Originally posted by Giedi:
I watched the Patriots vs Ravens game and Bellicheat came up with some five man fronts that stopped Baltimor's RPO cold. It involved a 5 man line in an almost wide nine formation and one of the linebackers run blitzed right into the dive option and then the wide DE played contain against Lamar. However, having stopped the Ravens on that drive, Edleman fumbles and the Ravens went on to score and got a 4 point lead on the Patriots and then a series or two later, Tom throws an interception to Earl and that's when the Raven's ground game started grinding the Cheat-riots to pieces. If not for the Edleman fumble and the Brady Interception, it looked to me like it would be a close 3 point win by Tom and Bellicheat.
Neither the Cardinals nor the Ravens are doing anything particularly groundbreaking in terms of their offensive approach. You're basically seeing spread offenses get run out of big peoples. They are distracting you with the razzle dazzle and then punching you in the face with their two and three TE formations. Defenses will eventually start to figure it out, just like what we saw with the extensive use of the read option in 2012. We saw how quickly the 49ers made adjustments from the first Cardinals game to the second. I have no doubt that Belichick will be opening up his whole bag of tricks should he see Baltimore in the playoffs.
Ultimately when it comes to the Ravens, defenses just have to commit to hitting Lamar Jackson everytime he tries running those read options. If they want to play pretend and act like he's a RB then you hit him like he is a RB each and every single play. You'll undoubtedly get flagged and you'll get gashed on the ground by their RB's a few times but if defenses did this game after game, he'd be a lot less jazzed up to take off and run as frequently and they'd be less likely to call those plays period. While the NFL still allows it, defenses just have to keep blasting these QBs. Run them over every time and eventually it cease being an issue because no one wants to see their QB get mauled game after game.
I've posted this play before but this is what the unblocked guy has to do on every read option play. The 49ers got absolutely gashed by Lynch here but how many times do you want to see your QB rocked like this? Brooks flat out ignores everything else and just wrecks Wilson.
What San Diego had success with against Baltimore in the playoffs was just loading up with defensive backs and sending guys flying to the ball on each play. The Chargers had a four man rush with often seven DB's out on the field and it stopped Baltimore dead in their tracks, then they got behind and this is not an offense that is really built to play from behind. You're not going to beat them with power so you may as well try to beat them with speed and limit their opportunities for big plays on the ground.
I just hope that win or lose, the team doesn't let themselves fall apart the way the Rams did. That was absolutely disgraceful, that defense showed zero heart and zero pride, they just let the Ravens run wild all over them and never seemed to offer even the slightest resistance. If you're going to lose, lose playing hard, hitting hard and not quitting until the clock runs out in the fourth quarter.