The Ravens offense rolled easily over a depleted Chargers defense.  The Ravens scored 31 points, the most by a Chargers visitor in 5 years (Jets, 34, 9/19/04).  The defense held the Chargers to 0 for 5 in the red zone which included penetrations to the 2, 5, 7, 15, and 1 (actually 6 inch) yard lines.  Ray Lewis was dominant, punctuating a game of great plays with what may prove to be the 2nd most important of his career.

Alternatively, to a pessimistic fan, the Ravens corners were exposed in man coverage.  Rivers threw at will for 436 yards, the 2nd highest total ever against the Ravens.  Suggs can’t get pressure and can’t stay on the field for a full game.  Foxworth can’t cover and the Ravens don’t have a 3rd option at corner.

Before you decide which you believe to be the more relevant portrayal, let’s go over a few points.

Much has been made of the Ravens’ pass rush in the first 2 weeks.  I wanted to take a moment to explain how I classify pass rushes into groups:

By the number of pass rushers:  This is the most obvious way to group.  A player is considered to rush the passer if he crosses the line of scrimmage (LoS) and does not subsequently drop into coverage.  A player who comes on a delayed pass rush only after the QB breaks the pocket is not considered a pass rusher for this purpose.  When I say the Ravens bring “Vanilla 4-man pressure” that means the 4 men at the LoS are the only ones who rush and no one drops to cover.

By the number of players that drop from the line of scrimmage at the snap:  Frequently, the defensive team will have players at the LoS who drop into zone or man coverage.  This can be done with or without a move to deceive a lineman and draw a blocker.  For these purposes, I only describe coverage drops as occurring when the player lines up no more than a yard outside the TE and no more than a yard from the LoS.  In the Ravens defensive schemes, the nickel will often set up in press coverage on the slot receiver and fake a pass rush, but if he drops to coverage, he would not be counted in this category since he is usually several yards outside the TE.

By pre-snap movement:  I really don’t know how confusing pre-snap movement is to offensive blocking schemes, but since the Ravens do it quite a bit, I note it.

What do I call a deceptive pass rush?  As I count them, that includes at least 2 of the following:

• Multiple (2 or more) players dropping to coverage or 1 player drops to coverage after making a hand check or move to draw blockers.
• Pre-snap movement where at least 6 players in total are within a yard of the LoS and within a yard of the TE
• One or more delayed rushers who wait at least half a second to blitz
• A stunt (where 1 rusher loops around another blocker to find a clear path to the QB rather than engage the man opposite him)
• An attempt to overload 1 side (usually by rushing LBs and DBs while having players on the opposite side of the line drop to coverage)  

In week 1, the Ravens executed just 2 pass rushes that I classified as deceptive.  In week 2, that number jumped to 14.

By number of pass rushers:

3: 4 plays, 5 yards.

4: 25 plays, 196 yards, 7.8 YPP, 1 TO

5: 12 plays, 178 yards, 14.8 YPP, 1 Sack, 1 TO

6: 5 plays, 42 yards, 8.4 YPP, 1 Sack

As expected, the Ravens came out with a more complex and varied pass rush and returned to some of the overload blitzes featured last year with Ryan.  I don’t take the high yards per pass play as evidence that the Ravens shouldn’t continue to apply pressure, but it did not work on this day.

By number of defensive backs:

3:  1 play, -1 yards.  This was a goal line play.

4:  33 plays, 133 yards, 4.0 YPPA, 1 Sack

5:  21 plays, 250 yards, 11.9 YPPA, 1 TO

6:  11 plays, 87 yards, 7.9 YPPA, 1 Sack, 1 TO

7:  1 play, 5 yards

Some observations:

·         How concerned should we be about the play of the Ravens’ secondary?  Not very.  The Ravens played one of the league’s most talented QBs, on the road, and he made a number of very fine throws into single coverage that resulted in big plays.  If we dissect those plays further, we see that the Ravens had tight man-to-man coverage on a number of those throws with the major exception being Washington’s loss of Gates on his 37-yard catch (I’m not counting the screen to Sproles here since that was Ray Lewis’). 

Rivers’ touch spiral over triple coverage to Jackson was a classic case of throwing a ball where only his own man could make the play.  The much-maligned Foxworth made 3 very fine plays on Chambers (interception tip, PD in the end zone, and the over the top PD) as he held the Chargers’ receiver to 2 catches in 10 balls thrown to him.  The league’s other good quarterbacks probably won’t be as good as Rivers was Sunday and the lesser QB’s are in for a pounding.  The 2000 Ravens gave up 2 huge yardage totals, Brunell in week 2 (375 net) and Testaverde in week 17 (473 net).  The Ravens nonetheless won both of those games.  Walker played well when he replaced Washington for the last 11 plays (he played 12 total, 4.8 YPPA).  Rivers picked on him just once, and on that play he successfully popped the ball from Naanee’s hands.

·        Gooden played many more snaps in week 2 (39) than week 1 (9).  That included 6 snaps with 5 or 6 defensive backs.  Surprisingly, the Ravens played 33 plays with 4 defensive backs.  Many of those occurred when the Chargers had 3 wide receivers on the field.  While Tavares made 3 tackles, his biggest contribution was the chop block he drew (Q3, 4:10).

·         The Ravens gave up a number of big plays while in the nickel and dime.  With 5 or more defensive backs on the field, the Ravens allowed a mind-numbing 10.4 yards per play.

·         Suggs played 58 of 67 snaps, which is a low total for him.  In the early season of 2006, he also took some snaps off for heat, but it may have been a case of a rib injury on Sunday.  Sizzle got 1.5 sacks, so I have trouble understanding why folks are saying he didn’t contribute to the pass rush.

·         McClain made the most of his playing time recording a tackle for a 1-yard loss on his only defensive snap.

·        Ayanbadejo again saw extensive playing time (26 snaps) on which the Chargers averaged 11.4 YPPA.

·         Of the defensive tackle rotation, Ngata played 44 snaps, Gregg 30, Edwards 2, Bannan 17, and Talavou.  Ngata is the only one of the Ravens’ big men to have played more than 50% of the snaps in the 1^st 2 games (73 of 111, 66%).  Gregg is 2^nd with 42% of snaps played.

·         The Ravens forced 2 turnovers, one aided by pressure.  Lewis forced Rivers to throw awkwardly across his body (Q3, 10:17) where Landry made the pick.  Later (Q4, 4:35), Rivers threw left for Chambers.  Foxworth appeared to hit Chambers before he touched the ball, but deflected it to Barnes who collected the pick.  The play set the Ravens up with a chance to salt the game away, but they would drive 3 plays for -2 yards and settle for the FG to go up by 5.

·         Lewis registered numerous big plays:

o    He ran Naanee out of bounds for a 5-yard loss (Q2, 10:44)

o    He stripped Gates at the 2 yard line after his 37-yard reception (Q2, 5:01).  Unfortunately, Jackson recovered the fumble.

o    He tracked down Sproles for a 1-yard loss to set up 3rd and goal from the 4 just 2 plays later (Q2, 3:40).  The Charger would settle for 3 points and the Ravens maintained a 14-13 lead.

o    He stopped Sproles for a 2-yard gain to set up 4th and 2 (Q2, 1:17) at the Ravens’ 36.  The clock would run all the way down to 0:38 (the Chargers were out of timeouts) before the Ravens called time.  When the Chargers converted the play for a 1st down, the time remaining became a key factor.  The Chargers advanced to the 1, but kicked a FG on 3rd and goal with 0:10 remaining in the half.

o    He pressured Rivers to force Landry’s pick (Q3, 10:17, see above).

o    He tackled Bennett for a 1-yard gain on 1st and 25 that looked like it might have been much longer (Q3, 4:03).

o    He registered the game-ending stop of Sproles for a 5-yard loss (Q4, 0:37).

o    He had 12 total tackles, 3 for loss, forced a fumble, and registered a hit on Rivers.

·        The Ravens used a variety of coverages on Gates, using Landry and Carr in man coverage as well as zone when he crossed.  When Gates lined up on the outside, the Ravens used Washington to cover, as happened on his 37-yard grab.  Frank Walker was not used to cover Gates as had been hinted prior to the game.

·         How did the Ravens handle Sproles?  Big bumps near the line of scrimmage.  On the 81-yard screen (Q1, 9:31), Suggs pushed him well to the outside and looked backwards, seemingly hoping that he would tumble to the ground.  Suggs appeared lost at that point in determining whether to rush the QB or pursue Sproles, so while it appears to that Sproles was his responsibility, we learned since that it was Ray Lewis who was assigned to the diminutive Chargers’ franchise player.  Other times in the game, watching the replay angles, it’s apparent that one of the linebackers is responsible for spying Sproles.  That was the case when Lewis tackled him for a 1-yard loss on 2nd and goal from the 3 (Q2, 3:40, see above).  I lost the time reference, but Ngata also had a big hit on Sproles, sending him backwards as he attempted to go out for a pass.

·         It should not be surprising that the Ravens traded a linebacker.  Burgess was buried in a special teams role and had not seen a single defensive snap in 3 years.  I’m glad the Ravens may get something for him, but it’s a shame he’s headed to a week 4 and potential playoff opponent.

·        Webb played well on special teams, including the end zone tip out of Koch’s punt which set the Chargers up at the 1-yard line for the first time.  He did not see action defensively .

·        The only costly defensive penalty was Foxworth’s pass interference (Q3, 6:17).  That converted a 1st and 20.  The only other defensive foul was Pryce’s roughing the passer (Q2, 0:24), which was marked off for less than a foot on the end of a 24-yard pass to the Ravens’s 1.

The Ravens biggest 3 defensive plays Sunday:

1.      Lewis’ game-sealing tackle (Q4, 0:37).  I’ll be surprised if there is a more important defensive play for the 2009 Ravens.

2.      Walker’s PD vs. Naanee (Q4, 0:57).  Walker, forced into coverage by the concussion suffered by Washington, knocked the potential game-winning TD from Naanee’s hands.

3.      Reed’s stare down of Naanee (Q4, 0:52).  On 2^nd and 10, Rivers threw to Naanee who advanced the ball 8 yards to the 15 yard line.  Naanee could have easily advanced the ball for a first down, but he looked to evade Ed Reed.  Reed didn’t move as Naanee expected and Ayanbadejo came up to make the play from behind.  The Chargers would fail to convert on the next 2 plays and the game was over.