Battle Red Blog
The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Week 5:
When the resistible force meets the moveable object, the resistible force dominated: Coming into this matchup, you had the 29th ranked offense in Houston vs. the 32nd ranked defense in Baltimore. As for Houston’s ranking, that was bumped up by its performance against the Titans the week before. Weakness vs. Weakness. There was the counter of the Texans’ top scoring defense vs. Baltimore’s 3rd ranked offense. However, the loss of Jackson for the Ravens severely hampered that offensive power. Cooper Rush is a decent backup, but he can’t run the Baltimore attack like Jackson (literally or figuratively). Sunday bore that out. The Texans’ defense, without the dual-threat of Jackson, could play strictly against the run and force Rush to try to win via his arm, a winning formula. Derrick Henry only got 33 yards on 15 carries, and the rest of the Ravens’ offense did not muster much of a fight. Meanwhile, the Texans attack picked up from its 4th quarter of the Titans game, scoring on its first 8 drives and putting up the team’s best offensive performance in over a year. Likely the game result would look a bit different with Jackson using his passing and running skills, but with the Ravens having the defense that they do, it might have only helped the offensive numbers for the Ravens. Admittedly, maybe Kyle Hamilton was a more critical loss for the Ravens, as the Texans did a lot of their offensive damage over the middle of the Baltimore secondary where the All-Pro normally dominates.
Where the game turned: The Texans’ longest run of the day: The 2nd quarter turned into a house of horrors for the Ravens. After a solid first drive resulting in a FG and holding the Texans to a matching FG to only be down 10-3, Baltimore’s second possession ended in disaster, with Rush losing 16 yards on a Edwards’ sack and then Baltimore’s special teams committing an ill-timed punt coverage penalty and the subsequent re-kick gave Houston 24 additional yards in field position. After two plays netting seven yards, Houston faced a 3rd and 3 at the BAL 34 with 8:01 left in the 2nd Quarter. Houston hasn’t been one of the better 3rd down teams this year, so Baltimore had high hopes for stopping Houston, holding them to either a long FG attempt, or forcing them to go for it on 4th down. Stroud lined up in shotgun with a 4-WR, 1-RB set. At the snap, everyone takes off, and the Ravens’ defense is set to guard the receivers/passing game. One issue, and perhaps they bought Stroud’s line about not being as explosive at 23, was that they didn’t account for him at all. Stroud will not make anyone think he is Lamar Jackson,...
