For my general thoughts on the Ravens run attack against the Bears, visit . For now, I want to post a couple interesting run plays the Ravens pulled out last Sunday that didn’t make my original article:
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“Pin/Pull” Outside Zone
I have discussed the Ravens zone blocking scheme in detail in . In that piece I described the primary tenets of the zone blocking scheme, the first of which asks offensive lineman to “Reach block” (i.e. work to the defender’s playside hip). Ravens lineman have struggled as a group to “Reach” defenders while maintaining leverage. A simple way around this is to implement Pin-and-Pull blocking.
Traditional zone blocking rules would ask A.Q. Shipley (LG) and Eugene Monroe (LT) to both “Reach” to the playside (to their left). Instead, Monroe makes an easy “down block” (i.e. seal off the backside) and Shipley pulls around the edge to block a linebacker. This simple variant of the zone blocking scheme minimizes predictability and gets blockers out in open space.
This play ultimately led to a loss of 4 yards because Ed Dickson (TE) and A.Q. Shipley (LG) both miss their blocks. The scheme was beautiful but the execution in front of HB Pierce doomed the play.
End Around Lead
The Bears had success using End Arounds against the Ravens during regulation. The Ravens answered with an End Around of their own on their first running play of Overtime.
The design of this play calls for each offensive lineman to fire off as if the play was Inside Zone Weak (i.e. move collectively to their left). After the snap, all of the lineman treat the play as Inside Zone except A.Q. Shipley who begins his playside movement and peels back as the lead blocker for Jacoby Jones who takes the handoff around the edge.
Ray Rice fakes the handoff and cut-blocks the SAM linebacker (#50).
The Ravens blockers seal the edge and allow Jacoby Jones to pick up a gain of 4 yards. Fans tend to see Reverses and End Arounds as gimmick plays. If the play is schemed well and designed to use deception, these types of plays can be part of the gameplan every Sunday.
Lead OF
- O=Offensive Lineman
- F=Fullback
This play is an example of “Power” football in full effect. The Ravens downblock first level defenders and lead Bernard Pierce through the 3-hole with Marshal Yanda (RG) and Vonta Leach.
The backside is walled off beautifully. This play should have gone for a huge gain if not for Leach (FB), Monroe (LT), and Yanda (RG) using 3 blockers on 2 defenders. This leaves one free scraping linebacker (above LG) to fill the gap and make the play-saving tackle.
Conclusions
As was a theme of my previous piece on the running game, many of the above plays were one block away from turning into a footrace in the secondary. Of course the Bears defensive front has been banged up and playing altogether poorly. But with a new focus on using Power running principles, the Ravens’ scheme should be able to win at the point-of-attack more often than not. Unfortunately for the Ravens (fans), scheme can’t always account for superior defensive units simply out-muscling the blockers in front of them.
Regardless of the Ravens success on the ground in Chicago, I am still one of the pessimists who need to see the Ravens run the ball on a top defensive foe. (Un)fortunately, the Ravens have just that test on Sunday versus the Jets.
Dan played high school football at Wilde Lake and graduated from McDaniel College with a degree in Psychology. Dan is currently a Maryland Terp working on his PhD degree in Neuroscience. He has experience writing published scientific material as well as blogging for SBNation via Baltimore Beatdown. Beginning in the 2012 season, Dan has been writing about the Ravens focusing on the X’s and O’s of the game of football with heavy use of overhead (All-22) film analysis. The Columbia, MD native currently lives in Silver Spring.