The Ravens took their first whipping of the year on Sunday.  Say what you will about Peyton Manning’s insatiable lust for endorsement dollars, the man knows how to pick apart a defense.  When ahead, I know of no one else that milks the clock any better, particularly with a pass dominated offense.  It’s a week we’d rather forget, so I’m going to keep this short.  On to the stats:

Overall: 58 plays, 336 yards, 5.8 YPPA (excludes 2 kneels)

Best:  Douglas 20/49, 2.5 YPPA, Bannan 26/78, 3.0 YPPA

Worst:  Ivy 33/272, 8.2YPPA

Vs. the Run:  28 carries, 78 yards, 2.8 YPC

Best:  Douglas 13/1, 0.1 YPC, Bannan 16/12, 0.8 YPC

Worst:  Ivy 11/66, 6.0 YPC

Vs. the Pass:  30 pass plays, 258 net yards, 8.6 YPP

Best:  Suggs 29 plays, 224 yards, 7.7 YPP, Bannan 10/67, 6.7 YPP

Worst:  Ivy 22/204, 9.3 YPP, Pryce 24/216, 9.0 YPP

By number of Pass Rushers:

3:  3/30, 10.0 YPP

4:  14/134, 9.6 YPP, 1 sack

5:  9/38, 4.2 YPP, 1 sack

6:  2/34, 17.0 YPP

7:  2/22, 11.0 YPP

By number of Defensive Backs:

3:  2 plays, 1 yard, 0.5 YPPA

4:  23 plays, 65 yards, 2.8 YPPA

5:  33 plays, 270 yards, 8.2 YPPA, 2 sacks

The Ravens did not play a single set with 6 or 7 DB’s

Individual notes:

·          Suggs sat out his first 3 defensive plays of the season.  On those 3 plays he was replaced by Barnes (Antwan’s only 3 plays).  For the year now, only Johnson, Lewis, and Reed have played every snap.  Suggs time off came with the game out of reach in the 2^nd half.  It’s becoming more apparent that there is not a spot for Barnes in this defense.

·          Ngata appears overworked, and it’s showing.  He played 49 of the team’s 58 snaps Sunday in a lopsided game.  For the year, he’s played 76.4% of the team’s real snaps.  That’s too many for a DT (Gregg played 67% in 2006, Adams under 64% in 2000).  The loss of Gregg has definitely hurt the rotation and the Ravens have yet to play a game where they have been stretched in terms of total snaps (the 58 real vs. Indy were the most this season).

·          Each corner was picked on at least once.  Ivy gave up a long TD to Wayne, McAlister was burned for the 67-yarder to Harrison, and Walker was beaten for both a 34-yard completion and a 63-yard TD to Wayne that was nullified by penalty.  It was reminiscent of last year’s secondary torching in the Monday night game at Pittsburgh.

·          The Ravens did not once have more than 5 DB’s on the field Sunday.  I think I would not be far off to say Manning approached the game by finding the deep safety and throwing into the man coverage on the other side.  He threw safe passes which only his receiver could catch, and they did so with alarming regularity.  The Ravens completely shut down the Colts on the ground with the exception of Rhodes’ 38 yard run (they were 27/40, 1.5 YPC on all other non-kneels).  It’s always easy to second guess, but against Manning it might have been prudent to play nickel as the base defense and dime in passing situations.  That would both keep the linemen fresh (since there are fewer on the field) and give the Ravens much more blitz and coverage flexibility.  Would the Colts have rushed for 4 YPC?  Perhaps, but that would have been much better than the alternative.  BTW, there is precedent for exactly this strategy.  In last year’s near-upset of the Patriots, the Ravens played a 4-man defensive backfield on just 4 plays.  Here’s a link to the analysis from that game:

·          I have noted several times that the Ravens had not employed a 7-man pass rush this season, but it happened for the first two times this season on Sunday.  The first was Wayne’s 22-yard TD catch.  The second was incomplete.  Ryan’s trademark this season has been to rush with 4, but drop 1 or more linemen to coverage in order to confuse the protection.  It’s been effective as the Ravens have sacked the QB on 8 of 78 (10.3%) 4-man rushes.  On Sunday, the sack following Manning’s trip was 4-man pressure with Ngata dropping to zone.  It wasn’t the poster-sack for 4-man pressure, but it was indicative of Ryan’s willingness to drop anyone off the LoS.