The Baltimore Ravens — yes, the Baltimore Ravens — are leading the league in explosive pass play (completions of 16 yards or more) rate (21 percent). They’ve lost huge pieces in their offensive line in the past couple of offseasons and they’ve somehow managed to survive a rash of injuries to their offensive line, running backs and receivers. Also, No. 2 tight end Nick Boyle, who has been on short-term IR because of a knee injury but could return soon, is an underrated part of their rushing attack.
Advertisem*nt
Running the ball with the same success that they have had in the past couple of seasons with all those missing pieces is unrealistic. Their expected points added (EPA) per rush attempt is the lowest that it has been in Lamar Jackson’s four-year career (-0.19 EPA). The Ravens have had to rely on Jackson’s arm. In the past, Jackson’s critics might have said that this approach would lead to an ineffective Ravens offense but their offense is ninth in DVOA, Football Outsider’s efficiency metric, and their passing game is the most explosive in the league.
What has changed?
In the offseason, the Ravens had to replace their passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, David Culley, who was hired as the Houston Texans head coach. To replace him, they hired a couple of coaches with college backgrounds: Tee Martin and Keith Williams. Martin had worked at Kentucky, USC and Tennessee before becoming the passing game coordinator and receivers coach for the Ravens. Williams most recently worked for Nebraska but made a name for himself working as a private coach with some of the NFL’s top wideouts (such as Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams). He’s now the Ravens’ passing game specialist and works with receivers in collaboration with Martin.
Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman reinvented his running game with college ideas years ago when he had Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers, which ultimately led to the unique Ravens’ running attack we see today. With the help of his current staff, it looks like they are infusing more college ideas into their passing game. They’re more creative, they’ve opened up the playbook and they’ve given their receivers a ton of freedom with their route running. At times, their spacing can be poor because of the freedom their receivers have, but it’s hard to argue with the results.
Advertisem*nt
In the past, the Ravens saw a lot of aggressive quarters coverage to combat their option attack, but this season, they’ve seen a lot of Cover 3. Teams are loading the box to max fit (have a defender for every gap in the box) against the Ravens. As a result, opponents had to play Cover 3-mable when the Ravens play trips or put three receivers on one side.
Mable is essentially man-to-man to the single receiver side and Cover 3 to the three-receiver side. The Ravens had success by lining up a fast receiver at No. 3 (farthest inside) and running him on a crosser. This tactic isolates a receiver against a linebacker in this coverage, so as long as Jackson has time, the receiver should ultimately outrun the linebacker horizontally.
In the clip below, the Ravens catch the Raiders in mable and isolate receiver Sammy Watkins on linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski:
Lamar over the top to Sammy Watkins! #RavensFlock
📺: #BALvsLV on ESPN/ABC
📱: https://t.co/NS3IxESidh pic.twitter.com/IR0cb5Nr1k— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2021
Teams know what the Ravens want to do when they line up in trips against their Cover 3 zone and have different ways of countering. However, because of the Ravens’ freedom to adjust, they were able to stay a step ahead of the Colts’ tactics.
Week 5, 9:08 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10
On this play, the Ravens lined up Watkins on the single side and had him run a hitch to hold the corner. Receiver Devin Duvernay was lined up at the No. 3 position and ran the crosser.
However, because the Ravens released the running back to the flats to the three-receiver side, strong safety Khari Willis (37) was able to drop into the hook zone instead of widening out the flats. This freed the weakside linebacker from having to run with Duvernay.
Willis took a vertical drop to cut off the crosser and with the free safety over the top, Jackson had a small window to fit the pass into. Duvernay smartly settled into the zone rather than run full speed into coverage.
Jackson saw the coverage adjustment, knew where the window was and threw the ball with anticipation. He threw the ball low so Duvernay could protect himself. This wasn’t a wholesale adjustment by the quarterback and receiver, but Jackson was aware of what the defense was doing and his anticipation and ball placement made this completion happen.
Advertisem*nt
If you want to see a player who really freelances, watch tight end Mark Andrews. This season, he’s taken the Travis Kelce approach and is hunting for space. It’s not always good — he can mess with the spacing of route structures — but he’s leading the league in receiving yards for a tight end (400) and rate of explosive receptions (42.9 percent). Andrews has a good feel for where the holes are in coverages, and Jackson has been on the same page with him more often than not.
Week 5, 2:52 remaining in the third quarter, second-and-7
Later in the Colts’ game, the Ravens called a Cover 3-mable beater again. This time, the Ravens lined up three receivers in a bunch to the boundary (short side of the field). They wanted to flood the boundary with routes to create space for Andrews to the man-to-man side of the defense.
The cornerback to the single-receiver side followed Duvernay in man coverage, but the Colts had linebacker Darius Leonard (53) and safety Andrew Sendejo (42) waiting for the crosser.
Andrews ran a sit route that would have been open if the Colts only had Sendejo playing the hook but with Leonard there, Andrews had to adjust. He pivoted away from Leonard. As a result, he got really close to receivers flooding the other side of the zone. The spacing was poor and the window was small.
However, Jackson saw what Andrews was doing and fit the ball in a small window. Despite the ad-libbing, Jackson threw the ball with anticipation and accuracy, allowing Andrews to run after the catch for a gain of 19 yards.
Play shown at 0:56 in clip below:
41.7 @NFLFantasy points?!?
Was @Mandrews_81 the savior of your fantasy team this week? #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/5ZDwk4bluK
— NFL (@NFL) October 12, 2021
The Ravens are also getting a lot of mileage with trap passes, which are play-action concepts with the guard pulling. The pull action adds to the play fake and could mess with linebackers. Although I don’t have an official stat, the Ravens should be leading the league in run plays with a pulling guard, so making trap passes a staple of their passing game just makes sense.
Advertisem*nt
Andrews has been the main beneficiary of these trap passes, running crossers down the middle of the offense. On Peyton and Eli Manning’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast, tight end Rob Gronkowski jokingly thanked Peyton Manning for teaching the concept to Tom Brady because he’s gotten a ton of catches running the play.
In the play below, Watkins runs the in-breaking route, but you can see the effect it has on the defense.
Week 4, 7:38 remaining in the first quarter, first-and-10
The offense came out in 22 personnel (two backs, two tight ends, and one receiver) and lined up an I-formation. The defense lined up in a two-high shell that is a typical Vic Fangio defense.
After the snap, the defense appeared to be playing inverted Cover 2 (safeties play underneath and corners play deep halves). The safeties were responsible for playing inside routes from underneath, but they were sucked up too far by the play fake.
They couldn’t recover. Jackson hit the last step of his drop and threw the ball without a hitch with just the right amount of touch to get the ball over the safeties and underneath the corner for a 20-yard gain. Watkins isn’t a game-breaker but when he’s on the field, he’s filled the role of the physical X receiver that the Ravens have sought for a while. Rookie Rashod Bateman, who could make his rookie debut Sunday, can also fill that role.
One of the reasons the Ravens are able to throw the ball downfield so much is because they see a lot of off coverage. Teams don’t want to play press-man against the Ravens because they want to keep eyes on Jackson in case he keeps the ball on an option play or takes off on a scramble. As a result, the Ravens’ receivers have free releases and can get downfield without being harassed.
Marquise Brown, who also does his fair share of freelancing, looks like a sharper route runner this year and when he’s isolated, he’s embarrassed defenders.
Week 4, 7:18 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-10
Here, the Broncos are in Cover 6, which is a combo coverage. To the weak side (two-receiver side), they played 2-man (man-to-man with a hash safety). To the strong side (three-receiver side), where Brown was lined up in the slot, they played quarters.
Roman lined up Brown in the slot because the Ravens knew against this coverage, they could get Brown matched up with a safety. On this play, Justin Simmons would have to cover Brown running a corner post.
With a free release, Brown ate up vertical space quickly. Simmons had to open up and run early to maintain his cushion. Simmons opened up inside, so Brown attacked his blind spot outside.
This caused Simmons to panic and speed turn outside and when he did, Brown exploded back to inside and left him in the dust.
HOLLYWOOD LAYS OUT. #RavensFlock @primetime_jet
📺: #BALvsDEN on CBS
📱: NFL app pic.twitter.com/ywaEDFnT3U— NFL (@NFL) October 3, 2021
Brown was wide open and Jackson just heaved the ball as far as he could. For a second, it looked like Jackson might have overthrown him but Brown tracked down the pass, dove for it and hauled it in for a touchdown. Brown has always had the ability to get behind defenses, but this season it appears his chemistry with Jackson has been a lot better. He dropped a couple of deep passes against the Lions, but Brown looks to be becoming the difference-maker Baltimore envisioned him to be when it drafted him in the first round in 2019.
Advertisem*nt
One of the Ravens’ best pass concepts this season has been “shallow sting”, a play that Oklahoma popularized. It’s a long-developing play but when Jackson has time, it’s very hard to cover, especially with the type of coverages that the Ravens typically see.
Week 3, 13:55 remaining in the third quarter, second-and-8
To the offensive right, both receivers ran post routes to clear out the corner and free safety for Andrews, who ran the deep crosser at a high angle to the void that the receivers cleared out.
The defense appeared to be playing a match coverage to the two-receiver side, so both the corner and free safety ran with the post routes with their eyes on their assignments and didn’t see Andrews crossing the field.
The underneath defenders didn’t drop deep enough, and Andrews was wide open outside the numbers. Jackson stepped into the pocket and found Andrews for a 41-yard gain.
Defenses will play their overhang defenders tighter to the box to defend the Ravens’ run game and they were content on giving Jackson sideline throws. He seems to have done a lot of work in the offseason improving in this area because his footwork and stroke look much cleaner throwing to the outside, and it shows up on the stat sheet.
Charts from TruMedia
The chart on the left shows Jackson’s completion percentage from different locations on the field this season and the chart on the right shows from 2018-2020. Jackson still lets a pass get away from him here and there and when it does, it can look ugly, but he’s consistently hitting passes all over the field. Defenses can no longer just give him access throws to the outside.
Can the Ravens be more disciplined with their route running and spacing? Yes. I’m sure it’ll be something that the Ravens staff continues to work on, but it’s hard to ignore the numbers they are producing. Brown is taking the top off defenses and the Ravens are featuring Andrews’ ability to freelance and get open. The Ravens’ passing game isn’t a precise West Coast passing attack and their spacing isn’t always ideal, but they’re playing free and loose. Jackson is aware of what defenses are doing and he’s making adjustments on the fly.
(Top photo of Lamar Jackson: Dustin Bradford / Getty Images)
