[News] Will Ravens Use More Shotgun In 2015?

[BR News]

New Offensive Coordinator Marc Trestman could expand the Ravens’ use of the formation, but not by much.

View the full article

[Purpleghost23]

Lets go with the pistol,shotgun,rpg lol anything that is working better

[The Mom Gene]

I love Trestman's Philosophy...

[Bob21043]

Interesting, I would have expected Joe to be better out of the shotgun. Hopefully, either way, we use the hurry-up offense more to help the defense on their heals.

[ellicottraven]

Run the ball Mr. Trestman. Simply run the ball. It is what works in Baltimore and you promised remember?

[RaRaRavens]

I don't remember Flacco being particularly successful out of shotgun.

[RavensBaltimore]

Interesting, I would have expected Joe to be better out of the shotgun. Hopefully, either way, we use the hurry-up offense more to help the defense on their heals.

I think Joe is better out of the shotgun. The stats are skewed because he ran it so much in 2013, when our o-line and receiving corps were decimated with injuries, and our starting TE was a 37 year old who shouldn't have been in the league anymore. Combining last year and 2012, when he had a relatively healthy offense around him, his qb rating is higher in the shotgun than under center. 2013 should never be used as a reference to see what works, because nothing had a chance of working that year, because literally every position group on offense was decimated by injuries.

[GO_Ravens]

Yep...4000 yard year for Flacco. Seeing these numbers really show how predictable we were last year at running the footbal and teams still couldn't stop it.

[stixfix69]

i would trade a 4000 plus yard year from Flacco for a 11-5 or 12-4 mark......

[757RavensFan]

i would trade a 4000 plus yard year from Flacco for a 11-5 or 12-4 mark......

 

 I would trade both of those for a Superbowl victory in Feb 2016.  

Edited August 12, 2015 by 757RavensFan

[reed20fence]

Honestly I liked the run-to-pass Kubiak scheme better. You forecast run plays when you run out of the pistol and shot gun. That's a major reason why our run game sucked in 2013.

Some of those Tightend screens and pummelings our line and 3 TE sets doled out last year out of our heavy and jumbo sets were so much more beautiful to watch than Joe in the spread with 5 WRs.

We need to be leading the race to get the run game restored to its rightful place in professional football.

[EdTheMythicalOne]

A few points here.

First, since the Ravens will be using a zone running scheme and a West Coast style passing attack, your shotgun formation is essentially replaced by the play action pass. Of course that relies on a good rushing attack and the adage of using the run to set up the pass.

Secondly, the shorter routes and getting the ball out of your QB's hands quicker helps in pass protection. You don't have to sustain blocks for very long while waiting for deep routes to open up. This serves several purposes. It keeps the time of possession clock ticking because at the same time your QB is completing a higher percentage of his passes. It also opens up the possibility of YAC (yards after the catch) which further adds on to time of possession. The great thing about having a QB like Flacco is that while he can do all of this, if the opposition gets completely fooled on something he has the cannon to unleash a deep bomb down the field.

Lastly, I don't need more shotgun, but I do desperately need more cowbell. I gotta have more cowbell. I got a fever, and the only prescription is.......more cowbell!

[GO_Ravens]

Even though last years was the best offense statistical wise, there was a lot of games where we were really struggling to move the ball due Kubiaks commitment to running the football. I will be happy to see us change it up a bit so we're not so predictable.

[runcontrol]

I think Joe is better out of the shotgun. The stats are skewed because he ran it so much in 2013, when our o-line and receiving corps were decimated with injuries, and our starting TE was a 37 year old who shouldn't have been in the league anymore. Combining last year and 2012, when he had a relatively healthy offense around him, his qb rating is higher in the shotgun than under center. 2013 should never be used as a reference to see what works, because nothing had a chance of working that year, because literally every position group on offense was decimated by injuries.

 

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was about to say.  They ran a lot of plays out of shotgun because the oline was one of the worst in the NFL and the run game was constantly putting the offense in bad situations.  They had to go with the shotgun formation to give the receivers time to get open.    

 

People forget how injured that offense was.  I always say the team had no tight end, no running game, a  horrible oline and not much at receiver.  Receivers were Torrey Smith,  Marlon Brown, Tandon Doss and Jacoby Jones.  And Jones missed a lot of games early in the season after the safety fell on top of him while he was trying to catch a punted football. 

[CaliRavenFan]

I would love to see us run a lot of Shotgun in our game against the Broncos. We absolutely have the Talent to run it effectively and it would throw off Kubiak since he is the one that basically built our playbook and knows our team inside and out. We can't just go in and run the same plays as last year against him because he knows the weak points and will exploit them.

[The Mom Gene]

I don't remember Flacco being particularly successful out of shotgun.

We've never had the right receivers for it.

[runcontrol]

It's kind of funny that Downing would bring up the idea that they would use the shotgun more when Russell Street Report had an article last week that said they probably won't use it that much. That was based off the idea that Flacco's stats playing from the shotgun position isn't very good, but a lot of that comes from the offensive struggles of 2013

[law215]

I think AFC North Football is always about run the ball and stop the run. There are too many great front 7 defenses in the AFC North. A Balanced offense, protect the football I the key.

[Crusader]

Not if the ravens run game is working

[bryangraham013@gmail.ocm]

I like when the west coast off. the screens and slants those 3-5 yards plays that move the ball the way Bill Walsh intended it to be then when the defense would try to cheat then comes the big play down field we have that kind of offense especially in the AFC North November and December tough games also the Ravens will be playing the NFC West most those teams predicated on defense tough D the good thing is that Joe is used to playing against tough D his own of course Harbough is stubborn at times his in-game adjustments are few and far in between cause he wants to be tough all the time just take what the defense gives you

[Ravens4Real]

Flacco is not that good out of the shotgun. He needs the running game to be working so that he can do play action. He hasn't shown to be one of those QB's that can just sit in shotgun and prosper. Get the running game going and Flacco will go with it.

[Dorota]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was about to say.  They ran a lot of plays out of shotgun because the oline was one of the worst in the NFL and the run game was constantly putting the offense in bad situations.  They had to go with the shotgun formation to give the receivers time to get open.    

 

People forget how injured that offense was.  I always say the team had no tight end, no running game, a  horrible oline and not much at receiver.  Receivers were Torrey Smith,  Marlon Brown, Tandon Doss and Jacoby Jones.  And Jones missed a lot of games early in the season after the safety fell on top of him while he was trying to catch a punted football. 

I actually liked Dallas Clark for what he was - a quick fix for an injured Pitta already into the start of season, when most free agents worth anything at all are already taken. He wasn't a 6'7 stud come out of college, but he did some things for us and was good at converting 3rd downs. I liked that he fought for contested balls and didn't go down easy. And could make those one handed grabs too.