Analyzing How To Beat Their D

[PurpleClawsOfFURY]

Everyone knows when you play the steeler's there will be a lot of punts. But plays have been proven to work against the steelers weak points on D (if there are any).

Max protect passes - If we catch them in blitz situations we need to pick it up by keeping the tightends or backs in the help pick up the blitz. 1 on 1 it's hard to cover a widereciever. The only problem is the Steelers don't all out blitz much! We have to recgonize when they do.

Double moves - Against a aggresive defense and a saftey (Polomalu) who plays mostly in the box you can't have much cover two so when you have Derrick Mason who is one of the best route runners you can run your sluggo's, hitch and go's and stop fades.. hopefully getting behind the corner and hooking up for points that will come rarely in this game.

Off tackle and Stetch - With McClain's ankle injury the burden may be put more towards McGahee and Rice. Off tackle plays to get the edge or atleast away from there backside pursuit (which is relentless with Harrison and Timmons). McGahee is a slasher, running stretch plays often will give him great oppurtunities to cut back and pick up some yardage.

Screens and Draws - Simple things for Flacco, in obvious passing situations run the draw so there is no pressure really on Flacco (who doesn't feel pressure lol) and DIFFERENT Screen plays, everyone knows the half back screen but there are players that defenders don't seem fit to run a screen play so they ignore. Lorenzo Neal, McClain, and Heap can all run screens behind blockers with out all the attention Ray Rice and McGahee can get.

The last two weeks i've been correct on who to stop on their offense.
Miami: Patrick Cobbs, Davon Bess
Tenn: Chris Johnson, Justin Gage

This week i believe if you can stop the short slants of Hines Ward and obviously the scrambling of Ben Rothliesburger i think we can pull out a win.

Go Ravens

[JonM229]

I know that running the ball using the unbalanced line did a good job of neutralizing James Harrison during our second matchup. Adam Terry shut him down that game.

[codizzle]

i agree. our offensive line play in this game will be huge.. especially if mcclain is hurt at all because i believe that will force us to spread the running game outside the tackles and use misdirection more and incorporate more screen plays. hopefully willie will make it the whole game so we can incorporate terry in some off formations instead of having to use him in the line....

[foreversunny23]

Nice post PurpleClawsOfFURY. I completely agree. I think the Steelers rarely do all out blitzes because their OLB do a pretty good job getting pressure on the edges. We need McGahee and Rice to have good games for us to win. Hopefully Rice will have a awesome game now that he's healthy again.

It is going to be very hard to stop those short slant patterns for Ward. We need someone besides Walker or Ivy covering him...

[cwd1972]

I don't think stretch plays will work, their D is too fast. I think we neutralize the edge rush by running right at it, bring the edge rusher up the field and let neal open the gap. Grind out 5 at a pop. You will never stop the ward slants but you can neutralize those as well by hitting him quick and being sure to bring him down at the point of attack. Keep it front of you unlike the home game when walker allowed him to break one for a big yardage pickup.
I definitely agree that when we get to Ben we need to bring him down. We can't allow him to scramble and make plays down field.

I don't know, I am liking McGahee in this game. He is pissed and feels he has something to prove. He broke a couple big runs down the stretch against Jags and Miami and he appears to be running a bit tougher inside than he was earlier in the season.

I also agree that SD exposed some weaknesses. I loved that route down the seam that Sproles ran, that was a sweet play and can probably work again. I could see Rice doing the same thing as quick as he is.

I think Santonio is more of an X factor in this game. bottle him up on returns and do not let him get the ball in space.

[5 and Counting]

The Steelers don't all out blitz much and when they do, they disguise it well. The whole key to the success of the Steelers' pass rush is they show a pass rush from alot of different players and then drop some of them back into coverage during the snap. So it leaves the offense guessing about who will be blitzing and from which direction.

In terms of stopping Hines on short slant routes, the Steelers don't really run that play much. Hines gets many of his catches off the line or on out patterns. In fact, we have been complaining quite a bit this year about why Arians doesn't run more quick slants to Heath and Hines to neutralize the pass rushes that were getting Ben killed earlier in the season.

[PurpleClawsOfFURY]

-With a fast defense like theres a stretch play can work still if we can get them to over pursue and cut block the backside man.
-Holmes will most likely be covered by Fabian who shut him down last game.
-Ray Rice needs to get involved
-I say we let there OLB's run up feild all day and run underneath of them
-And when have we ran one of our trick plays against the Steelers? with a fast flow pursuing defense like that i think it might work at the right time.
-With Suggs out we must do overload blitzes to one side and run delayed blitzes to stop the QB from getting outside of the pocket.


I don't have a good feeling about this game but i love underestimating my Ravens because they always prove me wrong.

The Ravens have IT... i don't know what IT is but they have it right now..

[Black&Purple]

It bothered me we didn't try many screen passes when we faced them. (If any?)

[catty112]

I agree. More screen passes, and the best way to execute the screen pass is to set it up toards the opposing teams best pass rusher so that he's behind the play

[catty112]

sorry double post---the server must be pretty active hehe

[raywho]

"I also agree that SD exposed some weaknesses. I loved that route down the seam that Sproles ran, that was a sweet play and can probably work again. I could see Rice doing the same thing as quick as he is."

You do realize that that play happened against a prevent d at the end of the game,right?

[Shawn`]

We have to catch them on blitz plays and make it a play action, that way Troy covers Heap and we have a one on one with Derrick Mason or Clayton on the outsides, just recognize and call out their defense and we should be fine.

[WACKO4FLACC0]

[quote name='PurpleClawsOfFURY' post='128497' date='Jan 13 2009, 01:47 PM']Everyone knows when you play the steeler's there will be a lot of punts. But plays have been proven to work against the steelers weak points on D (if there are any).

Max protect passes - If we catch them in blitz situations we need to pick it up by keeping the tightends or backs in the help pick up the blitz. 1 on 1 it's hard to cover a widereciever. The only problem is the Steelers don't all out blitz much! We have to recgonize when they do.

Double moves - Against a aggresive defense and a saftey (Polomalu) who plays mostly in the box you can't have much cover two so when you have Derrick Mason who is one of the best route runners you can run your sluggo's, hitch and go's and stop fades.. hopefully getting behind the corner and hooking up for points that will come rarely in this game.

Off tackle and Stetch - With McClain's ankle injury the burden may be put more towards McGahee and Rice. Off tackle plays to get the edge or atleast away from there backside pursuit (which is relentless with Harrison and Timmons). McGahee is a slasher, running stretch plays often will give him great oppurtunities to cut back and pick up some yardage.

Screens and Draws - Simple things for Flacco, in obvious passing situations run the draw so there is no pressure really on Flacco (who doesn't feel pressure lol) and DIFFERENT Screen plays, everyone knows the half back screen but there are players that defenders don't seem fit to run a screen play so they ignore. Lorenzo Neal, McClain, and Heap can all run screens behind blockers with out all the attention Ray Rice and McGahee can get.

The last two weeks i've been correct on who to stop on their offense.
Miami: Patrick Cobbs, Davon Bess
Tenn: Chris Johnson, Justin Gage

This week i believe if you can stop the short slants of Hines Ward and obviously the scrambling of Ben Rothliesburger i think we can pull out a win.

Go Ravens[/quote]
These are all great points but here is the problem with this post... you dont think that offensive coordinators have seen this already... I mean all they do is sit there and watch past film and devise game

plans... also we play them every year twice a year, we know how they play, what they run.

Also what makes you think that we can stop the short slants of Ward... we didnt do it last week against Gage (who is not nearly as good as Ward).

[tweety]

Do the same think as last game. We dominated Offensively and Defensively(up until the end). The only thing I would like to see differently is us punching it into the endzone.

[#1 D]

[quote name='WACKO4FLACC0' post='128761' date='Jan 13 2009, 06:01 PM']These are all great points but here is the problem with this post... you dont think that offensive coordinators have seen this already... I mean all they do is sit there and watch past film and devise game

plans... also we play them every year twice a year, we know how they play, what they run.

Also what makes you think that we can stop the short slants of Ward... we didnt do it last week against Gage (who is not nearly as good as Ward).[/quote]
Well, the Ravens (probably) won't make the same mistake twice, and we've seen this team twice in a row as we've also seen some late Worthlessburger heroics. But, I think Samari or whoever corner for that matter is playing, will know that Hines ward needs extra attention especially late in the game. Heck, i'd rather give up one short long play if we know they'll score instead of tire our D and waste time in order to try and stop hines ward and Big Ben who just eat up the clock efficiently as well as score...

[wolfzie06]

Good post! I agree with your points, but I also want to make a point of my own. I noticed you said to utilize more stretches and off-tackle runs. I agree. McClain might get 3-5 yards every time he runs up the middle, but McGahee on a stretch or bounce outside can get off a good gain. But the problem is that they normally read the run so well that when you are running a stretch, they have a LB from the opposite side in the backfield already to get you from behind while you are waiting for the hole to open. Their DT's get great penetration as well. It will be a tough game, but I really think we need Willis McGahee to come up big this week and I would love to see Ray Rice involved on some screens or options.

[RavensIQ]

-Shotgun
-Spread formations (3 wr, 2wr 2 TE, ect.)
-Screens
-Shotgun draws
-Stretch the field deep
-McGahee
-Swing passes to the RBs
-Wilcox
-Roll Flacco
-No huddle

We need the pass to setup the run and the run to setup the play action...odd, I know, but that's the only way we're going to be able to move the chains on Pittsburgh efficiently. We need to be aggressive in the redzone (pass on 1st downs). We need to utilize Heap on the PA and we need to find mismatches with our TEs.


That's how we win. If we play with a conservative field position game plan we're gonna find ourselves in trouble early.

[bmorefan80]

We have to do something different from the past 2 games, or we will be too predictable.

*Spread out the offense, maybe setting up 4WR at some points
*Use alot of screens with Rice
*I would even throw in a flea flicker once to see how they respond. If it doesn't work just get out of the pocket and throw it away.
*If we are going to run, I say run straight at Harrison. Protect the ball and let him make the tackle. This will make him tired eventually, and he shouldn't be a factor later on(hopefully)
*We know that Troy likes to tackle people by diving at the legs. We need to be acrobatic and jump over his @ss

We need to take advantage of the kick returns. This will be the main factor for both teams.

Also, watch out for the Steelers to try a onside kick on there first kickoff. They have been taking alot of risks, and relying on there defense to back them up, if they fail. I have a feeling they might be pulling a fake punt, like they tried against the Chargers.

We just need to be different this game. Take the early lead and momentum will be on our side.