BALTIMORE — Rewatching every game from the Ravens’ 2022 season made clear one incontrovertible fact: They were remarkably consistent.
Five times the Ravens blew leads and lost, including three occasions when they were up by double digits in the second half, against the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and New York Giants. The offense again started the year strong but sputtered late, and quarterback Lamar Jackson ended the season watching from the sideline for the second year in a row. The defense was unsurprisingly one of the best in the NFL, led by All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and first-year coordinator Mike Macdonald, but Baltimore failed to win a playoff game for the fourth time in its past six trips to the postseason.
What does it all mean for 2023?
Though there has been a significant makeover with offensive coordinator Todd Monken replacing Greg Roman and the signing of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., among other changes, looking back provides a way forward. If the Ravens hope to make a deep playoff run in a conference loaded with high-octane contenders such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, Bills, New York Jets, Los Angeles Chargers and Dolphins, they must learn from their past mistakes.
Of course, not everything needed to be revamped. As mentioned, the Ravens had one of the NFL’s best defenses last season, especially in the second half after Smith’s arrival from the Chicago Bears. They also had one of the league’s best offensive lines, particularly when it came to run blocking.
Still, there were significant themes that stood out last year. Here’s a look back at each of them and what they mean for the coming season, with insight from ESPN analyst and former NFL safety Matt Bowen.
Time management issues
Pick almost any game last season — whether it was the Ravens’ Week 12 blown lead against the Jacksonville Jaguars, or their wild-card-round loss to the Bengals — and the offense regularly found itself snapping the ball with the play clock about to expire. Many times it did, with the Ravens racking up seven delay-of-game penalties, third-most in the NFL. But even when they beat the clock, the offense’s timing was sometimes thrown off. Roman in December tried to explain that time of possession keeps the ball out of the other team’s hands, but that only works when you’re winning.
Will that trend continue? Not if Monken has anything to say about it. Through at least organized team activities and minicamp, he has had plenty to say, noting multiple times the need to operate quickly.
Like the NBA, the NFL is about pace and offense.
“They decided last year under Roman they were going to control tempo by slowing it down,” Bowen said. “[It was] a lot more condensed formations; they had much different personnel than you’ll see this year. [Fullback] Patrick Ricard last year played a critical role in that offense; I don’t know that he has a pivotal role this year with what I expect to see out of Monken.
“This year, and I have old playbooks of Todd Monken, is a lot more spread, a lot more trips, a lot more empty. What they’re trying to do with pace of play is to be more aggressive and control tempo in terms of creating more tempo.”
Red zone struggles
There’s no getting around Baltimore’s problems inside the 20-yard line last season. Only the Jets and New England Patriots had a worse touchdown rate in the red zone than the Ravens’ 44.44%.
There didn’t seem to be one particular shortcoming, and it wasn’t exclusive to last season, either.
Jackson missing the last six games is certainly a factor, but there were issues long before he suffered a season-ending knee injury. In a Week 11 win over the Carolina Panthers, for example, Jackson was just 1-for-4 passing inside the opponents’ 20. The following week in a loss to the Jaguars, he was 2-for-5 in the red zone.
In the first four years of Jackson’s career, the quarterback was a more-than-capable performer inside the 20, completing 60.2% of his passes with 59 touchdowns. More recently, though, he and the Ravens have struggled because of inaccuracy, missed blocks and timing issues as the play clock wound down.
Running backs J.K. Dobbins, Kenyan Drake and Gus Edwards weren’t major factors, either. The trio combined for seven red zone touchdowns last year but ranked near the bottom of the league in touches (54 combined). They were targeted on passing plays a combined seven times.
Monken’s offense at Georgia did not have any problems finishing drives last season — the Bulldogs scored a touchdown in 68.7% of their trips to the red zone, best in the country.
Bowen again believes the spread and wide variety of formations Georgia used will be a hallmark of Baltimore’s offense this season, from run-pass options, to quarterback runs, to rollouts and dropbacks and more running plays.
“When you run out of spread sets, it’s going to create more options for J.K. Dobbins as a runner on zone teams on bending the ball back because you have to account for Lamar,” Bowen said.
“Spread the field, use motion and movement to create misdirection. There are multiple ways to utilize that misdirection off motion on pre- and post-snap movement.”
Blown coverages and confusion
The Ravens had the fifth-best overall defense in the NFL last year, per Pro Football Focus, but they ranked just 14th in pass coverage.
It’s no wonder that the four worst performances by the defensive backfield — against the Jaguars, Dolphins, Bills and Giants — all resulted in losses.
Against Miami, a pair of coverage busts resulted in a pair of touchdown catches by Tyreek Hill as the Dolphins scored 28 points in a wild fourth quarter. At New York, there was the blown 10-point, fourth-quarter lead, with Giants rookie tight end Daniel Bellinger catching a wide-open touchdown pass. Similar issues emerged against the Jaguars and Bills.
It was also Macdonald’s first year as defensive coordinator after serving in the same role at Michigan in 2021.
Safety Kyle Hamilton was a rookie as well. Though he found his footing as the year went on, there was a learning curve.
“I experienced [a new coordinator] as a player and that is a major headache just in terms of alignment and stance, where you put your eyes, what the terminology is, what the late rotation is in the secondary,” said Bowen, who also coaches high school defensive backs in Illinois. “That can lead to confusion at times.”
Even Marlon Humphrey, the Ravens’ do-everything star cornerback, said as much this offseason, noting the importance of communication.
“Going into Year 2 [under Macdonald], looking at their personnel, especially what they have in secondary, Kyle Hamilton was very good last year,” Bowen said. “There are multiple ways you can use him. Last year, they would go to their overloaded fronts to create pressure and bring simulated pressure. I thought they did a good job creating pressure last season.
“[Roquan] Smith is a blue-chip player as a linebacker. Marlon Humphrey is one of my favorite corners to study. He’s so physical, he’s aggressive in terms of his coverage traits, he has the ball skills, he’s excellent at point of attack and he will tackle. That’s one thing you see about that secondary is they have guys who will fill the alley, cut off the ball on the perimeter and they will tackle. And they play fast; what they have in the back seven allows them to play fast. I like their scheme. It’s proven that it works.
“When you have busts, a lot of times it’s communication. When you have a new coordinator and have a rookie like Hamilton on the field, there’s going to be some mistakes. You’d expect going into Year 2 those mistakes will be gone. … I think they can be one of the best secondaries in the NFL.”
Sack attack
Getting to the quarterback works. Last season, the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs ranked first and second in sacks, respectively, and they ended up in the Super Bowl.
The Ravens, meanwhile, ranked fourth with 48 sacks. They had five against the Bengals in the wild-card matchup in what was Baltimore’s best overall pass-rushing performance of the season, but the Ravens still lost.
The beauty in their success getting to the quarterback, however, was that they blitzed just 21.3% of the time, 21st in the NFL. Fifteen of the Ravens’ sacks came from Justin Houston and Calais Campbell, though, and neither of them is on currently on the team.
How will the Ravens make up for their production?
Expectations are high for David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh, though questions about whether they can live up to them remain. Don’t expect any drastic changes from Macdonald, either. There are also several free agent edge rushers who could help account for the difference.
Among them: Yannick Ngakoue, Melvin Ingram and, of course, the 34-year-old Houston.
“That’s when you get one of those veteran guys,” Bowen said. “They don’t have to be an every-down player; they can be a third-down pass rusher. You need a pass rusher on third down, in the red zone and for the [final] two minutes. That’s when you need them to show up to win games.
“But I think that question is still unanswered. They need to go through padded practices, maybe a preseason game or two or scrimmage, and find out what they have.”
And with the start of training camp approaching at the end of this month, they soon will.
Key dates
— July 18: Rookies report for training camp
— July 26: First full-team practice
— Aug. 12: Preseason starts
— Sept. 10: Regular season starts
