Three Revealing Early Trends About New Look Ravens Under Jesse Minter

Some of the Ravens early season issues, that are a problematic carryover from season’s past, are getting plenty of attention.

Social media has had a field day with some of the blown coverages and strange decisions made by the safeties. The pass protection has been awful, again, and the free runs the Saints were generating last week were quite popular among NFL film people. Abandoning the run – Declan Doyle in the role of Todd Monken, now – well, stop me if you’ve heard that one before.

With all of that going on there have been some other continuations, if you will, that should be on your radar as well as the Ravens face the Cowboys Sunday in Brazil. There are some other trends that, while still quite early, have already given me pause. Plenty to get cleaned up – oh yeah, the penalty barrage that we told you would be coming with a new offense and inexperienced staff and makeshift offensive line, that’s suboptimal as well.

But these three areas have gone largely unnoticed. Not any more.

Special Teams Problems

Yeah, sure second-year kicker Tyler Loop has been under fire but this goes beyond him and his struggles and goes beyond the blocked kick. The rookie punter, Ryan Eckley, was shaky in Week 2 and there was the short kickoff decision that seems too cute by half and got their coverage units exposed (all those rookie they kept on the roster tend to cluster there).

“We have to make sure that we stay in our lanes,” special teams coach Anthony Levine Sr. said, “we stay disciplined, and anytime the ball is kicked, anytime we are out there, we have to go out there, and we have to cover kicks. So, we have to be better, and we will be better.”

Things can get skewed easily this time of year, with small sample size. But the Ravens are 29th in opponents average field position after a kickoff, and they are still asking a lot out of Chris Moore at age 33 and the more LaJohntay Wester plays on offense the more I wonder about what you get out of him in the return game.

Through two weeks the Ravens are 29th in the NFL in overall special teams Expected Points Added (-8.06). I’m just sayin.

“Our energy has to be better,” Levine said. “I will say that.”

Conservative At The Core

We told you that Jesse Minter might be 42, but he thinks like the 60-year-olds who shaped him in a lot of ways, Jim and John Harbaugh. We figured, tracking how reluctant those two are to generally go for it (John Harbaugh lost his jam for this stuff years ago), as well as how rarely Minter’s best coaching buddy, Mike Macdonald, does it in Seattle, this is what we would get.

And sure enough in Week 2, with a chance to make a statement from his own 37 on third-one-one, rookie coordinator Declan Doyle had Lamar Jackson hoist the ball downfield to journeyman receiver Moore, and then punt.

There is a lot of data from his mentors that tells us this is probably who Minter is. We’ll see how the experience of wins and losses changes him.

Unkind Redzone

The Ravens are running the ball inside the redzone as much as anyone in the NFL. How much of this is to try to establish a physical mentality? How much is it because the offensive line has major issues in pass pro and a redzone turnover or sack can be a backbreaker?

How much of it is because the Ravens best receiver, Zay Flowers, has not shown up in the constricted space of the redzone to this point in his career and top redzone slot option Ja’Kobi Lane is on IR and this team was always begging for a Darren Waller type big body to win down there with Mark Andrews a plodder? Yeah, personnel matters for sure.

I find it interesting that Jackson is 27th in the NFL in redzone throwing rate (35%), over six trips to the RZ so far after posting a rating of 68.4 there last year. Not alarming, but intriguing and perhaps will prove to be symptomatic of other issues. This can’t be the NFL’s 27th-ranked redzone offense like last season, that’s for sure.

And the Ravens are 25th in the NFL right now in redzone scoring differential (-16.7%), with their defense struggling there in small sample. That better improve in a big way.

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