I would have liked to avoid the topic of the week, but it’s difficult not to talk about Flacco with a game of these extremes.

First, let’s look at the pressure brought by the Texans.  They rushed between 4 and 7 every pass play.  To summarize by number of pass rushers:

4:  12 plays for 15 yards, 1.3 YPP, 4 sacks

5:  5/22, 4.4 YPP, 1 sack

6:  8/21, 2.6 YPP

7:  7/82, 11.7 YPP

These numbers tell a story without much further subjective analysis, but I want to speak specifically to the 4 and 7-man rush schemes.  It would be a fair criticism of Flacco to say he hasn’t always known what to do with the extra time afforded by opposing 4-man rushes.  This game, however, he had ample time and space (ATS) on just 3 of 12 occasions when the Texans rushed 4.  Of the 4 sacks with a 4-man rush, 3 were fast-developing and the 4th (Q3, 13:52) involved fast-developing pressure that evolved into a slow-developing sack.  That’s the only case where he might have unloaded the ball in time.

As intense as the pressure was with 4, the Ravens generated ATS on just 1 of 13 pass plays with 5 or 6 rushing.

In sharp contrast, the Ravens did a marvelous job picking up the 7-man pressure Phillips sent.  Flacco had ample time and space (ATS) on 6 of the 7 such plays and made good use of those opportunities.  Here’s a brief description of those plays:

•             (Q1, 8:13):  The Texans brought their front 7 with SS Glover Quin spying near the LoS.  Manning was the single high safety.  The Ravens kept Dickson, Leach, and Rice in to block.  Dickson did a nice job of forcing Barwin to the outside on the OLS.  Flacco threw deep right for Boldin, covered by Kareem Jackson.  Boldin hauled in a well-thrown ball over Jackson who never got his head turned for a gain of 21.

•             (Q1, 6:56):  Once again, the entire front 7 blitzed with Quin up as the spy.  The Ravens again kept Dickson, Leach, and Rice in to block.  Leach picked up Reed off the right edge.  Flacco threw 35 yards into the end zone for Smith in the left corner, but Joseph had good coverage and got his hand up to deflect the ball.

•             (Q1, 1:13):  The Texans brought the front 7 again.  The Ravens lined up with 2 wide receivers and Kept Pitta, Leach, and Rice in to block.  Leach made the key block, slowing Ryans who came through the A gap with a square hit.  Quin was late arriving as Flacco through to the right side of the end zone for Boldin, covered by Allen.  It was both a fine throw and catch where Boldin used his size despite minimal separation to haul in the 10-yard TD.  The Ravens would lead 17-3 and have all the points they would need.

•             (Q2, 2:17):  The front 7 again rushed the passer as Manning covered Dickson, leaving Quin as the single high safety.  Leach picked up Brooks Reed on the OLS and Rice made a block in the middle.  Flacco threw a pretty ball down the right sideline (are we seeing a pattern here yet?) for Boldin, covered by the pressing Jackson.  Quin was late and Boldin made another fine grab of a perfectly thrown ball.  Jackson had his head turned and had fine coverage, but could not prevent the 28-yard reception.  This was a case where the throw was even better than the catch. 

•             (Q4, 5:58):  The Texans blitzed Manning with Ryans remaining in coverage.  Pitta, Leach, and Rice were kept in to block as the Ravens ran their 7th (!) and last 2-man pattern of the game.  Pitta picked up Connor Barwin on the left side, but no one got Manning, who came delayed.  Fortunately, the pattern developed quickly as Flacco uncorked a bullet outside the right numbers for Smith, covered by Joseph.  Torrey turned and secured his only catch of the day for 9 yards.

•             (Q4, 3:50):  The Texans again rushed the front 7.  With only Rice staying in to block, Flacco had 4 targets in single coverage.  He hit Boldin slanting against Jackson for 14 yards (8 + 6 YAC) between the hash and right numbers.

•             (Q4, 3:04):  The Texans once again rushed all of their front 7.  The Ravens kept Leach in to block and Torrey Smith motioned back from wide left to throw a nice block that slowed down Reed.  Rice was in the backfield, did not throw a block and looked as if he might have released late, so I didn’t count him as a blocker.  Flacco again threw the slant intended for Boldin, but Allen had tight coverage and Quin was converging.  Flacco threw the ball high and incomplete.  If it wasn’t intentional, it was fortunate.

Compiling the above information, Flacco threw accurate, safe passes, primarily on the outside, with good results, to receivers that didn’t get much separation.  He had no more than 1 poorly thrown ball among these 7. 

So did Joe Flacco have a bad game?  Not the way I see it.  Despite a game where the Texans 4-man rush was especially effective, Joseph covered Smith on an island, and the receivers accumulated 4 drops, Flacco threw 2 TDs and did not turn the ball over.  That’s a heck of a game and I’d say the 97 QB rating is a good representation of how well he played.

The Ravens had 62 competitive offensive snaps versus the Texans (excludes the end-of-game kneel):

McKinnie:  Bryant McKinnie had by far his best game as a Raven.  In particular, he mauled Antonio Smith as a run blocker, but he is still finishing run blocks only when he wants to.  Specifically, he pushed Antonio Smith backwards 6 yards (Q1, 8:49), then stopped blocking and Smith worked off him to tackle Rice.  That may have had an impact on that play, but continuing to give Smith a physical pounding might also have tired him further or forced a reduced snap count.  Just 2 plays later he effortlessly pushed Smith to the ground with his right arm.  Smith, who has been one of the best interior pass rushers in the game this season, was held (primarily by McKinnie and Grubbs) without a sack or QH Sunday in 27 pass plays.  Scoring:  58 blocks, 4 missed, 58 points (.94 per play).

Grubbs:  Ben contributed significantly to the Ravens win.  His scored well, particularly when the opponent is considered, but more importantly, he recovered a pair of fumbles.  He fell on the ball between 2 Texans (Q1, 6:49) when Flacco had it dislodged by Reed.  He also snatched up the Rice fumble near the goal line (Q3, 3:27).  On that play, Grubbs and Kareem Jackson were the only 2 players close to the ball who knew where it was.  Jackson reached for the ball between Grubbs’ legs, but Grubbs snatched the ball cleanly as he was going to the ground.  Interestingly, Wade Smith, the Texans LG had 2 fumble recoveries in the first game which kept the Texans in the game into the 4th quarter.  Grubbs was beaten inside by Cody for pressure (Q3, 5:14) and I scored him as responsible for 1/3 of the sack (Q3, 11:05).  It was amusing to see him dash 20 yards up the field with Rice on the screen pass (Q1, 2:28), but it would have been more entertaining had he delivered a block.  Ben did not pull against the Texans.  He made 2 blocks in level 2.  Scoring:  58 blocks, 2 missed, 1 pressure, 1/3 sack, 54 points (.87 per play).

Birk:  Matt missed a screen block on Ryans (Q4, 15:00) that resulted in a loss of 4 on the pass to Rice.  He otherwise played reasonably well, but must bear a significant share of the blame for the Ravens’ difficulties in short yardage.  Scoring:  56 blocks, 5 missed, 1 penetration, 54 points (.87 per play).

Yanda:  Marshal played below his normal level as a run blocker, but he looked a lot worse as a pass blocker.  Uncharacteristically, he was party to 2 sacks.  He failed to pick up Bulman to allow pressure on Flacco (Q2, 2:00).  He was beaten inside by Watt on the jailbreak sack (Q3, 11:05). Yanda missed the stunting Watt as he and Brooks sacked Flacco for a 1-yard loss (Q4, 10:22).  On the 3rd-and-5 play which could have salted away the game (Q4, 3:01) he was bulled backwards to Flacco for a pressure as Flacco threw incomplete.  Scoring:  55 blocks, 3 missed, 2 pressures, 5/6 sack (1/2 + 1/3), 46 points (.74 per play).  Since he was injured in the game against the Browns, Yanda has recorded scores of .55, .77, and .74.  I didn’t notice anything specific, but the results are consistent with an injury that’s still bothering him.

Oher:  It was the 2nd worst full game I’ve ever scored, exceeded only by Cousins’ implosion against Woodley (.31, 12/27/09).  Brooks Reed and JJ Watt took turns beating him straight up.  It’s surprising to me that the criticism of the offensive line is so general for this game.  As you can see from the scores and commentary here, the problems were segmentable.  Michael may never play another game as big as the one this Sunday and the Ravens are much less likely to advance if he can’t regain some semblance of his midseason form.  Scoring:  49 blocks, 4 missed, 4 pressures, 1 penetration, 2 5/6 sacks (2 full + ½ + 1/3), 22 points (.35 per play).

Reid:  Reid played 3 short-yardage snaps and made 2 blocks.  On the 4th and 1 play (Q, T), Brooks Reed came down on Reid, but then got up to stop Rice at the goal line.  Scoring 2 points (.67 per play). 

Other Offensive Notes:

•             Flacco had ATS on just 10 of 31 (31%) of his drop backs in the divisional game.  It was his lowest percentage of ATS for the year.  With ATS he completed 4 of 10 passes for 68 yards, 1 TD, and no INTs (6.8 YPP). 

•             Without ATS he completed 10 of 17 for 108 yards with 1 TD, 0 INT, and was sacked 5 times for 36 yards.  The 3.3 YPP is just a tad below average, but he didn’t turn the ball over (with a little help from his friends).

•             Torrey Smith had 2 drops as I scored it.  Anquan Boldin, and Ed Dickson each had 1.

•             The other major decision was whether or not to go for the TD at the goal line (Q3, 1:59) on 4th down.  Using the win probability calculator on AdvancedNFLStats.com (a site I highly recommend), the Ravens needed approximately a 42% probability of scoring to make the gamble a break-even proposition.  The Ravens 2 for 6 performance on 1-yard-to-go runs Sunday notwithstanding, I liked the decision.