The Defense at it's Best

[mountainpantherfan]

On the Raven's first offensive series the Panthers allowed them to march down the field, all the way to the one yard line. At this point the Panthers played the best defense they played the entire night, denying the offense any points after being 1st and goal on the one yard line. There were several different alignments on the defensive line but a couple of things that I noticed were that Peppers moved to the left side and Brayton's sack came when he was on the right side. I also noticed that Hayden was playing at the RDT position on a play or two and actually made a really good tackle at one point with a good push.

Looking at this I wonder why Hayden is playing the NT position and not Lewis who backed up Kemo when Jenkins was still here. I also wonder if anyone thinks moving Peppers back to the left side would be a good idea. I know moving him the right side resulted in 14.5 sacks last season but overall success of the line is more important than just Peppers' ability to get the quarterback on what would amount to probably just 1% of all the defensive snaps last season.

Discuss?

[Cyberjag]

Lewis backed up Jenkins, not Kemo.

Both Lewis and Hayden are three-technique tackles. In fact, Hayden lost weight to get faster so he would be more effective in that role. Irvin is as well. The only true NT we have on the roster who might make the team is Favorite.

[Guild]

I'd say that the line positions will get changed up quite a bit in each game as we look for a matchup (or matchups) that give us an advantage or a complete mismatch.

[mountainpantherfan]

Lewis backed up Jenkins, not Kemo.

Both Lewis and Hayden are three-technique tackles. In fact, Hayden lost weight to get faster so he would be more effective in that role. Irvin is as well. The only true NT we have on the roster who might make the team is Favorite.

Lewis may not have been the backup but he rotated into Kemo's spot on thirds downs and such. I know that Lewis isn't the ideal person but wouldn't he be a better fit than Hayden? To me Lewis is closer to a NT than Haydne is.

[Kettle]

the ravens didn't march ALL the way down the field. they received the punt just past mid field and had an excellent return. i think the drive was around 40 yards.

[CRA]

That wasn't good defense. In 5 plays Baltimore drove all the way down to the 1 yard line...picking up 1st downs on 3 of the 5 plays. They then shot themselves in the foot and got backed up off the 1 yard line.......from that point we kept them out of the endzone and then they missed an easy 27 yarder.......Carolina just got lucky in that regards.

there "best" defensive drive series wasn't impressive.

[Snake]

Lewis may not have been the backup but he rotated into Kemo's spot on thirds downs and such. I know that Lewis isn't the ideal person but wouldn't he be a better fit than Hayden? To me Lewis is closer to a NT than Haydne is.

They would both suck at NT. Cause they are not a NT they are a 1 gap DT. NT's are 2 gap players.

[rayzor]

i was a bit proud of the defense for pushing the ravens back from the 1. i couldn't tell who was at DT on that puch back. i know i saw some guys rotated in but i couldn't tell who was where.

does anyone know for sure?

btw....i'm not proud of the guys for letting get down that far but that push back was good and i think whoever was in that lineup had the raven offense rattled a lot.

i really need to watch that game again.

[Jangler]

Did the D stop them or did the Ravens shoot themselves in the foot. Contrary to what some believe I am not a homer and will criticize when I see it. I just won't go out of my way to criticize every aspect of the game...

[Guild]

Did the D stop them or did the Ravens shoot themselves in the foot. Contrary to what some believe I am not a homer and will criticize when I see it. I just won't go out of my way to criticize every aspect of the game...

Both

[stirs]

I think there might have been a penalty thrown in for good measure.

[mountainpantherfan]

Both of the flags that pushed the Ravens back were caused by the defense. Oreh about jumped out of his shoes when Peppers switched to the left side which caused the off-sides call.

[CRA]

Both of the flags that pushed the Ravens back were caused by the defense. Oreh about jumped out of his shoes when Peppers switched to the left side which caused the off-sides call.

The Baltimore offense still rolled to the 1 yard line like Carolina was a bunch of middle school kids. You can give them credit for forcing a field goal I guess.......but 9/10 times an opponent is going to score from the 1 or make a gimmie field goal. I don't see why we are tooting our defenses horn on that drive.

[mountainpantherfan]

The Baltimore offense still rolled to the 1 yard line like Carolina was a bunch of middle school kids. You can give them credit for forcing a field goal I guess.......but 9/10 times an opponent is going to score from the 1 or make a gimmie field goal. I don't see why we are tooting our defenses horn on that drive.

If you read my OP again, I only gave them credit for playing good defense once the ball was on the one. Before that, they looked bad. Actually, the defense didn't look bad, the secondary looked bad. If I remember correctly the front 7 was actually stopping the run during that drive and it was a couple of pass plays that the secondary gave up that got them to that point.

And yes, forcing a team to kick a field goal is a huge success in the NFL when the offense is in the red zone nonetheless. To do it from the one yard line with 1st and goal, thats impressive IMO.