Ravens vs Titans, Divisional Round Thread

I agree with this. It was clear as hell that Roman was off with his gameplan, and his play calling. Maybe he got rusty from the time off also, but something was definitely wrong with his plays.

In terms of the draft and offseason, I don't pay Judon. We have about 27M or so available. I think we're already paying enough inconsistent players on defense (looking at you Thomas, Jefferson, and B.Williams). And although incredibly unlikely, if a Ceedee Lamb or Tee Higgins is available while the top pass rushers are not, they better draft that WR. I like Boykin's potentially but they clearly don't.

 

Come on, R_R_#1, you're better than this. We both know what was wrong with his plays . . . it was the execution. A more accurate throw here or a caught pass thrown there and you guys would have been drooling all over Roman's gameplan. Like it or not, the extended time away from live game action showed up at the beginning of the game. Once you knocked the rust off, you showed what got you to 14-2 and the #1 seed.

 

Whereas I agree that the execution was off, the play calling was as well. When you have the best rush attack in league history, but your RBs only run the ball 9 times, that's a bad gameplan. When your top RB is on the sideline with his calf wrapped or getting it massaged because it's still not right, but he still gets 7 of those 9 touches, that's a bad gameplan.

I agree that the execution was bad, but so was the play calling. One could have helped make up for the other, but neither did

 

Perhaps you were throwing the ball instead of running it because you were down by three (?) possesions? That will cause any gameplan to change.

 

That performance Saturday night was NOT the Ravens that I have been watching all season long. That was somebody out thinking themselves trying to outsmart the opposition (or was it actually SUPPOSED to go that way? Bookie's and money talks big time and the NFL is classified as Sports Entertainment ala the WWE, who as we all know, pre-determines their matches)

No way this team should have went away from the rush game, they were down 14-6 at halftime with the ball coming out..... to get stuffed inside their 30 on a 4th and 1 was inexcusable. All I know is Vegas made a ton of cash off this game in the end and made the Chiefs road to the Super Bowl a bit easier being at home instead of traveling to Baltimore.

 

Early in the 2nd, we were down 14 and 3 pass plays were called that lead to a 3 and out . To start the 3rd, we were down one possession and still didn't play our game. We came out passing far more than running while only down one score. After that the game went left. Gus should have gotten more carries early on when you know Ingram is still injured.

 

The Ravens didn't fail all season to convert 4th downs, so why would they shy away from it in the post season? You guys did it against much better defenses than the Titans. I think Ingram being hurt was a lot bigger deal than anyone knows. Calf injuries take about 6 weeks to heal, so he shouldn't have even been in uniform. Judging by him only getting 6 carries he wasn't ready to play. I watched the game through the 3rd quarter but only listened to the 4th quarter, but I didn't see the Ravens do anything on offense when I was watching so the 4th quarter must be when Lamar gained most of his stats.

 

Why did Gus Edwards only have three total carries?
The Ravens got away from what they did best; RUN.
The question is why?

Being down 14-0 is not a reason for this team to abandon the run.

The Ravens either out-coached themselves thinking they could surprise the Titans doing something opposite, or they were just out-coached.

 

It amazes me that this is all on the Ravens, and no credit is given to the Titans.

The Ravens are the first team to break the old adage, "The option offense doesn't work in the NFL". Sure, option plays can work - but an option offense doesn't. For the regular season, the Ravens were the first modern NFL team to prove that wrong. And then we go to the postseason - a time of year when opposing teams and coaches have a ton of film, and work tirelessly to beat your team and only your team. And in this case - and not for the first time this year - the opposing team stopped the Ravens.

Credit to the Titans. And it speaks to the limitations of the Ravens' offense, and how they were exploited for at least enough of the game to lose it.

 

I think we did give credit to the Titans for taking advantage of the mistakes the Ravens made. 3 turnovers is no way to win a game, let alone a playoff game. So the real question was, what was the Ravens weakness? Getting away from our bread and butter and/or facing a powerful running game. You can look at the 2 losses the Ravens had during the season and they point to exactly those things. The Chiefs game we got away from our game plan of running the ball and play action passing off of that to almost all pass happy (just like this Tennessee game) and the Browns game they punched us in the mouth with a power run game and controlled the ball and forced our defense on the field way too long and we collapsed and gave up points like a sieve.

This is the Ravens board after all, so it would stand to reason that the analysis would be about how the Ravens failed to keep up their game plan and could not control the ball via the run, and subsequently our defense could not stop their drives and was exposed for the poor run defenders they are. Our defense is stout when the other team is forced to abandon the run and go pass happy to try to catch up. I think everyone is on the same page there, make teams one dimensional passing and we are in our element!

I feel we beat ourselves (as do many here) in that we were only down 8 going into the second half with the ball, and we proceeded to still pass, pass, pass rather than give the ball to Ingram (or if he was less effective) give the ball to Edwards who had recently thrashed the Steeler's defense for over 130 yards. Last I checked the Steeler defense was better than the Titans AND at the time they had everything to play for to try to earn a playoff spot.

To me the combined issue of Romans play calls and Lamar's decisions on the field resulted in a plan that was the main reason the Titans were in a position to win. That brings us full circle to say kudos to the Titans for seeing that position and not killing themselves with turnovers and capitalizing on our plan/mistakes to build a lead and hold it.

 

Titans deserve credit but i think the reason a lot of people are suggesting the ravens lost this one moreso than the titans won is because that seems rather evident from just watching the game.

There are plenty of people who have broken down how utterly idiotic our approach was.

As for your last sentence...what limitations are you referring to? Our offense was stopped? we have 550 total yards in the game... Our players let us down and our OC called a terrible game, and our HC let us make some truly arrogant calls. But, where exactly were the ravens stopped?

The titans were easily driven on, and all this 4th quarter stuff is nonsense. Take away 150 yards and that's still a lot of offense to be generated. We turned up to that game thinking special teams was not really a thing we needed and we lost.

Yes, Henry was sensational but we kept shooting themselves in the foot.

Every year i hear about how game tape leads to people being worked out. Man...i wish we could all get in a room and study tape because, while that might be true in some cases, generally from what i have seen; people just assert a tired cliche assessment and prediction suggesting this to be the case. The titans had the same holes they had all year. Lamar made some great throws and runs, just like he had all year. The big difference was that we decided to rush the ball 9 times. But we still had 200 yards on the ground, i mean if you subtract some garbage time stuff in the last 6 mins or whatever, it is still over a 100 yards on the ground.

I am somewhat rambling. But i do not think the league figured out anything, and rather rehash all the points i could make again here, use the search function if you are interested to I find a conversation between TIm and I regarding what could happen...turns out I was right and it happened.

There is no one like Lamar in the league, there hasn't been. Comparisons help us to understand points but in a game of inches, lamar's athleticism is unreal. In one off season he improved significantly, I can not wait to see what happens next year.

/rant

2k

 

I've got Gamepass. Happy to go back and watch the game film when family allows - no cliche's here. Tim showed me how to add screenshots, so I'll try to do that.

 

For reference - I believe the conversation 2k is referring to begins here:
http://live4sportnetwork.com/forum/...eek-8-gameday-thread.17251/page-7#post-623946

 

Gotcha. I only read some of that, but I think I understand the context now.

 

I originally watched this game through family obligations, so didn't want to comment specifically until I had a chance to go back and re-watch. I've only had time for the first half using the two angles they give me, but will comment just on what I've seen so far:

First, huge credit to the Titans. They employed a simple scheme with lots of small variations that made it hard on Jackson and the OL, and really encouraged the Ravens to throw. I get the instinct to point at the scoreboard for the increased passing, and I'm sure that played a part, but the reality is that the Titans were inviting the Ravens to throw, while absolutely suffocating the LOS. Huge credit to the DL up front - on one crucial outside give, they only had two down lineman but managed to eat up the four frontside blockers, allowing everyone off the LOS to swarm the gaps and stop the play for no gain.

And that was the Titans' plan - play 8-9 men in the box, with outside corners playing man and one safety high. Everyone else would look run first, and then drop into a soft zone if pass. They did it every play without fail. They'd mix in some stunts or some simple coverage shifts with the SS, but it was routine. And they did it really, really well.

The first few plays I watched, I thought, "Why wouldn't you run into that soft front?", but the more I watched, the more I realized that the Titans weren't giving them any room to run. Regardless of score, I think that passing in the first half was taking exactly what they were given. Hell, the interior DL wasn't even rushing - they were just keeping the OL's hands off of them, ready to attack a scrambling QB or a delayed give. They were confident Lamar wouldn't step up to pass - and he didn't - and that pressure from the DE's would get him to take off into the waiting soft zone - and it did.

Problem is, the passing game relied on Jackson to deliver good passes on time, and his receivers to run good routes and catch the ball. And those things just didn't happen simultaneously. When they did, they got huge chunk plays. If they had managed to put a few more of these together, the game drastically changes. When Lamar delivered great balls, his receivers often dropped them, or ran bad routes - not separating from the DB and / or taking bad angles back to the ball. And when his receivers were wide open, Lamar either hesitated delivering the ball (I think I needed two hands to count how many times this happened and resulted in a missed or negative play) or was already looking to scramble and didn't see the open man.

I wanted to watch crucial situations - late down short yardage, and red zone. The above qualities killed them in each scenario. They racked up chunks in the soft zones moving down the field, but had no answer when it mattered. The yardage totals, which several have mentioned, are really deceiving.

I'm eager to go back and watch more. If I have time to throw screenshots up, I will. I've started gathering some, already.

 

It is always fun when you write up a post and then you misclick or mishit the wrong keys and it all vanishes.

Ok, so firstly, screw screenshots, i do not understand the fascination with them, they are better than nothing but for the most part you use them to show tendencies or mistakes amongst people (players) that have an intimate understanding of the game. Gifs, clips etc are far better for what you are trying to show, because its about decision making. Not just one look, its feints, its responsibilities, pre and post snap and its so much better to see what people do at the snap as that is largely the point at which you learn the most about their (D) intent.

I do not have game pass but I will try and grab the game from somewhere.

I will take your assessment above as true so i will say the following:

Occam's Razor. Their O line, like you said, and other alluded to, just played far better. They got lower, they were quicker and they anchored far better as a result. What you describe at the end there is just gap discipline and a lack of overpursuit, its about the most basic element of D line play or play the LOS, so essentially this is like the titans just playing sound fundamental football ( something I and many others have said is all that is needed for years because you cant have complex scheme with 53 idiots, well, maybe like 40 idiots).

Right, so what was their coverage here? What i mean is what were the linebackers doing? The biggest indictment of the ravens Offense was their lack of use of Tight ends, ignoring seam routes, ignoring wide open zones in the middle of the park, ignoring absolute insane match up advantages over the middle. In a ravens style offense doing what you suggested, resulted in Lamar throwing 5tds earlier in the year twice. It is not smart when the appropriate calls are made because Lamar has a wicked arm for intermediate routes and can hit them with some great effect ( there was a really good throw that comes to mind where he fit in to a tight hole between three surrounding defenders in that game to HURT or Andrews). The ravens are not built to beat anyone on the outside, so playing Man there seems absurd, you are just wasting 2ish guys. Why we called those WR's numbers and went away from our 3 tight end sets, is beyond me.

What was the reason they couldn't run? or what was the realisation? Holding the LoS and not really progressing a rush at the POA is not novel but it is a good adjustment to keep every man free to shed and tackle the elusive lamar. Point again would be, schematical, what changed? what made the titans hold lamar to 500 yards/? less say 100-150 ( i forget) in the 4th.

Every passing game relies on exactly what you just said. The big chunk plays didnt happen because of one of two things for the most part, ( lamar was not perfect on the day of course), Drops and utterly moronic play called where you can see Lamar's head go to the outside for his progressions, he didnt even look down the middle. On one play Hurst was CLEAR to the endzone and was ignoring in favour of a really dubious play on the outside, which again i think was a drop.

This part is interesting, just throw me the down and time on the clock and it would be nice to see. A lot of qbs do that, i am not sure what constitutes excessive but i do recall me yelling at my TV in anger. Again, Lamar was not his absolute best, but if we had won, i would bet the narrative would be entirely different with how he played, which is obvious but when i say if we had won, i mean if we won and Andres catches that pass or we dont TO the ball twice on 4th. Even with the fumble i think he made loads of good plays and a few highlight reel runs. But he lost, so here we are.

Eh, this is the old bend but break adage. The yards could be bloated but until part way through the 4th, the ravens had a shot. They were able to move freely when not shooting themselves in the foot.

Anyway, most of this post did not reference any specific thing schematically that the titans did other than hold the PoA. I will maintain the ravens LOST this more then the Titans won and that is not to say i do not want to give credit. The titans played a sound, mistake free, game of football and we let them play to their strengths in rushing the phenomenal Henry.

On that last point, in the thread Tim referenced, we talk of cycles, i would love for us to be getting to a point, which i think we both said would happen, where these more agile smaller backs and dbs have to face the juggernauts of old and a strong Run game with control of TOP becomes the new trend. To be fair, TOP, Run game and field position are always the most important IMO, or right up there.

2k

(sorry for the terrible grammar)

 

Oh and I get that I can come across condescending, I do not mean to be a dick. So i apologize in advance.