Stillers-Ravens Div. Playoff Preview
No surprise
here...the playoffs going thru the hated WoodPeckers,
at Heinz Field.��
Keys for
this game:
Keys when the Stillers have the
ball:
- Somehow keep Haloti
Ngata out of the backfield on ground plays.��
This guy has FEASTED on the Stillers the past 3 seasons.� He�s just ravaged and eaten us alive.�� At this point, I would highly consider, at a
minimum, simply having Pouncey personally block Ngata
on each and every play, as neither Kemo nor Foster can be trusted by himself.�� Of course, on some plays, Pouncey will need
a chip block from a guard or a FB/WB.� To
me, you just cannot allow Ngata to roam and pillage freely
into the backfield on 50% of all ground plays as he has in recent
matchups.�
�
- Contain Suggs.���
This man is a disruptive animal and is quite capable of wreaking havoc
on every pass play.� Quite obviously, Jon
Scott desperately will need help to protect Ben�s blindside.�� Due to the injury of Starks, the Stillers
have a bizarre, modern-day paradox where their far-less capable tackle is
protecting the blind side.�� I thought
- Get Ward more involved.��
In 2 games vs. the Poebirds this season, Ward
has all of 27 yards receiving.�� He�s
trusty, experienced, reliable, and clutch.��
He doesn�t need to catch 9 passes, but more than 2 would be
advisable.�
�
- Have someone other than Heath Miller
pass-block in the backfield. �There is a vast array
of choices here.�� Rashard
Mendenhall.�� Mewelde Moore.�� Isaac Redman.�� David Johnson.� Doug Legursky.�� I want our quick, athletic, tall, big,
strong, sure-handed fellow named Miller out in pass patterns and moving the
chains, not doing the equivalent of janitorial work back in the pocket.�� Plus, on valve dumpoffs,
all 3 RBs are better RAC runners that close to the line of scrimmage, than is
Miller.�
Keys when the Ravens have the ball:
- Contain Ray Rice.��
A terrific grass RB, Rice has the uncanny knack of being able to
stop, cut, and accelerate on poor-footing grass
fields, while defenders are often slipping and sliding.� He showed this in spades last week at
Arrowhead.� Rice also presents the kind
of RB that gives the Stiller D some problems; that of a cutback runner
who reads and is patient.� Rice is also
extremely dangerous out of the backfield, both on valve dumps as well as
designed outs, ins, and flares.� Out of the backfield, he is a mis-match nightmare against Farrior and Woodley (although
Woodley rarely is in coverage).� Rice cannot
and will not be tackled high, and the DBs with that
sort of penchant will be wise to adjust and get low.��
������ Unless a freak 65-yard run occurs, Rice
won�t get 100 yards on the ground, but if he can get 75 and chew clock and
yardage, the Ravens will be quite pleased.��
It�s in the passing game where Rice strikes the most concern, as he is
more than capable of being dangerous on 3rd downs and checkdown
passes.�� A comfy security blanket for QB
Joe Jacco, Rice absolutely must be a target of
surveillance on each and every play.� The
one extreme mismatch that the
- Derrick �Stiller Killer� Mason.�
For whatever reason, Mason usually saves his best for the Stillers, dating
way back to his Titan (and even Oiler !) days.� Now in his
14th season, Mason obviously isn�t a deep threat, although he never really
was.� Mason�s best asset is similar to
Ward�s -- a crafty brand of guile, toughness, and reliability.�� The Ravens still very much enjoy sending
Mason deep a couple times per game, typically on stop n� go or chair routes
against unsuspecting CBs.� The fact that Mason has constantly made one clutch catch after
another in at least 25 games against the Stillers, leaves me awake at night.� He can and should be smothered with press
coverage.�
- Michael Ohrer�s
fast kickback.� In Ravens1, Ohrer
got away with bloody murder, never once getting called for a single false start
despite numerous times kicking his left leg/foot back a millisecond before the
snap in order to beat James Harrison to the corner.� In Ravens2 -- presumably after prompting from
the Stillers -- the refs flagged Ohrer for 2 false
starts, and voila -- he quickly stopped his blatant cheating.�� How tight, or lax, the refs are on Ohrer will go a long way to determining what kind of heat
- The 2 �Tight Ends�.��
We all know about Todd Heap, and you saw him ravage the KC secondary
last week.� The other �tight end� that
concerns me is Anquan Boldin,
who isn�t officially a TE, but might as well be with his size and
strength.� You saw what Pats rookie TE
Rob Gronkowski did to Will Gay, and come Saturday,
Gay is probably going to be tasked to cover 1 of these TEs.�� And then you have Taunto Farrior, who, at
this downward-arcing point of his career, can�t be trusted to cover a blocking
FB, much less Todd Heap.�
- Get something out of LaMarr Woodley.�� By something, I
mean ANYTHING even semi productive.�� This
is a guy that has resembled a 55-gallon drum on most plays this season, doing
little, disrupting little, and adding little.�
You know the Ravens will be terrified about The Human Fumbling Machine,
Joe Jacco, getting stripped by Harrison and any other
blitzers (Pola, Timmons, et al) on the back (blind) side, so they will be sure
to slant protection to their left.�� Thus, Big LaMarr is
guaranteed SOLO blocking on at least 98% of all pass plays.�� He should be able to do something
against Ravens RT Marshal Yanda, but Big LaMarr has mostly done nothing against every tackle
he�s titty-jousted with this season. �It�s gotten to the point that with LaMarr�s overt lethargy from the LOLB spot, the Stillers
would be better served using him as a rush DE or even a rush NT, and using Worilds as a designated speed rusher from the LOLB
spot.�
- Attack and pressure Joe Jacco.���
In Ravens2, Jacco was given EONS of time early
on, and engineered a casual, 92-yard cakewalk while facing no more pressure
than a librarian in a rural library.�� Finally,
the Stiller defenders had to beg and plead with Coach Dick,
who finally relented and dialed up the pressure.�� Voila -- Jacco,
true to his nature, got flustered, inaccurate, and later in the game, ultimately
was stripped of the ball.��
�
����� What we don�t know, is if LeBeau, the
fossil, learned anything from that game, or if he�s going to go back to this pussyfied, Softee Defense.�
Jacco MUST be pressured�� He�s well prone to choking and getting
flustered under pressure.�� More
importantly, he�s a human fumbling machine, capable of being stripped faster
than a Vegas whore.�� Lastly, because he�s
clumsy and slow afoot, he�s the perfect guy to pressure, because unlike a Vick,
a BenRoth, or an Elway, he�s
not going to burn you with his feet.�
- Apply press coverage to the slow
corps of WRs.�� The Ravens possess a fairly slow group of
WRs.�� TJ Housemanad
may be the fastest, and his prime was probably 4 years ago.� Neither Mason nor Bolquin
have speed to burn.�� This is an ideal
corps of WRs to play press coverage against.�
�
Spec teams.�����
The �Stiller
coverage teams started to leak badly the final quarter of the season, with a
low point being the game-opening KO return for a TD versus the NYJ.�� The coverage tightened up considerably in
the final 2 games, although both opponents were uninspired and disinterested.�
������� Of related importance is the
effectiveness of Sean Suisham�s squib kicks.�� He was tremendous versus Clev in the season
finale.� It will be interesting if the
staff decides to mix in a few squibs, or even go exclusively squib, versus the RatBirds.�
Summary:��
This is a game, at home, that the Stillers should win, and frankly, should
dominate against a mediocre Ravens team.� �The
Stillers have a vastly superior QB, are playing at home, and have had 2 weeks
of rest while the Ravens have had only 6 days.��
Those 3 factors are unbelievable huge come playoff time.� The PoeBird�s win last
week over a young, mediocre KC team was hardly impressive.��
���� That said, the Stillers
have an amazing propensity of playing the PoeBirds
too close to the vest and too content to �keep it close�.�� I expect another nailbiter,
and with the odds overwhelmingly in favor of another 3-point game, I wouldn�t
touch betting on this game with a 10-foot pole.�
(Still Mill
and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the