Cleveland Browns: 3 keys to victory for Week 1 against the Ravens

Blitz all night…

In a line from the 2000 film Remember the Titans, the defensive coordinator Bill Yoast tells his men to not let an opposing team gain “another yard” and that they’re going to “blitz all night.” Sure, blitzing all game isn’t the most conducive thing to do in most NFL games but against Lamar Jackson, that’s exactly what the Cleveland Browns should do.

Consider this, former Titan Logan Ryan was on a team that absolutely handled the Ravens in the playoffs. How did they do it? In his own words;

"We had 8-, 9-man boxes all night. You play Madden and run Engage Eight all day, it’s hard to run the ball. We pretty much did that."

For those who don’t know, Engage Eight (Engage 8) is a defensive play in Madden, usually out of the 46 set up (safety comes into the box) and the four linemen, three linebackers, and one safety then rush blitz, leaving the other safety and two corners to cover a third of the field.

Against the run, it fills up every gap, as well as the flats with defenders. Against the pass, it’s designed to either garner sacks or facilitates quick throws. The issue with either situation is that it leaves the secondary short-handed so if a running back breaks a big run, or the QB can dump off a pass fast enough, the offense can turn it into a big gain.

The bonus is that it works great against quarterbacks who aren’t the most accurate passers.

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is very much still a below-average passer. While he did complete 66% of his passes, he barely had 3,000 yards passing. A pretty mediocre number these days. His number one target was and will be his tight end. He targeted TE Mark Andrews 98 times, nearly 30 more times than WR Marquise Brown, and just about double the attempts of Willie Snead.

Jackson doesn’t like to throw deep. He’s more likely to dump a short pass to the boundary and turn that into a long gain. His ability to extend plays and his real-time awareness in games is his greatest attributes. He’s able to know when to dump it off, when to take a sack and when to take the ball himself. You won’t get a lot of interceptions out of him unless you really work for it.

Loading up the box, taking away the running game, and forcing Jackson to throw with hands in his face is paramount.