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2020 ROT


DreamKid

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18 hours ago, RavensfanRD said:

Never liked anything about him. From SF to Buffalo to here. He fails to make adjustments and doesn't put his players in position to succeed. They win in spite of him, in my opinion. And above all, he stops using what works... running the football.

I think there is AMPLE evidence that this just isn't true.

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2 hours ago, diamondbull424 said:

Agreed. My only concern is Lamar developing bad habits behind this OL. The biggest issue is Zeus Jr. He went from being in the best shape of his life last season to combine Zeus in one offseason. He’s a complete turnstile that I don’t trust and he’s getting beat like a drum consistently.

I think we should put Lamar in more passing situations so that the team has a passing confidence that when the game is close they can make plays in the passing attack.

I’m sure it seems counterintuitive considering the major investments made in the rushing attack and the strengths of this team. But if the Ravens continue to destroy teams with the run and then pass only once the game has opened up, the squad never develops trust in each other to execute and Lamar is never forced to have to call out protections and get in sync with that OL to some degree.

Back to Brown though, if he has another few games or so like he has had every week to this point, the team needs to strongly consider moving him inside to guard and seeing what we’ve got at RT with Philips (or Fluker). The bye week would be the perfect time to make the switch. Brown is a great run blocker, but with his length and size if he can barely react fast enough to scrape a defensive player, he’s got no business protecting Lamar along the edges. Teams are just lining up in wide 9 against him all game long and undressing him.

I won’t completely rule this team out because I remember a critical part of our 2012 SB team (besides firing Cam Cameron mid-season) was the OL adjustment that was made mid season (on the bye week IIRC). Moving Michael Oher from LT to RT, moving Kelechi Osemele from RT to LG, and then inserting the now motivated (after being benched the entire season for being lazy) Bryant McKinnie back into the lineup.

As it stands with this current OL and their current deficiencies, it just won’t cut it IMO. I think a serious switch up needs to happen. Personally if it were me, I’d switch Brown Jr to LG, Philips to RT, and Bozeman (the more experienced guard) to RG to help out the rookie.

Bozeman has done a great job for much of the season minus KC and seems to consistently be above average to good. But he consistently gets abused against quality pass rushers. I’d be interested to see how Brown Jr could do in said role with his size and power. The leverage would surely be an issue, but Ogden was able to dominate at guard with his size and so Brown Jr doing the same wouldn’t be something that would surprise me.

If the experiment works, I think it’d fix the weak side DTs overwhelming our guard, while fixing the communication breakdowns that have constantly plagued the B gap patrolled by Philips, who seems far less overwhelmed when he can just get in his set and block his man vs seeing all the machine gun action on the stunts as he’s seen to this point. I trust Bozeman to cover up that problem.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but if this OL continues to look broke going into the bye week. I’ve got no hope for it to massively improve without shaking things up some.

If we can improve the OL pass protection, I’m fully on board with them looking to pass more to setup the run so as to build Lamar as a passer. I think the bye week might be the perfect time to add some additional passing wrinkles, see what an explosive option like Duvernay might be able to handle as a deep threat receiver as opposed to just using him on end arounds and screens.

Nice breakdown. I'm a little hesitant to call for O-line changes yet, just because of the wackiness of the season: no OTAs, abbreviated TC, no joint practices, no preseason, etc. Some players need more time to get into playing shape and hone their technique, and others are ready to roll right away. Quality O-line play requires all 5 players to be in sync, and that just hasn't happened yet.  

Of course, we can't forever for these guys to get their act together, either. But I'm prepared to be patient and see if they can regain their form from last season. 

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5 minutes ago, AngusMcFife said:

Nice breakdown. I'm a little hesitant to call for O-line changes yet, just because of the wackiness of the season: no OTAs, abbreviated TC, no joint practices, no preseason, etc. Some players need more time to get into playing shape and hone their technique, and others are ready to roll right away. Quality O-line play requires all 5 players to be in sync, and that just hasn't happened yet.  

Of course, we can't forever for these guys to get their act together, either. But I'm prepared to be patient and see if they can regain their form from last season. 

Yup. Have to think Brown Jr and Philips are the biggest starters on the team impacted by COVID-19. Considering Philips is a rookie and teams are just constantly targeting his lack of experience (and the lack of communication to help him by the rest of our OL). If he had a few more months in the system and on the field with some practical experience in minicamps and the like, I think he perhaps hits the ground running far better and at least starts off as an average player and works his way up to above average to good. The fact that he typically looks good 1on1 says a lot to me about his potential. But defenses are too smart not to take advantage of his flaws unfortunately.

Then Brown Jr has been a known option that struggles with his weight. Forcing him to manage himself and keep his weight down and explosiveness up without the help of the Ravens staff and without the team facility was always going to be a huge challenge. I think for a guy who has struggled with his weight him not pulling a Michael Pierce or Daylon Mack shows a commitment to his efforts, but unfortunately it just wasn’t enough. I have nothing wrong with Orlando Brown Jr and still believe that whether he can bounce back at RT or not, he’s an elite run blocking OL and he’s a great pass blocker... when he gets his hands on you, he’s just been too slow to do so this season. Unfortunately while I believe Philips improves over the course of the season, I have my concerns about Brown’s ability to do so in pass protection.

On another note, watching the Jets-Broncos game yesterday I was amazed at just how much communication their OLs were doing to communicate stunts and calling out their man off perceived stunts based off the looks they were being shown. I just don’t understand why I so rarely ever hear Skura pointing out things for Philips or the rest of the guys communicating upfront. I feel like Yanda used to communicate to the OL in yesteryears. This is one of my biggest annoyances with the OL in pass protection, its almost like by not communicating they’re not even trying to get on the same page.

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I just went over the last part of the game and I have to change my mind about the pass protection/blocking. 

The thing that went "wrong" was the assignments which seemed to be on purpose. Both Stanley and Brown helped to seal the inside which gave the outside rushers a free release. It seemed deliberate so unless the screwed up their assignments, their blocked what they had to.

This is not similar to the Bengals where the oline get beat straight up one on one

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I think Phillips will see his fair share of struggles this year but I just have this overwhelming feeling of confidence for some reason that he's going to end up being a very good guard for us. Just has that feel like we'll be looking back in two years saying "man, we had no idea then how good this guy would be". Think you gotta let him play out this season, get that experience, and see where he's at a season from now.

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Now this is just the isolated stat. 

It could also explain why Orlando Brown gave so significant help to handle the inside rushers in the other games, which has lead to pressure from the outside.

There may be a connection, or maybe it is just coincidence

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Yeah Gus is our best, most consistent, RB right now. I still don’t regret Dobbins talent or his selection. But I also don’t regret feeling that Denzel Mims would have been a great fit for the offense I hoped we’d be designing with an increased ability to spread defenses out with increased WR usage but still utilizing our people movers. Something closer to what the Rams have put together this season.

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Yeah sometimes more speed isn’t a good thing. Flacco was better in sync with Derrick Mason on his deep passes than he was with Torrey Smith.

They connect well on zone looks where Hollywood is generally gearing down speed to fit his route into a zone look. But in man coverage when Hollywood might gear down for setting up a defender, timing up where Brown can be speed wise on the other end it said break/acceleration... is definitely a problem. Lamar hasn’t been able to appropriately time up the level of Brown’s speed. He’s been guessing that he’s faster than what he is... which is better than guessing short (picks), but at least guessing short can still lead to big pass plays in the form of DPI or completions for big gains that just don’t result in a house call, but should have.

But the good thing is it’s only a step off at this point. It’s not 2-3 steps off. It’s usually just about 3-4 feet overthrown.

The correction seems to be either Brown not decelerating quite as much OR Lamar just timing it up better (Maybe he needs LASIK). I’m sure they’ll eventually figure it out. Though the extra concern is Lamar missing practice time for soft tissue injuries that will prevent them from hammering out the adjustments.

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On 10/5/2020 at 12:55 PM, diamondbull424 said:

Yeah Gus is our best, most consistent, RB right now. I still don’t regret Dobbins talent or his selection. But I also don’t regret feeling that Denzel Mims would have been a great fit for the offense I hoped we’d be designing with an increased ability to spread defenses out with increased WR usage but still utilizing our people movers. Something closer to what the Rams have put together this season.

Denzel mims is yet to play due to injury. If he were a raven, y’all would be calling him breshad perriman right now. 

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