The Wiggins, the Offense, and the WIN!!!

[rossihunter2]

Real talk though, I was surprised to see Huntley perform so well. There was a lot more downfield action than I expected. Those deep balls still have no pace on them, but if guys are consistently as wide open as they were on those attempts, the risk is mitigated. But he was efficient in moving the ball down the field. He probably works here so much better than anywhere else in the league. I still don't think he's great but he's also probably more valuable than I've alluded to previously. I'm not sure I trust him going up against the big dogs, but he always keeps us in games and I feel like that's all you really need out of a backup. I think I'm reupping with him until I find something better vs. moving on in hopes of finding something better.

draft a QB on day 3 every year until you find someone

his release has definitely got cleaner and tighter since he was a rookie (and even since he was a younger guy) - there was at least one throw where it felt like it took forever to get there, but for the mostpart he looked like he had more touch on his throws than previously

i just think you need to bring in guys who can stylistically run this offence - they don't necessarily need to be a run threat, but they do have to have some pocket mobility because so much of this offence runs around manipulating the pocket and winning in the second phase of the route

but he's clearly better for the ravens than rush, and i think that was always true - it's always a shame to me that tyrod was the perfect backup for this lamar offence but he's always been slightly too good to be available to the ravens since his departure

 

[rossihunter2]

I figured out my one major complaint from yesterday that I forgot to mention... Zay really needs to have some situational awareness. I appreciate that he's always looking for the extra yards but there were a few times yesterday where he needed to get to the sticks and was looking for something bigger and almost fucked it up.

especially after giving it all that about being more direct upfield this offseason

 

[Truth]

Lmao I don’t think I’m wrong though in this. That one series inside the 20 where Huntley rolls left and misses Bateman, yeah if Huntley makes that difficult throw it’s a td, it was improvised and rolling left throwing back across your body is one of the hardest things a qb can do, so don’t count on that.

The fact that we ran Henry on first down, and took him off the field for 2nd and 3rd down, never once had Hopkins and likely on the field, and split justice hill out wide with an empty backfield on 2nd down, like how do you explain this decision?

With Huntley on the field you gotta make em think you’re gonna run on every play you possibly can. Empty backfield on 2nd down is just dumb. Our best red zone threats are Henry, Hopkins, and Likely, and we totally removed them from the equation in a key redzone possession, we do it often.

So to your point, in review, Bateman being open wasn't by design. He ran an in-route that was potentially meant to rub Kevin Byard off of the slot fade to Zay Flowers. And it was a far tougher throw on film than it appeared live. I initially credited the falter to the missed throw, but virtually nobody was open on the five routes, and the window was improvisational.

I, too, have been super critical of the subbing in the red zone. Specifically taking out Henry for Hill, whom we essentially never rush with. On this specific play, the motion at least helps identify the coverage. It's a Cover 1, with Tremaine Edmunds spying. And we end up isolating slot-fades for Flowers and Likely on the other side, with Hill running a hitch to keep CB Jaylon Jones shallow. They're just covered well and there's nowhere to go. Can't say I'm a massive fan of running fades with Huntley at QB. On the following play, we ran a three-man flood concept to try to open Mark Andrews on the corner-route. But their CB Nahshon Wright didn't bite underneath and Huntley got rid of the ball incredibly quickly. It was thrown before Andrews was even out of his break. I would have definitely preferred to at least have Hopkins in, to your point. So there's room for criticism.

 

[gtalk12]

DID SOMEONE SAY THROW SOME SLANTS AND UTILZE THE QUICK PASSING GAME?

 

[Deebo813]

why dont bateman get the ball? and why we dont use dhop more? is it cause we rather not attempt those throws they may possibly seen risky?

 

[rmcjacket23]

why dont bateman get the ball? and why we dont use dhop more? is it cause we rather not attempt those throws they may possibly seen risky?

Function of QB play and the offense mostly. Lamar averaged 24 throws/game in first four games. Bateman/Hopkins combine for about 25% of those on a per game basis.
Flowers is obviously a target hog and the rest go to TEs and RBs.

Rush pretty much only threw to RBs, TE, and Flowers.

I think you'll see more diversity in the target share with Lamar back, but I think people need to be realistic about target share. Assuming Lamar will throw it ~25 times each week, what would you expect the target distribution to be among Flowers, Bateman, Hopkins, Likely and Andrews? Even if you phase Andrews out, you're talking 6 targets/week to each of the other four IF they're weighted the same, which they won't be. Flowers is still (and should) continue to see huge target share.

 

[Baltimorican]

I think we'll see more Bate heavy games once Lamar is back in rhythm and the OLine has got its act together. When this offense is running on time there should be more games where Bate and Zay have a more even distribution. As is they have been sloppy up front and playing with noodle armed backups so they lean on Zay who is better at the quick stuff.

 

[rossihunter2]

this is the old PQ pick play on steroids

 

[Cindy Bradley]

You guys going to root for us tonight? We need your help. Congratulations on your win today and thanks for helping us out!

We always root for the Packers unless you play us.

 

[rossihunter2]

Mike Green looks like a leader on defence already getting guys lined up - also saw him aligned in the wide 9 more

A huge adjustment that went unnoticed during the game on defence:

Schematically the ravens played with a lot more heavy boxes with the gaps properly accounted for and with more single high - that did two things… allowed the LBs to be aggressive coming downhill in the run game and opened up Ro to read and react (he was awesome), trusted the DBs in 1v1 coverage which should be the strength of the defence