Sunday’s matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions was supposed to be the most interesting schematic game of Week 7. You had the Ravens’ passing game, finally coming together under new offensive coordinator Todd Monken, against an Aaron Glenn-led Lions defense that ranked third in Defensive DVOA behind only the Cleveland Browns… and the Ravens.
The only thing that played to type was Mike Macdonald’s Ravens defense shutting down Jared Goff and the Lions’ offense in Baltimore’s 38-6 win, but that’s a story for another time. The story here was what Lamar Jackson did to Glenn’s defense, especially in the first half.
Jackson completed 17 of 21 passes for 255 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 149.0 The Ravens also rushed 16 times in the first half for 100 yards and two more touchdowns, and Baltimore outgained Detroit, 355-97. One of those touchdown runs came from Jackson — it was this seven-yard score in which left tackle Ronnie Stanley blocked safety Kerby Joseph into the next area code.
Ronnie Stanley’s block of Kerby Joseph on Lamar Jackson’s touchdown run looks even more ridiculous on the All-22. Dude got taken to the shadow realm. pic.twitter.com/G0pjce4qd8
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) October 23, 2023
Coming into this game, Glenn theorized that he’d have to contain Jackson in the pocket.
“We’re just going to play defense,” Glenn said last Thursday. “We’re going to play defense. So whatever that brings, that’s what we’re going to do. And our plan is to contain him. Our plan is to not let the ball go over our head and whatever we do as far as practice, that’s what we’re going to do in the game.”
It made sense in theory. Through the first six weeks of the season, Jackson had the 20th-most dropbacks in which he ultimately threw from the pocket, completing 107 of 151 passes for 1,071 yards, 581 air yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.0. So, there were defensive opportunities — again, in theory.
What Glenn seemed to want to do in this game was to counter the Ravens’ run game with two things — base personnel, and five-man fronts. When the Lions do this, they’ll often have Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes as the off-ball linebackers, and Jack Campbell playing on the edge.
Coming into this game, the Lions had three linebackers on the field against opponent pass plays on 102 dropbacks, sixth-highest in the league. They had allowed 51 completions for 479 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception out of those looks. Against the run with three linebackers, Glenn’s defense had allowed just 189 yards on 59 carries — that 3.2 yards per attempt allowed tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for fourth-best in the league.
So, it was a “maybe” strategy against Baltimore’s passing game, and a “for sure” concept against the run game. Which is kind of how things played out.
Let’s get into how the Ravens countered Detroit’s base personnel in the passing game.
Coverage showed how much the Lions were focusing on the run game.
(Syndication: Detroit Free Press)
Here’s another different wrinkle Glenn tried to throw at the Ravens — instead of playing Cover-4 behind those base personnel looks, the Lions went more with Cover-3. No team had played more opponent dropbacks in zone coverage this season, but the Lions have been a more Quarters-heavy team both overall and in those three-linebacker situations. Switching to single-high looks gave Detroit another defender in the box, which tells you once again what the focus was.
And here’s the problem with that philosophy — when a quarterback can maintain his composure against those defensive looks, that defense is asking for trouble with explosive plays. That’s what happened to the Lions — repeatedly. Jackson had three completions of 10 or more air yards in this game, and all three came against Cover-3 with three linebackers on the field. Two came against five-man fronts.
The first was this 46-yard completion to Zay Flowers with 13:46 left int the first half — it was Baltimore’s third offensive play. Monken had Odell Beckham Jr. run a front-side vertical route to clear cornerback Cameron Sutton, and backside crossers by Flowers and Mark Andrews. When deep safety Kerby Joseph committed to Andrews’ shorter route, it was Flowers against safety Tracy Walker near the line of scrimmage, and cornerback Will Harris up top. Flowers easily maneuvered between his two defenders, and that was that.
From the end zone angle, you can see how the Lions were almost mush-rushing to contain Jackson, and how linebackers Anzalone and Barnes committed to the run before dropping into coverage. Jackson also did a great job of getting the ball over Barnes’ outstretched hand to Flowers on the move.
The second such play came with 8:39 left in the first half, and it was a 22-yard pass to Andrews. The Ravens were in 22 personnel, with fullback Patrick Ricard, running back Justice Hill, and tight ends Andrews and Charlie Kolar. If you want to consider Ricard a tight end in this formation, then the Ravens had three tight ends in bunch right in a reduced split to the boundary. The run-specific look was accentuated by the Ravens going with a QB sweep look at the start — based on the personnel and the look, you can forgive the Lions for reading run all the way. But no — it was the banana in the tailpipe, and once everybody committed to Jackson as a runner, Andrews was about as open as he’ll ever be.
The only positive for Detroit here was Kerby Joseph saving a touchdown with a tackle at the two-yard line.
Again, these looks were different for Glenn and the Lions, In the first six weeks of the season, no NFL defense played Cover-4 behind three linebackers more often than Detroit, who had allowed 15 completions on 27 attempts for 142 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 70.3.
When the Lions played Cover-3 behind their base defense before this game, they had allowed eight completions on 14 attempts for 97 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 102.4.
So, Glenn’s plan once again was better in theory than in practice.
“I hope the guys that are in coverage stay in coverage, so the ball shouldn’t go over their head,” Glenn concluded last week, when asked about Jackson’s obvious dual threat as a passer and as a runner. “And the guys that are actually tracking him, are playing leverage football because he is a dynamic runner, I mean we all know that. And it’s kind of hard for one person to really tackle him. And when you do that, I mean that’s a pretty damn good job to be able to do that. But the reality is, you need more people around that player. And every team tries to do that. And even when you have that many players, he can escape every now and then. So, when you’re deep, you stay deep and you protect deep. When you’re around that player, man, you play leverage football knowing that you have your buddy inside of you, or outside of you to help you as far as containing that player, and we expect to do that.”
Sadly for the Lions, this was a clear case of expectation versus reality.
Even when the Lions were right, they were wrong.
(Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
Not that this was all on the Lions — we’ve all been waiting for Baltimore’s passing game to come together as Jackson and his receivers come together under Monken’s banner, and there were times when Detroit’s coverages should have worked.
On this 24-yard completion to Flowers with 16 seconds left in the first quarter, the Lions were in their preferred Cover-4, with Harris and Walker ostensibly bracketing Flowers. But Monken’s offense is full of okey-dokes from the backfield to the line of scrimmage to the route concepts, and Flowers did a brilliant job of undercutting Detroit’s “man with rules” coverage with this jab-step outside before he cut to the sideline — and this was further blown up when Walker glanced at Andrews’ slot route for a split second. Joseph had Andrews as the other deep safety, so I’m thinking that Walker should have stayed with the bracket.
The Lions’ defense might have been the first to face a new buzzsaw.
(Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports)
Needless to say, head coach Dan Campbell was unhappy about his defense’s performance after this one.
“You can say that every week we’ve got to be disciplined, but with this guy [Lamar Jackson], you better double it up because Lamar is an issue. I’m doing my job. I’m handling my job. He breaks contain. He starts going. Well, I’m going to, second, contain him, and I just left my guy. You know, because Lamar is out in the open, and then he just dumps [a pass] over. There’s these things that just show up. Man, just do your job. Handle your responsibility. If we’re going to play man, that’s your man. Stay with your man. Don’t have bad eyes. Don’t have lazy eyes. Don’t look back there. You just cover your man.
“You know what, if [Jackson] runs in for a touchdown, then so be it. That’s not your responsibility. Then, as you get into that hole, what happens is, everybody starts pressing. Man, I’ve got to make something happen. Then, you get out of what we talk about doing. We start getting outside of the scheme. You’re doing more than is asked of you. Because of that, it creates more problems. That’s on both sides of the ball. That’s in all three phases, really. Look, we just didn’t play well, and I hate to say it, but that’s one of those games. That was one of those where we just could not get out of our own way. It’s a credit to those guys over there. They played outstanding football, and they rubbed our nose in it.”
That seems a refutation to a point of the strategy to rein Jackson in, so maybe other defenses will take different tacks. But if this Ravens offense continues to cook as they did on Sunday, it might not matter.
Because when you have Lamar Jackson in a complete offense… and his targets are getting things done all over the field… and Lamar the runner is no longer your predominant worry… but you still have to worry about it…
…well, good luck with that.