OTL: A (Mostly) Clean Game Against Pitt? Great Early Gift!
Happy Holidays, Flock! I hope all of you are preparing for time with your loved ones, that whatever you do brings you peace and happiness, and that you get everything you wished for this year. It may not fit under the tree, but I definitely got something I’ve been wishing for: the Ravens look like they’re finally lining things up.
The improvement in this Baltimore Ravens defense has been gargantuan, with some huge contributions all over the field!
Michael Pierce sack!
Ar’Darius Washington big hit, FF!
Kyle Van Noy’s 1.5 sacks!
Marlon Humphrey’s ELECTRIC pick 6!What a game! #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/STXSlFUF2I
— Nic Mason (@British_Raven19) December 23, 2024
Here’s Kyle Hamilton’s snaps by alignment (week over week)
Week 10 was right around when they benched Marcus Williams + Eddie Jackson and moved Hamilton to full-time safety. Hamilton’s impact in coverage cannot be overstated. https://t.co/cFVo8Aw37j pic.twitter.com/Gb9aa77Haw
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) December 23, 2024
Saturday’s win over the Steelers, while it wasn’t perfect, seems to be giving the Ravens and their fanbase a ton of confidence moving forward. Not only did they secure a win over their most hated rival, but they made in-game adjustments that helped right some of the wrongs that we’ve lamented all year long. In the early going, Baltimore’s defense was struggling against even a depleted Steelers receiver corps, and the word “soft” was circulating around social media. Maybe Zach Orr let the defense know that on the sidelines, because the rest of the game looked a whole lot better.
OUR BALL @ad_washington24 forces the fumble and @KVN_03 recovers!!!!
Tune in on FOX pic.twitter.com/zWEtx7xIQ9
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 21, 2024
1st career Pick-6 for @marlon_humphrey
: #PITvsBAL on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/0UTlkTesVV
— NFL (@NFL) December 22, 2024
I could hardly believe my eyes when Marlon Humphrey came up with that ball. It’s not like it should be surprising to see Marlo get a pick; after all, that was his sixth of the season, setting a single-season high for his career. I think it was more shocking to me given that he’s never had a pick-6 before, and that this was Baltimore’s first defensive touchdown of the season! Beyond that, the pick thrown by Lamar Jackson a few plays earlier felt like the voodoo magic momentum swing we’ve all come to expect in these matchups against Pittsburgh, but the Ravens did something else that we’ve been begging for in these games: they didn’t panic.
Reporter: You had more than 160 rushing yards today. About 100 yards more than you had last time against these guys. What was the difference today?
Derrick Henry: Guys blocking
via @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/e2MxMSzT7N
— Bobby Trosset (@bobbybaltim0re) December 22, 2024
When things stalled early in the run game, they didn’t gravitate away from a run-heavy approach. They stayed balanced and involved their tight ends, allowing both Isaiah Likely and Mark Andrews to score. Later, they spread the ball around, which allowed Rashod Bateman to score his third touchdown in two weeks, but it also resulted in Zay Flowers benefiting from single coverage, leading to a huge catch and run late in the game. Maybe most importantly of all: they didn’t beat themselves by racking up the laundry.
The Ravens entered today having been penalized 117 times for 997 yards.
Today?
Two for 10 yards.
That’ll play.
— Bobby Trosset (@bobbybaltim0re) December 22, 2024
Call me cautiously optimistic, because as we saw, not everything is fixed. You’re likely not going to see the Ravens, or any other team, for that matter, play a perfect game this season, but the improvements we saw in a game that they absolutely had to have make me feel a heck of a lot better about this team than when they faced Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. The defense is pulling together, in large part due to the impact of Kyle Hamilton and a return to form by Roquan Smith. Lamar looked sharper and didn’t seem to be rushing his throws, albeit with what could have been a costly interception on what appeared to be a miscue with Rashod Bateman. Roger Rosengarten has been among the players on the O-line who have really dialed it in…
Roger Rosengarten pressures in week 11:
1 hurry
Locked him up healthy. Locked him up when Watt came off the injury report on Thursday with a full participation https://t.co/qqV8uLoxkv
— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) December 23, 2024
Lamar on the O-line: pic.twitter.com/10I0V0Va6S
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 23, 2024
…so much so that the discourse around the O-line from the first couple weeks of the season seems like a thankfully-distant memory.
Earlier in the season, if the team’s status quo had remained, my outlook for this team in the postseason would have been bleak. At times, I griped about what it would look like once the Ravens got to this part of the year, but I’ll tell ya… I feel decent about where the guys are right now. The late-season BYE seems to be doing wonders for the team’s health (fingers crossed for Justice Hill), and with just two games remaining, they have a puncher’s chance of being able take the division.
We hear the cliché all the time in football that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Despite the early-season struggles, the Ravens look like a markedly better team than they did even a few weeks ago, and if they can keep this up, I like the odds of what this version of the team can do.
The post OTL: A (Mostly) Clean Game Against Pitt? Great Early Gift! appeared first on Russell Street Report.
Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/12/24/out-to-lunch/otl-a-mostly-clean-game-against-pitt-great-early-gift/
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