Offensive Line Model and Notes vs. Dolphins 1/4/09

Despite a cautious 9/23/135 performance by Flacco, the offensive line played well Sunday allowing no sacks and just 1 QH (2 QH’s went unassigned, a slow developing rollout that Flacco unloaded very late, and a 7-man blitz on the Ravens last play of the 1^st half).  The line gave Flacco tremendous time to throw on 11 of 14 1^st half attempts.  On those passes, Joe was 6/11 for 110 yards including a pair of 31-yard gains.  Unfortunately, the Dolphins managed much better pressure in the 2^nd half and held Flacco to just 2 completions.  On just 2 of the 2^nd half plays did Flacco have ample time to throw (2/2, 14 yards).

The Ravens ran just 54 offensive plays (excluding 2 kneels).  Of those, they ran 31 times for 152 yards (4.9 YPC).  This was accomplished despite the fact that the Dolphins were over committing to the run for most of the 2^nd half.  Using a familiar 2008 Ravens’ formula, a long day of grinding paid off with a 48-yard burst by McGahee (Q4, 4:53).

Individual Notes:

Gaither:  Jared was called for a false start, but otherwise converted all 54 of his blocks.  He frequently had help with Porter, but the Ravens held him to 3 tackles.  Gaither made blocks in level 2 on 4 occasions.  His run push was excellent.  Subjectively, I’d place it right behind the Houston game (when he dominated Mario Williams) as his 2^nd best game of the season.  Scoring: 54/54 blocks, 1 false start, 51 points (.94 per play).

Grubbs:  Grubbs was unable to continue his recent success pulling.  He converted just 4 of 6 pulls and allowed a penetration on one of those misses.  He allowed another penetration in pass blocking which resulted in a hurried incomplete from Flacco.  He made 4 more 2^nd level blocks.  Scoring: 51/54 blocks, 1 missed, 2 penetrations, 1 false start, 44 points (.81 per play).

Brown:  Brown made 6 level 2 blocks.  Ferguson and Holliday combined for 6 tackles and a PD, but were largely handled by the Ravens interior line.  He allowed the lone QH assigned to a lineman (Q4, 12:20) and also shared the penetration which led to McClain’s fumble (Q1, 12:42).  It was Brown’s 3^rd consecutive mediocre game.  Scoring: 50/54 blocks, 1 missed, 1 QH, 1.5 penetrations, 44 points (.81 per play).

Chester:  By either subjective judgment or score, this was Chester’s best game of the season.  He missed just 2 blocks and otherwise escaped without a significant error.  As I have it recorded, he made every one of his 1^st half blocks.  He converted all 3 of his pulls.  Scoring: 52/54 blocks, 1 missed, 52 points (.96 per play).

Anderson:  Willie still looks very different from the rest of the Ravens line.  He’s much more about positioning and technical use of his hands in both pass and run blocking.  It’s unusual that you see Anderson lean into a run block and stick with it.  In and of itself, that doesn’t make him less effective in pass blocking.  He’s also unusual in that he’s the one Raven lineman that I’ve noticed will take some shots with cut blocks.  That may be a case where experience tells him that he needs to put the thought in the mind of the opposing defensive lineman in order slow him up a bit.  He has been consistent (only 2 distinctly subpar games) and effective in 12 starts.  While any lineman his age is likely to be more prone to injury, I don’t see a reason why his physical style can’t be duplicated for another season.  Scoring: 47/52 blocks, 4 missed, .5 penetration, 46 points (.88 per play).

Terry:  He reported eligible for 7 jumbo sets and played the Ravens’ final series (2 plays scored) at RG.  I did not hear whether this was an attempt to get him a few snaps there or there was an issue with Chester.  He made all 9 of his blocks (1.00 per play).

Slaughter:  Entered for Anderson on the Ravens’ final series and converted both of his blocks. (1.00 per play).

Other Notes: 

·         The Ravens made more sparing use of the jumbo (6-man) or unbalanced line formations  That breaks down as:

·        5-Man Unbalanced Left:  7 plays, 77 yards, 11.0 YPPA.  These included McGahee’s 48-yard run.

·        5-Man Unbalanced Right:  None

·        6-Man Balanced (Terry added to the normal formation on either the left or right side):  6 plays, 4 yards, 0.7 YPPA.

·        6-Man Unbalanced (3 tackles left in this case):  1/0, 0.0 YPPA.

·         Ngata has not seen action on the offensive line since 12/7 vs. Washington.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say he’ll see such action again this week vs. the Titans.