Ravens Notes vs. Chiefs

Every once in a while a player stands out in an exhibition game to an absurd level.  On Friday, that was Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston.  He was a 3^rd round pick in the 2011 draft, but was the best player on the field Friday.  He had 2 tackles, both sacks, forced Webb’s punt muff, and was in the Ravens backfield most of the 2^nd half.  Unfortunately for him, the play he’ll have to see over and over is the juke Tyrod Taylor put on him to score his 5-yard TD run (Q4, 2:08). 

Houston already has a checkered past in his brief NFL career.  Following a 10-sack senior season at Georgia, he is reputed to have failed a drug test before the combine and could not maintain his wind when he got to camp.  Naturally, a player like that is going to need as many as possible additional in-game reps, so perhaps the NFL should consider adding an additional 3 timeouts per team to the 2^nd half to be sure the players on the bubble have every chance to succeed rather than one team deciding to selfishly run out the clock.

As in past years, I have given a number of Ravens a grade from +3 to -3 reflecting how much my expectation of their impact on the 2011 Ravens changed based on their performance Thursday.  The second number you see is their cumulative total for the preseason.  I didn’t waste time rating starters, players who have no place on the team, or anyone for whom I don’t think I have any data for a judgment.  The players here are new to the team, rookies, on the cusp of making the team, have new responsibilities in 2011, in positional battles, or have other questions for this season.

Allen (+1/+1):  He looked impressive running late as the Ravens were able to move the chains.  With Parmele also looking pretty good, this is shaping up as one of the better camp battles.

Berry (0/-2):  He didn’t play an offensive snap that I saw.  At this point he is the 5^th RB and will be IR or PS at best this season.

Boren (+1/+1):  He looked good late.  To follow a 7-play sequence in Q4:

·         (Q4, 7:22):  He pancaked Greenwood as Parmele ran left for a 10-yard TD

·         (Q4, 5:33):  As the rest of the OL got some push, Bair peeled off Boren laterally to take down Parmele for a gain of 1

·         (Q4, 4:51):  Boren looked to either side to help with a double, but just maintained  his space as all 4 Chiefs’ rushers were blocked

·         (Q4, 4:07):  Pancaked Bair as Allen ran left for 8 yards

·         (Q4, 3:27):  Pinned Bair for Harewood, the blocked Greenwood as Allen ran left for 14 yards

·         (Q4, 2:46):  Pancaked Bair as Allen ran middle for 4

·         (Q4, 2:08):  Effectively blocked Bair as Taylor escaped Houston for the TD

Burgess (+1/+1):  I’m not sure what the cap implications are if they cut him, but if it is decided by how he can help the team in 2011, he’s earned a spot based on his play.  He looked good in his stint at OLB, with 4 tackles.  He was credited with a sack when he ran Palko out of bounds (Q2, 2:41).  I like the way he set the edge (Q2, 8:40, for example) and he induced a holding call on Pope (Q2, 12:30).  He is a player whose special teams value is reduced by the new kickoff rule since he was effective in coverage last season.

Cody (+1/0):  Looked better than in game 1.  His shedding of Asamoah and take down of McClain (Q1, 15:00) was probably his best play.

Cousins (+1/-2):  At the game, I have to say I was not impressed with Cousins effort (because it looked like he was on the ground an awful lot early), but on video review I noticed some effective cut blocking of Kelly Gregg (Q1, 10:52 and Q1, 1:18, for example).  On the plus side, he handed off a stunt well (Q1, 8:23), passing off Jackson to pick up Studebaker.  His only serious pass-blocking error (Q3, 5:02) came when Gordon beat him outside for a QH on Taylor’s incomplete for the wide-open Stupar.  He had a number of effective run blocks, including the pancake on Rice’s TD run.  However, he was penalized for a false start, tripped himself once (Q1, 7:37) and was bulled effectively once by Bailey (Q3, 6:12).  He played all but the last 4 snaps and the game probably would have scored out in the high .70’s or low .80’s by my system.  I would probably have rated the performance higher had it occurred against better opposition. 

Divens (0/0):  In what would be the first of consecutive A-gap sacks (Q4, 14:17), Lamar Divens penetrated and Cox could not slow him down.  With the Ravens stable of talented defensive linemen, I don’t think he’ll make the team, but Ozzie has at times used a regularly inactive spot to hide a potential DT replacement.  In previous years, when such players were released and signed to the practice squad, that would only be a temporary parking lot for talent and the whole league seemed to know it.

Doss (0/0):  Doss caught a slant between the right hash and numbers (Q3, 6:11) to convert a 3^rd and 6.  I think it would be a terrific use for him if he can be used primarily as a 4^th receiver and short 1^st down routes can be his bread and butter.

Drew (-1/-1):  He was on for few snaps offensively, but targeted just once (incomplete).  Collectively, the Ravens TEs were unimpressive on Friday, but Drew is getting the fewest opportunities.

Ellerbe (0/0):  He came delayed on a 5-man blitz (Q1, 1:49) to beat Richardson outside share a sack with Webb.  He was credited with 3 total tackles, but missed a pair (Q2, 13:13 and Q2, 1:24) on McCluster. 

Evans (+2/+2):  I don’t know how the Ravens could have hoped for more.  Let’s review:

·         He was targeted 3 times, all complete for 68 yards.  He caught under 50% of the balls thrown to him last year.

·         Each of his catches converted a 3^rd down.  He converted 7 3^rd downs all of last season with no more than 2 in any game.

·         He caught 1 long pass for 43 yards that included 22 YAC (he had only 3 catches of 10+ YAC in 2010 for 13, 15, 17)

·         He displayed the good hands and feet on the sideline catch

He and Flacco have quickly built a connection.

Gooden (-1/-1):  He’s listed as having played, but I did not note him on the field for a defensive snap (I don’t score the preseason for snap count) despite the absence of Ray Lewis.  I can’t see how he fits in the Ravens plans.

Harewood (0/0):  He took over for Oher at LT (Q3, 6:41) then moved to RT for the last series (Q4, 1:18).  He had several nice blocks I noted from Parmele’s TD run (Q4, 7:22) and later.  He failed to make a block (Q3, 5:37) as Parmele was taken down for no gain and was beaten outside by Sheffield for a QH (Q3, 0:21). 

Jones, Arthur (+1/+2):  The Ravens 2^nd string defensive line continued to excel Friday.  Jones missed some tackles in the first game, but was credited with 4 in week 2. 

Kindle (+1/+1):  He came unblocked to hit Palko (Q2, 1:24).  Interestingly, Harr focused his attention outside on Lardarius Webb.  The pass was complete to McCluster for 18 (4 plus 14 YAC).  The consecutive inside moves to beat the Chiefs’ punt team will likely translate to pass rushing.  Generally speaking, I like pass rushers who balance their tendency to make an inside or outside move.  The unbalanced rushers tend to rely too much on speed (I can’t think of an unbalanced inside move rusher) and are both more predictable and run themselves out of more non-passing plays.  For that reason, I’ll take a player like Kindle over Antwan Barnes any day of the week.

Kruger (+1/+3):  Just 2 plays before Kindle registered his QH, Kruger overran McCluster’s 13-yard run left (Q2, 1:51).  With what seemed to be a light flick of his wrists, Mims pushed Kruger well past the play and moved upfield to register a 2^nd block on Ayanbadejo.  Kruger’s biggest defensive contribution was the PD (Q2, 5:49) on short pass left to McCluster.  He also shared a pressure with Webb (Q2,12:10) that led to an incomplete.  On a similar shared pressure, he beat Harr to flush Palko (Q3, 12:37) along with McPhee.  Palko threw an ill-advised shovel pass along the right sideline that was dislodged from Battle by Nakamura.  Without questioning his assignment, Kruger was the only player in position to help in coverage on the Chiefs lone TD pass (Q2, 0:16).  Despite the good pressure, he did not register a tackle.

Leach (0/0):  There wasn’t anything to dislike about the effort from Leach.  He made an above average set of run blocks.  It looked to me that his reception should have been called a facemask on Siler, who pulled Vonta’s helmet off from the base.  His effort on Rice’s TD was a positional block on Walters where he used his hands rather than his shoulder.

Mattison (0/0):  The Ravens are certainly giving him a lot of snaps (he played all but the last 4.  Most of the pass rush problems in the 2 games have been on the outside.  I think he has played well enough that the Ravens won’t try to sign a veteran center if they think Birk can return within 3-4 games.

McClain (+1/0):  He looked good stopping the run, picking gaps well and filling (examples Q1, 11:51 and Q2, 2:41).  He also missed a tackle on the game’s 2^nd play (Q1, 14:39).  It was a nice aggregate step forward in a game where his coverage skills were not tested.

McPhee (+2/+3):  It’s difficult not to get excited about Pernell.  On his reversed sack/fumble, he beat Harr inside on a 4-man pass rush as Kruger dropped to zone.  He also beat Mims (Q3, 12:37) to share a pressure with Kruger.  It didn’t matter for game purposes, but he appeared to induce a hold by Greenwood (Q3, 11:48).  He was credited with 3 tackles.

Nakamura (+1/+1):  He’s not in any danger of being cut, but how he’ll be used is still in question.  The A-gap sack (Q4, 13:38) looked like Polamalu.  Unfortunately he also missed a tackle on Lewis (Q2, 4:48).  With Pagano’s apparent pass rush creativity (see below), Nakamura’s speed and versatility should make the Ravens defense very flexible with 6 or 7 DBs on the field.

Oher (0/-3):  He didn’t play as poorly as in the opener, but he had another false start (Q2, 14:06) and failed to pick up Sheffield when he registered a QH (Q2, 11:51).  That’s not a particularly good starting point for 36 offensive snaps, but he made some high quality run blocks as well.

Pitta (0/+2):  Pitta was wide open underneath on the fake run left (Q1, 7:00) when Flacco overthrew Boldin deep middle.  He made just 1 catch for 4 yards of the 3 balls on which he was targetted.

Reid (0/-1):  Reid and Cousins worked well together, but Jah has some trouble determining who to block when multiple opponents come from his side.  The best example I can give (Q1, 6:12), Reid helped inside on Tyson Jackson as Studebaker came untouched.  Reid and Cousins parted the Red Sea for Rice’s TD run. 

Smith, Torrey (0/-1):  Ismail is hard on him, but I don’t see him getting great separation out of his cuts.  The Ravens drafted Torrey for speed, but the other receivers are getting more deep balls thrown to them (Evans, Boldin, Reid, Williams on Friday).

Taylor (0/+1):  He was as evasive as his first game, but made better decisions with the ball. 

Webb (+1/+1):  He was in the backfield 3 times as a pass rusher  That included half a sack when he beat McCluster and a pressure that led to an errant pass from Palko (Q2, 1:28).  He also beat Albert outside to force another incomplete (Q2, 12:10).  I like the way he plays the run off the edge and will pursue the play effective across the formation (example Q3, 9:24).  He led the team with 5 tackles.   I wasn’t thrilled with his pass coverage, but he delivered a blow to the helmet of Markshausen that helped cause the PD (Q3, 8:34) and held Colbert to a 7-yard gain (Q2, 8:14) when the Ravens had employed a 6-man pass rush that did not get home.  I’m not happy about the fumble, nor am I really happy that he is returning punts in the preseason.  Any player in the secondary might benefit from Pagano’s promotion to DC, but based on the aggressiveness he has displayed in the first 2 games, I think he is most likely to maximize the abilities of Webb and Nakamura.

Williams, Cary (+2/+3):  He turned in another fine effort and it seemed he played closer to the line of scrimmage.  The first 3 passes directed to his coverage assignments all went as PDs.  I’m not particularly upset that he was beaten on the slant, because I think he needed help either from the pass rush or a zone defender to improve the chance to stop that play.  He was closest to Tucker on the sideline (Q2, 2:00), but it looks to me like that was simply a case where Palko and Tucker beat the zone.

Williams, LaQuan (+1/+2):  He’s certainly been impressive, but he’s playing at a position where the Ravens have some depth.  I’m sure it would help if he could become a regular gunner or perhaps return kicks.  I’d say the Ravens can likely carry him or Marcus Smith, but not both.  Marcus has played few if any offensive snaps, but I don’t think LaQuan is at risk of being yanked from the Practice squad unless it’s done for advance scouting purposes (remember the Pats signing of Patrick Burgess).