Analytical Review of Browns at Ravens

This past Sunday the Ravens found themselves in another similar situation. They once again held another double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and almost let the Browns come back for at least a tie late in the game. But the Special Teams unit came up in a big way by blocking the game-tying field goal attempt. The Ravens moved to 4-3 after picking up a gritty win vs their rivals. Lamar Jackson only had 16 passing attempts in the entire game while the running game saw 46 carries. It was a much-needed victory and more importantly, a division victory. No player had a true standout performance but it was a total team win, the Offense was fine most of the day with the exception of the late fumble by Justice Hill, the Defense looked much better especially with the return of Justin Houston, and the Special Teams was phenomenal all day long. Tucker was perfect yet again, Jordan Stout was booming long punts, and Devin Duvernay proved yet again why he is a Pro Bowler as a return specialist. Below I will highlight some of the good and bad grades on the afternoon. All grades are courtesy of Pro Football Focus.

Highest Graded Player of the Week: Geno Stone

Stone checks in as the highest graded player of the week; he finished the game with a final grade of 79.2, his second good game in a row. After finishing last week with a PFF grade of 81, Stone followed that effort up with another solid outing in this contest. Stone was exceptional in coverage; he only allowed 2 targets into his zone; both were caught for 57 yards. 55 of those yards he was credited it for due to a miscommunication between he and Marlon Humphrey early in the game. But other than that, he allowed one catch on 2 yards on 36 coverage snaps. Since taking over for Marcus Williams, the secondary hasn’t missed a beat. Stone and Hamilton have been very good stepping into Williams’ absence. Stone also added 7 tackles in this contest but did miss 2 tackles. If he did not miss those two tackles, we would’ve seen a much higher grade this week. But you cannot complain at all about a backup safety playing this well in place of a Pro-Bowler like Williams. Stone will get a chance to face Tom Brady this week on a quick turnaround on Thursday Night Football.

Second Highest Graded Player of the Week: Odafe Oweh

Oweh comes in as the second highest graded player this week with a PFF grade of 77.3, his best game of the year. Oweh has been relatively ineffective all season until this past Sunday. The former first rounder had the second highest pass rushing grade of the week, 90.2, second to only his former college teammate, Micah Parsons. Oweh had an impressive 5 pressures, 2 hits and 3 QB hurries on only 21 pass rushing snaps. The 77.3 grade was by far his highest of the season as was his pass rushing grade. With Justin Houston back, Oweh was much more effective because he could be rotated in instead of taking most of the pass-rush snaps. It is worth noting he was in on 8 run defense snaps and imputed a grade of 25.6. He missed 2 tackles on those aforementioned 8 snaps which severely brought the grade down. He’ll need to clean that up but Oweh is trending in the right direction.

Third Highest Graded Player of the Week: Patrick Queen

Queen rounds off this list by finishing with a PFF grade of 76. It is Queen’s third straight appearance on this list. After a poor start to the beginning of the season, Queen has been arguably the best player on the Ravens defense over the last three weeks. Queen had ten total tackles (6 solo, 4 assists) and did not miss a tackle for the second straight week. He also added two huge back-to-back tackles for loss that pinned the Browns to the 1-yard line. He also added 3 pressures and added another sack for the second straight week. His tackling performance was easily his best of the season and he was solid in the pass rushing department as well. One thing to note was his coverage, he allowed all 6 targets to be caught for 55 yards. But overall, you have to love this performance as a Ravens fan. Queen has slowly been increasing his PFF grade every week and will look to have another big game this Thursday.

Other Notable High Grades:

Gus Edwards: 78.6 (Highest graded offensive player of the week)

Justin Houston: 78.7

Ronnie Stanley: 74.1 (First game this season in which he’s allowed a QB pressure)

Lowest Graded Player of the Week: Travis Jones

Travis Jones comes in as the lowest graded player this week with a PFF grade of 44.8. Jones got the start and played a total of 23 snaps. Of the 23 snaps, 7 were pass rush snaps in which he did not record any sort of stat. The remaining 15 snaps he was fairly ineffective vs the run as well. He only added one tackle on the day and was mostly erased by the dominant Browns interior line. I wouldn’t worry too much about this outing. Jones is a promising young rookie who is still trying to find his footing on this deep defensive front. He is having a decent season thus far and will look to have a better game this Thursday vs a reeling offensive interior line of the Buccaneers.

Second Lowest Graded Player of the Week: Josh Bynes

Josh Bynes finishes as the second lowest graded player this week. Bynes finished with a PFF grade of 45.6, his fourth straight game with under a 60 PFF grade. The scripts have been flipped for Bynes and Queen. Bynes is usually the one grading well and Queen is usually grading poorly. But the two are going in opposite directions as of late. Bynes has not been good against the run this season. His run defense grade of 38.1 is amongst the lowest grades of any off-ball linebacker. Bynes has been valuable to the Ravens during his tenure, you just wonder if age is starting to catch up to him. The veteran will get a chance to right the ship against Tampa Bay this Thursday.

Third Lowest Graded Player of the Week: Chuck Clark

Clark rounds off this week’s list by finishing with a PFF grade of 53.3, his lowest of the season. Chuck Clark had a very average game by his standards, he logged 60 snaps and finished with 8 total tackle and two missed tackles, while also allowing 3 targets all to be caught for 28 yards. I am not overly concerned with this performance because if he did have the missed tackles, the grade would be higher. He went weeks 2-5 without a missed tackle. Clark is one of the best tacklers on the team so I am not overly worried. But it is worth noting that he has graded under 60.3 in 6 straight games now, and it is his coverage that is driving the grade down. He has been targeted 21 times and has allowed 18 of the targets to be caught for 170 yards. Quarterbacks have a 116 QB rating when targeting Clark. Clark will have a chance to improve this grade this week, normally facing Tom Brady is a tough task but the Bucs offense has one touchdown in the last two games. Only one touchdown vs a banged-up Steelers secondary and zero touchdowns vs the Panthers. Clark has a real chance to have a big game in this contest.

Other Notable Low Grades:

Tyler Linderbaum: 60.4

Kevin Zeitler: 55.5

Overall, not too many notable low grades. 16 players graded 68 or better which tied a season high.

The Ravens got a much-needed win this week but have a quick turnaround. Thye have to travel to Tampa Bay to face a reeling Bucs team who are coming off back-to-back losses in which they were 10-point favorites or better. The Raven’s defense has been playing much better as of late and will be playing surprisingly one of the most mediocre offenses over the last two weeks. The Bucs defense has not been much better. They just allowed the Christian McCaffery-less Panthers to run all over them to the tune of 176 yards. The Ravens have one of the most dynamics run offenses in the league and could get really ugly if they can’t slow down Lamar and Gus Edwards. The Ravens need to try to stack a few wins together to keep pace with the Bengals who just dominated two straight opponents. The Ravens open as 1.5 road favorites.