Ravens game questions

Much H-back? much motion? I didn't remember the radio noting this much if at all. It was fairly widely used in preseason.

I remember hearing the use of a lot of formations with two receivers one side and the TE on the other.

Also, anyone remember if the backup QBs used headsets at all in preseason? I don't remember.

 

I don't ever remember Peete wearing a headset, but I only saw two preseason games, and wasn't really watching him. Can't say I ever remember one wearing one too many times. San Fran used to do that sort of thing, but it's rare.

H-back used a lot. Very simple, not a great deal of motion. Though the TV announcers made mention of Henning's use of motion at other places he's been, I didn't see a lot. Sometimes we'd put Wesley or Mangum in motion, but it was very vanilla.

 

Not so much motion, but there were some shifts. After showing one set they'd shift into another, often causing confusion for the D.

 

H-back all day. It seemed Walls and Mangum were both in on half the sets or more. Mangum H back. This happened so much i thought Mangum got the start over Walls, but then realized that they were both in.

I thought there was a good bit of motion. Moose was in motion, too.

 

Yeah, I watched the first half again last night. There was a lot of motion by the H-back mainly. One point of concern is that it almost always indicated a run (or trick play). Maybe they played with a very limited playbook but they didn't do much impressive on pass plays. Oh well, it won the game.

On Defense, I noted that almost ALL of the pressure we were getting was on a stunt. Only once did Buckner beat his man strait off. The DL had a good mix of who was stunting and who was collapsing the line. Rucker, Buckner, and Jenkins all made good use of their turns. Peppers got stopped on his tries. That being said, Peppers outside rush did make Redmond step back into the pocket to get hammered by Ruckers (forced him to throw early).

I also kept freezing the tape just before the snap and a second after. The Panthers kept showing a 7 to 8 man front (all on the line) and then breaking back into coverage. There seemed to be very few Linebacker blitzes but the lineup added to the effectiveness of the stunts. When we did blitz, it only cost us the one time. Every other time came out in our favor. But, that was just from rewatching the first half.

Oh, and Grant is still taking a number of bad steps. I currently see him as our weakest link on Defense.

 

Really? Even over Howard? That surprises me.

 

If you notice, as I did/have looking at replays, that many times Grant, and MOST times Howard over-reacted a bit on playfakes.

They need to get over that. They need, especially our CBs, to woory about pass first, and let our Linemen, LBs, and Minter worry about the run. That's why we get burned so much, not neccessarily allow a huge play, just allow 1st downs- especially on 3rd and short when they pass, because we bite too much on play fakes. We aren't that bad against the run, so our secondary needs to be a pass-fist D. Also most 1st downs by other teams (last game and all last year), were made on pass plays over the middle, using playfakes.

I also believe our O needs to get better at executing, and our D needs to get better at covering SCREENS.
We don't cover them well on D, and don't execute them well on O.

 

3 times in particular Grant bit on the play fake That I remember, but only once did it cost us (on the TD play). Redmon missed on those passes.

 

Yes actually. If you'll notice, on the big 20 to 30 yard pass going down the left side of the field in the first half, it looks like Howard bit on the post but in hindsight, it looks like he released the receiver to Grant (as if they were in a zone) to cover the RB out of the backfield. Howard only hesitated for a second before he read the QB's eyes to chase down the receiver. Where was his help on the top side? Grant came into the picture way late. If Howard WASN'T releasing the receive than he was burned bad but I'm not convinced it wasn't Grant's assignment. But that is just me.

Besides, I like Howard's hard hits. Stupid reason but there it is.

 

Yep, I rememember noting that during the game, it was Zone, Howard played it right, Grant was late.

He did that in preseason, too.