Previewing the Ravens run game against the Steelers

The Baltimore Ravens travel to Pittsburgh to face divisional rivals the Steelers in a winner-takes-all wildcard game. The two teams split their divisional games this season, each winning at home. As is always the case with a Gary Kubiak offense, the Ravens will need their running game to get going against a stout Steelers defensive front. Fortunately, having played two games against each other already, we can get a fairly good idea of how the Ravens rushing attack will fair against the Steelers.

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When you look at the joint total, the Ravens posted a combined 220 yards from 54 carries, averaging a shade over four yards per carry. That’s a solid performance. However, when you look at each game individually, you’ll see that the Ravens went from 4.4 yards per carry in their week two game at home, to 3.5 yards per carry in the week nine match up in Pittsburgh. That’s nearly a yard per carry worse.

In their first match up, Baltimore struggled to get their blockers to the second level to block linebackers.

Here, Bernard Pierce takes the hand-off on a stretch play to the right.

The Ravens work their combination blocks up front. Left guard Kelechi Osemele and center Jeremy Zuttah work together on the nose tackle, while right guard Marshal Yanda and right tackle Ricky Wagner work on the defensive end.

But the Ravens offensive line fails to work off the tandem-blocks to pick up the roaming linebackers. They fill the holes quickly. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk manages to block one, but the other inside linebacker comes flying in on the back side of the run and makes the tackle.

It didn’t matter if the run was to the right or the left.

This time, the Ravens run to their left.

Like before, both linebackers are unblocked and free to roam. The back cuts inside to follow Juszczyk, who is able to block one linebacker.

But again, the other linebacker is left free to make the tackle.

This was a common theme throughout the game. The Steelers inside linebackers were allowed to roam too easily and get to the running back without much effort.

This time, the Ravens don’t help themselves with the call. Running to the left here means Yanda has to quickly get to the nose tackle to allow Zuttah to work to the linebacker.

Yanda takes his drop step to get the angle he wants for the block. But that gives the linebacker time to diagnose the play and approach the line of scrimmage.

In the end, Yanda couldn’t get over in time to allow Zuttah to peal off and block the linebacker. Pierce does his best to cut back inside and avoid the tackle, but is unsuccessful and brought down for a loss.

This was Baltimore’s biggest problem when they went into their week nine game against the Steelers. The put more of an emphasis on getting to the second level and getting blockers on the Steelers inside linebackers. But this came at a cost, giving the Steelers defensive lineman a better match up.

This was the first play of the game in Pittsburgh. Cameron Heyward lines up as a inside 4-tech defensive end in the Steelers 3-4. Osemele and left tackle Eugene Monroe combine, at least initially, to block him.

But Heyward does an excellent job splitting the block, which stops the Ravens pair from gaining leverage and driving him back.

Despite failing to gain control of the Heyward block, Monroe works to the second level, knowing he has to get to those inside linebackers. But that leaves Heyward one-on-one with Osemele, who gets himself in a bad position.

Heyward bursts past Osemele and makes the tackle on Justin Forsett in the backfield before he can even react.

The other problem the Ravens encountered was Zuttah being left to block the nose tackle on his own. Zuttah has been one of the Ravens most impressive acquisitions from the offseason, transitioning to a zone-blocking center excellently. But he excels at tandem blocks and using his athleticism to work to the second level. Against this Steelers 3-4 defense, he has found himself isolated on the nose tackle and struggled as a result.

Here we see Zuttah lined up against nose tackle Steve McLendon, and undrafted free agent in 2009.

Zuttah is left one-on-one with McLendon as the rest of the offensive line work their combination blocks. Zuttah gets driven back off the line of scrimmage as he attempts to find any form of leverage against McLendon.

But McLendon keeps Zuttah at arms length before peeling off to make the tackle for no gain.

With defensive lineman making plays in the backfield, the Ravens were forced to shift their focus back to the defensive line with their combination blocks, and worry about getting to the second level after that.

Later on in the game, the Ravens hand off to Pierce to the right.

Just like we saw in the first game, the Ravens work good tandem-blocks up front.

But they fail to reach the linebackers on the second level. Wagner can’t peel off his block and get to Lawrence Timmons, who bursts through.

Timmons chases down Pierce, forcing him out to the sideline before tackling him for a minimal gain.

This creates quite the problem for the Ravens heading into their playoff game this week. The Ravens had more success when they focused on getting the initial blocks upfront under control. If they can do that, and have their tight ends do a better job holding the edge, then Forsett might be able to get the inside linebackers to over-pursue to the outside and open up cut-back lanes, effectively blocking them without having a physical blocker on them. Clearly, they can’t afford to allow what happened in the second game, where the Steelers defensive lineman played in the backfield and kept the Ravens to 3.5 yards per carry. For an offense that is built around running the ball, that simply cannot happen.