Filmstudy
01-02-2009, 10:13 PM
Offensive Line Model and Notes--Recap of Cowboys and Jaguars Games
It’s unusual that a team can roll up 265 yards of rushing and it could be fairly said that their offensive line had a mediocre game, but that’s what happened at Dallas. We’ll remember Chris Chester’s 2 blocks on McGahee’s TD run as the highlight of his career to date, but he had far from a perfect game. He wasn’t alone as both Gaither and Brown turned in subpar performances and Flacco was sacked 5 times. There were certainly good blocks made on McClain’s run as well, but that has to be primarily credited as a great individual effort by McClain who broke several tackles and delivered the stiff arm of the year to Ken Hamelin.
Against Jacksonville, the Ravens had their best passing game of the season, 431 total yards of offense, and 7.5 yards per play (excluding Flacco’s 3 kneels). Flacco’s bombing and Clayton’s acrobatics obscured a poor running day for the Ravens that came despite extensive use of unbalanced and jumbo sets. Excluding Parmele’s 2 runs in garbage time, the Ravens averaged just 3.1 YPC.
It’s the nature of grades by position that the offensive line receives praise commensurate with points scored. The Ravens put up 33 and 27 points, and various people grading will all give the O-line higher marks than I did. Collectively I’d say it was a 2-game C effort. I’m certainly happy with the wins as well, but the Ravens are going to need these guys to play even better to make a significant post-season run.
Individual Notes:
Gaither: He picked a bad time for 2 off performances. Jared appeared a little confused in terms of his assignments in pass blocking, particularly with extra help against Ware on the left side and when Dallas brought pressure up the middle. I charged him with half of Burnett’s sack (Q2, 11:12) in the Dallas game). On that play Grubbs left A-gap open and blocked left, but so did Gaither. Burnett beat McGahee, but in all honesty, Ware might have had the sack had Gaither and Grubbs blocked inside. He made 4 level 2 blocks between the 2 games. He still gets run push of 5+ yards, with the most dramatic example coming on McGahee’s TD run (Q2, 4:58) in the Jax game.
Scoring for Dallas: 54/62 blocks, 4 missed, 1.5 penetrations, 2/3 sack (½ + 1/6) sack, 1 false start, 44 points (.71 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 60/62 blocks, 1 missed, 1 sack, 1 false start, 51 points (.82 per play).
Grubbs: None of the Ravens lineman had an excellent or even very good game in Dallas or in the Jax finale. In fact, all 5 were consistently average or a little below. Grubbs did complete 8 of 9 pulls and had 10 level 2 blocks between the 2 games. I’m sure you’ve seen Troy Smith’s reception (Jax, Q3, 5:33)several times by now. It amazed me that 4 Ravens’ linemen were able to convoy ahead of Smith like they did. Grubbs made a nice block on that play, but it also surprised me that none of the 4 looked to peel back.
Scoring for Dallas: 57/62 blocks, 3 missed, 1 penetration, ½ sack, 52 points (.84 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 54/62 blocks, 6 missed, 1/3 sack, 1 penetration, 50 points (.81 per play).
Brown: Brown and the rest of the interior linemen had as much trouble with Ratliff as any other DT this season with the exception of Rodgers. Jason did not make a single level 2 block against the Cowboys, but returned with 4 against Jax. His blocks on McClain’s TD (Q2, 11:04) vs. Jax were exceptional. After pancaking his assignment at the line, he moved into L2 and threw a 2nd block. He was not used to pull against Dallas, but he tried 3 times against Jax, succeeding just once. This was C+ work from an A student.
Scoring for Dallas: 53/62 blocks, 7 missed, ½ penetration, 1/6 sack, 51 points (.82 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 55/62 blocks, 6 missed, 1/3 sack, 53 points (.86 per play).
Chester: Chester’s blocks on McGahee’s TD could not have come at a better time. His most memorable career play kept the Ravens’ playoff fate in their own hands. Conversely, in garbage time against the Jaguars, he failed to find a block on 5 consecutive pulls, including 4 straight plays (beginning Q4, 12:57). Between the 2 games he completed just 11 of 21 pulls. He had 10 level 2 blocks in the 2 games. His play has been a pleasant surprise for the Ravens. They had no right to expect Chris to step in and play as well as he has. Next year, however, I expect the Ravens to have Yanda back at RG and Chester may well replace another downed player. Should that occur and he plays as well, he may be proclaimed the best backup interior lineman in the game.
Scoring for Dallas: 53/62 blocks, 8 missed, ½ sack, 50 points (.81 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 52/62 blocks, 9 missed, 1/3 sack, 50 points (.81 per play).
Anderson: Willie was injured vs. the Cowboys, tried to return for 1 series, then rested for the duration. He made just 1 L2 block and did not attempt a pull. He made no serious mistakes in either game and was not party to any of the sacks.
Scoring for Dallas: 18/21 blocks, 3 missed, 18 points (.87 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 56/62 blocks, 5 missed, 1 penetration, 54 points (.87 per play).
Terry: After replacing Anderson at Dallas, Terry got a piece of 3 of the 5 sacks. He returned to play well against Jax recording blocks on all 16 plays in 6-lineman sets.
Scoring for Dallas: 43/49 blocks, 3 missed, 2 X ½ sack, 1/6 sack, 36 points (.74 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 16/16 blocks, (1.00 per play).
Slaughter: Was in for 1 play against Dallas and made his block.
Other Notes:
• The Ravens ran a 6-man or unbalanced line 39 times (32% of plays) in the final 2 games. That breaks down as:
• 5-Man Unbalanced Left: 10 plays, 33 yards. The highlight was McGahee’s 13-yard TD run.
• 5-Man Unbalanced Right: 4 plays, 10 yards
• 6-Man Balanced (Terry added to the normal formation on either the left or right side): 15 plays, 154 yards, 10.3 YPPA. McClain’s run was run with Terry lined up right, but even without it, the Ravens averaged over 5 yards per play in these formations.
• 6-Man Unbalanced (3 tackles either left or right): 10/104, 10.4 YPPA. This included McGahee’s 77-yard TD. In each of these cases the Ravens lined up with 3 tackles on the left side.
• You’ll see from the above that I did not charge all 8 sacks to the offensive line. Against the Cowboys, Heap got charged with 1.5 sacks and another I didn’t assign because it developed slowly and resulted in no loss. In the Jax game, I didn’t assign 1 when Smith rolled out and appeared to be looking to run (Q1, 10:47). Clayton and McClain didn’t do much to block, but Smith should have thrown the ball away. There were no QH’s recorded in either game other than the sacks.
It’s unusual that a team can roll up 265 yards of rushing and it could be fairly said that their offensive line had a mediocre game, but that’s what happened at Dallas. We’ll remember Chris Chester’s 2 blocks on McGahee’s TD run as the highlight of his career to date, but he had far from a perfect game. He wasn’t alone as both Gaither and Brown turned in subpar performances and Flacco was sacked 5 times. There were certainly good blocks made on McClain’s run as well, but that has to be primarily credited as a great individual effort by McClain who broke several tackles and delivered the stiff arm of the year to Ken Hamelin.
Against Jacksonville, the Ravens had their best passing game of the season, 431 total yards of offense, and 7.5 yards per play (excluding Flacco’s 3 kneels). Flacco’s bombing and Clayton’s acrobatics obscured a poor running day for the Ravens that came despite extensive use of unbalanced and jumbo sets. Excluding Parmele’s 2 runs in garbage time, the Ravens averaged just 3.1 YPC.
It’s the nature of grades by position that the offensive line receives praise commensurate with points scored. The Ravens put up 33 and 27 points, and various people grading will all give the O-line higher marks than I did. Collectively I’d say it was a 2-game C effort. I’m certainly happy with the wins as well, but the Ravens are going to need these guys to play even better to make a significant post-season run.
Individual Notes:
Gaither: He picked a bad time for 2 off performances. Jared appeared a little confused in terms of his assignments in pass blocking, particularly with extra help against Ware on the left side and when Dallas brought pressure up the middle. I charged him with half of Burnett’s sack (Q2, 11:12) in the Dallas game). On that play Grubbs left A-gap open and blocked left, but so did Gaither. Burnett beat McGahee, but in all honesty, Ware might have had the sack had Gaither and Grubbs blocked inside. He made 4 level 2 blocks between the 2 games. He still gets run push of 5+ yards, with the most dramatic example coming on McGahee’s TD run (Q2, 4:58) in the Jax game.
Scoring for Dallas: 54/62 blocks, 4 missed, 1.5 penetrations, 2/3 sack (½ + 1/6) sack, 1 false start, 44 points (.71 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 60/62 blocks, 1 missed, 1 sack, 1 false start, 51 points (.82 per play).
Grubbs: None of the Ravens lineman had an excellent or even very good game in Dallas or in the Jax finale. In fact, all 5 were consistently average or a little below. Grubbs did complete 8 of 9 pulls and had 10 level 2 blocks between the 2 games. I’m sure you’ve seen Troy Smith’s reception (Jax, Q3, 5:33)several times by now. It amazed me that 4 Ravens’ linemen were able to convoy ahead of Smith like they did. Grubbs made a nice block on that play, but it also surprised me that none of the 4 looked to peel back.
Scoring for Dallas: 57/62 blocks, 3 missed, 1 penetration, ½ sack, 52 points (.84 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 54/62 blocks, 6 missed, 1/3 sack, 1 penetration, 50 points (.81 per play).
Brown: Brown and the rest of the interior linemen had as much trouble with Ratliff as any other DT this season with the exception of Rodgers. Jason did not make a single level 2 block against the Cowboys, but returned with 4 against Jax. His blocks on McClain’s TD (Q2, 11:04) vs. Jax were exceptional. After pancaking his assignment at the line, he moved into L2 and threw a 2nd block. He was not used to pull against Dallas, but he tried 3 times against Jax, succeeding just once. This was C+ work from an A student.
Scoring for Dallas: 53/62 blocks, 7 missed, ½ penetration, 1/6 sack, 51 points (.82 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 55/62 blocks, 6 missed, 1/3 sack, 53 points (.86 per play).
Chester: Chester’s blocks on McGahee’s TD could not have come at a better time. His most memorable career play kept the Ravens’ playoff fate in their own hands. Conversely, in garbage time against the Jaguars, he failed to find a block on 5 consecutive pulls, including 4 straight plays (beginning Q4, 12:57). Between the 2 games he completed just 11 of 21 pulls. He had 10 level 2 blocks in the 2 games. His play has been a pleasant surprise for the Ravens. They had no right to expect Chris to step in and play as well as he has. Next year, however, I expect the Ravens to have Yanda back at RG and Chester may well replace another downed player. Should that occur and he plays as well, he may be proclaimed the best backup interior lineman in the game.
Scoring for Dallas: 53/62 blocks, 8 missed, ½ sack, 50 points (.81 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 52/62 blocks, 9 missed, 1/3 sack, 50 points (.81 per play).
Anderson: Willie was injured vs. the Cowboys, tried to return for 1 series, then rested for the duration. He made just 1 L2 block and did not attempt a pull. He made no serious mistakes in either game and was not party to any of the sacks.
Scoring for Dallas: 18/21 blocks, 3 missed, 18 points (.87 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 56/62 blocks, 5 missed, 1 penetration, 54 points (.87 per play).
Terry: After replacing Anderson at Dallas, Terry got a piece of 3 of the 5 sacks. He returned to play well against Jax recording blocks on all 16 plays in 6-lineman sets.
Scoring for Dallas: 43/49 blocks, 3 missed, 2 X ½ sack, 1/6 sack, 36 points (.74 per play).
Scoring for Jacksonville: 16/16 blocks, (1.00 per play).
Slaughter: Was in for 1 play against Dallas and made his block.
Other Notes:
• The Ravens ran a 6-man or unbalanced line 39 times (32% of plays) in the final 2 games. That breaks down as:
• 5-Man Unbalanced Left: 10 plays, 33 yards. The highlight was McGahee’s 13-yard TD run.
• 5-Man Unbalanced Right: 4 plays, 10 yards
• 6-Man Balanced (Terry added to the normal formation on either the left or right side): 15 plays, 154 yards, 10.3 YPPA. McClain’s run was run with Terry lined up right, but even without it, the Ravens averaged over 5 yards per play in these formations.
• 6-Man Unbalanced (3 tackles either left or right): 10/104, 10.4 YPPA. This included McGahee’s 77-yard TD. In each of these cases the Ravens lined up with 3 tackles on the left side.
• You’ll see from the above that I did not charge all 8 sacks to the offensive line. Against the Cowboys, Heap got charged with 1.5 sacks and another I didn’t assign because it developed slowly and resulted in no loss. In the Jax game, I didn’t assign 1 when Smith rolled out and appeared to be looking to run (Q1, 10:47). Clayton and McClain didn’t do much to block, but Smith should have thrown the ball away. There were no QH’s recorded in either game other than the sacks.