Ravens' kickoff coverage -- fault the design or the play?
Due to technical difficulties with blogs all across the company, we weren’t able to post earlier. Since we started back in April, that’s the first time that’s happened here. And speaking of the first time something has happened …
In the hundreds of years of collective experience of the assembled football literati in the press box that included ESPN’s John Clayton and USA Today’s Gordon Forbes, no one had ever seen anything resembling what happened at M&T Bank Stadium yesterday. At least, not on a football field.
The only occasion I could think of remotely analogous to where a game appeared to be over but game officials deciding it was not, was the 1972 Olympic basketball game between the United States and the Soviet Union where the controversy was over the game clock. The U.S. thought it had won the game twice and on a third chance to inbound the ball and take a shot, the Soviets finally succeeded.
When the Ravens and Browns were called back on the field for the overtime coin flip yesterday, the stands were two-thirds empty but quickly filled up again. You can discuss until you’re blue whether the refs properly extended the game but as Cassius says in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves …”
Count among the reasons the Ravens lost -- a first-half offense that gained 38 yards and left the defense on the field for 21 ½ minutes, the ability of Cleveland to make a critical third-and-10 in overtime that put the Browns in field-goal range, and the Ravens’ inability to control Browns kick returner Joshua Cribbs.
The Cribbs issue is the one that drives me crazy. I saw Cribbs return kicks for 90 and 100 yards the previous week against the Steelers. Return guys are like streak hitters in baseball. They tend to get in a zone. In baseball, you pitch around those guys. In football, sometimes you adjust your kicking game to avoid those guys as teams have done with Chicago’s Devin Hester.
The Ravens chose not to do that with Cribbs with a three-point lead and 26 seconds left in regulation, even though they could barely contain him and he had already ripped off kick returns of 32, 35 and 50 yards and a punt return of 26 yards.
So Cribbs returned Matt Stover’s kick to the 4-yard line to the Browns’ 43, making it possible for Cleveland to get into range for Dawson’s 51-yarder. Then, after losing the coin flip, the Ravens kicked long again, this time to the goal line, and Cribbs brought that one back 41 yards. Nine plays later, Dawson was kicking the 33-yard game-winner.
“I kept kicking the ball near the end zone there at the very end in the deep right corner,” said Ravens kicker Matt Stover, who was 3-for-3 on field goals himself. “We just have got to cover better, we’ve got to make sure that we make tackles and that guy’s a good return man. But when you look at it, we’ve got to make plays.”
Stover insisted the problem was not with the plan to kick deep but with the coverage, or lack thereof. Special teams coach Frank Gansz makes the call on the kick and the coverage, Stover said, and Stover did not criticize the decision to kick deep.
“The special teams coach does (make the decision) but in regard to that, players have to make plays,” Stover said. “The play was out there to be made plenty of times and we didn’t make the plays. So you can put what you want on the special teams coach but I really don’t think that’s fair. We as players have to make plays and we just didn’t make them.”
A few minutes later, Stover said, “I’m not throwing my boys under the bus but we have to make plays.”
Comments
Bill: On the play before their last field goal, the Ravens could have ran it (instead of throwing an incomplete pass), let the clock run down to 3 seconds, called timeout, kicked the go-ahead field goal, and then as long as they held the kick returner under 90 yards they would have won. Unless the Browns still had timeouts left - did the Browns have any timeouts left at that point? Even if they did, it would have given them one less for their later drive for the tying field goal. Did the Browns still have a timeout left when regulation ended or did they use the last one to setup for the tying field goal? Robert
-----------------------------------------
Robert,
I checked the play by play. The TO that Cleveland took to set up for the 51-yard was its first timeout but I still get your point about running for the first down on second-and-1 and third-and-1 on the previous Baltimore series.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Robert Hurdle | November 19, 2007 12:31 PM
The only thing I learned watching this team in pre-season other than that the offence clearly was not kept in long enough to get some practice and "rhythm" is that they kept a guy (Rhys Lloyd) who can kick the ball through the end-zone for touchbacks and all we have done all season is kick to the 5 or 10 yard line and watch other teams run it back to the 40. This was not unique to the Cleveland game. This has been a very bad decision all seson long and has cost us every game, always putting the defense on a much shorter field than it needed to be.
Posted by: Alan | November 19, 2007 12:52 PM
Nice post, especially about the Cribbs factor. Regardless of what Stover said, it made no sense to kick anywhere near the guy in OT. Also, as valuable as Stover has been to this team, maybe we should go back to letting someone handle the kick-offs (Sam Koch, perhaps?) as Money Matt can't drive the ball as deep as he used to.
While there was plenty of blame to go around in terms of yesterday's loss, at least it was not a complete blowout/embarrassment. I can't remember the last time we actually had a lead in a game before yesterday. Kyle Boller may not be The Answer at QB, but he's certainly not The Problem there anymore.
BTW, aside from Jamal Lewis going against us yesterday, there were two other former Ravens who were starting Running Backs in games yesterday: Chester Taylor and Priest Holmes (?!).
And don't forget 44-yr. old Vinny, who threw for 2 TDs yesterday for the Grey Panthers.
--------------------------------------------
Ray,
Taylor had pretty good day for Minnesota, didn't he.
The thing with Cribbs just ... gets me. I happened to be in Las Vegas the previous week reporting a story that was in yesterday's paper and I was surronded by Browns fans watching the Steelers-Browns game so Cribbs return ability was impressed on me. All year long people have game-planned for Devin Hester -- this guy is just about as good. I talked with Stover for a few moments about it and he takes the position that "we're football players" meaning you have to make plays and tackle. Matt is a HOF kicker in my mind and a great person but I have to wonder about the strategy -- which I understand is not his call.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Ray Venn | November 19, 2007 1:46 PM
By no means do you allow Cribbs to make any returns in the second half. This should be one of the many adjustment that you make at halftime. He torches your special teams all day. No way do you kick his way with :26 seconds on the clock. UNACCEPTABLE!
That is the coahes' call. One of many breakdowns on Sunday.
---------------------------------
Terrence,
You can take a look at my reply to the previous comment. In short, I agree with you. Flat out. I chatted with Matt Stover for a few moments about this. He contention is that they're football players and have to play like it. Okay, I don't question Matt's desire to compete and the guy is a HOF kicker. The onus here is on strategy. People have been game planning all year for Hester, right. I could go on and on but I would be just be reinforcing your frustrations.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: T RICH | November 19, 2007 2:17 PM
It was interesting seeing McNair's reaction to the "wounded duck" interception thrown by Boller. The look said "See folks it's not my fault".
Too easy to get to McNair because he's not mobile enough. Too easy to get to Boller because he doesn't pick up the Blitz. Maybe we just need to look at the O line.
Posted by: Dave | November 19, 2007 2:22 PM
The only ways to avoid kicking to the deep man on a kickoff is A) kick it out of bounds or B) squib kick. Either option gives the Browns the ball at the 40 yard line, unless you're extremely lucky on the squib kick. You have to have more confidence in your special teams and not just give up and say "ok let's just give it to them at the 40."
You can angle punts out of bounds, or put more hang time on them, but on conventional kickoffs, the deep man gets it almost everytime. Gary Stills & company needed to do a better job, period.
--------------------------------------
Jason,
You make a good point and just to show I can see both sides of this argument, I reviewed Seattle against Chicago yesterday where the Seahawks tried to kick away from Devin Hester most of the day. On seven kickoffs, the Bears had starting field position at the 50, 39, 40, 39, 27, 43, 46. Some of those kicks were handled by Hester, some by other players. The one 27-yard starting position came on a deep kick to Hester where the kicker made the tackle himself. On the final KO in regulation in the Ravens' game, Stover kicked it to the 4 and Cribbs brought it back to the 43. Maybe I'm off base but with 16 seconds left, I still prefer the idea of bouncing one down the field, making an up man try to handle the ball at the 10 or so and run some extra time off the clock while he's doing it. Stover did squib one earlier but it was by mistake. None of that excuses the coverage, of course. Thanks for the contribution to the discussion.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Jason | November 19, 2007 5:44 PM
Billick is an idiot..kicking to Cribbs was nuts and us Browns fans loved it. We also loved not running the clock down more and saving time (for) us to attempt to tie the game. His arrogance is surpassed only by his stupidity - like bad call should have stood because he would have won..c'mon now...
Posted by: DC in Cleveland | November 19, 2007 9:17 PM
i will admit that as a browns fan i expected worse from you raven fans---must come from talking to the moron steeler fans---but you all seem a pretty classy bunch that makes no excuses--
i do want to express my thanks for letting us win the game--why is brian bilick still there? jeez. its not the first time bilick has lost a game for you all and lets be honest, the buck has to stop somewhere---kicking to cribbs? not running the ball for 2 plays? thanks again---and i thought romeo was a hopeless coach--oh well, bill cowher needs a job next year and we both need him----
Posted by: rusty | November 19, 2007 9:56 PM
Bill
If you check the game times, you'll see that the Ravens ran the 2nd and 1 on their final drive at 0:38 and that Stover's FG was at 0:31, so the 2nd and 3rd down pass plays ran 0:07 off the clock.
Even if Cleveland called time-out after each play, assuming the Ravens couldn't get 1 yard on 2 plays, it is safe to assume they would have run off more that 0:07 off the clock.
Dawson's tying FG was at 0:02.
That's 1 second extra per play the Ravens needed to run off to prevent the entire end of the game fiasco.
All the other factors do not matter if the coaching staff does their job, understands where they are in the game, and manages the clock like they should.
If that's done right, all else becomes moot. Boller and Darling are heroes and maybe today reporters are talking about Boller's character and toughness in coming back from a poor start.
-------------------------------------------
Ed,
On the decision to pass on second and third downs, the problem for Billick is that the Ravens are on the 29 with one TO. It was going to be a long field goal for Stover. It's not as if they were on the 9 or 19, so they are thinking about getting another five or 10 yards. But it was second-and-1. To me, you try a running play on second down. If you make it, you spike the ball and then work between the hash marks and call a TO for the FG. If you don't, you use your TO and try a sideline pass on 3rd. But that's some brinksmanship there because you can't afford to foul up. But one thing we can't do in the second guessing is not assume that the 47-yarder was a given.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Ed D | November 19, 2007 10:36 PM
Something to consider: I checked the official Ravens site, and could not find Rhys Lloyd on ANY roster. He's not on the 53 man roster. He's not on the Practice Squad. He's not on IR. He's not on PUP. In short -- he's no longer a Raven in any way, shape, or form. When did that happen? And/or more importantly: HOW did that happen?
53 Man Roster: Anderson, Bannan, Barnes, Boller, Brown, Chester, Clayton, Darling, Edwards, Figurs, Flynn, Gaither, Green, Gregg, Griesen, Grubbs, Heap, Ivy, Johnson, James, Katula, Koch, Landry, Lewis, Martin, Mason, McAlister, McClain, McGahee, McNair, Ngata, Ogden, Pittman, Prude, Pryce, Reed, Rolle, Ross, Sapp, Scott, Smith, Stills, Stover, Suggs, Sypniewski, Terry, Vickers, Wilcox, Williams, Willis, Winborne, Yanda.
Practice Squad: Frist, Gaston, Kracalik, McCune, Ndukwe, Nordin, Parker.
That's only seven for the PS. Was Lloyd's name accidentally left off? I checked the official site yesterday and today, and didn't see Lloyd's name their either time. Odd.
-----------------------------------------
As soon as this came up yesterday, I noticed the same thing. Vanished. Mike Preston was asked the same thing. I'll check and see if and when he was cut.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: skaybaltimore | November 19, 2007 11:16 PM
Why are the Ravens scared to play Troy Smith?
------------------------------------
I don't think that was the issue Sunday.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Buck | November 19, 2007 11:54 PM
Bill
You said:
"Ed,
On the decision to pass on second and third downs, the problem for Billick is that the Ravens are on the 29 with one TO. It was going to be a long field goal for Stover. It's not as if they were on the 9 or 19, so they are thinking about getting another five or 10 yards. But it was second-and-1. To me, you try a running play on second down. If you make it, you spike the ball and then work between the hash marks and call a TO for the FG. If you don't, you use your TO and try a sideline pass on 3rd. But that's some brinksmanship there because you can't afford to foul up. But one thing we can't do in the second guessing is not assume that the 47-yarder was a given.
-- Bill O."
All the more reason to run the ball on 2nd and 1 and 3rd and 1 if necessary.
If Stover had missed, Cleveland gets the ball at the 3oyard line with 26 seconds and 3 timeouts...to protect yourself in case of a miss, isn't it better to run off some more clock and force them to use the timeouts?
If you make the first down, the point is moot and 2 plays to get 1 yard sounds like an advantageous position that was not handled like an advantage.
---------------------------------------------
Ed,
You can probably tell that I agree that they should have run on second-and-1. Again, you're trying to win the game in regulation. And at that point, I would have wanted more yards for an easier FG so I would endorse throwing to the sideline on third down. If you get the first down, now you take the clock down to a few seconds.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Ed D | November 20, 2007 2:34 PM