The Baltimore Ravens are on their first three-game winning streak of the 2018 season. They are a half a game back from first place in the AFC North, while also being a game ahead in the wild-card race. With four games remaining, the Ravens, again, are in contention for the post-season.

Lamar Jackson’s first road start was far from perfect, but Baltimore’s run-happy offense continued to pick up first downs, create manageable third down situations, and more importantly, limit possessions for opposing offenses. The Ravens’ success is not all due to Jackson, but the team will ultimately go where he takes them. The running game has never been more effective, and that is due to a couple of different factors.

Despite stacked boxes, Jackson is drawing at least one linebacker to honor him keeping it, which allows the offensive line to have an advantage at the line of scrimmage. The scheme has improved dramatically with unique power concepts, such as GT (guard-tackle) pulling plays. Gus Edwards and Ty Montgomery are making the right reads.

Yards per play against the Falcons Down Yards gained Average per play Down Yards gained Average per play 1st 161 5.19 2nd 122 4.52 3rd 60 4 4th 2 2 Grand Total 345 4.66

Yards gained by play type Play type Yards gained Play type Yards gained Duo 9 Inside zone 14 Outside zone 13 Pass 79 Play action 72 Power 44 QB power 1 QB run 7 QB sneak 2 RPO 16 Option 16 Split zone 22 Trap 26 Zone read 24 Grand Total 345

Yards gained by Personnel usage and Down Personnel Personnel Down 11 1st 101 2nd 59 3rd 51 4th Grand Total 211

***I did not include the 21-yard fake punt in the stats***

The key to the Ravens’ offensive success is the positive yardage gained on first down. They rarely were in 2nd and long situations as they gained an average of 5.19 yards on first down. By frequently getting 2nd and intermediate, the playbook is wide open for Baltimore. They can elect to take a deep shot, or even continue to run the ball. This forces the defense to play honest, and that is where the Ravens take advantage of their opponents.

One of the adjustment opposing defenses are making against Lamar Jackson is stacking the box. They frequently drop a safety into the box to stop the run. One of the counters the Ravens have done is add a give/pull option to almost every run. However, there is no give/pull option on this split zone play, but Jackson fakes as if there is one to draw a linebacker. This, in turn, helps out the offensive line. Matt Skura has struggled this entire season, especially with reaching the second level. On this play, he is responsible for reaching a linebacker, but No. 59 took himself out of the play by committing to Jackson.

The Falcons are playing a distorted version of Cover 3. The play action fake caught the linebackers in ‘no man’s land,’ which forced the cornerback to commit to Crabtree’s dig route. Jackson was forced to escape the pocket as pressure was incoming. However, he made one of his best throws of the day. Despite being on the run and off-balance, Jackson accurately threw the ball to Crabtree for a completion. This throw showcases why his inaccuracy issues are purely a mechanical problem — he clearly has natural arm talent.

With Robert Griffin III motioning from the outside faking the jet sweep, Andrews found a soft spot in the zone coverage. There was a miscommunication on the defense as the weakside cornerback should not have followed Snead across the field. Jackson underthrew Andrews, but he still made the reception. Throwing from the pocket is not something Jackson appears to be extremely comfortable doing as he often times gets ‘happy feet,’ poor weight distribution, which leads to over-rotation.

The Ravens ran a speed option, but this could also be called a load option as there was a lead blocker. Jackson has the option to keep it or pitch it to Ty Montgomery. He elected to absorb the contract and run through the hole en route to a touchdown. These type of plays have worked well for the Ravens but exposing a quarterback to too many hits could be a questionable strategy later in his career. Nevertheless, this was an incredible run by Jackson.

Continuing the theme of inconsistent mechanics, Jackson delivered an inaccurate pass to John Brown on third down. With the pocket collapsing due to Ronnie Stanley’s inability to combat the speed-to-power rush and Skura’s weak attempt to pick up the bull rush, Jackson had to adjust his throwing angle and release point. With poor footwork — on his toes, leaning forward — and a slight bend of his spine, Jackson relied solely on his arm to make this throw. The distance was not the issue but rather ball location. A bent spine and tilting of the head among other things can cause inaccuracy issues like it did on this play.

Here is an example of Jackson over rotating because he had poor weight distribution on his feet. His unbalanced distribution on his back foot led to the foot/hips rotating over. His front foot (stride foot) was too wide and that forced an errant throw. pic.twitter.com/NsPOV61nmF — Logan Levy (@realLoganLevy) December 5, 2018

Against Cover 1, John Brown ran a near flawless route. He baited the cornerback into committing to a sideline route, which allowed him to gain separation to cut towards the middle of the field. With the safety helping over the top, Brown also utilized head and shoulder fakes to fool the safety into committing to a straight vertical route, instead of a deep post. After he made his cut, Brown was by himself with nothing but space in front of him. However, the throw was extremely inaccurate. As I stated in my tweet, Jackson over rotated as he had a ‘soft hip.’ Instead of stopping at the release point, his front-heavy weight distribution led to his momentum carrying him forward and sailing the football several yards away from his intended target.

This is a staple for the Ravens’ ‘new look’ offense. It is essentially a screen pass for a wide receiver with downfield blocking. On third and medium, Baltimore often runs some variation of this play. It may have worked, but Crabtree lost concentration at the catch point, which led to a drop. He immediately turned upfield once he thought he caught the ball. This is an easily correctable issue as he did not look the ball into his ‘basket.’

With nowhere to throw the football and limited time to even scan the field, Jackson was stripped. Again, a speed-to-power move beat Stanley on the left side, while a straight bullrush beat Skura. This is a common issue for Skura, and the Ravens may have to look elsewhere for a center next season. As for this year, the only quick solution aside from pulling Skura is providing more help from either guard. In regards to the fumble, Jackson has to be better with ball security. He is a true playmaker with a mindset that he can not take negative plays. In theory, this is a great mentality. However, in reality, it sometimes can lead to unnecessary turnovers.

Against a seven-man box, the Ravens countered it with a wide receiver lined up ‘tight.’ Brown was responsible for blocking the safety, which allowed the offensive line to have a six-on-six blocking matchup. On an inside zone concept, Lewis and Stanley double teamed the three-technique, while Skura and Yanda took the two-technique. After both double team assignments were executed, Yanda and Lewis reached the linebackers in the second level. The issue on this play and the reason it did not go for a more significant gain was the poor follow through by Stanley and Skura.

The frustrating aspect of Jackson’s game is how accurate he can be despite the poor situations he sometimes finds himself in. The offensive line collapsed on this play. They did not adequately pick up a stunt on the right side, which forced Jackson to escape the pocket. Regardless, Jackson reset and delivered an extremely accurate and on time pass to Willie Snead, who dropped the ball. Again, it looks to be a concentration drop as Snead took his eyes off the ball and immediately turned upfield instead of securing the ball first.

The offensive line did an outstanding job against a four-man rush. They were able to identify the numbers advantage on the left side with Skura, which led to critical double-team blocks. While on the other side, Orlando Brown Jr. was aided by a chip block from Williams. Concerning footwork, this was one of Jackson’s best displays. He planted his front foot into the ground with even weight distribution, and his back foot went from his arch to toe. The throw was purposely placed where it was, and it drew a pass interference call.

As discussed the last three games with Jackson, the Ravens utilized a fair amount of concepts from the Oklahoma Sooners’ offense. One of those concepts includes a guard-tackle pull, which is not just used on running plays. To expand the playbook and increase unpredictability, Baltimore has developed a play action play off of this look. Jackson has the option to run it or pass it. With the running lanes non-existent on the outside, Jackson delivered an accurate pass to Andrews for a 21-yard gain.

Against Cover 3, the Ravens had a ‘dud’ of a play call. This concept does not flood any zones, force the defense to rotate or attack the weaknesses of this coverage. With that being the case, Jackson was forced to scramble to the outside to salvage this play. The one mistake he may have made was not going out of bounds instead of picking up an extra three or four yards.

Continuing with the theme of guard-tackle power concepts, the Ravens ran another one of these concepts, but this time it was a designed run. Jackson may have an option to pull it, but he handed it to Edwards with the linebacker staying on the outside.

The Falcons never bought the play action fake, which led to Jackson having nowhere to throw the ball. As he is scrambling, instead of throwing the ball away and not losing yards, he ran out of bounds for a four-yard loss. This is a rookie mistake, and this may have cost the Ravens a touchdown.

On the same drive, the Raven ran a similar GT concept with Jackson keeping the ball behind the pulling offensive linemen. He was close to scoring, and those four yards may have been the difference between settling for three or putting six points on the board. This concept is so fascinating because of the endless possibilities in which they could build upon. They can run RPOs, counter, and bash among other things.

The playbook for Jackson is beginning to evolve as they added a passing element into their zone reads. The play starts as a zone read, where Jackson will identify whether or not to keep it. If he keeps it, as he did here, he then has the option to run it or pass it. The creativity Marty Mornhinweg and the rest of his offensive staff have shown should be refreshing for Ravens fans.

The Falcons, Bengals, and Raiders all had different ways of defending the zone read. The Bengals played rather passive and tried to win their assignments one on one. The Raiders attacked Jackson, while Atlanta attacked the running back and hoped their outside defenders could make a play. It nearly worked, but they overcommitted to the outside, which allowed Jackson to cut up the inside for a sizable gain.

Takeaways