I think we’d all agree this was the most satisfying win of the Flacco era.  A Ravens team which does not match up well with the Browns came back from 14 down while the defense forced 5 straight 3-and-outs.  Rice had a great game.  For one week, the Ravens actually had 1 more player returning (Terry) than sent to IR (McAlister may well be in next week’s total). 

Despite so many shortcomings (street-of-dying-men secondary, a 0-catch performance from Heap, 0 carries from McGahee, and a 9-tackle/1-sack/2-QH/5-TFL performance from Big Baby), the Ravens staged one of the biggest comebacks in team history with a nice blend of offense and defense, run and pass. 

Overall: 57 plays, 274 yards, 4.8 YPPA

Best:  Pryce 35/136, 3.9 YPPA, Ivy 31/102, 3.3 YPPA, Barnes 9/20, 2.2 YPPA

Worst:  Douglas 21/141, 6.7 YPPA

Vs. the Run:  23 carries, 64 yards, 2.8 YPC

Best:  Douglas 12/24, 2.0 YPC

Worst:  Pryce 12/43 3.6.  It was another great day against the run with the Browns long run being 7 yards.

Vs. the Pass:  34 pass plays, 210 net yards, 6.2 YPP

Best:  Pryce 23/93, 4.0 YPP, Ivy 22/70, 3.2 YPP

Worst:  Scott 24/200, 8.2 YPP, Bannan 14/142, 10.1 YPP, Douglas 9/117, 13.0 YPP

By number of Pass Rushers:

4:  20/132, 6.6 YPP, 1 sack

5:  6/78, 13.0 YPP, 1 TO

6:  1/0, 0.0 YPP

7:  None

By number of Defensive Backs:

4:  31 plays, 187 yards, 6.0 YPPA

5:  18 plays, 62 yards, 3.4 YPPA, 1 sacks

6:  1 play, 13 yards, 13.0 YPPA

7:  9 plays, 12 yards, 1.3 YPPA, 2 TO

Season Leaders for Percentage of Snaps (442 Real Snaps in 8 Games):

Team:  Lewis 99.8 % (1 snap missed vs. Oakland), Suggs 99.1%, Reed 97.3%

Pure Defensive Linemen:  Ngata 71.5%, Pryce 65.4%, Bannan 53.2%, Douglas 34.6%, McKinney 8.4%

Linebackers:  After Lewis, it’s Johnson 96.2%, Scott 88.7%, Barnes 13.6%

Secondary: Reed then Leonhard 83.5%, CMac 62.4%, Walker 62.4%, Washington 55.2%, Ivy 46.4%, Rolle 23.3%, Landry 17.6%

Individual Notes:

• Washington appeared more physical than he has in previous games.  In particular, he made a nice stop (Q2, 6:24) to keep Wright half a yard short of the sticks and force the Browns to settle for a FG.  Gannon made a special note that Washington could be exploited on curl routes.  He’s probably right, but I’m still hopeful he’ll learn how to gamble the same way Duane Starks did in the 2nd half of 2000 and rack up some picks.  If you are looking for a defensive player with undiscovered upside, there are not many choices on the Ravens.

• Pryce rarely rushes from the inside when any of the true heavies (Ngata, Bannan, McKinney, Douglas) are on the field, but he did so on the Browns’ 2nd play from scrimmage, playing DT while Ngata stayed at LDE.  Just another look from Rex, or did he see something he thought those 2 could exploit?

• Walker played inside on 6+ DB sets with Oglesby covering one of the outside receivers.  On the TD to Edwards his coverage was good, and a much taller man beat him to a well-thrown jump ball.  Primarily, Anderson looked to exploit matchups where LB’s were in coverage.

• Ivy has now played 3 straight fine games since Indy.  He replaced Washington for 3 plays.  He made an open –field tackle of Lewis on the first (7-yard gain) and the Browns scored 2 plays later on the throw to Wright.  The Ravens were collectively much more effective with 5+ DB’s than with 4 (see above) and Ivy deserves a share of the credit.  For the year, the Ravens are allowing 4.5/4.7/4.2 YPPA on 1st/2nd/3rd down respectively.

• Barnes has now gone half a season with 1 tackle and 1 QH, both at Pittsburgh on 60 defensive snaps.  His YPPA is not terrible (4.8 compared to the team’s 4.4 without him), but he has not contributed in productivity stats.  Sunday, I thought it could fairly be said he had an impact on the game with 2 hurries in 9 snaps.  I would say he is more effective rushing from LDE, since his move is always for speed to the outside, and that may actually help contain a QB that would like to roll right.  If you want to see a big-time chip block, look at (Q4, 3:00).  Barnes is blocked by Shaffer and gets hammered backwards by the Cleveland back who proceeds to float into the pattern.

• Ngata played well, but saw only 37 of 57 defensive snaps.  In part, the Ravens were playing lots of nickel, dime, and quarter sets which can exclude Ngata, but they may also have been resting him a little extra for possible offensive use.  His pressure of Anderson led to Suggs’ INT.  Despite Sunday’s pressure, Ngata has less defensive value when the Ravens have the lead, since he’s not a great pass rusher nor can he do anything else when the other team is throwing.  That reduced value should mean he can be rested to close out some games on offense.  The Ravens put him in for 3 plays after Rice’s 60-yard run.  I was happy to see it, but I did not like the play selection throwing to him on 2nd down.

• The Browns’ end-of-half clock management was atrocious, but they somehow got away with it and converted on Dawson’s 54-yard FG.  First, they let the clock run down while the Ravens had the ball from approximately 1:25 until Flacco threw incomplete with :46 seconds to play.  The Ravens then called time, followed immediately by a Browns’ timeout.  Pretty ridiculous that they did not stop the clock with 1:25 left.  After they got the ball, I’ve watched the completion in bounds and it sure sounded like the whistle blew at :15, not :20.  The Browns then ran the out to Edwards in 5 seconds and 2, 4-second incompletes.  I’d say there was at least 1 second of hometown clock-tending on each of those plays.

• Did you notice Ed Reed watching the back of his heels for end-line contact on Dawson’s FG?  He had McAlister/Cromartie visions in his head, and it would have been fun to watch.

• Johnson had a tough game.  He was picked on by Anderson, including the Browns’ last TD where he blitzed from the ORS and Anderson threw to Wright, who would likely have been his assignment.  Just 3 plays earlier (Q3, 8:23) he was very late leaping to get a hand on a pass to Winslow for which he was directly in the line of fire.  It went for a 20-yard completion.

• Leonhard was on the LoS faking a blitz on 6 occasions.  Each time he took a step towards the QB, then waited for a back or TE to cover.  The last 5 such occurrences were with 7 DB’s on the field.

• Most of the Ravens 7 DB sets (9 plays, 1.3 YPPA) were also 3 pass rushers (7 plays, 0.0 YPPA).  The Browns ran once against 7 DB’s, picking up 6 yards and also fumbled following a 6-yard completion (when the Ravens rushed 5).  Both turnovers came with 7 DB’s, and the Suggs INT could really be considered a 2-man pass rush (Suggs seemed to be looking to contain rather than rush before he broke on the ball).

• The Ravens 3 biggest defensive plays:  
  • Suggs pick-6.  It sealed the game for all intents and purposes.
  • Washington’s stop of Wright (Q2, 6:24).  We would not know how important it was until later
  • Suggs and Ivy’s combined stop of Winslow (Q4, 8:20).  With the score tied, Suggs contained and Ivy wrapped up as the Ravens defended the sticks and forced Cleveland to punt, setting up the winning score 5 plays later.