Cam Cameron coached his first game for the new look offense, the young O-line were mostly playing different positions than a year ago, the Ravens won a game convincingly that depended on that line, and they have Willie Anderson ready to be activated.  There couldn’t be a better time to reflect on the O-line play. 

Last year, I came up with a very rudimentary scoring system which is designed to allow for review of a game in 1-2 hours:

• Each play with a successful block or maintaining a gap in pass blocking: +1
• Each penalty: -3 per 5 yards (accepted or declined)
• Each sack: -6 divided among those responsible
• Each QH allowed: -3 divided among those responsible
• Play with no block or a missed block: 0
• Play with a missed or failed block that allows significant initial contact at least 2 yards into the backfield: -2
• Blocks on plays with penalties are excluded
• Please note all sacks and QH’s will not be distributed since they may have a back or TE as responsible or occur because of an overload.  I would describe my actual scoring strictness as “when in doubt, credit the block.”

All 5 starters played all 73 “real” snaps (excludes the 2 kneels and penalties where the result of the play was wiped out).  Kracalik was on the field for 1 additional snap as a TE (reported eligible).  I did not grade him on that effort.

Gaither:  Looked progressively better as the game went on.  He had a false start and a holding penalty, but was otherwise 72/73 as a blocker.  As the game wore on, he got excellent push despite the fact the Bengals were rotating defensive linemen.  He denied his assignments any inside penetration on pass plays and fanned them out so Flacco had time to step up in the pocket to throw.  I’m an actuary by training, so I look to predict and price things ahead of the curve.  And let’s face it, there’s absolutely no fun to predicting things after the fact.  So here goes.  Should the 2020 Ravens media guide include a section labeled “The Ravens best 5th round selection of all time” I’d set the current probabilities of the top spot as:

·          Gaither: 37% (he’s got the marquee job and the most talent with commitment and conditioning the keys)

·          Jermaine Lewis: 29% (done the most to date by a long shot, but won’t improve on his current standing)

·          Dwan Landry: 12% (likely has almost 3 more years as a starter, but would need to return to a level of play near that of his rookie year to contend with Lewis)

·          Troy Smith: 2% (would have to have both Flacco fail and play well himself.  He would probably also have to sign his next contract here.)

·          Quinn Sypniewski: 1% (current injury has greatly reduced his chance to fill a huge Ravens need)

My point here is simply that there are not a lot of football games played and each provides significant portent.  This list would have looked very different 3 weeks ago.  Since then Smith’s stock has plummeted while Gaither has looked good.  It’s completely appropriate to reguage expectations.  Scoring on…oh yeah, we were talking about Gaither:  1 FS, 1 Holding (declined), 72 blocks, 63 points (.86 per play)

Grubbs:  I have recorded 3 games using this methodology and no player has had a blocking score above .92 (Brown vs. NE).  Grubbs in this game was a perfect 1.00 as I saw it.  He got decent push and pulled to the right 4 times.  Most notably, he was an important moving part when the Ravens threw from the unbalanced line, sliding to the right on 2 of those plays to position himself as a RT would normally.  He held his ground and made several 2^nd-level blocks as well.  Scoring: 73 blocks/points (1.00 per play)

Brown:  Seemed a little too aggressive at moving to the 2nd level before the tackles had been moved.  When there, he did not always find a body.  However, his aggressiveness paid off when he delivered the key block on Flacco's TD.  In the 2nd half he was pushed backwards on several pass plays, once causing a significant shrinkage of the pocket, but none that led to a sack or QH.  Additionally, all of Brown's snaps and footwork were very clean.  This was critical considering the amount of pulling that occurred.  Scoring: 67 blocks, 1 penetration allowed, 65 points (.89 per play)

Yanda:  On the vast majority of unbalanced line plays, Yanda was assigned to pull left.  His pulls were all clean with Flacco not once disrupted from his turn, dropback, or handoff.  He delivered several good blocks on the 2nd level, and his only blemishes were the false start in Q4 and a QH allowed to Peko (this is not in the Gamebook, but QH’s are inconsistently assigned there).  Anyone notice how well our 1-2-3 2007 draft picks played Sunday?  Scoring: 69 blocks, 1 FS, 1 QH, 63 points (.86 per play).

Terry:  The unbalanced line definitely helped Adam.  He blocked effectively in the run game when set up on the left.  On the right side, he three times allowed penetration that lead to contact in the backfield.  His main nemesis was the great Jon Fanene who’s 13 career tackles and 1 sack in 22 career games strike fear in the heart of most tackles.  Most disappointing, however, was the fact that he gave up on a block where Flacco rolled right on a slow-developing pass play.  That caused Joe to take a QH from Geathers.  Scoring: 68 blocks, 3 penetrations allowed, 1 QH, 59 points (.81 per play, which was not a bad score for last year at all)

The unbalanced line:  This year looks like it will be fun to watch.  I’m still trying to figure what the major benefit of this formation is.  All of the following come to mind:

• Protect Terry in the run game by giving him an easier assignment and one he may be more familiar with from his days as a LT
• Protect Gaither by giving him an assignment where he can feel free to road grade and be picked up by Grubbs or Terry if the push he gets creates an opportunity for penetration
• Allow more 2nd-level blocking opportunities by the TE and pulling guard
• Through exhaustion, get the defense to start over committing to the unbalanced side and create opportunities to the right

The Ravens ran unbalanced (always to the left) 19 times (plus 2 additional false starts) and gained 120 yards (6.3 YPPA).  Flacco was 4/4 for 34 yards passing from that set and the Ravens rushed the ball 15 times for 86 yards (5.7 YPC), including Flacco’s 38-yard run.  They also surrendered their only TD of the day when Rice fumbled on a play that looked like it was designed to take advantage of a Bengals defense that was overplaying the formation.

Anderson:  I don’t have a good sense of whether or not Anderson is in game shape.  Terry did not have a terrible game vs. the Bengals, but he was the weakest of the Ravens O-line.  I actually like the idea of splitting the snaps this week.  Since Terry is decidedly better as a pass blocker than in the running game, perhaps it could be done as a function of down and distance (I’m not aware of teams that have done this, but some have alternated series).  I also would not rule out the possibility that Terry will report eligible and the Ravens will show a 6-man front for some plays.  In any case, Anderson clearly has been signed to start and will do so in the near future.  When it happens, I am guessing Cameron will find a way to keep Terry busy.

Photo by Sabina Moran