BATTLE PLANS: Offense – If It Ain’t Broke…

Offense

If It Ain’t Broke…

The Ravens offense should not be a major concern against the Browns. Baltimore had no problem moving the ball against the Bills in Week 1, averaging 8.6 yards per play with chunk gains on the ground and through the air.. Todd Monken has also had Cleveland’s number since taking over as the offensive coordinator in 2023, averaging 30 points per game in four meetings.

Patrick Ricard and Isaiah Likely are trending towards another absence, which will likely lead to a recurrence of last Sunday’s strategy. Mark Andrews and Charlie Kolar answered the call for inline duties with Zaire Mitchell-Paden coming up from the practice squad to be a capable if unspectacular fullback. The personnel changes didn’t stop the Ravens from rumbling for 238 rushing yards in Buffalo, and that should once again be the focal point against Cleveland.

It’s probably getting repetitive to extol the effectiveness of Ravens’ heavy rushing attack, but just for fun, let’s look at a few stats. In Week 18 against the Browns last year, Derrick Henry carried the ball 20 times for 138 yards (87 over expected via Next Gen Stats) and two touchdowns. Lamar Jackson chipped in 63 yards on nine carries with the pair forcing 15 missed tackles between them, according to Pro Football Focus.

That was a pattern for both teams last year. Per NGS, Henry ranked first or second in missed tackles forced (106), yards after missed tackles (754), and yards after contact per attempt (4.2). The Browns, meanwhile, were gashed by opposing ballcarriers to the tune of 192 missed tackles forced and 1,119 yards after a missed tackle.

It seemed like the Browns stepped their game up against the Bengals in Week 1, holding Chase Brown to just 43 yards on 21 carries. Of note, however, were their continued tackling struggles.

Chase Brown may have had the most impressive game with less than 2 yards per carry we’ve ever seen

Per @NextGenStats, Brown had -43 rushing yards before contact, the lowest single-game mark in the NGS era — and finished the day with +43 yards on 21 attempts pic.twitter.com/Sxck8n8uhy

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) September 10, 2025

Despite consistently contacting Brown behind the line of scrimmage, Cleveland’s defenders struggled to bring him down quickly. That will be even more difficult against Henry and Jackson, but this offensive line is susceptible to allowing the kind of penetration that even the All-Pro duo can’t escape. Andrew Vorhees, Daniel Faalele, and Roger Rosengarten all struggled to fire off the ball and hit their blocks in Week 1, including on Henry’s fumble. After watching their performance, it’s easy to see why Monken wants to use cadence to slow down opposing fronts off the snap.

Unfortunately, there’s no schematic replacement for simply blocking better. But the Ravens have the plays, and they have the personnel. They just need to execute, and execute consistently. Baltimore’s star ballcarriers can make the most of the room they’re given, but they need enough space to get going instead of fighting just to get back to the line of scrimmage. To an extent – and this especially applies to Faalele – the Ravens O-line needs to worry less about throwing bodies around and more about using their size and length to force defenders to work their way around blocks, rather than through them.

Foot on the Gas

One thing that is broken about the Ravens offense is their mystifying tendency to suddenly park the bus offensively with conservative play calling and sequencing.

Monken needs to keep his foot on the gas and stay aggressive in the second half. The Ravens went run-run-pass-punt on three of their second half drives (and were headed for a fourth before the Henry fumble). Getting aggressive doesn’t have to mean dropping back on every 1st-and-10; though that should happen more often, Monken also has more aggressive runs on his playsheet (tosses, read-option) that can generate explosive plays. Also missing late in the game were the plays designed around getting Stanley and Linderbaum blocking in space that demolished the Bills earlier on.

One crucial element that was missing in the later drives in Week 1 were early-down play action passes. With Henry gashing the Bills all night, they were loading up at the line of scrimmage more and more as the game went on, helping them stuff several first- and second-down runs in the second half. If the Browns want to creep up on the line of scrimmage too, Jackson has to be ready to draw them in and throw the ball over their heads.

Those plays are great chances to open up space behind the linebackers for Zay Flowers. He had an outstanding game against the Bills, accounting for 143 of Jackson’s 205 passing yards, including several crossing routes that are quickly becoming his signature. He has an exploitable matchup against Browns slot corner Myles Harden and should have ample opportunity to put up another big performance. With Harden likely looking for Flowers’ in-breaking routes, there may be opportunities for double moves or slot fades as a vertical change-up.

But, assuming that the Browns spent some time watching film from Week 1, their defense will be keying on Flowers. The Ravens should still put him in motion and send him flying around the field with the attention he attracts opening up space elsewhere. The Browns’ safeties will likely be looking to attack downhill against Flowers’ crossing routes, which should clear out the deep middle of the field for seam shots to Mark Andrews and Charlie Kolar. That will doubly be the case if the Browns are running single-high safety coverages against heavy offensive personnel to better defend the run.

In addition to staying on the attack, another key factor in closing games out will be the Ravens’ ability to stop Myles Garrett, who had more half of the Browns’ official backfield production in Week 1. Of his five pressures, four came in the fourth quarter (along with both of his sacks); three of those five also came on third down, per NGS.

Ronnie Stanley is obviously better-equipped to handle Garrett relative to Orlando Brown, and Monken has plenty of ways to slow down his game with screens, traps, counters, and designed QB runs. Those plays force Garrett to stop and process instead of pinning his ears back and attacking, which is when he’s at his best. However, if the Ravens box themselves into 3rd-and-longs due to conservative early-down play calling, run-blocking lapses, or both, they won’t have a choice but to drop back and trust Stanley to hold off Garrett long enough for Jackson to make something happen.

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/09/12/ravens-battle-plans/battle-plans-offense-if-it-aint-broke/