially in the secondary — there are plenty of excuses to be made. But as the regular season winds down and the hunt for the postseason has begun, the Ravens are red hot and looking to right some wrongs.
On the back of a four-game winning streak, Baltimore has seemingly answered the questions everyone had for them entering this season. The offense is humming along nicely with some changes to the offensive line and the running back stable, the pass rush has finally closed the gap and is now getting sacks instead of pressures, and the coaching staff has things dialed in. It took nearly a full season to get to this point, but the Ravens have found quite a sweet spot and look to get even better as they get healthier.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson has become far more efficient with the football, making better decisions with his arm and legs, and regaining the MVP form we saw last season. Over these four wins, Jackson has completed 69.51% of his 82 pass attempts for 696 yards, eight touchdowns, and two interceptions, while adding another 333 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns on 45 attempts. He’s shown poise in the pocket with subtle moves to avoid pressure and enough sense to know when he should run and when he just needs to buy a little more time for guys to get open.
With Mark Ingram out of the starting role, Baltimore has leaned on their better running backs, J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards. Over the last four games, Dobbins and Edwards have combined for 542 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on 87 carries — good for a 6.2 yards-per-carry average. They’ve also had six receptions for 94 yards, offering not just a dump-off option for Jackson, but big-play ability through the air too.
Dobbins and Edwards are the perfect complement to Jackson and offer enough change of pace between them to force opposing defenses to cater to each differently, creating better matchups for offensive coordinator Greg Roman to take advantage of. Both Dobbins and Edwards can run with force up the middle, while Dobbins’ speed, patience, and vision on the edge make him a threat to take every run to the house. Roman has been putting Dobbins in motion more, causing a little chaos and misdirection among opposing defenses, opening more lanes on the ground and through the air. Roman is also setting up some tendencies in the run game at the end of the regular season that could be played on in the postseason to catch opponents off guard and create big gains.
Baltimore’s pass catchers have started to be a little more clutch in recent weeks as well. Tight end Mark Andrews remains the clear-cut leader of the group but wide receiver Marquise Brown has turned his season around and has been playing far better football over this year-end stretch. Willie Snead and Dez Bryant might not be focal points of the offense but both have shown solid hands and a knack for getting open, especially when Jackson scrambles.
The defense, while showing some concerning signs of slipping, have still been downright dominant at times. Despite having impact players like cornerbacks Marcus Peters, Jimmy Smith, and Anthony Averett, defensive end Calais Campbell, outside linebacker Matthew Judon, and others out with injuries or on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, the Ravens have been haunting their opponents, stopping the run, and harassing quarterbacks.
The pass rush was arguably the biggest concern for this team this year, seeing Baltimore trade for Yannick Ngakoue as a potential midseason remedy. And while the offense has found its stride in recent weeks, it doesn’t hold a candle to the production the pass rush has been getting. Over the last two weeks, the Ravens have notched 11 sacks, 17 quarterback hits, and 15 tackles for a loss. Regardless of the opponents, those types of numbers mean Baltimore’s defense is playing dominant football up front.
With many of the Ravens’ defensive players returning to the lineup and guys like Peters and Smith hopefully returning soon, Baltimore’s ailing secondary should get a massive boost right as they hit the postseason. As we saw earlier in the year, the Ravens’ secondary is capable of being a shutdown unit even when paired with a lackluster pass rush. Now the pass rush has found its footing and the secondary is getting healthier, there’s no reason to believe Baltimore’s defense can’t be even better than their current fourth-place ranking in points allowed.
The obvious counterpoint to the argument the Ravens are the hottest team in the AFC is simply looking at the schedule and their opponents. The Giants, Jaguars, Browns, and Cowboys hold a combined 22-38 record entering Week 17. But if this odd season has taught us anything, it’s that a team’s record means very little when they line up and play football.
We’ve seen massive upsets like the Bengals over the Steelers, the Jets over the Browns, the Jets over the Rams, the Giants over the Seahawks, and Washington over the Steelers in just the last four weeks. Looking beyond just the win/loss column, teams with bad records have kept games close against the supposed elite team in the conference far more often than you might think. Just look at the Kansas City Chiefs’ schedule since their bye — barely beating teams like the Raiders (7-8 right now), Broncos (5-10), and Falcons (4-11).
Sure, the Ravens haven’t gone against the cream of the crop recently, so it’s hard to know exactly how they’d fare when doing so in the playoffs. But Baltimore has been handling their business to an impressive degree and the swagger is beginning to come back. The Ravens are answering the questions everyone had for them, albeit against teams with bad records, at the same time the rest of the conference is showing major flaws.
Time will tell if Baltimore can not only cement their playoff berth in Week 17, but go and win a postseason game. But if you’re looking for a team that is finding its groove and getting hotter every week, the Ravens are your answer. You better believe the rest of the AFC is looking at them with fear in their eyes.
Lions Wire editors Jeff Risdon and Erik Schlitt have put their heads together to come up with a Top-10 list of candidates we believe Shelia Hamp Ford should heavily consider for the vacancy.
Those candidates are listed below in alphabetical order.
Lamar Jackson’s recent comments about offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s play calls overlook Jackson leaving big plays on the field.
Last week, Lamar Jackson stated on the Rich Eisen Show that part of the problem with the Ravens’ passing offense is that defenses are calling out which plays are coming, and with that, “They know what we’re doing. Sometimes stuff won’t go our way if they’re beating us to the punch.”
I wrote last week that this isn’t as big a deal as Jackson is making it out to be. Defensive players and defensive coordinators and advance scouts study trends and tendencies too, and they’re able to impart upon their players and upon themselves what an offense might be doing. More problematic in my opinion is that Jackson is being asked to do more as a passer this season, and it’s not working. The reasons why are open to interpretation — there are people who will tell you that Roman’s passing concepts are indeed to predictable, and that’s holding Jackson back. It’s clear that Baltimore’s run game is not what it was last season, and you can blame that on everything from defenses stacking the box to Marshal Yanda’s retirement to Ronnie Stanley’s season-ending ankle injury… there are attendant issues all over the place there.
And here’s the thing about Roman’s allegedly “too-predictable” offense from a passing perspective — coaches will say all kinds of things about their players in press conferences, but if you want to know how coaches really feel, you’ll know when you see what’s happening on the field. And while Roman has staple passing concepts he wants his quarterback to follow, but that can be said of any offensive play-designer. Most teams don’t have 100 different passing plays — they have, say, 20, with say, five different iterations. The ratio varies from team to team, but it’s not like your playbook is going to be full of wild variance as opposed to closer clusters of married concepts.
So then, we have to run with what Roman is actually doing to scheme guys open, how Jackson is reacting to that, and how defenses are reacting to him. Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus wrote an excellent article this week in which he detailed some of the ways in which opposing defenses are keeping Jackson in check as a passer. As Renner points out, Baltimore’s usage of shifts and motion (71.1% in 2019 vs. 68.8% in 2020), play action (35.2% vs. 32.4%) and heavy sets remain relatively unchanged from last season to this season. It’s how defenses are matching up with those ideas that makes the difference. Now, instead of staying in base personnel to counter the Ravens’ multi-faceted run game, teams are going heavy sub-package and adding man coverage.
This would seem to be nuts for a couple of reasons — first, playing a lot of man coverage against a running quarterback seems like a recipe for disaster. When you’re playing man on the outside, your cornerbacks have to turn their heads away from the quarterback, and that gives the quarterback free rushing lanes. And if you’re playing against lighter boxes, you should be able to run the ball more efficiently. But defenses are choosing to tackle the Ravens with speed and multiplicity of coverage, and it’s working in ways the Ravens would prefer it didn’t.
This season, Jackson has faced dime defenses (six defensive backs) on 75 of his dropbacks. He’s completed 38 of 61 passes for 420 yards, 283 air yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, 10 sacks, and quarterback rating of 74.5. He’s much better against base, and he’s actually dominant against nickel defenses (74 of 111 for 820 yards, 329 air yards, eight touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 107.9), so there appears to be something about that sixth defensive back, whether it’s a cornerback or a safety, that’s throwing Jackson off.
Last Sunday night in a 23-17 win, the Patriots played dime against the Ravens on 13 snaps. Jackson completed nine of 11 passes for 87 yards, one touchdown, one interception against it. As has been the case, Jackson was better when facing nickel — there, he completed all 10 of his attempts for 131 yards and a touchdown.
Now, we need to get into what Jackson is seeing, what is being schemed open for him, and how often he’s leaving stuff on the table. Let’s go to the tape.
The Baltimore Ravens were able to strike first against the New England Patriots as Willie Snead ran the ball in from six yards out
The Baltimore Ravens wanted to get off to a quick start against the New England Patriots and they did just that. After a forgettable first offensive drive, the unit responded and orchestrated a phenomenal offensive drive on their second possession.
It was a typical Ravens’ offensive drive that featured plenty of runs as well as some well worked-in passing plays by offensive coordinator Greg Roman. After Baltimore got the ball to the Patriots’ six-yard line, Roman dialed up some trickery as Lamar Jackson handed the ball to Willie Snead on a sweep, taking the ball into the end zone.
Baltimore getting off to a hot start on offense is important. As the game wears on, there is expected to be a major storm that rolls through Foxborough that could have an impact on the offensive game plan for the Ravens. Going up against Cam Newton and this still-capable New England offense, Baltimore will need every point, so getting on the board early with a well-designed play was extremely important. It’s also one of the rare moments that the Ravens’ offense looked like what we saw last year, marching down the field seemingly at will and punching the ball into the end zone instead of settling for field goals.
Lamar Jackson said this week that the Ravens’ offense is too predictable. He’s right, but he’s also a big part of the problem.
Last season, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson led the NFL with 39 touchdown passes, threw just six interceptions, broke Michael Vick’s single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback, and became the second player in NFL history to be unanimously named the league’s Most Valuable Player (Tom Brady, 2010). This season? Not quite the same. This season, Jackson has thrown just 12 touchdown passes to four interceptions. His Adjusted Net Yards per Pass Attempt has dropped from 8.19 to 6.20, his DVOA as a passer has plummeted from second in the league in 2019 to 23rd in 2020, and Baltimore’s offense in general has dropped from first in the NFL in 2019 (by a crushing margin) to 23rd in 2020.
A few things are going on here. The Ravens lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to the Titans last season, and in that game, former Tennessee defensive coordinator Dean Pees threw late coverage switches at Jackson. The result? Jackson completed 31 of 59 passes for 365 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a lot of missed opportunities. The NFL being a copycat league as it is, teams facing the Ravens are throwing more interesting coverages at Jackson, blitzing him more, and worrying about his mobility less. The thought when dealing with Jackson seems to be that if you stack the middle of the field, deal with the edges, and make him beat you as a pure passer, you’re in pretty good shape.
That’s proven true to this point. When asked about the decrease in overall efficiency on the Rich Eisen Show this week, Jackson pointed to the idea that defenses have too easy a time figuring out what Baltimore’s offense, led by offensive coordinator Greg Roman, is doing before they even do it.
“They’re calling out our plays, stuff like that,” Jackson said. “They know what we’re doing. Sometimes stuff won’t go our way if they’re beating us to the punch.”
Eisen asked Jackson if he can hear opposing defenders calling out the Ravens’ offensive plays.
“Yeah, they definitely do,” Jackson said. “Like, ‘Run’ and stuff like that. ‘Watch out for this, watch out for that.’ Sometimes that’s what’s going on.”
So… that’s not as big a deal as you may think. It’s certainly not the main reason Baltimore’s offense isn’t doing as well as it did last season. Baltimore’s passing game wasn’t particularly complicated in 2019, nor is it in 2020. Baltimore’s run game has been and is far more complicated; working everything from pre-snap motion to the mesh point on play-action and RPO concepts has made the total run game a nightmare for defenses.
But as far as defenses having an idea what the Ravens are doing? That happens all the time — and not just to the Ravens. ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky recently did a detailed breakdown of three staple concepts the Ravens used against the Steelers in Baltimore’s 24-28 Week 8 loss, in which Jackson completed just 13 of 28 passes for 208 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.
When I asked Orlovsky a couple years ago about Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford pointing out that the Jets’ defense knew what was coming, Orlovsky pointed out that this really isn’t a big deal.
“Here’s the thing: As a defense, if your coaches are doing their jobs, you should have a relatively decent idea what lays are coming out of certain formations more often than not,” Orlovsky said in September, 2018. “Especially situational stuff. Like, you should know that if a receiver cuts his splits, these four things can happen. I don’t believe there’s this “Oh, we stole signals” thing.
“Also, you can’t always trust what you see on tape. Most offensive coordinators have multiple signals for a single play. If we’re going to run a slant/flat combination, there are probably two or three different signals for that. And all you need to do is put a signal that a team thinks is one thing one time and do something else, and then, all the other signals are unreliable. If you think my signal means we’re running a go route, and we run a stop route and you’re 15 yards off… I don’t buy into it that much. Maybe a play here or there, where a [defender] goes, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that, and I’ll take a guess.’ But defensively? I don’t buy into the fact that it’s knowing signals as much as it is knowing tendencies and formations.”
Is Roman too predictable with his play designs out of specific formations? It could be argued that this is the case. Is he giving too much away with his tendencies? Perhaps. Pittsburgh defensive lineman Alex Highsmith, who had one of Jackson’s two interceptions on the day, was able to suss things out pretty quickly.
“I knew when that play started they were coming back to that because they ran the same play on the first half, and I didn’t drop deep enough,” Highsmith said. “So I learned from that play and just dropped deeper… the ball just fell into my hands.”
Roman, of course, was asked about it.
“With no fans in the stands [and no] bands or music playing, you can hear a lot right about now – some of it I can’t repeat,” Roman said Thursday. “But Lamar is one of the great competitors I know. I define him as a winner. He only wants to win every game, every play. Game [or] practice, that’s what drives him. He definitely gives me feedback on when people are calling something out and whatnot. That’s definitely part of what we talk about.
“Now, calling out plays on the defense is nothing new. I can talk about Ed Reed and Ray Lewis, every play, they’re trying to guess what play you’re going to run based on what they’re seeing – that’s the chess match. That’s kind of where it gets interesting, because if you’re not good at anything, you have no tendencies. So, you really want to work to be good at everything. If you’re in the best possible situation, you can do basic things very well and people still can’t stop you. I think that’s what you’re always striving to do, but that doesn’t always work in the NFL. That doesn’t work all the time; you have to change it up. So, we work hard at changing it up.
“We’re very aware of our tendencies. We’re aware that there are some right now, and that’s, again, like I said, where it gets interesting. When you’re good at something and you can keep pressing that button, then you have the opportunity to flip the script at some point moving forward. So, I think there’s a little bit of a chess match there with how that goes. But as far as defenders guessing what we do; they’re going to be right sometimes, [and] they’re going to be wrong sometimes. I think we know that, but it’s definitely an element of the game. It always has been, and probably always will be.”
Pay attention to what Roman is saying, yes, but pay attention also to what Roman is saying through his playbook. When you have an offensive coordinator reducing the passing game for his quarterback, that says that there is a schism between play-caller and player as to what the player is capable of. Lamar Jackson’s primary problem right not is not that opposing defenses know what his offense is about to do. Again, that happens far more than people think. Lamar Jackson’s primary problem right now is that he has not yet proven to his coaching staff that he is consistently capable of executing beyond Passing Game 101 to the point that anyone is going to open the back chapters of that playbook and show the whole thing to any opponent.
As the late, great sportswriter Ralph Wiley once said, “A man’s got to know his own limitations. If he doesn’t, his coach had better.”
