The Ravens revamped offensive line opened with a rousing effort versus a talented opponent with each of their linemen back at their strongest position.  You’ve been reading that all week and no doubt are either telling your friends “I told you so” with regard to the McKinnie acquisition and line reshuffle or finding a way to backpedal and qualify your previous remarks. 

One of the Ravens’ major weaknesses down the stretch in 2010 was a dearth of blocking from any eligible receivers.  That limited their options with regard to an offensive line they couldn’t trust to pass block effectively as a unit.  The best evidence I can offer that the pass-blocking quality of the line has improved isn’t the single sack allowed, but the following:

·         The Ravens played their arch rival who has previously tormented their QB with an effective pass rush

·         They did not play a single snap with an unbalanced line

·         They only played 2 snaps with a 6-man line from the Steelers’ 1-yard line

·         On 30 drop backs, the Ravens had 150 eligible receivers (Flacco excluded)

·         Among their eligible receivers, the Ravens used just 18 set blockers (5 left, 3 middle, 10 right) total on those 30 plays.  Of those they kept 3 in on the 2^nd and goal completion to Leach (Q2, 3:21).  Ravens eligible receivers otherwise threw 5 chip blocks. 

·         The last time I looked at this for a Steelers game was 12/27/09 (the disastrous Cousins game against Woodley) when the Ravens had 29 drop backs with 45 eligible receivers held in as set blockers and 4 chips.  That difference is almost a full eligible receiver per pass play in the pattern.

The Ravens had 61 offensive snaps:

McKinnie:  Bryant’s play on the left side immediately improved the play at 3 positions, but in my opinion, the gain at LT was the least.  McKinnie drew the toughest assignment in Harrison.  He had only 1 negative play, the holding penalty on Harrison (Q1, 8:22), which I agree with Simms was questionable.  His seal on Farrior (Q1, 14:47) on the game’s first play may be the signature play for Ozzie’s value-based rebuild.  He otherwise had 6 plays, all runs up the middle or to the right where he either missed a block or didn’t make any effort to make one.  It seems to me McKinnie has a sort of internal clock which limits the amount of time he’ll attempt to block on the back side to approximately 2 seconds.  He’ll often try to sucker the end into a speed rush by taking a step backwards so he’ll take himself out of the play.  The best examples I can give to illustrate these points (Q2, 5:22 and Q3, 1:38 and Q4, 5:49).  I did not note a single attempt to cut block, which is a typical option for a left tackle on a run right.  On the plus side, he made 3 blocks in level 2 and was the most significant player in the Ravens ability to grant Flacco consistent ATS (see below).  In the context of a LT who is both a fine pass blocker and a solid, positional run blocker when the action is to his side, the issue mentioned above is minor.  Scoring:  55 blocks, 6 missed, 1 holding penalty, 49 points (.80 per play).  If you think he didn’t deserve the holding call, his per-play score would have been .90.

Grubbs:  Grubbs held Keisel when beaten inside (Q1, 9:40) to help stall the Ravens 2nd drive.  He otherwise played very well with a single penetration shared with Birk (Q3, 6:17) his only other negative play.  He pulled successively on both of his attempts, had 1 pancake, and 4 blocks in level 2.  While it’s not OK to have a holding penalty every game, he played well considering the opponent.  Scoring:  57 blocks, 3 missed, 1/2 penetration, 1 holding penalty, 50 points (.82 per play).

Birk:  Matt did not look completely well and was giving some significant ground to Hampton.  Two examples that were scored as missed blocks (Q3, 2:25 and Q3, 0:57) immediately preceeded the Taylor/Oher/Rice/Polamalu altercation.  He was beaten to his left (Q2, 9:48) by Hampton for a penetration and loss of 1 for Rice.  He was then flagged for holding (Q4, 10:15).  He had 3 pancakes and 5 blocks in level 2.  Since Birk is calling the blocking assignments, he deserves some credit for the Ravens ability to render impotent the Steelers pass rush.  However his score per play as a center isn’t comparable to a tackle.  Both McKinnie and Oher had significantly better games than Birk.  If he plays as he did the first 2 seasons for the Ravens, his scores should return to approximately .90 per play. Scoring:  56 blocks, 3 missed, 1.5 penetrations, 1 holding penalty, 47 points (.77 per play).

Yanda:   Home at last at RG, Marshal battered Aaron Smith into submission with a combination of cut blocks and mauling pushes that left the Steelers defender on the ground for a number of plays.  He did not register a single negative result (penetration, pressure, QH, sack, or penalty) and only 3 missed blocks.  He was asked to pull just once and was shed on that attempt.  He had 3 blocks in level 2 as I scored it.  Perhaps someone with a background in officiating can tell me why several of his cut blocks were not chop blocks (specifically Q1, 14:47, Q1, 10:53, and Q4, 10:55) on Casey Hampton.  In each case Birk is engaged high with Hampton and Yanda dives to hit him below the waste.  Marshal immediately reasserted himself as one of the best guards in football with this performance.  Scoring:  58 blocks, 3 missed, 58 points (.95 per play).

Oher:  Michael had a successful return to RT and handled Woodley all game.  He was beaten inside by Foote for a QH (Q2, 8:25) and surrendered a 2nd tough QH when he failed to pick up Keisel’s stunt (Q3, 2:59).  If you happen to have the Gamebook, both of those QHs were incorrectly recorded with the first credited to Woodley and the 2nd credited to Woodley as a pass defensed.  Woodley’s sack (Q4, 15:00) came at the expense of Dickson and Leach, but he was held to just 2 other tackles (gains of 5 and 16) all day.  I have Oher scored for 5 pancakes and 5 blocks in level 2.  I’d characterize the game qualitatively as an above-average performance versus a top-tier opponent and it’s a great start to a possible Pro Bowl berth.  Scoring:  57 blocks, 2 missed, 2 QHs, 51 points (.84 per play).

Ngata:  Haloti made a return to the 6-man formation for the first time since 10/10/10 when he was tweaked while running a pattern against the Broncos.  He made a successful block on each of his 2 plays, but while the Ravens had directed 19 of 22 running plays to his side previously, Rice ran right for the TD.  It also surprised me that the Ravens played their typical 3 TE, 2 back formation with 2 actual TEs rather than bringing in Gurode, Reid, or Levoir to exploit the havoc created by Ngata.  I couldn’t be happier that my prediction that the Ngata era as an offensive lineman was over:

Scoring:  2 blocks (1.00 per play). 

Other Offensive Notes:

·         Rarely has a game underscored the need for ample time and space (ATS) in the pocket more than Sunday’s.  I scored Flacco with ATS on 19 of 30 drop backs (63%), a figure higher than all but 1 game in 2010 (Buffalo, week 6).  For the entire season, he had ATS on 43% of drop backs. 

·         With ATS, Flacco completed 14 of 19 throws for 206 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INT (10.8 YPP).  Last season, Flacco averaged 9.3 YPP with 19 TDs, and 5 INTs with ATS.

·         Without ATS he was 3 of 10 for 18 yards (9 net) and a sack for -9 (0.9 YPP).  His non-ATS stats from 2010 were 3.7 YPP with 8 TD and 6 INT.  He didn’t turn the ball over (fumble or INT) as occurs much more frequently for a non-ATS drop back than for an average passing attempt.

·         To summarize in a single sentence…Despite few receivers kept in to block, Flacco had ATS on a high percentage of drop backs and threw accurately on those plays.

·         Aside from the new line, Ed Dickson was the player I was most interested to see perform given his breakout performance in the last preseason game.  He had an outstanding game as a receiver, particularly when you consider his 34-yard catch (which was also Flacco’s best throw) was called back due to the holding call on McKinnie.  He effectively positioned his body to ward off Polamalu on his TD catch.  He had mixed results as a blocker.  He provided a terrific kick out to erase Polamalu on Rice’s game-opening 36-yard run.  He later shared responsibility for Woodley’s sack with Vonta Leach (Q4, 15:00).

·         I don’t have much to say about Rice that you’re not likely to have seen.  After melting down as a pass blocker in the 2nd half of last season, he had 2 nice efforts worth noting.  He picked up Woodley (Q1, 10:20) on the 16-yard pass to Boldin.  He also delivered a pancake with Vonta Leach on Harrison on the 21-yard catch and run by Boldin (Q3, 6:48).