BY ADAM GREENE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE RAVENS NEED TO FIRE GREG ROMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Allow me to show you some Baltimore Ravens offensive highlights. Click here<\/a> to watch the strategic acumen of offensive coordinator Greg Roman\u2019s battle plan unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oops, sorry. That\u2019s Pop Warner highlights, but if you plug those kids into Ravens jerseys you\u2019d never know the difference. Baltimore celebrated its first playoff win with Lamar Jackson under center by immediately being dominated in the divisional round and losing to the Buffalo Bills 17-3 in a game that never really felt in doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the only reason it was close at all was from an elite, nearly perfect performance from the Ravens defense. They held the Bills to just 220 total yards and were so stout against the run that Buffalo offensive coordinator Brian Daboll just gave up on it completely before the game even kicked off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ravens\u2019 offensive playcalling and strategy has been a problem all year. Back in November Lamar Jackson revealed that the offense was so basic and predictable that defenses knew what they were going run before they snapped the ball<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They’re calling out our plays, stuff like that,” Jackson told the NFL Network\u2019s Rich Eisen on his podcast. “They know what we’re doing. Sometimes stuff won’t go our way if they’re beating us to the punch.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked if opposing defenses call out the specific offensive plays pre-snap, Jackson said, “Yeah, they definitely do. Like, ‘run’ and stuff like that. ‘Watch out for this, watch out for that.’ Sometimes that’s what’s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s egregious, it\u2019s amateurish and it\u2019s who Greg Roman is. He\u2019s ridden in this rodeo before and gotten the same results. It\u2019s why he\u2019s been fired as an offensive coordinator twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was hired as the San Francisco 49ers OC in 2011 and, in 2012 thanks to an injury to starter Alex Smith, plugged in Colin Kaepernick. Roman ran this exact offense with Kap for two and a half seasons. The first season and a half, it caught defenses by surprise because they were used to scheming against actual NFL caliber playcalling, not this NCAA Division II option attack. Once they\u2019d all gotten a good look, the fun was over. Roman\u2019s offense stalled out in 2014, the 49ers went 8-8 and he was forced to walk the plank at the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his next stint in Buffalo, he never made it out of Septmber of his second season before getting tossed down the garbage chute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same thing is playing out in Baltimore, with the only difference being that Jackson is more talented than Kaepernick. But, in the end, all that\u2019s bought him was a handful more wins. There is no Super Bowl title coming with Roman designing and calling the plays. A real defensive coach, a guy like Buffalo\u2019s Leslie Frazier, with a halfway decent roster can shut this offense down. It\u2019s happened too many times, and it\u2019s always going to happen in the postseason unless Baltimore makes a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want to show you some plays, successful plays that were successful specifically because Lamar Jackson is a generational talent. These are poorly designed, drawn up in the dirt pass routes than anyone in the NFL should be ashamed to see on film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, look at this<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It ends up a touchdown pass to wide receiver Willie Snead because Jackson basically hands it to him with a pinpoint accurate pass that few people on the planet can throw. It should have been a disaster as Snead is literally running at the pylon and directly into the route of another Baltimore receiver, taking both the corner covering him and the safety over top with him. Roman has drawn this up, to put two receivers in the same spot in a short field. Not only does the design not clear out the wide corner, it brings him into the play so that if the Jackson is just a foot off target any one of three Browns defenders can pick this pass off. It\u2019s awful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you could say that, sure, maybe one of the receivers ran the wrong route, but that\u2019s not the case at all. Jackson, when his back foot hits the ground, knows exactly where Snead is going to be because he is an NFL QB and that\u2019s how their brains work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s give Roman the benefit of the doubt on that and look at this one<\/a>, where he has not two, but three receivers run the exact same routes to converge in the middle of the field. Marquise Brown and Miles Boykin literally have to dodge each other as they cross to keep from colliding together. And what\u2019s Snead supposed to be doing. the third guy over the top? Because the only thing he could be accomplishing with this route is bringing his safety in to make the tackle. Again, these are HIGHLIGHTS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s another one<\/a>. Jackson ends up pulling this one down and running for a good gain, but do you see why he has to? This time Brown and Devin Duverney nearly run into each other on their routes, crossing at the same depth on the same spot on the field. This is not an accident. It has to be drawn up this way and I can honestly say I\u2019ve never seen it in professional football before. And it\u2019s not because it\u2019s some awesome new idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s one that made me laugh out loud<\/a>. Roman has Duvernay and No. 82 run the exact same route for the first seven or so yards and Duvernay literally has to push off the tight end to make his cut because 82 is in his way. Needless to say, nobody\u2019s open and Jackson takes off. I want to reiterate. These are highlights. The best plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what you really need to notice in this highlight package is virtually every big play in the Ravens passing game, certainly 90 percent of them, are on off schedule plays. Meaning that when Jackson\u2019s back foot hits on his drop back, no one is open so he scrambles around, his receivers do the same, and he hits them with extremely accurate passes when they come open. Greg Roman did not draw those up. Lamar Jackson did in real time. And you can\u2019t build a consistent winning philosophy based entirely on \u201chopefully Lamar does something awesome so we can score.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the not so secret secret is out now after their embarrassing Divisional Round loss. The NFL Network\u2019s Steve Smith Sr. said the same thing I have, that Roman needs to be shown the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you want Lamar Jackson to continue to be a stellar quarterback, an MVP type of quarterback,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYou have to implement a second notch or a third level of the passing game that makes it a little bit more complicated. Because it\u2019s not very complicated and my 6-year-old who\u2019s asleep right now can probably run this offense as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown, who has been dodging his own teammates running pass routes all season, summed it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhenever you\u2019re the No. 1 rushing (offense) and the 30-something passing (offense), that\u2019s not right,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThat\u2019s not balanced. We\u2019ve got to find a way to balance our game, even with our great rushing attack. We\u2019ve got to be able to throw the ball, move the ball through the air. And that\u2019s something that we\u2019re going to continue to work on and continue to implement into the offense more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But ultimately, what keeping Roman will do is ruin Jackson, a guy that could be a generational superstar. Because calling that many QB runs in a season is going to get him hurt. He just suffered his first concussion in the NFL (that we know about) in the Bills game. If you pay attention, you know that concussions start to stack up in the NFL. Once you experience one, you\u2019re more prone to get another. And it gets worse every time you suffer one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Using Jackson as a runner this much, not from scrambling or using his natural ability, but on called plays, puts him at risk. Not only for brain injuries, but for catastrophic leg and shoulder injuries. In the NFL, teams specifically design ways to keep their star QBs from getting hurt. Roman is firing Jackson into the shark\u2019s mouth 15 times a game. It\u2019s not an accomplishment that Jackson has rushed for back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. It\u2019s an indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s going to shorten Jackson\u2019s career. It\u2019s going to keep him from developing into the NFL passer he consistently proves he can be when given the chance and it\u2019s not going to win a title. It\u2019s just that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fire Greg Roman, Ravens. Don\u2019t let this guy grind one of the best players in the league and a possible once-in-a-lifetime superstar into the dirt with calls and designs ripped off from middle school playbooks. Don\u2019t trust him to fix it. Don\u2019t trust him to expand it. Shoot him out the airlock and hire someone competent that can do the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow our BetOnline Twitter accoun<\/a>t for the latest sports news and betting odds, and stay tuned on the Instagram feed<\/a> for more good information too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY ADAM GREENE THE RAVENS NEED TO FIRE GREG ROMAN Allow me to show you some Baltimore Ravens offensive highlights….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15344,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15342\/revisions\/15344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}