A crushing highway loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars ended the Ravens’ four-game profitable streak. Sunday’s sport in Baltimore provides a first-rate alternative to begin over.
The Denver Broncos (3-8) have misplaced three straight video games and 7 of their previous eight total. Since buying and selling away star exterior linebacker Bradley Chubb on Nov. 1, Denver has graded out because the NFL’s worst group, based on Football Outsiders’ effectivity metrics, with a Twenty ninth-ranked offense, Twenty seventh-ranked protection and Thirty second-ranked particular groups.
After per week of controversy (quarterback Lamar Jackson’s viral vulgar tweet) and hypothesis (offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s connection to Stanford’s head teaching emptiness), the Ravens (7-4) want a palate cleanser. Here’s what to look at within the groups’ Week 13 matchup.
Offense
1. Jackson has struggled along with his downfield passing all season. In Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars, although, there have been hints of a possible turnaround.
Jackson went 3-for-7 on makes an attempt of not less than 20 air yards, based on TruMedia, together with a 62-yard bomb to huge receiver DeSean Jackson. The fourth-quarter throw traveled 63.2 yards within the air, based on the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the longest completion of Jackson’s profession.
Through 11 video games, Jackson is 12-for-41 (29.3%) on deep passes, thirtieth in accuracy amongst 38 qualifying quarterbacks. His off-target share (43.9%) on passes of not less than 20 air yards is third worst, based on TruMedia, behind solely the New York Jets’ Zach Wilson and Atlanta Falcons’ Marcus Mariota.
That inaccuracy has seemingly emboldened some defenses to drop a security into the field in hopes of stifling the Ravens’ floor sport. When they’ve struggled to run towards heavy bins, passing woes have typically adopted.
“You’re always constantly setting the hook,” Roman mentioned Thursday. “The better you can run it, the better you should be able to throw it, the better looks you should get. That’s part of it. That’s part and parcel. … I look at certain play-action things we do [as] just extensions of the run game, [and] the run game is an extension of them; they all fit together. When they work in concert, you have a chance to be really good.”
Denver has allowed simply 12 completions on 34 deep passes this season (35.3% accuracy), based on TruMedia, however 5 have gone for touchdowns. None have been intercepted.
2. Over his first seven video games this season, Devin Duvernay averaged 1.82 receiving yards per route run, based on Pro Football Focus, a strong mark for a younger huge receiver who hardly ever flashed on offense over his first two seasons in Baltimore. Only 35 wideouts completed with over 1.82 yards per route run final season.
Over the final 4 video games, nevertheless, a stretch coinciding with high huge receiver Rashod Bateman’s absence due to a season-ending Lisfranc (foot) damage, Duvernay’s effectivity has cratered. Despite a comparatively greater quantity of passing performs, he has simply 62 receiving yards in that span. Duvernay’s 0.54 yards per route run would’ve completed exterior of the highest 200 amongst huge receivers final season, based on PFF.
Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II, one of many sport’s brightest younger stars, received’t cede many big-play alternatives Sunday. But the 2021 first-round choose is coming off perhaps the 2 worst video games of his season. Surtain allowed a mixed eight catches on 11 targets for 183 yards and three touchdowns over the previous two video games, together with Las Vegas Raiders huge receiver Davante Adams’ time beyond regulation, game-winning 35-yard landing in Week 11.
Defense
3. Think the Ravens have had dangerous luck at huge receiver? Consider Denver’s misfortune this season.
Former Raven Tim Patrick, who’d mixed for almost 1,500 yards over the previous two seasons and signed a three-year, $34.5 million contract extension in November, tore his ACL in early August.
Jerry Jeudy, a 2020 first-round choose who struggled over his first two years in Denver, had a strong season (449 yards) interrupted by a Week 10 ankle damage. He was restricted in observe Friday and is questionable for Sunday’s sport.
KJ Hamler, a 2020 second-round choose, performed in a mixed 16 video games over his first two seasons due to hamstring and knee accidents. This 12 months, he’s been restricted to seven video games, wherein he has seven catches for 165 yards and no touchdowns. After a setback in his restoration from a torn hamstring, Hamler received’t play in Baltimore.
Quarterback Russell Wilson’s high targets will doubtless be huge receiver Courtland Sutton (688 yards and one landing), who’s questionable due to sickness; huge receiver Kendall Hinton (262 yards), a former undrafted free agent; and rookie tight finish Greg Dulcich (234 yards, one landing), a third-round choose.
4. The Broncos had little success by means of the air towards the Ravens final season, with quarterbacks Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Lock combining for 4.8 yards per try of their Week 4 house loss. The silver lining for Denver’s offense was its floor sport, which averaged 6.2 yards per carry and outgained the Ravens 106-102.
This 12 months, with rising star Javonte Williams having suffered a season-ending knee damage in October and the lately launched Melvin Gordon struggling (3.5 yards per carry), the Broncos’ speeding assault has been removed from threatening. Denver’s No. 26 in effectivity, based on Football Outsiders, averaging simply 4.1 yards per carry.
Former Ravens working again Latavius Murray, now the highest choice in Denver’s backfield, received’t have a straightforward afternoon towards a protection that’s allowed simply 2.5 yards per carry since Week 9. With one other shutdown day, the Ravens may set a modern-era NFL report for essentially the most consecutive video games wherein a protection has held an opponent to fewer than 50 speeding yards (5).
“The mentality in our room is basically, you’re not going to run the ball on us,” defensive lineman Broderick Washington mentioned Wednesday. “To us, if a team comes in here and runs the ball on us, or we go to somebody else, and they run the ball on us, it’s like, ‘Shoot, they’re bullying the big guys,’ basically. So, we don’t want to get bullied. We prefer to do the bullying than to get bullied.”
Extra factors
5. There may not be a much bigger mismatch within the NFL this season than the Ravens’ particular groups towards Denver’s particular groups.
The Ravens have generated 26.01 anticipated factors added on particular groups, based on TruMedia, the fourth most within the NFL. The Broncos have generated minus-34.17 EPA, the second worst. (EPA accounts for situational components akin to down, distance and subject place.)
The Ravens rank first within the NFL in total particular groups effectivity, based on Football Outsiders’ metrics. The Broncos rank final.
The Ravens’ greatest unit is their league-best kicking group. The Broncos’ greatest unit is their punting group, which ranks twenty first.
The Ravens’ worst unit is their punting group, which ranks seventeenth. The Broncos’ worst unit is their league-worst kick return group.
6. When Denver employed former Ravens particular groups coordinator Jerry Rosburg as a senior assistant in late September, it wasn’t to have him assist the Broncos’ particular groups. There was a extra urgent want: sport operations.
First-year Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett’s clock administration and communication points had drawn heavy criticism over the group’s first two weeks. So, on the advice of normal supervisor George Paton, he reached out to Rosburg, 67, who’d retired in March 2019 after over a decade in Baltimore.
Rosburg visited Denver for group conferences and joined Hackett’s employees to assist with game-day choices forward of their Week 3 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers. Rosburg’s knowledge hasn’t stored the Broncos fully out of late-game hassle — extra clock mismanagement damage them within the time beyond regulation loss to the Raiders — however Hackett mentioned Wednesday that he’d been “nothing but unbelievable.”
“I felt like I needed a little more assistance with the different game management aspects of just how we managed everything,” Hackett mentioned in a convention name with Baltimore reporters. He praised “his experience, his understanding, his communication skills, his ability to present to the guys. And he’s with me on the phones at all times, continually working to help me and guide me and put me through different situations during the week — and then, at the same time, help guide me during the game.”
7. Ravens defensive lineman Calais Campbell wants only one sack to turn into the 63rd participant in NFL historical past to achieve 100 for his profession. Only eight lively gamers have extra, a bunch led by Buffalo Bills exterior linebacker Von Miller (123 1/2) and together with Ravens exterior linebacker Justin Houston (110). Another teammate, exterior linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul, has 93 1/2.
With 1,459 profession factors, Ravens kicker Justin Tucker wants simply six extra to surpass kicker Matt Stover (1,464) for essentially the most in franchise historical past. He wants 5 subject targets to surpass Stover (354) for one more franchise report.
Week 13
Broncos at Ravens
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Chs. 13, 9
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 8 1/2
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Source: www.bostonherald.com