4th quarter. The winner of the NFL opening game Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City ChiefsLamar Jackson got some momentum going on the final drive and the Ravens had a chance to score in the red zone, so… will backup RB Justice Hill block all-world DT Chris Jones?
The final two plays of the Ravens' season-opening loss to Kansas City were a brutal finishing touch to a poor opening game up front. The Ravens had to replace three starters up front, and both guard positions were affected. Jackson ran the whole game, with 12 of his 16 rushes coming on scrambles, per Next Gen Stats.
Lamar Jackson scrambled 12 times against the Chiefs and accounted for 19.5% of his dropbacks, his third-highest rate over the past four seasons.
Most of his efforts came on the ground, as he scrambled 10 times for 75 yards. His only success was a 49-yard touchdown.#BALvsKC | @Ravens pic.twitter.com/hHbDY2wRcl
— NextGenStats (@NextGenStats) September 6, 2024
The Ravens' passing game was flubbed and self-destructed, which was exactly what they wanted against the Chiefs defense, and while they were outplayed up front on plenty of occasions (Chris Jones is really good), the Ravens were forced to defend themselves due to some bizarre defensive blunders.
Before we move on to the final play, if we look at what happened earlier in the game, we can see why the final protection happens in the first place. The Ravens offense loves to slide their protection full out when they feel pressure. That means that if the protection is on the side they want to slide to, the entire offensive line will have their eyes and hands in that direction. It's great when you're playing against a team that plays Cover 0 a lot and has a QB like Lamar Jackson who can make the first free runner off the edge miss. But it's not so great when you end up wasting a man because you're adding protection for a blitzer that never comes.
Here's where Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo makes a winning play: For example, in this play, the Chiefs walk safety Justin Reed to the line of scrimmage: Before the ball is snapped, every potential blitzer is labeled and looks like this:
Lamar saw this, realized the Ravens defense wasn't strong enough to guard all seven, and brought Isaiah Likely into pass pro to be a blocker. The ball was then snapped. But…
The Chiefs spun out to the Tampa 2, with linebacker Drew Tranquill going deep. 1⁄2 They use defender/safety Justin Reed as a middle runner. On top of that, the Ravens do a full slide to make up for the numbers on the right side, but they end up with zero slides because they're outnumbered on the right side. With Chris Jones on the left side, Likely and LT Ronnie Stanley double him, and everyone else is a solo matchup and outplayed throughout the game. The full slide and the extra blocker are good, but two potential routes are wasted on Likely and RB Justice Hill (who checks and releases), and Lamar has nowhere to go with the ball.
The Ravens slide full in this game and are wasted again. This time Baltimore is in 12 man formation (1 RB, 2 TEs, field) and the Chiefs are on base (4 down linemen, 3 linebackers). Tranquil walks out to the right edge of the offense and the Ravens slide full again to split numbers. That leaves Likely as the pass protector and RB Derrick Henry as the check-and-release player (checks the free runner and then runs into the flat). The problem here is that in 7 man protection there are only 3 guys running routes and the Chiefs can split numbers on the pass. No one is open except for WR Rashaud Bateman late in the game, but by that time the pressure is on and Lamar is forced to pass.
So that brings us to the final two plays of the game. I'm not sure why the Ravens felt the need to slide protection away from Chris Jones, but let's look at the personnel here. Derrick Henry isn't on the field. He's not going to play much in a two-minute situation. The Chiefs are 3 down front with Chris Jones lined up over right tackle. LB Leo Chenal is lined up at the LOS, but he's just a spy waiting for Lamar to make a move out of the pocket. For some reason, they slide away from Jones instead of to Jones, and Justice Hill is tasked with the same task JJ Barea had in 2011: stopping a guy at least 100 pounds bigger and much stronger than himself. Lamar has to make a rushed throw, and instead of properly placing this throw, he miscommunicates with Bateman (Jackson said after the game. The pass was intended for Bateman, the pressure forced him to run faster (perhaps he wanted Bateman to charge toward the grass) and the pass was incomplete.
The same thing happened on the final play, forcing Jackson to step up again and throw a rushed pass to Likely, who fell just short of heroics. It's a tough situation, but the margins are so small in the NFL that broken protection like this that makes Justice Hill a DPOY candidate every year can be the difference between winning and losing.
It's only one game, so I'm not going to sound any alarm bells, but last night was Baltimore's first bad start of the year. Pass protection was obviously an issue, but they also couldn't push the run game much. They missed angles on gap scheme runs and didn't make any big plays. On top of that, they had a bunch of illegal formation penalties that killed them before they even got going. They knew they couldn't block up front, so their offense got cut short by the screens and quick game that Baltimore showed last night.
For the Ravens to achieve all they want, this inexperienced offensive line will need to develop quickly.
