Well, that is one way to react to a disappointing and heart-breaking loss. After a crushing defeat to the cross-town Washington Redskins, the Baltimore Ravens fired incumbent offensive coordinator Marc Trestman. Replacing him is Marty Mornhinweg. Mornhinweg was elevated from the quarterbacks coach position that he had been holding since January 2015. The offense has constantly struggled during his tenure beginning last season.
Mornhinweg will have his work cut out for him in his first game as he likely will be without star wide receiver Steve Smith and have a hobbled Mike Wallace. The Ravens travel to play the New York Giants and their solid, though banged up defense. Here are the Baltimore Ravens Week Six keys to victory.
Baltimore Ravens Week Six Keys to Victory
More Dedication to the Running Game
Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the loss on Sunday was the complete disregarding of the running game after the first quarter. Through one quarter of play, the Ravens ran the ball 11 times for a stellar 74 yards (6.73 yards per carry). But after the first quarter, the Ravens only ran the ball eight times for 44 yards. That is just unacceptable, especially considering the way starting running back Terrance West has been running since taking over the starting job.
This has been an issue going back to last season as the Ravens finished last year first in pass attempts despite starting four different quarterbacks. So far this year they are second in passing attempts and that is just not how this team is built. The Ravens and head coach John Harbaugh are saying all the right things regarding the denial of the “abandonment of the running game”, but Mornhinweg definitely knows the way this organization feels about the rushing attack, and has to be planning a game plan centered around it. For Week Six against the Giants, a team that has surprisingly been relatively easy to run on the last two weeks, look for the Ravens to show more of a dedication to a recently-effective running game.
Establish the Deep Ball and Breshad Perriman
Under Trestman the Ravens never seemed to test teams with their deep ball often enough. This has always been puzzling, as quarterback Joe Flacco wields an absolute cannon for an arm and has always been a great deep thrower. This year, outside of the 66-yard bomb to Mike Wallace in Week One against Buffalo, the Ravens have shied away from the deep ball. Despite ranking first in pass attempts, Flacco ranks 11th in passing yards and 30th in yards per attempt.
Those are not the numbers that the Ravens want to see out of their star quarterback. Flacco has not been spectacular this season sure, but these stats are more representative of the offensive system. Mornhinweg, in his past offensive coordinator tenures, has always been a fan of a big play offense. Put simply, Flacco has been captain checkdown this season. That will change this week.
This is where Breshad Perriman comes into play. Number one receiver Steve Smith is ailing with an ankle injury and likely will not play. Wallace, the team’s top deep threat, is also going to be less than 100% with a rib injury. That leaves Perriman and Kamar Aiken as the top options at the position. Aiken looks poised for a mini-breakout game as well, but the biggest beneficiary from the coordinator switch will be Perriman.
Perriman almost made a spectacular play in the back of the end zone during Sunday’s game that would have won the game. Unfortunately, he was mere inches away from getting his second foot in bounds and the catch was called incomplete. It was a play the young man has to make and will certainly make in the future. The deep ball is what Perriman is best equipped for. Blessed with a blazing 4.25 second 40 yard dash at 6’2 and 215 pounds, he is a physical freak to say the least. With the Giants nursing a plethora of injuries in the secondary, someone should be the beneficiary of a deep ball or two. My money is on Perriman.
Getting the Pass Rush Going
The offense has been in the news often the past few days, but the defense is still just as important. After only one sack last week against the Redskins, the Ravens now rank tied for 17th in total sacks (10). That number has to go up if the Ravens want to continue their defensive dominance. To make matters worse, Terrell Suggs and Timmy Jernigan have combined for seven sacks and form quite the dynamic duo, but the entire rest of the roster has only gotten to the quarterback three times. This includes a huge goose-egg for supposed star pass-rusher Elvis Dumervil.
Luckily, a perfect remedy for the pass rush looms this Sunday; the deplorable pass-blocking tackle combination of Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart. Of the 76 offensive tackles ranked on Pro Football Focus, Hart is 56th with a below-average 60.5 pass blocking score. Flowers’ overall rating does not look so bad at 76.4. After delving deeper however, his rating is held up by stellar run-blocking and not his abysmal pass-blocking (49.2).
The Giants have one of the worst tackle pairings in the NFL and the Ravens should feast on this matchup. The Giants do not give up many sacks because quarterback Eli Manning likes to get rid of the ball really quickly so the sack numbers might not be there this week, but the pressure should be, and likely will be the defensive key to victory.
Prediction
The Giants and Ravens each started the season hot, but have lost three and two games in a row, respectively. The home-field advantage obviously helps the Giants, but the Ravens are just the more talented team. The Giants also will not be able to fully game plan defensively against the Ravens due to the coordinator switch. Mornhinweg will probably keep it simple his first week, as even the Ravens have to get accustomed to the changes. But where Mornhinweg likely improves the offense the most is with his play-calling. Out are the repeated vanilla checkdowns, and in should be a greater mix of running plays and deep shots downfield. Baltimore is desperate to get a win and will rally around the coordinator switch, while playing their typical extraordinary defense.
Ravens 28-Giants 13.
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