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Ravens Matchup: Bills' Vulnerabilities and Strategies ahead of Divisional Game


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Unlike the Colts, I actually feel we matchup well with the Ravens. That said, we do have a couple of vulnerabilities that we have hopefully worked on (vulnerabilities are in bold).

 

Bills on Offense

 

WInk Martindale is going to live and die by the Blitz. In the last game vs. the Bills, the blitz got to Allen again and again. But this season, Allen has just an amazing ability to beat the blitz. There are two reasons for that - a. his own natural ability in the pocket to escape the blitzer and b. his support group. He always had a. but in the last matchup b. failed him. Let me explain what I mean by that.

 

Clearly you have only 11 men on defense. If you are sending in blitzers, something else has to give. You have to leave your CBs to cover the WRs one on one. Last season, the Bills did not have Diggs - who arguably is the ultimate one on one coverage buster. I am confident the Ravens game is what solidified in Beane the need to acquire someone like Diggs. Allen has shown a willingness to test the one on one defender every time Diggs is single covered and Diggs has pretty much won the matchup every time.

 

Now the Ravens have two decent one on one corners in Humphrey and Peters. But here is the thing - Humphrey is the second most targeted CB in the NFL. Teams wouldnt throw his way if they did not think they had a good shot at completion. I am even more excited by the Peters - Davis / Brown matchup. Peters is the ultimate gambler who always tries to undercut to get picks. If Allen survives the blitz, he will have easy pickings off the shoulder shimmies and the pump fakes to the man being covered by Peters. Beasley, as a #3 WR instead of #2, also should have a field day occupying vacant spots left by the blitzing defender.

 

Stats show Baltimore to be a top 10 passing as well as rushing defense. They have faced some good rushing offenses - so I trust the rushing defense numbers - but I dont care too much - Singletary aint winning this game for us. I think there is a lil bit of fool's gold when it comes to their passing defense. They only faced one team with elite QB and WRs (KC - Dallas did not have a decent QB) - so I think our offense can put up points in a hurry so long as we limit turnovers from Allen evading the wave of blitzers. Ball security from Allen will be the key - since their pass rush does feature Campbell, Judon and Ngakoue. Ngakoue is the king of forced fumbles this side of Khalil Mack. Yes Allen will be sacked a few times but so long as he holds on to the ball those 20 yard plus completions will be there in equal measure when he evades the Blitz. Hopefully McD is buying some Stickum for Allen's non-throwing hand:

 

image.png.733edc15e43668f23698b1309e5d9b29.png

 

Our OL has actually played decently this season and Allen has a habit of making our OL look better than it is. So I dont think this matchup is  onerous.

 

Bills on Defense

 

We have the perfect DL for those zone read offenses since we limit big plays by stacking the box and layering run protection within the Cover 3 scheme. The safeties ability to stop Jackson from having 20+ yard runs will be the key. Dobbins is not the superstar athlete - but has the patience to wait to attack the B gap. Milano and Edmunds have to shed blocks and get to the B gap. The nice thing is that Ravens Oline is not at the level of the Colts - so I expect Edmunds and Milano to get to the runner quickly. But they do need sure tackling from these two - better than what they have show in the past. Maybe McD has scheduled extra practice featuring SIngletary as the Greased up Deaf Guy.

 

image.png.24c08711ea2680f3d9bb1f2640c6f9ac.png

 

All Bills fans know the Ravens Offense from Greg Roman - we saw first hand how he played with Tyrod Taylor and LeSean McCoy. Now just think of Ravens offense as similar except Taylor = Dobbins and McCoy = juking Jackson. We stack the box with 6 guys on one side and flush Jackson from the pocket to one side where we load up our safeties and one LB  to limit the run - Jackson's weakness is actually throwing on the run - contrary to popular belief he is a more than adequate passer from the pocket - so making him throw on the run is key. In the zone read running game - Bozeman and Skura are the key (much like how Roman used a pulling Incognito and Wood). The good news for us is that at this point Ed Oliver has become quite decent vs. the run (as opposed to the pass) and I expect him to limit the Ravens' OLine). But the front four (esp. Hughes) need to be disciplined and maintain lane integrity

 

Special Teams

 

Justin Tucker and De'Anthony Thomas gave the Ravens a big advantage last year - but this season we have Tyler Bass who, at a minimum, limits the Ravens' edge here and we Thomas opted out - so I actually think, unlike vs. the Colts, we have the edge on ST.

 

GO BILLS!!

 

 

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13 minutes ago, IgotBILLStopay said:

Unlike the Colts, I actually feel we matchup well with the Ravens. That said, we do have a couple of vulnerabilities that we have hopefully worked on (vulnerabilities are in bold).

 

Bills on Offense

 

WInk Martindale is going to live and die by the Blitz. In the last game vs. the Bills, the blitz got to Allen again and again. But this season, Allen has just an amazing ability to beat the blitz. There are two reasons for that - a. his own natural ability in the pocket to escape the blitzer and b. his support group. He always had a. but in the last matchup b. failed him. Let me explain what I mean by that.

 

Clearly you have only 11 men on defense. If you are sending in blitzers, something else has to give. You have to leave your CBs to cover the WRs one on one. Last season, the Bills did not have Diggs - who arguably is the ultimate one on one coverage buster. I am confident the Ravens game is what solidified in Beane the need to acquire someone like Diggs. Allen has shown a willingness to test the one on one defender every time Diggs is single covered and Diggs has pretty much won the matchup every time.

 

Now the Ravens have two decent one on one corners in Humphrey and Peters. But here is the thing - Humphrey is the second most targeted CB in the NFL. Teams wouldnt throw his way if they did not think they had a good shot at completion. I am even more excited by the Peters - Davis / Brown matchup. Peters is the ultimate gambler who always tries to undercut to get picks. If Allen survives the blitz, he will have easy pickings off the shoulder shimmies and the pump fakes to the man being covered by Peters. Beasley, as a #3 WR instead of #2, also should have a field day occupying vacant spots left by the blitzing defender.

 

Stats show Baltimore to be a top 10 passing as well as rushing defense. They have faced some good rushing offenses - so I trust the rushing defense numbers - but I dont care too much - Singletary aint winning this game for us. I think there is a lil bit of fool's gold when it comes to their passing defense. They only faced one team with elite QB and WRs (KC - Dallas did not have a decent QB) - so I think our offense can put up points in a hurry so long as we limit turnovers from Allen evading the wave of blitzers. Ball security from Allen will be the key - since their pass rush does feature Campbell, Judon and Ngakoue. Ngakoue is the king of forced fumbles this side of Khalil Mack. Yes Allen will be sacked a few times but so long as he holds on to the ball those 20 yard plus completions will be there in equal measure when he evades the Blitz. Hopefully McD is buying some Stickum for Allen's non-throwing hand:

 

image.png.733edc15e43668f23698b1309e5d9b29.png

 

Our OL has actually played decently this season and Allen has a habit of making our OL look better than it is. So I dont think this matchup is  onerous.

 

Bills on Defense

 

We have the perfect DL for those zone read offenses since we limit big plays by stacking the box and layering run protection within the Cover 3 scheme. The safeties ability to stop Jackson from having 20+ yard runs will be the key. Dobbins is not the superstar athlete - but has the patience to wait to attack the B gap. Milano and Edmunds have to shed blocks and get to the B gap. The nice thing is that Ravens Oline is not at the level of the Colts - so I expect Edmunds and Milano to get to the runner quickly. But they do need sure tackling from these two - better than what they have show in the past. Maybe McD has scheduled extra practice featuring SIngletary as the Greased up Deaf Guy.

 

image.png.24c08711ea2680f3d9bb1f2640c6f9ac.png

 

All Bills fans know the Ravens Offense from Greg Roman - we saw first hand how he played with Tyrod Taylor and LeSean McCoy. Now just think of Ravens offense as similar except Taylor = Dobbins and McCoy = juking Jackson. We stack the box with 6 guys on one side and flush Jackson from the pocket to one side where we load up our safeties and one LB  to limit the run - Jackson's weakness is actually throwing on the run - contrary to popular belief he is a more than adequate passer from the pocket - so making him throw on the run is key. In the zone read running game - Bozeman and Skura are the key (much like how Roman used a pulling Incognito and Wood). The good news for us is that at this point Ed Oliver has become quite decent vs. the run (as opposed to the pass) and I expect him to limit the Ravens' OLine). But the front four (esp. Hughes) need to be disciplined and maintain lane integrity

 

Special Teams

 

Justin Tucker and De'Anthony Thomas gave the Ravens a big advantage last year - but this season we have Tyler Bass who, at a minimum, limits the Ravens' edge here and we Thomas opted out - so I actually think, unlike vs. the Colts, we have the edge on ST.

 

GO BILLS!!

 

 

Great analysis! Thanks for taking the time.

 

Go Bills!

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