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Like all things in football, there's nuance here, and the most recent Titans-Ravens matchup tells us a lot of things.
Could it get ugly? Sure. The Titans defense is garbage, but the Ravens didn't have an answer to the Titans 3 DL looks, even with gap concepts. 1/x https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1347537495118860292
Could it get ugly? Sure. The Titans defense is garbage, but the Ravens didn't have an answer to the Titans 3 DL looks, even with gap concepts. 1/x https://twitter.com/NFL_DougFarrar/status/1347537495118860292
In the first matchup, the Ravens had 28 runs that weren't QB scrambles, end of half garbage carries, or goal line carries. Of those -
14 Zone for 46 yards and 3.29 YPC
13 Gap for 64 yards and 4.92 YPC
This furthers Doug's point, but it's not so cut and dry. 2/x
14 Zone for 46 yards and 3.29 YPC
13 Gap for 64 yards and 4.92 YPC
This furthers Doug's point, but it's not so cut and dry. 2/x
Overwhelmingly, the yardage off of gap runs came on 2nd and 3rd down. On 1st down, the Ravens had 5 gap runs for 8 yards - 1.6 YPC.
They had 11 zone runs on 1st down 43 yards - 3.9 YPC (with 1/4 of that yardage coming on one 11 yard run). Why does this matter? 3/x
They had 11 zone runs on 1st down 43 yards - 3.9 YPC (with 1/4 of that yardage coming on one 11 yard run). Why does this matter? 3/x
The Titans employed 3 man DL fronts on run downs. They didn't explicitly use a Tite/Mint front all the time, but the concepts were very similar. No edge defender on the DL. All interior gaps covered. It gave BAL fits. 4/x
Alternatively, here's how the Titans fit a gap run in their traditional 2-4-5 Over look. It's a problem. Has been all year. Evans in particular really struggles with getting downhill in these traditional sets. 5/x
I think this game is unique because of the way the Titans game planned with these 3-3 looks (Mint, Tite and variants). It's a different look that we didn't see hardly at all the rest of the year, and Baltimore didn't have an answer in the run game, whether it was Gap or zone. 6/x
This will be an interesting matchup, and I think both teams will have to get out of traditional game plans. The question will be which can execute better out of their preferred structure. I wrote about it in more depth here. 7/7 https://broadwaysportsmedia.com/all-22-review-revisiting-the-titans-game-plan-against-baltimore/
