By Ross Gore, on May 9th, 2012 Today former Texans wide receiver, perennial fantasy football sleeper and major contributor to the Ravens playoff win last year Jacoby Jones, became the newest Baltimore Raven. For those who don’t remember Jones inexplicably tried to field a punt with Cary Williams bearing down on him in the second round of the playoffs last year. When Jones bobbled the punt it resulted in the Ravens jumping out to an early 7-0 lead over the Texans and an eventual win. Five months later Jones will enter camp trying to help the Ravens by not bobbling the ball but holding onto it.
 Jacoby Jones fumbles a punt against the Ravens in the second round of NFL playoffs. There is a lot to like about Jones signing. First, he is an incredible physical specimen: 6-foot-2 1/2, 210 lbs. and a 4.49 forty-yard dash time. Simply put, he has all the physical skills needed in a #1 wide receiver. Jones’ physical attributes shouldn’t be quickly dismissed despite his lack of production in Houston. When players with these skills/attributes “get it” they become stars. In past NFL seasons players like Miles Austin, Vincent Jackson and Brandon Marshall were all recent “projects” with similar physical skills who’ve developed into #1 wide receivers out of nowhere. More analysis on Jones and how he fits into the 2012 Ravens after the jump.
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By Ross Gore, on January 17th, 2012 
The annotated Winning Percentage Graph for Ravens Divisional Round playoff win against the Houston Texans is shown above. The graph is taken from NFL Advanced Stats, while the annotations are ours. The graph shows each team’s chance of winning the game given historical data calculated from previous NFL games. For more details on Winning Percentage graphs please see our Reader’s Guide.
The biggest play in terms of Winning Percentage for the game came after the Ravens went 3 and out on their opening drive and punted to Jacoby Jones. Jones attempted to field the bouncing punt at his 13-yard line. As shown in the picture below provided by the Associated Press, Cary Williams launched into Jones, Jones lost the ball and it was recovered by Ravens first round pick Jimmy Smith at the Texans’ 2. Ravens and Texans fans alike appear to be baffled by Jones’ decision. Here, we’ll explore that decision and try to determine if it was reasonable, or not.
Clearly Jones’ considered the decision to field the punt to be a calculated risk: he could field the punt so that the Texans could start their drive at the 13 yard-line or let it bounce and potentially start at the 3 yard-line. So, did Jones’ make a rational decision? Is the risk of bobbling the catch worth the reward of starting at the 13 yard line? We answer this question and look into another bizarre decision by the Texans after the jump.
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By Ross Gore, on December 28th, 2011  The annotated WPA Graph for Week 16 is shown above. The graph is taken from NFL Advanced Stats, while the annotations are ours. If you are new to WPA graphs please see our WPA Reader’s Guide. The game was effectively sealed at half time when the Browns showcased unprecedented levels of ineffectiveness. With just over a minute to go, Greg Little broke several tackles to get the Browns into a 2nd-and-1 situation at the 8-yard line instead of a 2nd-and-14. The Browns burned their final timeout presumably because it would’ve taken awhile to gather everyone together up to the line of scrimmage. After the Browns got a fresh set of downs by running the ball, they had two options: clock the ball to discuss the next play, or run the next play. The chose to run the play, a pass to Evan Moore in the flat near the sidelines at about the 3-yard line. As soon as Moore turned around, he was driven back about a yard, thus when we went out of bounds, the clock can kept running. With 11 seconds to play, the Browns inexplicably chose to run the ball. Peyton Hillis was stopped for no gain and the half ended. It was an absurdly aggressive decision (apparently made soley by Seneca Wallace) not to choose to clock the ball and the Browns paid for in terms of the scoreboard and in terms of WPA. Their inability to get any points in that situation vaulted the Ravens to a 93% chance on winning the game.
However, the Browns were not done making awful mistakes. Due to a solid come back against a putrid Baltimore offense in the 4th quarter, the Browns had the opportunity to attempt a game-winning drive with two minutes remaining, all they had to do was stay out of the neutral zone before the snap. They could not. An overly eager Phil Taylor jumped into the neutral zone giving the Ravens a fresh set of downs and sealing an ugly win.
More observations from the game after the jump.
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By Jeff Wolfson, on June 23rd, 2010 Heading in to the 2010 offseason there were questions surrounding the Baltimore Ravens secondary. With injuries to Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb, both tore their ACLs late last season, there is a perception that the Ravens are thin at cornerback.
At first, there were projections that Baltimore was going to draft a cornerback early on in the draft. That didn’t happen as the Ravens traded out of the first round in hopes of strengthening their pass rush.
To make matters more difficult for the Ravens, because they made the Divisional Round of the playoffs, they were under the NFL’s “Final Eight Plan” which is set to expire next month. For the Ravens to be able to sign a free agent they had to lose one.
In free agency, the Ravens did make a couple moves. They signed the released Ken Hamlin, a safety, from the Cowboys. Earlier in the offseason they signed cornerback Travis Fisher. Hamlin and Fisher provide depth but will probably not start for the Ravens.
The team is confident Washington will be ready for the season with Webb not far behind. With these moves and the inactivity of the Ravens front office, it appears the team will not sign any defensive backs for the rest of the offseason unless there’s a player released that is too good to turn down
Do you think they have done enough or is this going to be their Achilles heel all season?
By Matt Sadler, on February 28th, 2010 by BaltimoreRavens.com
Feb 27, 2010, 5:42PM
On Ed Reed’s status: Ed Reed’s playing, as far as I know. I’ve said it before, Ed’s one of the greatest competitors in football. You talk about guys that play like a Raven who loves football and everything about football, that’s Ed Reed. I think Ed’s going to play because I think Ed’s going to do everything he can to play, and if he’s physically able to play, he’ll play. Right now, my assumption is that he will be able to do that. But, if that changes or Ed changes his mind, obviously that’s his prerogative. We’ll go on the assumption that he’s going to play.
On if Reed has talked to the team: He hasn’t told the team that he’s not going to play, and medically, we don’t have any reason to believe that he’s not going to right now.
On the Terrell Owens rumors: I’ve always said that I have a lot of respect for T.O., and I know Ozzie does, too. He had a good year. We watched him on tape, and he was very effective last year.
Cont’d: We’re interested in T.O. We’re interested in all the guys that can make our team better. When we were coming back from Iraq last year with John Gruden, Jeff Fisher and Tom Coughlin, we were sitting in the airport and a waiter came over and said, ‘Hey, Terrell Owens is sitting over there at Burger King.’ We were laughing about it, but he was really over there. We ran over like fans [laughs]. I can guarantee that we didn’t ask for his autographs, but we did say hi. We rekindled the relationship. He’s a good guy and a good player.
On his relationship with Owens: I was coaching special teams and he was a receiver, so he was on the hands team. We had a good relationship. He was respectful to the coaches, he worked hard. I think everybody had a good relationship with him.
On Troy Smith: Troy Smith is a Raven. He’s still with the team. I happened to be in Ohio when my father inducted into the Crawford County Hall of Fame, along with Mike Gottfried and Gates Brown. I was flipping channels and I saw Troy. They were interviewing him in Columbus, and he said it best. He said, ‘I’m a Raven.’ I think he’s really a good quarterback. I think he can play quarterback in this league as a starter. That’s why we like him as our backup, because at some point in time, we’re going to need a guy to come in and win two, three, four games for us if Joe gets hurt. Although at some point in time, I think we understand Troy’s desire to be a starter. So, if something were to work out and is beneficial to the Ravens first, from our perspective, and gives him a chance to do that down the road somewhere, we’re interested in doing that. But Troy is our backup quarterback at this point, and I don’t think we’re going to change that unless it benefits our football team.
On the trade possibilities due to more RFAs on the market: We’re going to explore every avenue for every position. It will be interesting how this plays out, because I don’t think anybody really knows. There aren’t as many unrestricted free agents, there are more restricted free agents. What are the tenders going to be? Who is going to be tendered what? Is there going to be more trade dialogue than we’ve had in other years? We’ve had lengthy discussions at the highest levels, with me, Dick, Ozzie. Everybody is involved in that. I think we’ve got our ducks lined up as far as what we can get accomplished.
On if the unbalanced line makes scouting offensive linemen different: With our guys playing on the right and left side is what you’re alluding to. Michael Oher, it is a big deal that he played right tackle and moved over to left tackle, but the truth of the matter is that he played on the left side all through training camp because of the unbalanced stuff. We probably do want guys that are athletic and can line up on both sides. I guess if you’re an offensive lineman, you want to be in Baltimore because we play six, seven or eight of them at one time.
On the percentage of unbalanced line: We try to be unpredictable and not give anything away. One of Cam Cameron’s real strengths as an offensive coach is that he thinks that way. You might see all offensive linemen out there one day or you might see no offensive linemen out there at some point.
On if he noticed Cincinnati using the unbalanced attack: We did notice that. [laughs] We were wondering where they got that idea from.
On the potential to draft a kicker in light of missing out on Ryan Succop last year: I wouldn’t rule it out. I think there are some draft-eligible kickers out there. If we would have had a seventh-round pick, we would have drafted him last year, but we didn’t. We were in conversation about signing him as a free agent, but then he was Mr. Irrelevant. So, right then, he broke our hearts, or the Chiefs broke our hearts. But, Billy Cundiff did a nice job. He’s been around and one of those guys that’s been through it before. That’s an advantage. It’s tough to be a rookie kicker and make it in this league. Guys have done it, but Billy more experienced. We’ll start with Billy, and then we’ll bring in some competition for Billy as we go.
On if the Ravens have to balance out their running in a pass-happy league: At the end of the day, do you want to be 50/50, 55/45, 50/40? Where do you want to be? It probably depends on your players. It probably depends who you’re playing. If you look early in the year, we were really throwing the ball. We were really pass-happy, and some of our fans weren’t too happy about that and thought we should be running the ball more. To me, one week to the next, you do what you have to based on who’s healthy, what the skills of your players are and who you’re playing to be successful. We want to be somewhere 45/55 either way. You say, ‘Well, what does that mean? ‘ We want to do both well. We’re not going to be one of those teams that throws it 65 percent of the time. I don’t think anyone can run it 65 percent of the time and be successful.
On the benefit of having Suggs in offseason program: I think Terrell is really excited to be in Baltimore. I think he’s looking forward to it. He’s already working out in Arizona. He works hard. We hired Ted Monachino to work with him directly. He worked with him at Arizona State when [Suggs] was so successful. I think those two have a trust and a confidence level together that will help us. We’re dedicated a lot of our offseason program to pass rush. And, it’s not just him. It’s going to be all our guys. We want our linebackers to be able to rush the passer. We want to train our defensive backs to rush the passer. In our blitz system, they need to be able to do it. A big emphasis to what we do in the offseason is on pass rush, and he’s going to be here for us. I’m excited about that.
On Willis McGahee’s status: I think McGahee will be on our team next year. From last year to this year, the way he’s trained, through the whole knee situation – and everybody knows he has a knee in college, and he’s played well in the NFL so far – but for him to play the way he did at the end of the year and to be in the kind of shape that he was in, I’m just impressed with the guy. He’s a leader on our football team and one of the most fun guys to be around every day.
On if McGahee has accepted a backup role: He doesn’t say he’s accepted a backup role. I’ve never said that Ray Rice is the starting running back. I know other people have said that. Maybe even other coaches have said that. But to me, the starting running back and the guy that is going to start next week is the guy that’s playing the best. I’ve told Willis, ‘If you want to start in the game, go be the best running back that week.’ Ray knows that. Ray’s got Willis there, and Le’Ron McClain, Jalen Parmele and Matt Lawrence and whoever else we bring in, those guys are all going to be fighting for playing time. That’s what a coach wants – competition. Willis McGahee could gain 1,500 yards next year. That could easily happen, and I’m not ruling it out.
On wanting to re-sign Dwan Edwards: I’ve said it before, we want Dwan back, and I’ve got my fingers crossed. I think Dwan wants to be a Raven, too, so we’ll see what happens.
On the NFL reducing the amount of offseason practices because of head injury concerns: Practice is a loose term if you look at development. Look at every sport. I’ve got two nephews who are Division II swimmers. They swim 28 hours a week, and we limit football exposure to 20 hours a week in college. I think it’s important to be well-round and everything, but we’re talking about pro football players who want to get better, guys who are fighting to make a team. It’s different for a Ray Lewis. It’s different for guys that have been around – Ed Reed. Those guys don’t need that practice time. But as coaches, what we do is limit their exposure and don’t ask them to be there for the whole offseason, necessarily. We don’t put them through those practices. But those young rookies that are trying to make the team, now we’re going to say, ‘Oh no, you can’t be at the building, you can’t be at practice.’ What are we really saying? That we’re not available to help you be the best player you can be. As a coach, we want to coach. We want to help these guys be the best player they can be, because we’re looking to have as good a team as we can. Now, helmets on, banging heads and all that kind of stuff, yeah, we can get away from that. And I don’t think we do much of that in the offseason as it is – a lot less than people think we do. But why should we take away opportunities for guys to become the best they can be and work to earn a living as a football player in our league.
On Lardarius Webb and Fabian Washington’s status: We’ve got a few guys with ACLs. Brendon Ayanbadejo has a knee situation. Marcus Smith is another guy who had an ACL. I don’t think it’s too optimistic because of the way those guys are training. Right now, we expect those guys to be practicing the first day of training camp because nowadays those ACLs get back fast, but I don’t think you can count on it. I’m sure we’ll have a contingency plan.
On if there are any advantages of being a rookie coach with a rookie QB: I don’t know. We never really considered the advantages because we had no choice. I think it’s a plus, obviously, because we get a chance to grow together, me as a coach and him as a quarterback. Maybe we’ll make some of the same mistakes together and share in the experiences. Joe’s a good guy. He’s really a tough kid and he wants to be great. I can’t wait to go to work. March 15, we’re ready.
By Tracy Smith, on February 5th, 2010 For a great part of the season past, mention of the Ravens secondary would draw scorn, derision and many a curse word. Because the defense was a work in progress for much of the season, many of those sentiments seemed deserved at the time. Yet as the play of the defensive unit improved, so did the performance of the defensive backfield, peaking with a great performance against the New England Patriots in the wild card round (if you thought the peak was the home game against the Chicago Bears, remember-Jay Cutler at that time was a pick waiting to happen). That said, here’s the positional review of the Ravens cornerbacks and safeties. READ MORE >>>
By Zach Wilt, on October 18th, 2009 The Ravens have an extra week to reflect upon their third heartbreaking loss in a row. Baltimore should have won this game, but don’t be fooled there was nothing good about the way they went down in this 33-31 loss.
- Kick the ball in the end zone - I figured I would start with Steve Hauschka, just in a different way than everyone else. Hauschka was not only brought in to make that 44-yard game winning field goal, but to kick the ball into the end zone. His kick offs in a dome were lackluster and the Vikings had way better field position than they should.
- Our secondary can’t tackle – What does $28 million get you? About 15 missed tackles around the neck by Domonique Foxworth. It’s bad enough that these guys can’t cover anyone, but at least after you get burned make a tackle. None of them did it today, the linebackers had to come down field to clean up after their junk.
- Joe was getting clocked - Flacco had a big hit laid on him just about every drive. His ankles were stepped on twice by Minnesota’s big men up front and he rarely made a throw without getting knocked down. I was impressed with Michael Oher’s performance, despite two false start calls.
- Ray Lewis/Ed Reed were every where - Ed spent the whole day cleaning up after Foxworth and Washington. Ray made some crucial tackles including a nasty sack on Brett Favre deep in Vikings’ territory late in the fourth quarter.
- Ladarius Webb should be returning – Webb returns punts and kicks north to south, he hits seams hard, and I feel like he’s got a chance to break here soon. I never felt that with Chris Carr, so let’s give Webb the job and keep some consistency.
- Clayton/Rice for MVP – Obviously Ray Rice had a hell of game. 2 TD’s, a few nasty stiff arms, you can’t bring that guy down. But, Mark Clayton stepped up this week with three crucial catches and a great leaping snag for a TD.
- Make the kick Steve - Baltimore gave up on the 3rd most accurate kicker in the NFL, Matt Stover, who made a huge field goal in the playoffs just last season, to bring in a kicker who could do exactly what Steve didn’t do today. Granted, you shouldn’t back yourself into that situation, but it will happen. 44 yards is unacceptable to miss, especially given the circumstances.
By Zach Wilt, on August 25th, 2009 Now that Ravens’ training camp has wrapped up and we’re half way through the preseason, BSR decided to get the inside scoop on the team by an expert and fellow blogger.
We decided to ask Joe Barnes of EbonyBird.com to fill us in on the 2009 Ravens…
Image Courtesy of the Baltimore Sun
With training camp coming to a close, what are your expectations of the 2009 Ravens based on their camp performance?
I see a season similar to last year’s campaign. Joe Flacco looks solid, the defense looks solid, every position is pretty deep, and things are looking good. With that said, it is possible that the loss of Bart Scott dooms the defense, but when has the team not replaced a linebacker well? If you want a record, I’d say that looking at the schedule, anywhere from 9-7 to 12-4 seems possible, and most likely with playoffs.
Who were you impressed with?
I was most impressed with rookie Lardarius Webb. He was always buzzing around the field, whether it was rushing the quarterback, picking off a pass or making a tackle in between the trenches on a running play. At the beginning of camp, I thought that the secondary might not be good enough to survive against some QBs like Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers, etc. but seeing the depth behind Fabian Washington and Dominique Foxworth, including Webb, has made me think otherwise.
Who were you disappointed with?
I was disappointed with Mark Clayton more than any other player. He just never was on the field. While I understand that they don’t want to risk an aggravation of the injury, it seems like he could be more involved with the team and have a bigger presence in camp. At least he was running routes the last week of camp, but it seems like he might not be in good enough shape, like McGahee last year, and Joe Flacco needs him to have a very good season this year.
What is the team’s biggest flaw?
For me, the team’s biggest flaw is the lack of speed with their top receivers. Flacco’s got an arm, we have all seen that, and Yamon Figurs, Jayson Foster and Justin Harper all have breakaway speed. The issue is getting them on the field enough to have them make an impact with their speed. Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton, Demetrius Williams and Kelley Washington will probably get most of the time on gameday, and none of them have exceptional speed. Mason is great on cutbacks, Clayton great with mid-distance passes, but none could beat a safety 40 yards deep. It’s not a huge flaw, but it’s important for the offense to figure out how to get the speedsters on the field.
What is their strongest point?
The strong point of the team is the defense, in general. The line is great, led by Haloti Ngata. Rookie Paul Kruger looks good enough to start for a lot of teams at DE, but the Ravens’ line is good enough that he’s just depth. The linebackers should be one of the best groups in the league, yet again. And the secondary, led by Ed Reed and strengthened by the return of Dawan Landry and signing of Domonique Foxworth looks to be great as always. This defense is just too good.
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