The Baltimore Ravens have another tough test in the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football. But the best team in the NFL should handle it
The Baltimore Ravens get yet another top team on their schedule as they take on Super Bowl LIII losers, the Los Angeles Rams. While the Rams sit at just 6-4 right now, don’t mistake them for a mediocre team. They have one of the best defensive lines in the game, a capable quarterback and one of the most dangerous running backs around.
It seems like a bit of a cop-out to simply say Jackson is the reason the Ravens’ offense has been so good when the coaching has been terrific and they’re executing the scheme beautifully. But Jackson’s presence on the field opens up quite a lot for the rest of the offense when he isn’t carrying the team himself.
Jackson being a threat to break off a big run makes it 11-on-11 football, a rarity in the NFL. That means a defense has to account for Jackson on every single play, either using a spy or by altering their gameplan accordingly. Once a defender’s eyes go to the backfield instead of the ball carrier, the man they have in coverage or the guy they’re trying to run around, the Ravens’ offense wins. That split second of indecision opens rushing lanes and has pass catchers wide open for easy completions.
Even when everyone is doing their jobs, Jackson is still very much a threat to do something magical with the football himself. And if 10 defenders are locked on to their respective 10 offensive players, that means it’s Jackson against a lone defender — usually in the open field. As we’ve seen time and time again this season, that’s a recipe for another highlight-reel run from Jackson.
Every defense Baltimore has gone up against has tried different things to contain Jackson and limit the damage he can do. Some have been successful there but left themselves vulnerable elsewhere. Even more defenses haven’t been athletic enough to keep Jackson from torching them and they’ve also overcommitted to trying, opening up big plays from other players. The Rams are in a similar situation this week and I don’t think they have overall talent on defense to do what nine other defenses have failed at this season.
Aaron Donald sheds light on what it’ll be like to face Lamar Jackson.
On Monday night at the Coliseum, two of the most unstoppable players in the NFL will square off against each other. Aaron Donald is the reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year and the league leader in pressures this season, while Lamar Jackson might be the frontrunner to win MVP.
Jackson is a dynamic and elusive quarterback unlike any we’ve seen since Michael Vick, and Donald could go down as the best defensive tackle to ever play the game. Surely, both players will have a big impact on the outcome of this Rams-Ravens matchup.
Blocking Donald is something the Ravens are focusing on heading into this game, but on the Rams’ side, they’re worried about containing Jackson. Donald says the defense has a game plan for trying to do that, but it’s easier said than done.
“You never want to play a quarterback that can run like that, but it’s going to be tough. But we’ve got a game plan to try to get him caged in, boxed in. We’ve just got to do our job and not miss tackles,” Donald said.
One would think playing Russell Wilson twice a year might help the Rams, but Donald doesn’t seem to be buying into that idea. He was asked if Jackson is similar to Wilson, replying by saying they make defenders miss in different ways.
“No, it’s different,” he said. “He’s a mobile guy, but the way they can move and the way they can make you miss is two different ways. So we’ve got our hands full, just got to do our job.”
Donald went into a bit more detail on Jackson, calling him “a dynamic player.”
“He can do a lot of different things. When he’s got the ball in his hands, he’s a tough guy to get down to the ground. We know what to expect with that just from seeing him on film. We’ve got a game plan, we just have to go out there and execute,” Donald said.
Containing Jackson and boxing him in is one of the more difficult tasks in the NFL right now, and no team has been able to do it in recent weeks. He’s led the Ravens to an average of 39 points per game since Week 7, leading the league in scoring this season.
We’ll see if the Rams are up to the task, and if they’re going to win this game, it starts and ends with keeping Jackson in check.
Lamar Jackson is just one of six Ravens players to lead fan Pro Bowl voting at their respective positions, though Jackson leads all players
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has been electric this season. Seemingly every week, Jackson is adding yet another amazing run or perfectly placed pass to his highlight reel. So it’s no wonder Jackson leads all players in voting for the 2020 Pro Bowl.
According to NFL.com, Jackson has 146,171 fan votes. In second place is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes with 116,325 fan votes. While fan votes are just one portion of the total process for determining who gets a Pro Bowl nomination, they show just how interesting NFL fans find Jackson and Baltimore’s offense this season.
Through 10 games, Jackson has thrown for 2,258 yards, 19 touchdown passes and just five interceptions for a 106.3 quarterback rating (ranks fourth in the NFL entering Week 12). But Jackson has also put up 781 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns so far this season as well. He’s well on his way to breaking Michael Vick’s single-season rushing record for quarterbacks, which would just be one of the records Jackson has shattered since coming into the NFL.
Jackson isn’t the only Ravens player impressing the fans this season, however. Fullback Patrick Ricard, cornerback Marcus Peters, tackle Orlando Brown, guard Marshal Yanda and kicker Justin Tucker lead their respective positions in voting as well.
Considering cornerback Marlon Humphrey, tackle Ronnie Stanley and safety Earl Thomas will likely receive quite a lot of player votes, Baltimore could reasonably put nine players into the Pro Bowl this season. But Ravens fans would ideally love it if Baltimore’s players had to skip the event in order to prepare for Super Bowl LIV.
A look at the fantasy appeal of the Ravens players heading into Monday Night Football against the Los Angeles Rams.
Monday Night Football in Week 12 sees the 8-2 Baltimore Ravens travel to Los Angeles to take on the 6-4 Rams. The Ravens are on a six-game winning streak and have won their last four games by double-digits. The reigning NFC champion Rams have won three of their last four, but find themselves in third place in the NFC West behind the 9-1 San Francisco 49ers and the 8-2 Seattle Seahawks.
Here, I’ll offer my thoughts on players to start and players to sit this week. As ever, Lamar Jackson is playing, so if you’ve got him, you’re starting him.
Start at RB2 – RB, Mark Ingram
Photo by Todd Olszewski/Getty Images
One of these weeks I am confident that I will correctly asses the fantasy value of Mark Ingram. I mean, I recommended sitting him last week due to concerns regarding his volume and production. Ingram, true to form, carried the ball only 13 times for 48 yards, the third time in four games he’s been held below four yards per attempt. But then almost out of nowhere, he catches three passes, two of which result in touchdowns. Maddening.
The Rams have been solid and unwelcoming to running backs this season. Only one running back has amassed more than 45 yards against them since Week 8. No running back has scored a rushing touchdown against them since Week 6. Tailbacks are not exactly enjoying themselves as pass catchers against them either. Tarik Cohen had five receptions against them last week, but that was the first time since Week 8 any back has had more than four catches in a game against the Rams. They’ve not allowed a running back to top 35 receiving yards since Week 1.
In his current form, I have to acknowledge that Ingram is a touchdown-dependent fantasy asset. He is not commanding a large workload, as evidenced by the fact that he has 15 or fewer carries in each of his last five games. Nor is he an every-down player, as he has played less than 66% of the Ravens offensive snaps in all but one game in 2019. If you have no other option, then he can be plugged in as an RB2. But we can’t expect him to score two receiving touchdowns ever again.
Jalen Ramsey asked Michael Vick how he would stop Lamar Jackson, and he doesn’t know what he would do.
When the Los Angeles Rams take the field on defense Monday night, they’ll have one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league staring them down. Lamar Jackson has been the best player in the league this season, as declared by the Rams themselves, and has looked particularly unstoppable in the last four games.
He’s not your typical quarterback to defend, and devising a game plan to stop him is a great challenge. Jalen Ramsey resorted to asking a quarterback who played similarly to the way Jackson does, requesting some help from Michael Vick.
Vick was in attendance for the Rams’ win over the Bears on Sunday night, and in Ramsey’s caption on Instagram, he asked the former Falcons star for assistance.
Vick actually responded to Ramsey’s request, saying he’s not sure how he would defend Jackson, either. He called Jackson the 2019 version of himself, which is essentially the same thing Wade Phillips said on Thursday.
“Tough question bruh… see the reality is this… Lamar is Mike Vick 2019, but with an offense built around his skill, which makes it hard to say. I wouldn’t know what to do against a guy kinda like myself. 😂 #giveiteverytingyougot”
The Rams will have their hands full with Jackson and the Ravens offense, which is averaging 39 points per game in the last four weeks.
There doesn’t seem to be any one way to stop Lamar Jackson this season. But there are coverages that might just slow him down.
Through the first 12 weeks of the 2019 NFL season, there appears to be no way to stop Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Not only is the current NFL MVP favorite running the ball at a historic rate — 781 yards and six touchdowns on 116 carries, and on pace to break Michael Vick’s 2006 record of 1,036 yards for a quarterback — but he’s also improved exponentially as a passer from his first to his second season. The same guy Hall of Fame executive and ESPN analyst Bill Polian said should switch to receiver when he came to the NFL (an opinion Polian has since recanted) has completed 66.3% of his passes for 2,258 yards, 19 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Jackson hasn’t thrown a pick since Week 5, when he threw three against the Steelers one week after firing two against the Browns.
It’s been all sunshine and rainbows for the Ravens since then — they haven’t lost a game since Cleveland’s Week 4 upset, and people all over the league are trying to figure out how to at least slow Jackson down, as a runner or as a passer.
Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman recently spoke with two NFL assistant coaches this week, who threw five counters out as possibilities: Tricking him with shifting coverages, a less-aggressive form of pressure called a “mush rush.” focusing on his running backs, using as much defensive speed as possible against him, and keeping him off the field. Both coaches agreed that the final of those five options is the only one guaranteed to work.
So, when you aren’t keeping Jackson off the field, what do you do? One interesting wrinkle in Baltimore’s 2019 offense is how heavily dependent it is on tight ends. Mark Andrews, Nick Boyle, and Hayden Hurst have combined for 44% of Baltimore’s 284 targets, 46.2% of the team’s 197 receptions, 45.1% of the team’s 2,346 yards, and eight of the team’s 20 passing touchdowns.
(Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
With that in mind, let’s look at how teams are covering the Ravens, and how well it goes. Per Sports Info Solutions, when facing Cover-0 (a man-to-man blitz-heavy coverage with no deep defenders), Jackson has completed 13 of 18 passes for 128 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. When facing Cover-1 (man coverage with one deep defender), he’s completed 43 of 69 attempts for 598 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. Against Cover-2 (zone coverage with two deep defenders) and 2-Man (man coverage with two deep defenders), he’s completed 33 of 40 passes for 373 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.
If you’re an NFL defensive coordinator and you’re reading this, you’re probably developing a small headache right about now.
But, there are small shards of hope. Against Cover-3 (zone defense with one deep safety), Jackson has completed 61 of 98 passes for 757 yards, five touchdowns… and three interceptions. Jackson’s two other picks this season? One came against Cover-4 (a zone defense that breaks deep coverage into quarters and gives safeties the option to bracket deep receivers), and the other came against Tampa-2 (a variant of Cover-2 in which the inside linebacker can drop into intermediate or deep middle coverage).
Tampa-2 is the coverage we’ll discuss for our purposes. Ostensibly a Cover-2 scheme, it give the quarterback more of a Cover-3 look with the linebacker dropping. The Browns used this coverage to nab a Jackson pass to Andrews in Week 4, and safety Jermaine Whitehead (No. 35) picks it off in the end zone. But watch linebacker Joe Schobert (No. 53) as he trails Andrews down the middle of the field, enforcing the middle coverage and making Jackson’s throw far more difficult.
So, the combination of Cover-3 and Tampa-2 would seem to be the one heady brew that might counter Jackson enough to at least make things tougher for him. Throwing a linebacker into coverage against a heavy-tight end offense is generally a good matchup, especially if it’s an athletic linebacker like Schobert. Neither Cover-3 nor Tampa-2 are man coverages, which is good — you absolutely do not want to run man coverage against Jackson, because man coverage forces your cornerbacks to turn their backs to Jackson when trailing receivers, and at that point, you’re just giving Jackson another free lane to run.
In these zone schemes, you still have to have your other linebackers read run as much as possible against Baltimore’s complex and highly effective rushing attack, but at this point, defensive coordinators are going to have to take whatever they can get. Jackson has two passing attempts, no completions to his teammates, and that one interception against Tampa-2, so why not run it more often? Tampa-2 can be vulnerable to the run if your linebackers aren’t reading their keys correctly, but it’s also worth remembering that the Buccaneers of the Warren Sapp/Derrick Brooks era played a ton of Tampa-2 (hence the name), and Brooks was one of the few linebackers who could also successfully spy Vick in his prime.
We’ll see if opposing defenses alter their strategies through the last six games of the season. If not, expect Jackson and the rest of Baltimore’s offense to keep running and throwing all over the rest of the league.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
There doesn’t seem to be any one way to stop Lamar Jackson this season. But there are coverages that might just slow him down.
Through the first 12 weeks of the 2019 NFL season, there appears to be no way to stop Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Not only is the current NFL MVP favorite running the ball at a historic rate — 781 yards and six touchdowns on 116 carries, and on pace to break Michael Vick’s 2006 record of 1,036 yards for a quarterback — but he’s also improved exponentially as a passer from his first to his second season. The same guy Hall of Fame executive and ESPN analyst Bill Polian said should switch to receiver when he came to the NFL (an opinion Polian has since recanted) has completed 66.3% of his passes for 2,258 yards, 19 touchdowns, and five interceptions. Jackson hasn’t thrown a pick since Week 5, when he threw three against the Steelers one week after firing two against the Browns.
It’s been all sunshine and rainbows for the Ravens since then — they haven’t lost a game since Cleveland’s Week 4 upset, and people all over the league are trying to figure out how to at least slow Jackson down, as a runner or as a passer.
Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman recently spoke with two NFL assistant coaches this week, who threw five counters out as possibilities: Tricking him with shifting coverages; a less-aggressive form of pressure called a “mush rush”; focusing on his running backs; using as much defensive speed as possible against him; keeping him off the field. Both coaches agreed that the final of those five options is the only one guaranteed to work.
So, when you aren’t keeping Jackson off the field, what do you do? One interesting wrinkle in Baltimore’s 2019 offense is how heavily dependent it is on tight ends. Mark Andrews, Nick Boyle, and Hayden Hurst have combined for 44% of Baltimore’s 284 targets, 46.2% of the team’s 197 receptions, 45.1% of the team’s 2,346 yards, and eight of the team’s 20 passing touchdowns.
(Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
With that in mind, let’s look at how teams are covering the Ravens, and how well it goes. Per Sports Info Solutions, when facing Cover-0 (a man-to-man blitz-heavy coverage with no deep defenders), Jackson has completed 13 of 18 passes for 128 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. When facing Cover-1 (man coverage with one deep defender), he’s completed 43 of 69 attempts for 598 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. Against Cover-2 (zone coverage with two deep defenders) and 2-Man (man coverage with two deep defenders), he’s completed 33 of 40 passes for 373 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions.
If you’re an NFL defensive coordinator and you’re reading this, you’re probably developing a small headache right about now.
But, there are small shards of hope. Against Cover-3 (zone defense with one deep safety), Jackson has completed 61 of 98 passes for 757 yards, five touchdowns… and three interceptions. Jackson’s two other picks this season? One came against Cover-4 (a zone defense that breaks deep coverage into quarters and gives safeties the option to bracket deep receivers), and the other came against Tampa-2 (a variant of Cover-2 in which the inside linebacker can drop into intermediate or deep middle coverage).
Tampa-2 is the coverage we’ll discuss for our purposes. Ostensibly a Cover-2 scheme, it gives the quarterback more of a Cover-3 look with the linebacker dropping. The Browns used this coverage to nab a Jackson pass to Andrews in Week 4, and safety Jermaine Whitehead (No. 35) picks it off in the end zone. But watch linebacker Joe Schobert (No. 53) as he trails Andrews down the middle of the field, enforcing the middle coverage and making Jackson’s throw far more difficult.
So, the combination of Cover-3 and Tampa-2 would seem to be the one heady brew that might counter Jackson enough to at least make things tougher for him. Throwing a linebacker into coverage against a heavy-tight end offense is generally a good matchup, especially if it’s an athletic linebacker like Schobert. Neither Cover-3 nor Tampa-2 are man coverages, which is good — you absolutely do not want to run man coverage against Jackson, because man coverage forces your cornerbacks to turn their backs to Jackson when trailing receivers, and at that point, you’re just giving Jackson another free lane to run.
In these zone schemes, you still have to have your other linebackers read run as much as possible against Baltimore’s complex and highly effective rushing attack, but at this point, defensive coordinators are going to have to take whatever they can get. Jackson has two passing attempts, no completions to his teammates, and that one interception against Tampa-2, so why not run it more often? Tampa-2 can be vulnerable to the run if your linebackers aren’t reading their keys correctly, but it’s also worth remembering that the Buccaneers of the Warren Sapp/Derrick Brooks era played a ton of Tampa-2 (hence the name), and Brooks was one of the few linebackers who could also successfully spy Vick in his prime.
We’ll see if opposing defenses alter their strategies through the last six games of the season. If not, expect Jackson and the rest of Baltimore’s offense to keep running and throwing all over the rest of the league.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
The Rams pressure QBs without blitzing at a higher rate than any other team in the NFL.
Slowing down Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense is as difficult a task as any in the NFL right now. They’ve scored a league-high 157 points in their last four games, winning by an average of more than 25 points per game.
In that span, Jackson has thrown for 751 yards and eight touchdown passes with zero interceptions, and also rushed for 321 yards and four touchdowns on 47 carries. He’s very clearly emerged as one of the favorites to win NFL MVP this season, proving to be one of the most dynamic players in the league.
The Rams defense has played extremely well in the last four games, allowing a league-low 44 points and ranking first in rushing yards allowed. Granted, their competition in that span has been unimpressive, but the defense is hitting its stride at the right time with the Ravens coming to town.
Neutralizing Jackson and slowing Baltimore’s offense is nearly impossible, but the team that’s come closest to doing that is Pittsburgh. In Week 5, the Steelers held Jackson to 161 yards passing and 70 yards rushing with one total touchdown and three interceptions.
They have one of the best pass rushes in the NFL and against the Ravens, they didn’t blitz as much as they normally do. Why? Because blitzing Jackson is a recipe for disaster.
This season, Jackson has been unbelievably good when facing five or more rushers. Against the blitz, he’s completed 54 of 90 passes (60%) for 757 yards with 15 touchdowns and only one interception. He’s been sacked eight times on such plays, but he’s averaging 8.4 yards per attempt against the blitz (7.9 against a normal rush). Additionally, he’s rushed for 112 yards on only six carries, an average of 18.7 yards per rush.
For comparison, he’s thrown just four touchdown passes and four interceptions against a normal rush this year, with a passer rating of 91.2 (122.1 vs. blitz).
This is good news for the Rams, who are better at getting pressure on the quarterback without blitzing than any other team in the league.
This season, the Rams have only blitzed 104 times, or at a rate of 25%. That’s the 11th-lowest rate in the NFL, but they’ve also hurried quarterbacks on 68 of their dropbacks – the most in football.
If the Rams can pressure Jackson with only four rushers, the second-year quarterback is going to have far more trouble than he would against the blitz. Take a look at this play where the Steelers are able to pressure Jackson with only four defenders, getting quick penetration up the middle while T.J. Watt gets wide outside.
The only thing that went wrong on this play was Stephon Tuitt failing to wrap up Jackson, which is understandable.
The Steelers got pressure on Jackson here, as well, by only rushing four. Watt gets deep upfield and forces Jackson to step up in the pocket, which lands him in the arms of Javon Hargrave.
It was good discipline by the Steelers’ defenders to maintain their gaps and keep their eyes on the quarterback. That’s something the Rams will need to do, specifically Aaron Donald and Sebastian Joseph-Day in the middle.
Another aspect of this game that favors the Rams defense is limiting explosive plays. No team in the NFL has allowed fewer explosive plays (15-yard rush, 20-yard pass) than the Rams this season.
It’s a staple of their scheme, which employs a bend-don’t-break mentality. They force teams to inch their way down the field, taking away deep passes and long runs. Offenses have to earn their yardage against the Rams.
It’s why they only rank 17th in plays per drive by their opponents, but they’re sixth in yards and fifth in points per possession. The Ravens, on the other hand, have the third-highest explosive play rate in the league, consistently creating big plays on offense.
This isn’t to say the Rams will have an easy time against the Ravens. No defense does. But the Rams are the best team in the league at generating pressure with only four rushers and limiting explosive plays.
Los Angeles will still need to contain Jackson as a runner and avoid making colossal mistakes when the Ravens utilize zone reads and RPOs. A defensive end or outside linebacker crashing down when he should key on the quarterback can be the difference in a tackle for loss or a 30-yard run.
This will be a monumental test for the Rams, who have faced a very low level of competition in the last four games.
Wade Phillips wasn’t afraid to compare Lamar Jackson to Michael Vick.
During his heyday with the Atlanta Falcons, Michael Vick gave opposing defensive coordinators and head coaches headaches as they tried to devise a plan to contain him. He was as electric as any player to play the quarterback position, bringing a terrifying combination of speed and arm strength to the field.
There hasn’t been a player quite like him since, but Lamar Jackson is staking his claim as the next version of Vick.
Ahead of Monday night’s matchup with the Ravens, Jalen Ramsey likened Jackson to Vick on Instagram this week, and Wade Phillips didn’t disagree with the comparison. Phillips was asked how the two quarterbacks are similar, and he seems to believe Jackson has a slight edge.
“Pretty similar in a lot of ways. Both of them are great runners. Mike was similar in that he didn’t throw many interceptions and he had that flick of the wrist that he could throw the ball downfield. But Lamar is this era’s Michael Vick, maybe plus – Michael Vick-plus.”
That’s some high praise for a coach who was around Vick for several seasons. Phillips was the Falcons’ defensive coordinator in 2002 and interim head coach in 2003 when Vick was there, so he knows a lot about what it was like trying to stop No. 7.
Vick rushed for 777 yards in 2002 en route to a Pro Bowl selection, emerging as one of the most dangerous quarterbacks in all of football in just his second season.
Jackson is not only on his way to the Pro Bowl in Year 2, as well, but he’s also the front runner to be named NFL MVP. In Phillips’ mind, Jackson is clearly the best player in the league through 11 weeks.
“Lamar Jackson, everyone’s saying it and rightfully so, he’s certainly the MVP so far this year and is having a great year,” he said.
The Rams will get their first taste of Jackson next week when the Ravens visit on Monday night, and Phillips isn’t necessarily excited about facing that offense.
“Gives me a headache,” Phillips joked. “But it’s a great challenge. It’s something that competitors – and I think our guys are – it’s something for them to step up and play well against, and that’s what our challenge is.
“If I didn’t already, they’d give me white hair playing against teams like this. But I’m already there.”
