![]() ![]() In the regular-season game, The Ravens played a decent amount of zone coverage. The heavy use of man was one of the bigger change-ups Martindale threw at Tennessee on Sunday. He averaged only 7.1 yards per completion on Sunday he averaged 16.1 yards per play-action completion during the regular season, per Pro Football Focus. Tannehill did complete all of his play-action attempts - including one to himself - but those resulted in relatively small plays. The tight coverage helped to defend against the deep shots off play-action that have powered Tennessee’s pass game for two years now. By my count, the Ravens played single-safety coverages or Cover 0 on all but one dropback and almost all of those coverages were some form of man. That meant a lot of single-high safety looks, leaving Baltimore’s corners on an island outside. The Ravens defended the run game with numbers, stacking the box with at least eight defenders on 72.2% of Henry’s rush attempts, per Next Gen Stats. Ryan Tannehill was left looking for answers on Sunday (USA TODAY Sports). There just wasn’t a lot of space for Henry to exploit. That number was at 5.2 and 3.6 yards before contact in the two previous games. The defensive line allowed Henry to run for only 0.27 yards before contact. Give GM Eric Decosta credit for addressing a major weakness - and one that ended their season a year ago - in the offseason. Holdovers Matthew Judon and Brandon Williams also played well. And it was the new additions that led the effort, including rookie Justin Madubuike, Pernell McPhee, Derek Wolfe and, of course, Calais Campbell. The front just played a lot better than it had in the previous matchups.įor one, the Ravens’ overhauled defensive line absolutely dominated this game. And it’s not like Baltimore really changed the structure of their defensive front in order to slow down Henry. We can celebrate Martindale’s game plan, but if the Ravens players don’t execute it, then all of that planning would have meant nothing. ![]() Let’s break down how Baltimore’s defense won this matchup…ĭerrick Henry managed only 40 yards on 18 carries and didn’t run for a single first down. So how did the Ravens (finally) slow down this Tennessee offensive attack that has given even the best defenses problems over the last two years? Defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale obviously deserves a lot of praise for a finely crafted game plan, but the players also had to execute. Baltimore made one of the NFL’s best offenses look helpless. Henry’s 18 runs led to a loss of minus-5.6 Expected Points on the day. Ryan Tannehill, who has become a bit of an analytics darling, was held to 0.01 EPA per play after averaging 0.33 during the regular season. ![]() If you’re looking for more traditional stats, they averaged 30.7 points per game, which ranked fourth in the NFL. The Titans offense came into the game ranked third in Expected Points Added and fourth in DVOA. It held Tennessee to only 13 points and limited Henry to 40 yards on 18 rush attempts in a cathartic playoff win. ![]() The third time was, in fact, the charm for the Ravens.Īfter getting run over by Derrick Henry in two losses against the Titans over the last calendar year, Baltimore’s defense exacted a little revenge on one of its biggest rivals Sunday. ![]()
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