Tag: Greg Roman

Ravens heating up: Baltimore’s making a case to be the hottest AFC team in the playoffs

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.

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10 coaches the Lions should consider for their coaching vacancy

10 coaches the Lions should consider for their coaching vacancy

The Detroit Lions have finally fired coach Matt Patricia and while Darrell Bevell is the interim coach, it’s time to begin looking for the long-term replacement.

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.

The Lamar Jackson Reading Room, and missed opportunities in the Ravens’ passing game

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.

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WATCH: Willie Snead gets 6-yard sweep TD vs. Patriots

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.

Defenses know what Lamar Jackson’s doing, but that’s not Lamar Jackson’s big problem

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.”

That’s where the Ravens are right now.

Lamar Jackson says opponents are ‘calling out our plays’ and ‘know what we’re doing’

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said the offense is struggling because opponents have been calling out plays before the snap

After a record-setting performance last season, the Baltimore Ravens’ offense has taken quite a big step backward in 2020. There are a multitude of reasons why Baltimore’s offense has been inconsistent this season, failing where they succeeded last year. But according to quarterback Lamar Jackson, one of the biggest problems has been opponents knowing their plays.

On the Rich Eisen Show, Jackson was asked about the offense’s woes and gave a very transparent answer. According to Jackson, defenses are calling out their plays before the snap.

“I feel, it’s a lot of with schemes — we’re going against defenses, they’re calling out our plays, stuff like that. They know what we’re doing.”

No matter how you want to look at what Jackson said, you’ll be hard pressed to find a positive there. If teams were simply guessing where the ball was going to go, Jackson confirmed they’ve been right often enough to warrant talking about it. If opponents do indeed know where the ball is going on a significant number of plays, it’s a massive indictment of offensive coordinator Greg Roman. Regardless, you better believe the rest of the teams on Baltimore’s schedule just booted up some film on the Ravens and are studying a little closer now.

Eisen asked Jackson about how the team was trying to solve this issue and Baltimore’s franchise quarterback pointed to halftime adjustments. That’s a fairly telling answer considering the Ravens’ offense was dreadful in the first half of last week’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, gaining just 55 total yards through two quarters. However, Baltimore came out after halftime with an up-tempo attack that was able to consistently drive down the field and scored 17 of the team’s 24 total points in the second half of the game.

Roman was lauded last season for his work integrating Jackson’s skill set into the offensive playbook and find success with a different style of attack. The Ravens set several franchise records as well as a few NFL records last season as a result of that unique offense. Unfortunately, the offensive success hasn’t carried over to this season, seeing Jackson and the passing offense rank 31st in yards while the rushing attack has been hot-and-cold as well.

If Baltimore can truly be Super Bowl contenders this season, the offense is going to have to change things up and find a way to be more consistent. Based on what Jackson said to Eisen, they might need to completely revamp the playbook or find some new pages in it.

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Ravens vs. Colts final score recap: Baltimore shows sandpaper levels of grit

Here’s everything you need to know about the Ravens vs. Colts final score — from the stars of the game to the biggest post-game quote.

The Baltimore Ravens were 40-grit sandpaper tonight. For the first time this season, the Ravens took a punch square to the jaw and answered back with their own jabs and haymakers. In the end, Baltimore beat the Indianapolis Colts, 24-10, to head to 6-2 on the 2020 season. As the Ravens lick their newest wounds and look to the future, they deserve to bask in the glory for just a little bit before getting back to work.

While not the prettiest win this season, Baltimore did exactly what everyone should have been looking for following the team’s early exit from the playoffs last season. They took the best Indianapolis had in the first half, didn’t get down on themselves or blow up their gameplan, but responded in the second half with the type of team effort everyone expected to see this season. It’d still be nice to see that type of play for a full 60 minutes but it shows that the Ravens are still very much growing into the team they’re going to be, both later this season and in the future.

To help break down all the important bits from Sunday’s win, let’s dive into our Ravens vs. Colts final score recap.

When it mattered most, Ravens abandoned their successful running backs

Despite the Baltimore Ravens’ running backs having a great day, OC Greg Roman screwed up the most important play of the game

It’s 4th-and-3 at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ eight-yard line with two minutes remaining and the Baltimore Ravens down four points, making it touchdown-or-bust territory. Baltimore’s running backs were averaging 6.45 yards-per-carry on the day, so of course, they lined up in a jumbo package and let their young ball carriers feast, right?

Nope.

The Ravens lined up in a spread formation with Jackson as the only player in the backfield. He took the quarterback keeper two yards and fumbled, turning the ball over and all but killing the Ravens’ chances of winning the game.

If you’ve watched Baltimore play at all over the last two seasons, you’ll be all too familiar with this decision. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman has often abandoned the run at the worst possible times. Whether it be early in a game when an opposing offense is capable of putting up big points (even with the score close), or in game-critical moments like this, Roman has left his running backs as little more than spectators.

While Jackson deserves the burden of this loss as a whole, Roman earned a heavy dose of criticism himself. With the game on the line, Roman took out his most effective players on the day to give it to a guy who had three fumbles, two interceptions, and at least one near-interception on what was absolutely the worst game of his professional career.

I could better understand any argument to give it to Jackson if Baltimore’s running backs had been boom-or-bust throughout the game. However, of the 31 rushing attempts Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins had on the day, a grand total of seven were for fewer than three yards, including a one-yard touchdown run. If we take out Edwards’ one-yard touchdown, 80% of the Ravens’ runs by running backs in Week 8 would have picked up that first down. Compare that to Jackson’s five designed runs (not counting sacks or this specific run) that went for fewer than three yards (66.66% success rate) and even the analytics make it sound like a poor decision.

Jackson can and undoubtedly will bounce back but he unquestionably had a terrible game in every single regard possible. If you’re Greg Roman, why give it to a guy who had struggled through the air, on the ground, and with turnovers? Going even further, why completely take the option off the table to even make the defense believe it was going to a running back by lining up in a spread set? It’ll be on Ravens’ fans minds until Baltimore either starts winning games against quality opponents, changes that philosophy, or someone answers the question earnestly. But frustrations are quickly mounting against an offense that just can’t get out of its own way this season.

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Lamar Jackson needs to play better or Ravens will start losing games

With inconsistent play and well-known tendencies, QB Lamar Jackson either needs to step up or the Baltimore Ravens will start losing games

Though the Baltimore Ravens picked up another win, beating the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 5, the offense was far from the unit we all saw last season. After a 2019 campaign that broke records and earned quarterback Lamar Jackson an MVP award, Baltimore’s offense has been far more inconsistent in the early part of the 2020 NFL season.

One of the reasons might just be who Jackson turns to first when throwing the football. Astute fans might recognize that wide receiver Marquise Brown and tight end Mark Andrews lead the way in all receiving categories for the Ravens, and by a pretty wide margin. Brown leads everyone on Baltimore’s roster in targets (36), receptions (22), and receiving yards (319) while Andrews tops the charts with five touchdown catches, coming in at a close second in every other receiving category.

Unfortunately, Ravens fans aren’t the only people taking notice of where the ball is going. Following the game, Bengals safety Jessie Bates III and linebacker Logan Wilson both noted it’s the Brown and Andrews show through the air. Though both admitted Cincinnati’s defense didn’t do enough to completely shut both passing targets down, Wilson pointed to a far different second half for Jackson when they were able to slow Andrews and Brown down.

“It’s just as simple as not letting him get the ball,” Bates said about Andrews after Sunday’s game. “We know where Lamar wants to go: either ’15’ [Marquise Brown] or ’89’ [Mark Andrews]. It showed up today as well. That’s all he was really throwing to, was ’15’ or ’89.'”

“He’s Lamar’s go-to target,” Wilson said when asked about shutting Andrews down in the second half. “I think everyone knows that, especially in the red zone. So, we needed to adjust to that, knowing where he’s going to be, Lamar is going to be looking for him. Like I said, I think we adjusted to that in the second half.”

Both Bengals defenders have a solid point and the evidence backs them up. Jackson went 8-of-13 for 76 yards, and two touchdowns in the first quarter (one play into the second quarter really). But things slowed down quickly for Baltimore’s passing attack once Cincinnati was better able to lock up Andrews and Brown beyond that.

After going 6-of-9 for 56 yards and a touchdown in the first half, Andrews didn’t receive a single target in the second half. Brown caught 5-of-7 targets for 42 yards and a touchdown in the first half. But things dramatically switched up in the second half where Brown was targeted just three times, catching two passes for 35 yards, including one catch-and-run that went for 30 of those yards. Meanwhile, after going 16-of-28 for 137 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception in the first half, Jackson went 3-of-9 for 43 yards in the second half.

On the day, Jackson completed just 19 of his 37 targets (51.4%) for 180 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. While those stats might not seem awful, Jackson’s 4.86 yards-per-attempt for the game is the third-lowest of his 27 career starts. And anyone watching Sunday’s game likely noticed the Bengals could have easily come down with another two or three interceptions if defenders could catch a ball thrown right into their chest.

It’s not as simple as Jackson just pinpointing two receivers, however. Something many young quarterbacks struggle with at the beginning of their careers is throwing outside the numbers. Outside passes have to have a lot more touch, the timing is even more important, and it’s typically where the best defensive backs are going to be.

Bates was on top of that tendency as well. When asked how Cincinnati’s defense tried to force Jackson to throw outside the numbers, Bates said the gameplan was to load up the middle of the field “where all their completions come from.” Taking a quick look at Jackson’s passing chart for the game only proves Bates’ point, with every deep shot and a majority of the outside throws falling to the turf.

Courtesy of NextGenStats

If you’re an opposing defensive coordinator, it seems as though Bates and Wilson just drew up your gameplan against Baltimore until Jackson steps up his game and can beat it.

It might not be fair to put all the blame on Jackson here. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman is also partly responsible, as are the other receiving targets who have struggled to get open, and the rushing attack that has been just average this season. It’s also worth noting that with a condensed offseason and no preseason games due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jackson and this offense are still clearly working on things like timing and chemistry.

But at the same time, Jackson is the Ravens’ franchise quarterback and is fresh off an MVP season. We all know he can play better football than this but it’s up to him to actually do it. In Week 5, Jackson missed a few wide-open receivers, instead, trying to target his favorites or looking for a deep ball that wasn’t within a country mile of his intended target. Whether it’s a knee injury that is hampering him more than anyone is letting on, or a desire to try and prove his toughest critics wrong, Jackson isn’t playing smart or consistent football right now.

The Ravens got lucky the last two weeks and they’ll face another relatively easy opponent in Week 6 in the 1-3-1 Philadelphia Eagles. But with a schedule that quickly gets tougher following that, Jackson has very few weeks to either improve as a passer or get smarter about where he’s throwing the ball, or Baltimore could start chalking up losses.

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How much motion did the Panthers use Week 1?

So, how much did Brady try it in his first game in the NFL?

One reason we were excited about the Panthers hiring Joe Brady as their offensive coordinator was the hope that he would embrace analytics and new ideas in his playcalling like utilizing more motion. Last year, the offensive playcallers for the Ravens, 49ers and Chiefs all had tremendous success using more motion compared to their opponents. Other teams seem to be joining the trend based on the early numbers for the 2020 season.

So, how much did Brady try it in his first game in the NFL? According to Seth Walder at ESPN, not a whole lot. Here’s a look at his motion stats across the league from Week 1.

It’s only one game, so we can’t look too much into that percentage. Hopefully we see that number tick up as the season develops, though.

Brady has several very interesting offensive weapons and if he’s not consistely putting them in motion then he’s leaving points on the field. Receiver Curtis Samuel in particular is a player who will put stress on defenders when he’s on the move.

In any case, Brady’s offense looks and feels relatively modern and will get a lot of people involved.

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