The short week necessitates a trimmed down line report.

Flacco had ATS on 12 of 31 pass plays and completed 9 of 11 for 123 yards in addition to a sack for 0 yards.  Those plays included both TD passes (Mason, McGahee).  I don’t normally label a screen for ATS, because the play develops quickly and the blockers want to release and get out in front.  However, part of what made the McGahee TD screen (Q1, 12:20) effective was the fact they ran it on a delayed basis, so the defense was stretched further down the field.  To an extreme degree, ATS led to a comfortable game of pitch and catch for the Ravens Sunday with lots of YAC.

Without ATS, Flacco was 8 of 16 for 143 yards with 3 sacks for 23 yards.  His highlight play without ATS was the 34-yard pass to Rice (Q3, 11:48) which had a mess of YAC.

Oher:  I gave him half of the 6-yard sack (Q3, 1:58) by Dobbins.  It could certainly have gone unassigned, but Oher was beaten outside by the stunting Starks.  That caused Flacco to step up in the pocket and Dobbins cleaned him up with a free run.  Otherwise, Michael played well with 3 successful pulls, and a block in level 2.  He’s not beating the snap count with anything like the regularity he did earlier in the year, so it will be interesting to see if the Ravens use a method of snap timing specifically designed to get him an advantage when the Ravens face some of the better rush RDEs later in the year (Williams at Houston, Harrison again in Baltimore).  Scoring:  63 blocks, 3 missed, ½ sack, 60 points (.90 per play).  It would be .95 per play without the ½ sack.  Either way, I’d say it was MO’s best game of the year.

Grubbs:  Ben’s score is probably a little better than it appeared to me subjectively.  He succeeded on 5 of 7 pulls, but was beaten for a penetration on one of those (Q4, 4:24).  He had 10 level 2 blocks, which is excellent mobility.  He avoided being charged with a sack (Q2, 12:47) when beaten by Starks, because Soliai got there a moment sooner.  Scoring:  60 blocks, 5 missed, 1.5 penetrations, 57 points (.85 per play).

Birk:  Matt had his worst game as a Raven Sunday.  He was beaten by Soliai for the aforementioned sack (Q2, 12:47), but also allowed a share of 4 penetrations.  Scoring:  60 blocks, 2 missed, 3 penetrations (2 full plus 2 X ½), 48 points, .72 per play.

Chester:  The Dolphins’ line gave the Ravens a lot of trouble on the offensive right side.  Chester is still getting pushed back in the pocket.  He doesn’t give up on his blocks, but sometimes effort alone isn’t enough.  He connected on 4 of 6 pulls and made 5 blocks in level 2.  He had a near-perfect 1^st half with just 1 missed block, but was much less effective after halftime.  Scoring:  57 blocks, 6 missed, 2.5 penetrations, 1 QH, 49 points (.73 per play).

Yanda:  Marshal allowed a sack to Wake (Q2, 3:24) when he was beaten inside.  He pulled successfully 3 times and administered 3 pancakes.  In most of the games to date, I’ve been impressed with Marhsal’s effectiveness as a pass blocker at RT, but bemoaning his lack of involvement as a run blocker.  This was the first game where Yanda didn’t show up as a pass blocker but looked like his old self as a run blocker.  I’ve seen the stories indicating Yanda wants to move to tackle permanently and I don’t know what the Ravens would have done without him there this year.  However, I still believe RT to be a misuse of his talents.  Were he to return to guard, I think he’d be consistently among the best in the league.  Scoring:  60 blocks, 4 missed, 2 penetrations, 1 sack, 50 points (.75 per play).