Run Game Woes (How to fix the offense)

[Ravenslifer]

IDK. I like Wagner and want to give Gino another year.

 

If we do anything in FA I think we retool the oline

 

I think it would be prudent to bring in competition for both center and right tackle, is what I meant, whether it be via FA or the draft - neither position would be drafted very highly anyway, and if both players turn out to make the 53 then we have depth.  

[PerpetuallyBored74]

I think it's foolish to bench Rice. I've done some thinking and I think we need to evaluate this after camp not now. I do think we need to get a third RB but I don't feel like Rice is done yet. It could be the coordinating that caused him to have a bad year. The problems we had were offense wide so that's likely due to the coordinator.

I remember hearing that Rice is going to lose weight on the off-season to get faster. That'll be a good thing. I'm pretty excited for that and I feel we might see the return of what we expect out of Rice.

 

That won't make him faster, but it will make him more flexible and restore his center of gravity to where it should be.

He became too top-heavy and it threw off his balance because it reduced his flexibility and changed his center of gravity.

Shedding the weight will make him more fluid and more elusive again, and thus a better fit in our ZBS.

 

I hope he follows through with it. If he doesn't, he'll have another poor season.

[Yatagarasu]

Offensive Line needs a lot of retooling because there has to be a reason why they were so horrendous. You can only be that bad if the coaches aren't doing their job.

 

How come we don't use Ray Rice like Shane Vereen or Reggie Bush more as pass catching scatbacks?

 

There should be no excuses on how both Pierce an Rice can be productive together. Just look at Ridley and Vereen or Bush and Bell.

 

When you establish the running game, then you can open up the passing game.

 

I doubt the WCO system will work since Joe Flacco isn't really a WC QB, but then you never know.

 

I say we demote Jim Caldwell and bring in Kyle Shanahan, Hue Jackson, or someone who knows what they're doing to run the offense.

[FoxRox75]

If the O-line gets fixed, I say give Rice another chance. Obviously that was the biggest problem all year, and that greatly affects how well the RB can run. Of course Castillo needs to be fired as well.

[Yatagarasu]

That won't make him faster, but it will make him more flexible and restore his center of gravity to where it should be.

He became too top-heavy and it threw off his balance because it reduced his flexibility and changed his center of gravity.

Shedding the weight will make him more fluid and more elusive again, and thus a better fit in our ZBS.

 

I hope he follows through with it. If he doesn't, he'll have another poor season.

 

I think Rice should lose like 10 pounds so he can be a true scatback. Rice knows that all those years of being a feature back probably catching up with him. He's not a big guy and all that added weight probably made he slower. He doesn't look like an inside runner anymore. So I say he drops weight and try to be like Reggie Bush, Shane Vereen, Darren Sproles, and Danny Woodhead. Only problem I could see is Rice getting hurt since small scatbacks tend to get hurt often, but then it wouldn't matter after how this season went.

[Ravensfan23]

Caldwell and Castillo are not to blame as much as many of you want to make them out to be. Yes their systems and schemes brought about chance and the offense struggled to adjust to those changes but that doesn't make them bad coaches. Gino and A.Q were poor all season, KO and Yanda were hurt much of their time on the field, Oher just had a flat out bad year and Monroe was traded mid season and asked to adjust to new system and teammates. No matter how flashy, creative, explosive, dominant or whatever your offense is, it all starts us front with the big guys and we were doomed in that area all season. Yes did the blocking scheme change effect them, of course and maybe if things were the exact same as last year then things might have been different, but the offense is changing. You can't just ask Caldwell to turn this offense into the type he was apart of in Indy and don't allow him to make changes to the entire offense. Yes the system stayed the same as Cam's but we saw, or at least I did, signs of the offense changing for the best. Now it was bad this year, but it had more to do with execution and players just being comfortable within what they were asked to do more so then the overall scheme/system.

 

How do you fix the run game, fix the oline. There are far two many oline that are built just like us who run the ZBS for it to be the sole reason why the Run game was so poor. Especially considering that ever since we first signed Leach we started implementing the ZBS. We just never had a oline coach who fully committed to it. Moller ran it some but for the most part was a power blocking man on man oline coach. I honestly think he's gone. Much like Leach he just doesn't fit who we wanna be going forward. It has nothing to do with Harbs playing favorites. Castillo is a good oline coach but he's more of a run game coach. I think with Todd Washington turning down a great offer from USC, he might have been told he'll have a much bigger role in coaching this oline next year. Improve the coaching and have one voice one scheme for the oline. Improve the players around Monroe, KO and Yanda and this run game will get back to being really good.

[1/28/01]

i think the problem this year is the RUN GAME, the run game was terrible, that created a lots of problems, we couldn't milk the clock, became one dimensional, a lot of 3nouts, tired Defense, predictable and opponents would only game plan for your passing game, that's all.

This deserves a big fat DUH!!! Ha

[Ravenslifer]

i think the problem this year is the RUN GAME, the run game was terrible, that created a lots of problems, we couldn't milk the clock, became one dimensional, a lot of 3nouts, tired Defense, predictable and opponents would only game plan for your passing game, that's all.

 

I think we all realize this, the question is why - is it because Rice is finished or was he just hurt, is it because we a have a bad group of o-line personnel or is it the scheme they implemented, etc.  All of these are correctable, but the question is why was our run game, which actually took off under Caldwell in the playoffs, suddenly reduced to one of the worst in franchise history?

[Ed_Reed20]

I think we all realize this, the question is why - is it because Rice is finished or was he just hurt, is it because we a have a bad group of o-line personnel or is it the scheme they implemented, etc.  All of these are correctable, but the question is why was our run game, which actually took off under Caldwell in the playoffs, suddenly reduced to one of the worst in franchise history?

 

Beyond Birk's departure, injuries were the driving factor. Yanda and KO were the two best offensive lineman last year. One played hurt all year and the other had to shut it down. McKinnie bummed it up before getting replaced and Oher was his usual self. 

 

The scheme was definitely an issue but the execution just wasn't there. 

[5aiah]

I think we all realize this, the question is why - is it because Rice is finished or was he just hurt, is it because we a have a bad group of o-line personnel or is it the scheme they implemented, etc.  All of these are correctable, but the question is why was our run game, which actually took off under Caldwell in the playoffs, suddenly reduced to one of the worst in franchise history?

Because we lacked the talent and depth to put a quality offensive line on the field. McKinnie was always going to fail, from the beginning, but KO playing injured and then eventually going on IR was the biggest hole in the line aside from Gino biting off more then he could chew in his first season as starter. Gino was probably the worst starting center in the league this year. Rice was always overrated physically, he was never as fast or as quick from 0-60 as many thought in the first place, instead he is very agile and has great vision combined with his low center of gravity and strength. I thought that he lost a bit of umph on his moves(jukes,cuts, and spins) but i think that was dealing with injury. He used to run through guys bigger than him but at this age he has become a more conservative runner, instead electing to dart and dive through tackles instead of run through them. The problem with Pierce who I believe is faster and quicker(though not as agile) then Rice is that he is rarely at full health. He is far from durable and even when he plays and isn't on the injury report he is probably nicked up from something. It's been like that for him ever since college. This is why he is strictly a RB2 and nothing more. Back to the offensive line and the scheme Yanda,Gino, and Monroe can play well in the ZBS down the road but Gino was never(with any amount of help and support) going to be an instant success this year. The transition to ZBS isn't as drastic as some think because NO team runs it full on and Ravens will be balanced between it and power(man to man) running. Why was our Superbowl winning line reduced to a bottom 5 pit of despair that swallowed the entire offense and cost us the season? All of the above, Football.   

 

Edit: I'm predicting KO will be a big hit in ZBS. He is pretty smart and is very athletic for a guard.

[Jokerraven]

we still haven't seen what Jensen can offer and Wagner. Look Jensen up for a big guy he is very athletic and can move

[Bruce_Almty]

O-linemen may want to review this article and DVDs b4 next season.

 

http://ezinearticles.com/?Offensive-Linemen---Zone-Blocking-For-Football&id=5017289

 

:)

[jar2260]

Gino is young, could put on a couple of pounds, and hit the weight room, his experience from this year, as disastours as it was, can come in handy if he can get bigger and stronger! If nothing else he could be good backup! We really need another tackle to protect the edges.

[Tank 92]

This deserves a big fat DUH!!! Ha

 

 

You would think, but how many have blamed Flacco.