So Much For The Improved Run Game

[True]

Ray Rice is great in open space. Nice speed and can make moves to get out of tackles. That's why he is so dangerous in the screen game and catching out of the back field.

When I see him get the ball he keeps running behind the blockers even though they aren't getting any push. The OLine hasn't played great, but I'm sure Rice can move around with some counters or pitches. He isn't running with the assertiveness I've seen like last year.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='True' timestamp='1292347280' post='575006']
Ray Rice is great in open space. Nice speed and can make moves to get out of tackles. That's why he is so dangerous in the screen game and catching out of the back field.

When I see him get the ball he keeps running behind the blockers even though they aren't getting any push. The OLine hasn't played great, but I'm sure Rice can move around with some counters or pitches. [b]He isn't running with the assertiveness I've seen like last year.[/b]
[/quote]

Really? I saw him running hard and punishing tacklers a lot last night.

[True]

I meant like his explosiveness and squeezing out of closing holes. Poor choice of words.

[BloodRaven]

Guys, it's not Birk. I know the misconception because of his age but he's actually playing better this year than he was last. The problems are all indirectly (directly) because of Gaither. Another misconception is that Grubbs is a run blocking beast, well he hasn't been this year.

[stan]

[quote name='H8R' timestamp='1292339865' post='574735']
I really wonder what would have happened if Jason Brown didnt get a TON of money in free agency?
[/quote]
Realy! What was it? Thirty-five , fourty million? St. Louis knows the value of a stud center. Check out the top teams. They all have an athletic stud at center and they pay them well.

[berad]

[quote name='stan' timestamp='1292347790' post='575025']
Realy! What was it? Thirty-five , fourty million? St. Louis knows the value of a stud center. Check out the top teams. They all have an athletic stud at center and they pay them well.
[/quote]

No one is paying thirty-five million for a center, except the Rams. Brown's a good player but not that good.

[Ed_Reed20]

[quote name='True' timestamp='1292347753' post='575021']
I meant like his explosiveness and squeezing out of closing holes. Poor choice of words.
[/quote]

Okay. Maybe he hasn't but the holes we saw in '09 have rarely been there this year.

[GER-Guard #70]

It is not only the o line especially against the Texans rice has couple of chances for a good cutback but he decided to run directly into the defender or his blocker in the second level sometimes it looks like rice hasn’t the great decision making like last year. And it drives me nuts when I see him in a single back mode running thru the A gab with 8 man in the box. I mean he is powerful but not like a turner or mjd so this year it’s a automatic mismatch.

[ravensfan160]

It seems to me like our offensive line (at least the way they are right now without Gaither) and Rice are more suited to a zone blocking scheme. Zone blocking is about establishing a crease for a shifty runner to slip threw and out the back side.

We lack significant size on our o-line and zone blocking is perfect for that. The Texans have the lightest o-line in the league and they had no problem with Ngata, Cody, McKinney for the most part.

Its too late for this season to completely change our run game but it might be worth looking into for next year, especially if we don't bring back Gaither and/or change coordinators.

[smalljaws]

[quote name='ravensfan160' timestamp='1292336919' post='574628']
That guy out of Penn State, Wisniewski, looks really good. But I would hate like heck to have to spend another 1st round pick on and offensive lineman.
[/quote]

Wisniewski has good bloodlines,his dad and uncle had stellar careers at PSU,the uncle had a decent NFL career. Wis is versitile he excelled at guard and center for the Nits. I think he's a little undersized not deserving of a first round pick. I don't know what Kyper has him rated at,but he might be a good pick as a third or fourth rounder.

[callahan09]

[quote name='ravensfan160' timestamp='1292336919' post='574628']
That guy out of Penn State, Wisniewski, looks really good. [b]But I would hate like heck to have to spend another 1st round pick on and offensive lineman[/b].
[/quote]

Why would you hate that? I think it's pretty obvious that our biggest weakness is the offensive line. We have no blocking at all. No pass block, no run block, no nothing. Flacco is on his butt in 2 seconds flat way more often than you should ever see. We can't get the run going, whenever Flacco drops back to pass there's constant pressure. This will invariably lead to sacks, fumbles, interceptions and just bad throws (incompletions). That's why we have so many 3 and outs. In the first half of games lately Flacco has shown a lot of grace and skill avoiding the sack and extending the play, and we're put up first half points on offense because of it. I guess he just gets worn out halfway through the game, because in the second half our blocking is no worse than in the first, but Flacco seems to completely lose the ability to extend the play in the face of pressure.

So we stop getting first downs, our defense goes out there and winds up staying on the field for extended periods of time, and the opposition starts to score while our offense continues to go nowhere, and it all falls back to the total lack of protection at the offensive line.

We've got a good QB, good receiving core, good backs, we've got good defense, in general, good special teams (great kickers), all that's lacking is the offensive line. We could maybe go for a good corner or two on D, but I think the real problem is the O-line.

[scrock]

[quote name='ravensfan160' timestamp='1292333705' post='574522']
We actually got worse! Rice had 19 carries for only 54 yards. Thats 2.8 YPC. I don't see how thats possible when we're playing against a team with the worse secondary in football. Yet every rush it seemed like Ray was running into a brick wall.

Meanwhile their running game made it look easy with their zone blocking scheme. For all the talk about needing more beef on the line, thats why Cousins was playing afterall, the Texans with the lightest offensive line in the league made it look easy.
[/quote]

The offensive line is to blame, they cant run block or pass block...see what happens when you shift Oher from RT to LT and lose Gaither, who was our best O-lineman....this needs to be fixed or its going to be a quick exit from the playoffs....I doubt the run game gets fixed, they need to at least get Joe better protection.

[Shammy]

[quote name='AlaskanRavensFan' timestamp='1292337228' post='574639']
We ran the ball pretty effectively with pretty much the same crew last year. I think that they just need to execute better. At the the end of the day, that's what it comes down to. Let's hope they can get it going quickly, because there's not much time to fix it at this point.
[/quote]

i agree both mcgahee and rice dance too much in the backfield instead of hitting the holes

[ravensfan160]

[quote name='Shammy' timestamp='1292368720' post='575687']
i agree both mcgahee and rice dance too much in the backfield instead of hitting the holes
[/quote]
What holes? Most games it like running into a brick wall.