How the Ravens Brought Pressure Against Big Ben

In week one against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Ravens defense was barely able to get pressure on quarterback Andy Dalton. According to Pro Football Focus, the defense recorded zero sacks, one quarterback hit, and four quarterback hurries on 43 pass attempts.

Before the game was even over, fans were calling for Dean Pees' head and pining for the days of the "aggressive" Ravens defense under Rex Ryan.

But then the Steelers came to town, and the Ravens' pass rush was born again. The defense recorded 11 sacks, hits, or hurries on 41 pass attempts against the Steelers, highlighted by Upshaw's huge hit on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger early in the first quarter.

Much of the difference can be attributed to offensive scheme, of course. Cincy brought a smart, efficient game plan to Baltimore in week one, and they used it to negate the Ravens front seven. And even though Pittsburgh used a lot of the same strategies in week two - screens, reverses, and quick-hitting pass plays - the Ravens also countered with some new wrinkles of their own.

Let's take a look at what Baltimore did to get pressure on the Steelers last Thursday.

Press Coverage Takes Away Quick-Hitting Routes

In week one, the Ravens played lots of zone, especially Cover-4 and Cover-6. Their corners were in off-coverage (for good reason, mostly), but the Bengals took advantage of the soft underneath cushion. Hook, curl, and drag routes, in addition to a proliferation of screen passes, kept the Bengals drives chugging along, and every short completion seemed to aggravate the collective Ravens fan-base more and more.

Without Lardarius Webb, the Ravens had decided to move Asa Jackson to slot corner, leaving Chykie Brown playing outside corner opposite Jimmy Smith. Thus, the team likely thought that their secondary would be more successful in Cover 4 than something like 2-Man, in part because Chykie Brown would've been sorely outmatched trying to play man and/or press coverage against the Bengals' big, physical receivers. The merits of that are up for debate, but by committing to such a scheme, the Ravens also opted not to shadow A.J. Green with Jimmy Smith, a decision for which the team has rightly been derided.

Against the Steelers, on the other hand, Asa Jackson took more snaps at outside corner than he did in week one, and the Ravens tried some other players, such as Jeromy Miles and Matt Elam, at slot corner. The team tried some different looks in the secondary, too, especially Cover 1 and Cover 2, and they asked their corners to play much more press coverage.

The advantage of press coverage is that, when played well, it takes away many of the quick hitting routes that bedeviled the Ravens in week one. In the play below, for example, you see the Ravens playing 2-Man. Their corners are playing press coverage against all three receivers (red brackets), and the inside linebackers have man coverage responsibilities against the TE and RB (black dotted lines).

The Ravens only rush three, as you can see in the second half of the image. Additionally, they left LB Courtney Upshaw (blue arrow) back to "spy" Roethlisberger. As soon as the coverage broke down and Roethlisberger began to move out of the pocket, Upshaw flew in for a huge hit and what probably should've counted as a third-down sack. In this instance, generating a pass rush isn't necessarily dependent on the pass rushers themselves. Taking away quick-hitting throws can force a QB to stand too long in the pocket and let the pass rush get home.

Creative Defensive Fronts Cause Confusion

In addition to changing the coverage schemes, Dean Pees also used more creative defensive fronts in week two. As Dan Bryden mentioned, this is not an uncommon occurrence against Pittsburgh. Below, for example, you see the Ravens are lined up with a single down lineman: #97, Timmy Jernigan, as a nose-shade. Meanwhile, both Suggs and Dumervil are lined up on Roethlisberger's blind side. The Ravens are going to rush four and drop LBs C.J. Mosley and Daryl Smith into hook/curl zones.

The advantage of these strange fronts is multiple, but the foremost advantage is confusion. If the offensive line doesn't communicate well, they may confuse the blocking assignments (which appears to happen on this particular play). As you can see below, both LG Ramon Foster and RG David DeCastro move to help their center against Jernigan, leaving RB Le'Veon Bell all by himself against Terrell Suggs. That's a matchup Bell is not going to win very often. Advantage: Defense.

So much of what these odd-looking fronts aim to do (including the amoeba/psycho front the Ravens like to use sometimes, where everyone is standing/wandering around the LOS pre-snap) is cause confusion. Any time the defense can cause miscommunication along the offensive line, they gain a distinct edge. The above is probably a best-case scenario - i.e., getting your team's best pass rusher one-on-one against a running back. But the point is that creative fronts (especially when you start adding additional layers like zone blitzes or creative twists/stunts) create positive outcomes.

Blitzes Can Create One-on-One Mismatches

Finally, the Ravens also used the most tried-and-true method of generating a pass rush: blitzing. Fans love to point out that Pees doesn't blitz like his predecessors, especially Rex Ryan - and they're right. But it's untrue that Pees never uses the blitz.

Below is an example of a safety blitz the Ravens ran against Pittsburgh. Initially, the defense is aligned in a 2-Man look, but prior to the snap, FS Darian Stewart is going to cheat toward the LOS, and Matt Elam is going to rotate into a single-high-safety look. The rest of the secondary is in man coverage.

The Ravens bring five rushers, and the Steelers are left with six to block, including RB Le'Veon Bell. Bell moves to double-team Haloti Ngata, the most immediate threat, which leaves the other four pass rushers in one-on-one matchups. Now, Darian Stewart is going to get swallowed up by #66, RG David DeCastro - so the additional blitzer isn't actually the one to record the sack. But by bringing additional pressure, Dumervil is now one-on-one against the Steelers' RT, which is a huge mismatch. #77 Marcus Gilbert has been playing poorly (in fact, he's on the verge of being benched), so you can bet that the Ravens schemed this blitz to isolate him against Dumervil.

The result is a sack, which is exactly what every defensive coordinator is hoping for when they bring the blitz. It doesn't always work out this way, but you can see how bringing additional pressure leaves good pass rushers in favorable situations, greatly increasing their odds of recording a sack, hit, or hurry.