If something has summed up the Ravens’ slow-going, late-snapping, barely-beating-the-play-clock offense this season, it won’t be the delay-of-game penalty they took within the first quarter Sunday. It is likely to be what got here instantly afterward.
After watching a flag flip second-and-goal on the Jaguars’ 10-yard line into second-and-goal at Jacksonville’s 15, the Ravens broke their huddle with about 10 seconds remaining. Coach John Harbaugh yelled from the sideline, “Hurry up,” with eight seconds remaining. The offensive line bought set with three seconds remaining. Tight finish Mark Andrews completed motioning over right into a three-receiver bunch formation with one second remaining. Center Tyler Linderbaum snapped quarterback Lamar Jackson the ball with zero seconds remaining.
The timing on the play, a 5-yard completion to Andrews, was so off that Jacksonville’s edge rushers have been already 2 yards downfield by the point Devin Duvernay, the receiver within the bunch formation closest to the road of scrimmage, crossed the 15. Like Andrews and wideout Demarcus Robinson, the third participant within the cluster of receivers to Jackson’s proper, Duvernay regarded stunned to see the ball snapped when it was.
Hours later, after one other fourth-quarter collapse had doomed the Ravens to a 28-27 loss in Jacksonville, the first-quarter sequence was a minor footnote in a sport rife with what-could’ve-beens. Still, it pointed to a broader drawback with offensive coordinator Greg Roman’s play-calling strategy.
By one metric, no different offense takes longer to get going. According to a overview of knowledge from play index website nflfastR, 35.2% of the Ravens’ performs within the first, second and third quarter this season have been snapped with three seconds or fewer on the play clock, the league’s highest such charge. (Fourth quarters have been excluded from the pattern to account for clock-draining methods in end-of-game conditions.) As of Sunday’s video games, solely three different offenses’ late-snap charges have been above even 21%.
The Ravens are additionally tied with the Denver Broncos, Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks for probably the most delay-of-game penalties (six) within the NFL this season. Had they taken a seventh Sunday, in a merciless twist of irony, they could’ve prevented a expensive turnover on downs. Harbaugh acknowledged Monday that Jackson’s failed fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak early within the second quarter, snapped with no time left on the play clock, wasn’t communicated or executed nicely.
The Jaguars had opened the sport with one first down over their first two drives. Handed a brief area on their third possession, they wanted lower than two minutes to take their first lead.
“I think we can call it faster, communicate it better in the huddle, whatever,” Harbaugh mentioned Monday of the Ravens’ presnap operations. “The whole thing needed to be faster, and we did adjust kind of what we were in in the second half to try to make that happen, to make sure we could do it. The rhythm and the tempo were not like what we needed them to be at all.”
Harbaugh recalled Roman telling him sooner or later Sunday that his play-calling from the coaches’ sales space wasn’t coming quick sufficient. The Ravens’ tempo was certainly much less of a difficulty after halftime; with a faster tempo and a sprinkle of no-huddle performs referred to as in by Roman, the specter of a dwindling play clock was successfully mitigated.
But Harbaugh, in explaining the primary half’s slower execution, additionally famous a number of the structural impediments to a extra go-go offense. The Ravens are among the many NFL’s leaders in presnap movement, which takes time. They substitute liberally, mixing and matching tight ends and large receivers and working backs, which takes time. Jackson has the liberty to alter performs on the line of scrimmage, which takes time.
Sometimes the Ravens make the wait worthwhile. On Robinson’s 12-yard landing catch in Week 2 towards the Miami Dolphins, the ball was snapped with two seconds on the play clock. Jackson’s 79-yard landing run later in that loss? One second was left. Andrews’ 11-yard landing catch within the Week 5 win towards the Cincinnati Bengals? Zero seconds.
Other instances, although, the wait proves too lengthy. A delay-of-game penalty knocked the Ravens’ red-zone offense off schedule within the third quarter of their Week 9 win over the New Orleans Saints, they usually needed to accept a area objective. Another delay-of-game penalty two weeks later, in a victory over the Carolina Panthers, turned a third-and-8 within the fourth quarter right into a third-and-13, a distinction that turned all of the extra stark after Robinson caught a 9-yard cross on the following play. Again, kicker Justin Tucker was referred to as on for one more area objective.
“There are times when you run it down for reasons, and there are times that you need to run it down to make sure you get the right play call,” Harbaugh mentioned Monday. “Lamar has been really good at that over the years. He’s one of the best guys at dealing with the play clock and getting the ball snapped and all that kind of stuff. So we just have to adjust as coaches on that. It’s up to us to organize it in a way that we just don’t get in those situations. If we have to have less offense, or less movements in the plays, or whatever it might be, that’s just what you do. So it’s on us. That’s something we have to get cleaned up.”
Maybe probably the most confounding aspect of the Ravens’ slowdown is how shortly it’s occurred. In 2015, Roman’s solely full yr as Buffalo’s offensive coordinator, the Bills snapped the ball with three seconds or fewer on 16.3% of their first-, second- and third-quarter performs, in line with nflfastR. In 2019, Roman’s first yr as play-caller in Baltimore, his late-snap charge jumped solely barely, to 18%.
There have been marginal upticks the following two years, too: 20.7% in 2020 and 22.2% in 2021, when the Ravens had eight delay-of-game penalties, tied for fifth most within the NFL. Both marks would’ve ranked among the many 5 highest this yr, however nonetheless considerably decrease than the group’s 2022 tempo.
Roman, requested in regards to the offense’s late arrivals to the road of scrimmage after the group’s season opener, mentioned in September that “generally it’s good to empty the clock. People don’t notice that generally, but it surely’s actually good at instances. You can actually drain a clock in the middle of a sport. I feel we set the all-time NFL report for time of possession a pair years in the past, and a number of it was due to that course of, actually. And there are occasions when that’s not the best way to go.
“So the bottom line is, we want to be efficient with how we operate, and we’d like to be at the line of scrimmage, most of the time, to where we can operate.”
With solely six video games left within the common season, and the Ravens’ battle for playoff positioning solely tightening, the clock is ticking.
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