Russell Street Report Filmstudy OL Crippled by Absence of Ronnie Stanley

The Ravens were without Ronnie Stanley for 4 games in 2016. His replacements at LT posted a collective effort that was on the D-/F border. Furthermore, Stanley’s injury forced rookie Alex Lewis to slide to LT after playing well at LG.

In an eerily similar situation, the absence of Stanley in Green Bay hurt the Ravens at 2 positions and was the biggest contributing factor to the offensive impotence.

The Ravens line gave Flacco ATS on just 32% of snap (10 of 31) as compared to Hundley, who had ATS on 60% of snaps (25 of 42). Flacco played well considering the circumstances, but it’s unlikely he can perform as well regularly under this sort of pressure.

A pair of similar passes

Flacco took 2 significant shots into coverage in this game. The first was the ball intercepted by Clinton-Dix that was intended for Woodhead. The second was the TD pass to Wallace. Let’s review:

— (Q2, 7:17): The Ravens lined up with Woodhead in the backfield and Collins motioning left showing jet sweep. Woodhead sprinted out of the backfield on a wheel route, but Clinton-Dix did not bite on the fake and had step-for-step inside coverage. Between a turn for the football and slight push from Woodhead, Clinton-Dix also turned and tracked the football for the interception. Great play by Clinton-Dix in every respect.

— (Q3, 13:14): The Ravens lined up with 4 receivers and 1 back. Wallace was the middle of 3 spread receivers on the left side. RCB Randall had tight man coverage, but never took the cue to turn for the football which allowed Wallace to collect it right over the CB’s shoulder. Flacco’s throw was in a better position for Wallace to either make the catch or deny the interception, but this was another “trust” throw for his receiver and Wallace came through for him.

Offensive Line Scoring

The Ravens ran 56 scored snaps (excludes accepted penalties which result in no play, kneels, spikes, and special teams plays that result in a run or pass).

Hurst: James played out of position and had a difficult game, despite the early exit of Clay Matthews. He was beaten for parts of 4 pressure events in 56 snaps after allowing just 4 pressure events in his last 269 snaps at LG (4 games). Matthews beat him outside for a sack (Q1, 7:39) for which I gave him just 2/3 of the charge, because Ahmad Brooks was bulling Howard (1/3 charge) awkwardly off his feet on the other side. Hurst and Howard had another evenly shared sack (Q3, 4:55) when Brooks bulled Hurst then slipped off inside and Howard was shed to the outside by Lowry. James made 1 block in L2, but did not have a highlight.

Scoring: 56 plays, 45 blocks, 6 missed, 1 penetration, 1 pressure, 1 QH, 1.17 (2/3 + ½) sacks, 31 points (.55 per play). F. While it was not a cartoonishly poor game, I’m going to turn to the words of Marge Simpson. “Let us never speak of it again” – which we should be able to do if Stanley returns vs. Houston.

Bowanko: Luke started in place of Hurst at LG and was reasonably effective until a costly holding call. He surrendered a full pressure when steamrolled by Daniels (Q1, 1:48). He held the strong safety Jones when pulling (Q4, 2:55), which negated a 13-yard gain by Collins. Bowanko made just 4 of his 7 other pulls, so his success was a big step down from Hurst’s current 28 for 34 streak. Bowanko missed 6 blocks, 3 of which were instances of being beaten when the ball was out quickly or when a run play was unaffected. The other 3 were the missed pulls. He made 1 block in level 2 and had 1 pancake. His highlight was a pull to pancake ILB Ryan in L2 (Q1, 9:40).

Scoring: 56 plays, 48 blocks, 6 missed, 1.25 pressures, 1 offensive holding, 39.5 points (.71 per play). After adjustment that’s a C-.

Jensen: Ryan had a solid game marred by a poor shotgun snap which resulted in a loss of 14. I scored the shotgun snap as a penetration, since it led directly to a loss and also charged him .04 towards his adjustment. He allowed just 1 full pressure when Clark shed him, but Flacco delivered the 33-yard pass to Watson (Q3, 14:54). Of his 4 missed blocks, he was truly beaten just once. He led the team with 6 blocks in level 2, made 1 of 2 pulls, and had 3 highlights. The best of those was a combination block on DT Clark, then Ryan in L2 (Q3, 0:41).

Scoring: 56 plays, 49 blocks, 4 missed, 1 penetration, 1.25 pressures, 44.5 points (.79 per play). That’s a C- after adjustment at center.

Skura: Matt hung in again to minimize missed blocks. He allowed parts of 5 pressures, including 2 full charges on bull rushes by Lowry (Q1, 2:32 and Q2, 7:47). I have him scored for just 2 missed blocks. Interior linemen and tackles miss blocks by my system at substantially different rates, primarily due to the difficulty tackles have in contributing on the back side of run plays. That’s made up in the grading scale. That said, of the 9 linemen who have taken a snap for the Ravens this season, only Yanda has a lower percentage of missed blocks:

Skura made all 4 of his pulls versus the Packers, had 1 block in level 2, and his highlight was a pull that took out Ryan on Collins’ TD run (Q4, 2:17).

Scoring: 56 plays, 49 blocks, 2 missed, 3.25 (2+ 2 x 1/2 + ¼) pressures, 42.5 points (.76 per play). After adjustment, that’s an C at guard which extends his consistent run of play.

Howard: Austin regressed from his outing at Tennessee. He was party to all 3 sacks including 2 shared with Hurst (see above) and a full charge when he was beaten inside by Fackrell (Q2, 1:37). He was also charged with a full QH when Perry bulled and shed him (Q3, 3:37). He made 1 block in level 2, and delivered 2 pancakes. Both of his highlights were special. He sealed and flattened (not a pancake due to contact with other players) Lowry to lead Collins’ 5-yard conversion on 4th and 1 (Q1, 9:30). He delivered a pancake on Ryan in L2 (Q4, 9:58) on Collins’ 9-yard run.

Scoring: 56 plays, 46 blocks, 2 missed, 1.5 penetration, .75 pressures, 1 QH, 1.83 (1 + ½ + 1/3) sacks, 27.5 points (.49 per play). That’s an F after adjustment.

It might be difficult to put a spin on a game where both tackles had failing grades, but I’m going to try. Neither of these were in the class of Oniel Cousins’ worst games, nor Hurst vs. J.J. Watt at Houston in 2014, nor even Ronnie Stanley in the first game against the Steelers last season. Both were high Fs which are effectively equivalent to the replacement level. If that’s the worst game a player turns in over the course of a season (and so far only Bergstrom’s half game in week 2 fell significantly lower), it is usually a good year.

If you’re interested in seeing scoring trends for the players this season, these charts will be updated weekly.