Flacco and the Dump off/ Screen Pass

[mjames]

Everyone is familiar with Ray Rice's 4th and 29 but we have to be ready for this early and often. Flacco and the screen or dump is a huge part of their game. He is always checking down to Rice and hopefully the D is planning accordingly. It seems everyone knows it is coming but even then they are very good at it. I feel this is a key to the game and we have to pick Rice up out of the backfield. If we contain Rice and shut this pass down or simply contain it for small yardage. Flacco will throw it down field also but loves to draw the D in with Rice to set it up. If we defend this, we will win since I believe we can run all over them tomorrow and take some of the heat off RGIII. Just like most here, I think we pull it off, especially if this crowd can be like they were the other night( anyone else notice the tv shaking at one point the other night?!!!)

[Fight4RGIII]

All Flacco seems like he does is screens, out routes/comebacks to the sideline, or take deep shots. They rarely use the middle of the field for some odd reason but now that I said that, he'll kill us over the middle all day.

[emor09]

The Eagles were killing us with screens early. Hopefully the Ravens will abandon it, just like the birds did.

[DC9]

Yep. The screen pass is my biggest concern. Ray Rice does a fantastic job in the screen game. Their offensive line isn't beast, but they'll be plenty good at blocking our defense down the field while keeping Rice in their hip pockets.

To me, this game doesn't come down to stopping Ray Rice. We won't stop him. We just need to limit him. The game comes down to which Joe Flacco shows up... road Flacco or home Flacco.

EDIT: Tackling is a premium in the game as well. We must eliminate YAC.

[Monk4thaHALL]

Well, that and Boldin either physically shoving DBs, out-muscling them and/or stretching the field.

As for Rice, Fletch has been giving steps to TEs recently, so the likelihood of him locking down Rice one-on-one is little - imo.

Plus you have to account for the lack of pass rush.

So if we send people and go man, there's likely chances that the better athletes will create separation and gain large YAC. If you drop as many guys as you can, then you give their QB all day. Usually Pitta finds the soft spots in zone.

It's going to be mismatch at a few places.

But, if it were me, given the options, I'd want to try my best to blitz and pressure Flacco and get his mercurial ass all flustered. I'd want to give a bunch of Amoeba fronts.

Maybe, on passing situations, have 6 LBs on the field at one time (using the general 2-4-5 alignment) with 5 DBs - send 4 or 5 of the quickest guys I have to pressure, shoot gaps. Hope they don't counter with draw or screen. But they will. They'll do screen. So ...

Generally I just assume the Skins will give the opposing QB a lot of time, because that's what they do:

[RedskinsNation]

All Flacco seems like he does is screens, out routes/comebacks to the sideline, or take deep shots. They rarely use the middle of the field for some odd reason but now that I said that, he'll kill us over the middle all day.

Yep exactly. It's Cam Cameron's offense. They run more "stop" routes aka button hooks than anyone in organized sports.

[barnacle]

The Ravens don't use the screen pass much. Flacco only dumps it off to Rice if everyone is covered downfield which happens a lot against teams with a good defense (because Boldin is too slow to get separation). Against the Steelers, the Ravens tried to go deep too much and Torry Smith kept dropping the pass. This left them with third and long all day.

Flacco does throw a ton of ten yard outs to Boldin, I guess because of his strong arm. Very predicta
ble and annoying though and resulted in a pick six against Houston. I expect the Ravens to use the middle of the field to the TE Pita as it should be open if the Redskins play deep to respect Torry Smith's speed. The Raven's fullback Vonta Leach is an absolute beast. He often pancakes 350 pound defensive lineman and they have been passing the ball to him in the open field lately. On defense, RG3 needs to look out for Pollard as he is a QB headhunter (he put Tom Brady out for the year when he was with Houston). I doubt he's fast enough to even touch RG3 though unless he's in the pocket. The rest of the defense is patchwork right now as even their best player Nagta has been ineffective due to nagging injuries.

As a Raven fan I know they can't stop Rg3 or AlMo at this time. It is going to be an absolute shoot out with the team that can force the most field goals instead of TDs winning the game.