Steelers know that without Lamar Jackson, the Ravens run game changes drastically. Even in a pass-first league, the Ravens are still a run-first team.
Over the past two seasons, they’ve had a phenomenal run game, but that game plan might change come Wednesday against the Steelers. Lamar Jackson has been a major reason why the Ravens have had success running the ball. Defenses focus their attention on him and this is a major plus for the Ravens offense. This gives them the advantage to run play action and RPO’s at such a high level.
When defenses start to overplay Lamar, the Ravens can hand the ball off to J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, and Mark Ingram or run play action and find Mark Andrews over the middle for easy yardage. Jackson completes an astounding 65.8% of his play-action passes. For this week, let’s forget about Jackson and focus on the run game and Robert Griffin lll.
In the Steelers first appearance against the Ravens in Week 8, the Ravens ran the ball 47 times for 265 yards. On average, that’s 5.6 yards per carry. One of the worst defensive appearances the Steelers have put up all season against the run. The bright side is that RGlll doesn’t have the same legs as Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are forced to change their game plan.
RGlll’s last start was-go figure- against the Steelers in Week 17, 2019. Although this was a meaningless game for the Ravens, RGlll didn’t have the greatest stat-line, he posted 11 completions on 21 attempts 96 yards, and an interception, according to pro football reference. Although the Steelers can’t base RGlll off of one game, he hasn’t started a game since 2019 and there’s no real way to prepare for him.
I believe the Ravens won’t change up their game plan a whole lot but it will look a bit different than in weeks past. I also think the Steelers are going to “ask” the Ravens to pass. This is going to force the Ravens to play a game that they don’t want to and hopefully will result in a few turnovers. Although just about nobody run’s it anymore, I think the Steelers could surprise us and run a 5-2 defense on a few downs. Even though we don’t need to with such a dominant defense, the Ravens are going to try and run the ball all night.
The Steelers might not blitz as much as they usually do
The Steelers rush five or more guys on about 37% of their defensive plays, one of the highest rates in the league. Come Wednesday, I don’t think the Steelers will blitz as much as they have in the past. There’s no need to, keeping the linebackers where they lineup will pose for a better attack against the run game. We of course don’t want to give RGlll all day to throw the ball, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. I trust our front four enough that they will put pressure on RGlll.
Going up against a guy who has no relevant film tape to study can hurt the Steelers but at the end of the day, all the pressure is on RGlll. For a guy who hasn’t played a meaningful snap in over four years, he still knows how to play the game of football. Not too long ago he was a Heisman winner and the 2nd overall pick in the 2012 draft.
We don’t know what to expect out of him but the Steelers just need to play their game and if they do at a high level we can come out of this unprecedented week with a win.