Coach Evans is back for the first time this season! He joins Ken McKusick to take a look at the Baltimore Ravens Offensive success and struggles in Week 6 at the Philadelphia Eagles
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Offensive Notes : Week 6 Ravens @ Eagles
Ken,
Great conversation on the Ravens offensive performance against the Eagles. After 6 weeks of the 2020 season, we have seen enough of the defensive counter-punch to the 2019 Ravens offense to know that every opponent will stack the box to stop the run, spy on LJ, and use aggressive man coverage on Andrews and Brown. The net result of this strategy has been to drop the Ravens from the #1 to the #5 rushing attack year over year and #1 to #20 passing attack year over year. The good news is that The Ravens investment in defense in the off-season has moved our rush defense up from 21st to 2nd while our pass defense after six games is rated 7th vs. 4th for 2019 (all ratings from Football Outsiders DVOA stats) If the goal for the team is to prepare for a deeper playoff run in 2020, this is not at all a bad turn of events. Our failure against Tennessee in the 2019 post-season, was, in large part, an inability to stop the run. If we can now stop the run and force more turnovers in the process we should be in better position to succeed in the playoffs.
As we adjust to the defensive counter-punch and refine our game plans, we should find success with our offense and improve on our DVOA rating. But the good news is that even with the fall-off in passing DVOA, the team is still scoring at the same rate that it was in 2019 over the first 6 games (30.7 pts per game in 2019 vs. 29.8 pts per game in 2020) because our defense and special teams have chipped in for the difference. So, in 2020 the offense through 6 games has rushed the ball 42 fewer times and passed the ball 30 fewer times but maintained the same level of scoring. I think this is a great place to be after 6 weeks because our offense is fresher going into the heart of the 2020 season. We should expect continued pressure on Andrews and Brown until we show that the strategy does not work. Since week 3, Brown and Andrews have a combined catch rate below 65% for 4 straight games. All of our other receivers combined have only been below 65% once this season. The key to opening up the passing game goes through the other receivers so hopefully we will let bygones be bygones and get to work during the bye.