Four Critical Game-Management Corrections Ravens Rookie HC Jesse Minter Must Make

Ravens rookie head coach Jesse Minter is a quick study.

That became apparent through his rise within the college and pro ranks and given what he has accomplished running defenses at both levels. He will likely become a successful NFL head coach, but it will likely require some time to get there. I don’t think he’s going to win Coach of The Year in Year One. Call me crazy.

And he has a lot to download already just two games into his sideline stint. It didn’t take long at all for Minter to hit the kind of adversity that expedited the demise of his mentor, John Harbaugh, blowing a 10-point lead as a 10-point favorite to the Saints in his first home game and suffering a 24-17 loss. There are plenty of lessons to learn from this setback.

This is no ordinary situation – he is replacing a potential Hall of Fame coach in Harbaugh and he came to a team with serious Super Bowl aspirations but also one that continues to carry significant warts that its longtime general manager will likely struggle to fix. He doesn’t have the learning curve and growth years afforded some startups, and there are four crucial areas of game management in which he must quickly improve:

Wasted Challenges

Minter came to a team with a predilection for blowing huge leads like we have not seen in the modern game. No NFL team this accomplished in the regular season with this caliber of QB and which can score this many points, keeps losing games like they did Sunday. It’s in their DNA and they can’t easily shake it and merely hiring a new coach didn’t mean much in this regard.

So Minter best be super careful about wasting challenges over five yards here or there in the middle of the field, which could cost him a vital timeout late in the game where his team fails in close-and-late situations. If this isn’t a crucial play to extend a drive or force a punt, and his defense is as good as it’s supposed to be, then throwing the flag around like he did Week 2 is bad ball.

A three-yard completion on second-and-8 from the Baltimore 42? Nope. Even Minter’s explanation sounded like a Craig-Albernaz word salad trying to defend a Little League contact play. Never go Full Albernaz, especially just two games into your career.

“I felt like it was a critical point in the game based on the field position,” Minter said after the game. “They are probably in four-down mode regardless there, but the difference in the third down is trying to give us a chance there."

Huh?

Short-yardage Struggles

This was a bad team in short-yardage situations last season despite getting a fully healthy year out of Hall of Fame back Derrick Henry. And they have a rookie offensive play caller who is naturally inclined to chuck the ball around and show off what he can do in 11 personnel (three receivers). But the defense and run game must be the hallmarks of the team and when Declan Doyle, 30, calls a low-odds pass play to special teams guy Chris Moore on third-and-1 from the 37, then it best be because they are going to give it to Henry on fourth down if necessary.

Minter talked about the team needing to show its identity during his Monday press conference – well getting back to this kind of stuff with a “Joker” lead blocker like Durham Smythe and an extra offensive lineman would be a good place to start. Doyle was getting unmasked by Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley in the second half, and ultimately this stuff falls on the head coach.

“There are a lot of calls in every game, win or lose, that you go back (to) especially as a play-caller.,” Minter said when asked about this situation Monday. “I have done that a ton in my career. You go back, and the unfortunate thing is when you wake up on Monday, you cannot change anything that happened in the game.”

Henry was fresh, the offensive line was getting whipped in pass protection and Moore is a No. 5 WR at best on a good roster. This kind of thing best not become a habit. We told you this spring that Doye would steal short-yardage deep shots from his mentor Sean Payton, but the ensuing commitment to fourth down being in play matters.

Scrap The Short Kickoffs

Young kicker Tyler Loop has enough going on in his head already and the Ravens got burned repeatedly last year with the short kicks in end-of-half situations. It was a problem then and it directly led to three points Sunday for New Orleans and shifted momentum. Minter talked about the Saints automatically starting a drive on the 35 – had they just kicked the ball out of the endzone – with 24 seconds to play on the road with a QB making his 11th start like it was a bad spot for his defense.

Again, isn’t this supposed to be the strength of the team with all the money and resources on that side of the ball? The $20M defensive tackle (albeit injured) and $20M middle linebacker and $20M hybrid defensive back and $20M corner, and then all the other first-and-second-round picks sprinkled in? And in a sequence when the Saints start a possession with 15 seconds left in the half, we’re going to try to save a few yards with a kicker who is having a hard enough time making 47-yard field goals?

“The idea there is you kick it, take five or six seconds off the clock,” Minter said Monday. “Obviously, you hope to knock them down inside the 30, and most teams now, when they get under that 20-second range, even with the timeouts — in that area of the field — becomes maybe a kneel-out situation, especially with them getting the ball to start the half. So, a lot of consideration there on both sides.”

If the kicker was better at placing it and the coverage units were better defending it, that would be one thing. Saints starting at the 44 really put them in business and actually hastened the forthcoming dissection of Minter’s coverages. Which brings us to ...

Dime Deficient

He wants to lead the NFL is usage of dime coverage and no doubt that pleases his boss, who collects all the first round picks he can. But young safety Malaki Starks is taking his lumps and good luck getting $20M games out of corner Marlon Humphrey with regularity and fifth-round pick Chandler Rivers was making his NFL debut and Saints QB Tyler Shough has a history of shredding this coverage.

Sometimes you are going to have to lean into more manpower up front to try to get more inside pressure and win the game with pass rush. Shough killed Minter’s defense when he blitzed, so that wasn’t the answer, but more true 3-4 looks or, gasp, dare I say it, 4-3 (three snaps through two games), could have perhaps helped especially with the Saints losing their starting left tackle on the road in a game they trailed.

Minter is in dime 38% through two weeks; no one else is above 25% and the league average is 6.4%. Minter is in nickel or dime 95% of the time. Perhaps the return of Nnamdi Madubuike will change things some for the better if he is wedded to this, but there is danger in extremes.

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