Road Graders: Can Ravens Hang with Browns in Trenches?

This is one of those matchups I always dread as a film guy. I am a true believer that the best way to win football games is to win in the trenches, and the reality is that the Browns trenches have been very good for the past few years.

The core of the offensive line has been together since Wyatt Teller (signed 2019), Jedrick Wills (drafted 2020)  and Jack Conklin (signed 2020)  joined long-time stalwart Joel Bitonio. We’ve seen different centers come in to anchor the line, and now they have a new RT in Dawand Jones, as Conklin is out for the year.

Myles Garrett leads a strong group on the opposite side of the ball to give a major advantage rushing the passer and is a huge reason this defense is top two in every major category through 3 weeks.

Browns’ defensive rankings:

Yards per game: No. 1 (163.7)
Rush defense: No. 2 (52.0)
Pass defense: No. 1 (111.7)
Points per game: No. 1 (10.7)
3rd down %: No. 1 (19.5)
Red zone TD%: No. 1 (0.0)

— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) September 27, 2023

The Ravens trenches on both sides of the ball are going to have to bring their A-game, let’s break it all down. 

Containing the Browns Edge Rushing Attack

The Ravens received some big injury news on Wednesday when we learned that Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Linderbaum returned to practice. It isn’t’ clear if they’ll be active on Sunday, but there’s certainly some hope.

Garrett is currently one pressure behind league-leaders Aidan Hutchinson, Maxx Crosby and T.J. Watt. However, it should be noted that Garrett has only rushed the passer 81 times versus 128, 114 and 111 for the league leaders, respectively. 

The Ravens struggled against Garrett in 2022, as he had 12 pressures (with three of them being sacks) in the two matchups last year.

However the key to slowing Garrett down is very similar to the Bengals game. Like Trey Hendrickson he’ll be aligning over Stanley or Patrick Mekari the majority of the game. Using play action and providing a chip with Mark Andrews and Patrick Ricard in-line will help contain him.

The key will be Za’Darius Smith on the opposite side, who will likely face a lot of 1 on 1 matchups against Morgan Moses. 

I trust the interior guys to handle the interior rush of the Browns, but the tackles are going to have to bring their A-game.

Lastly, Todd Monken is going to have to scheme up a pass game that will stress the safeties and empty the box, but also provide checkdown routes to give Lamar an easy look if pressure does come.

One way the Ravens can adjust well is by running more out of 11 personnel. They’ve been significantly more successful in doing so, as noted in the statistics below, but it’s the personnel groupign they’ve run out of the least. By lining up with three WRs in their spread look, they can force the defense to empty the box and create opportunities for the OL to get into the second level and open rushing lanes. It’s the key to running the ball successfully on Sunday.

Here’s a look at how often & how well the Ravens have run out of each offensive personnel group through Week 3.
Numbers above each bar indicate the number of runs and the EPA/play out of each formation. pic.twitter.com/PdJi95oPhl

— Daniel Rees (@DPRees8) September 27, 2023

Making Deshaun Watson Uncomfortable

Deshaun Watson is quietly off to a pretty decent start in the NFL campaign. However, one thing he has truly struggled with is playing under pressure.

When kept clean, Watson has completed 72.4% of his passes for 534 yards (7.3 YPA), 4 TD and 1 INT.

When pressured, those numbers significantly drop and Watson only completed 41.4% of his passes for 144 yards (5.0 YPA) with one INT and three turnover worthy plays. Additionally, he’s taken 11 sacks in three games. 

While under pressure, he’s tied for 2nd in the NFL with turnover worthy plays and 6th in sacks taken, while having the 5th highest time-to-throw. 

This means he’s holding the ball under pressure and trying to make things happen, but is ultimately struggling to do so. 

Getting after Watson is an absolute must and Jedrick Wills is the path to doing so. Jadeveon Clowney is going to likely see a lot of Dawand Jones, so it’s going to be on new addition Kyle Van Noy (who is likely to be called up on Sunday for his first game as a Raven despite joining the team on Wednesday) and possibly David Ojabo if he can get back on the field.

Wills has been the worst pass blocking OL on the Browns and could be an area to exploit.

Last week in this column we talked about overloading the right side of the Colts OL, and the Ravens got three sacks home with blitzes from an overloaded line on the right side from Kyle Hamilton out of the slot.

I would use a very similar approach but attack the left side with overload blitzes. There aren’t a lot of areas to attack one of the better lines in the NFL, but their LT is their weak link.

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