The Ravens were the 2nd best team in the NFL on 3rd down efficiency in 2020. They were also #3 in 2021. Now the Giants are excelling with some of Wink's exotic pressures and blitzes on 3rd down. He loves to run plenty of mug and show looks which has been a staple of his. The Giants are 2nd in the league after week 10 in 3rd down efficiency, holding teams to a whopping 28%.
This is a credit to their great coordinator, Don " Wink" Martindale. The Ravens mix it up on 3rd down but coach the crap out of route recognition and concepts. They bait you into some throws and then rally to the football. They also force slides and protection calls in one direction and
Giants 2022
Vs the Texans, 2022, The Giants held the Texans to 3/10 and caused issues with their mug pressure looks.
Here are some clips and coverages they ran this year.
Below the Giants are showing pressure:
They get a free rusher in this situation because the look causes a major protection issue:
1. They get the free rusher
2. The other big thing here is they force a protection call that puts the rb on the DT.
3. They force the tight end to check release which takes one more man out of the pattern.
4. It looks like a 6 man pressure as my guess it the rb is covered by the LB, but with the rb blocking he just adds in.
The coverage with this pressure is man free.
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Heres the clip!
3rd and 10
Penny front: Here comes the overload zone pressure(4 to a side). Great scheme and design as the Texans throw hot away from the pressure.
Nice 3 deep look and design. Wink had Mills on his toes all game. Bringing pressure early forced some quick decisions. They bring the slot safety and the mike and drop to a 3 under 3 deep scheme.
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3rd and 5 vs the Chargers in 2021.
They bring the safety off the edge in a nice 5 man mug pressure. The Sam comes clean as the nice cover 2 coverage gives the Chargers problems. They get the sack.
You can see the coverage structure below.
Its a 5 man cover 2 concept that works out well with the free rusher!
They bring the safety down to the middle of the field to help on crossing routes. The safety is a hole defender. Now the ILB and CB are passing off any inside routes . The ILB passes his man off to the CB and vice versa. The ILB sees the shallow and causes issues with the throw as there is a very tight window and he is there to knock it away.
The hole defender takes away the middle of the field.
Nice design and disguise on 3rd and 3.
FS robs the hole, have some combo coverage underneath. No place to. go with the football.
Nice execution.
vs Steelers 2021
Wink runs a couple mug odd looks vs the Steelers. The first is a 3 under 3 deep fire zone.
The 2nd stunt from the double mug look is a basic 4 man pressure with the LB adding in. By going mug look the Steelers go 1/2 man and keep the RB in. The Ravens play 2 man and run a great scheme.
VS TEXANS 2020
Here are some highlights from some of their games. In a 33-16 win vs the Texans week 2, they beat the Texans and held them to 3/9 on 3rd down.
The texans were sacked 2 times and of the 4 completed passes, 3 were for 6 yards or less. They pressured Desean on 2 other occasions and forced him to run.
Here's a few pressures.
On 3rd and 5, The Texans are 3x1 to their right side. The Ravens are in an odd look.
The Ravens overload the left defensive side and bring a sim pressure away from the slide.
First the pressure:
They force the protection and the pressure gets home.
Coverage: It looks like presnap man but it becomes a cover 3 coverage with the CB bailing.
In the playoffs vs the Titans were 4/11 for 72 yards and a sack. The interesting stat was the Titans were 3/4 early but Wink made some good adjustments and they did a great job the rest of the game. The last 8 snaps, the Titans had 1 successful 3rd down completion.
LETS LOOK AT 2 BIG PLAYS:
The Ravens are up 17-10, the Titans are driving
3rd and 5 on the 5 yard line, big play n the game.
On a big 3rd and 5 they go man on the outside with outside leverage and play the 2 lb as rat underneath defenders. The db's know they have help inside. They blitz engage Henry but Henry misses the block and the LB adds in. Tannehill dumpts it to henry for a 2 yard loss and force a big field goal.
On 3rd and 2 they run a great sim pressure. Tannehill actually misses the #1 wr up top on his read and just goes to the back. Looks like the Ravens were in man to the single side with zone to the trips side.
The Ravens show a double b gap mug look.
They run a 4 man sim pressure brings the weak lb b gap but they bail the de and mike lb to the 3wr side
DE short drop, look for shallow crosser. Mike plays hook and the Sam plays curl. Great design, and the Ravens make the big hit. The Titans punt on 4th and 2
3rd down packages vs the Colts
3rd and 1-3
Its 3rd and 3
Ravens go man to man with 2 rat defenders, (underneath help), result inc pass
Everything covered no place to go with the ball. They wanted to hit the rb off the mesh concept,
Coaching points: pick routes but the Ravens are smart and just put the lb way outside.
Look at the underneath rat defenders playing the crossing mesh routes on both sides. Great defense
3rd- 4-6
vs. The Patriots
Here's a 3rd and 4 vs the Patriots.
The pats get 3 yards on the play
They go cover 2 but lock on the 1 wr.
The patriots run a screen and the de makes nice play retracing and holds them 1 yard short.
The Ravens disguise man presnap but go to a cover 2 look on the snap but lock in the 1 wr. DE make a great play or 15 yard gain. Hold them to to and get off the field
Defense was 6/7 efficient against the colts.
Colts tried to check to some wr screens early when they saw pressure but wink mixed it up. Some man free, some combo and cover 2.
Here is a 3rd and 5
The Ravens run a fire zone man free concept. They make a nice play on the cb, and the drop de who was a rat player cleans it up. 3 yard gain and off the field.
#3 On the next 3rd and 5 they go cover 2.
They mix it up. Went man free , combo and now cover 2. Giving different looks
They get late pressure which causes the bad throw and off the field.
On the next 3rd and 5 they go cover 0 with a 6 man pressure. Lb and safety up the middle out of their nickel personnel. with the de as a lb #99 Judon rushing. excellent coverage downfield
vs. The Patriots
3rd and 6
They bring pressure and they go man free and a key 3rd and 6. They get great pressure and the dbs do a nice job in coverage and #99 Judos gets the sack.
3rd and 7-10
Here on 3rd and 9 the Ravens run a 5 man pressure, 3 under 3 deep look. Ravens do a good job disguising the coverage.( cover 2 look pre snap)
Get good pressure and force Rivers to leave the pocket and he throws an incomplete pass.
3rd and 11+
vs The Patriots 3rd and 13
The Ravens go fire zone to a 3 look and lock on the 1 wr.
The Ravens do this often vs 3x1
Lets look at a few situations vs. the Titans in week 11.
The Ravens went man free with different looks and different rat defenders
3rd and 4
The Ravens show an odd look with 3 lb and 3 def lineman. They show pressure with the olb but drop them into coverage as rat defenders while playing man free.
The Titans center works to the 3 man side and usually the rb would take the lb. That doesn't happen and the pressure forces the interception. Nice design as the mike comes clean and Tannehill never sees the lb dropping.
A few plays later they bring pressure attacking the left side of the Titans line on 3rd and 7. Left guard does a bad job and the 4 man sim pressure gets home. #90 gets home and the coverage is excellent down field. Man free from a 4 man look with 2 really wide 9's
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| #90 gets home as guard helps too much inside The ravens do a great job on 3rd down. I hope you enjoyed this article and analysis. |
