Between The Lines: Ravens Improved Line Helps Lead Team's Turnaround

Every week we do a new Between The Lines looking at some aspect of line play in the NFL.

A year ago, the Ravens were a complete mess. They had no quarterback, a "offensive genius" as a head coach who could never seem to figure out how to produce points, and the abysmal record to show for it.

There are a lot of reasons the Ravens have gone from 5-11 to 6-3 and playoff contention. New coach John Harbaugh has gotten the team headed in the right direction. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron has added some innovation to the offense and Joe Flacco has given the team the quarterback it had been lacking for years.

But after watching Ravens left tackle Jared Gaither contain Texans defensive end Mario Williams, it's clear that Gaither is one of the big reasons that the Ravens have gone from a league joke to a playoff contender. Gaither had one of the toughest jobs possible--replace a future Hall of Famer. But Jonathan Ogden had played in only 11 games last year and was limited in 2007 by a toe injury, and when he was out, the Ravens were lacking in viable fill-ins.Gaither wasn't ready last year. The Ravens spent a supplemental fifth-round pick on him in 2007 after he flunked out of Maryland. He only played two years at Maryland, and while he was an imposing physical presence, he battled grade and disciplinary problems during his time as a Terp.

A year later, Gaither has shown that he's quite capable of protecting Joe Flacco's blind side. And with the Bengals deciding to speed their path to a high draft pick by waiving Willie Anderson at the end of the preseason, a late pickup has given Baltimore three starting caliber tackles, with Anderson and Adam Terry splitting time at the other tackle spot.

What Gaither has going for him is an impressive combination of size (he's 6-foot-9, 330-pounds) with quick feet. His technique is still a little raw, but he showed against Mario Williams how he can take on some of the best defensive ends in the game and come out unscathed. Williams had recorded six sacks in his last five games and had eight for the season. But he never managed to breathe on Flacco with Gaither blocking him.

Williams did not record a sack and finished with three tackles, one assist and one quarterback hurry. But what makes Gaither's performance even more impressive is that with a couple of minutes left in the third quarter, the Texans decided to slide Williams over to the other side to see if he could have more success. Gaither had won the battle to the point that Williams and the Texans waved a white flag. And it was a wise choice--all three of Williams' tackles and his one hurry came when he was facing Terry.

In rewatching the Texans game, I saw only three plays where Gaither's poor technique got him in trouble. Both came in pass protection. On one play, Gaither took too wide of a slide step with his feet and lost his balance as his left foot slid. Williams was able to slide by the stumbling Gaither to the outside, but Gaither's massive winspan ensured that he was already overunning the pocket and Williams didn't get close to Flacco. On another play, Williams caught Gaither lunging and managed to get some leverage, but again, he was too far away to get any pressure on Flacco. And Gaither's worst block came when he managed to get completely turned around by Flacco, but he still managed to block Williams with his butt.

But those few bad plays were way more than made up for by his consistent blocking on the edge. Generally Williams found that he was stuffed on speed rushes by Gaither's long arms, and on power rushes by Gaither's strength. And in the running game, Gaither generally handled his man--he turned Williams to the inside on an six-yard run by Willis McGahee. He also turned a fill-in defensive end to the outside to create a nice big hole for McGahee on a six-yard run. And he simply caved the defensive line on Troy Smith's eight-yard run for a first down.

As impressive as Gaither was, it's also worth mentioning how impressive offensive coordinator Cam Cameron's offense is as well. Most teams would simply enjoy having tackle depth and know that one injury couldn't really wreck their line. But Cameron has been much more inventive than that. He has been messing around with a lot of unbalanced line sets, but against the Texans Cameron went one-step further and brought in Terry as a tight end in an unbalanced line. So from left to right he lined up Gaither, Willie Anderson and Terry, side-by-side-by-side. That's 1,000 pounds of beef in an overload on one side of the line.

If nothing else, the Ravens triple-tackle set gives defensive coordinators something else to worry about and practice for during the week. But Baltimore actually showed that it's a relatively effective formation. The Ravens ran the triple-tackle formation seven times, and likely would have run it more if Anderson hadn't gone down with an ankle injury in the third quarter. There was one disastrous play--a 15-yard sack that came when an eight-man rush overwhelmed the blocking. On four of the other six plays, the Ravens picked up a first down, largely coming when they ran away from the strong side of the formation and caught the Texans overplaying the three-tackle side.

While it's primarily a run formation, Baltimore did run a pair of passes out of it, and as you would expect, three tackles meant there was plenty of pass protection, although it also does mean that the Ravens don't send a whole lot of receivers out into the pattern.

But my favorite play was the one time the Ravens brought Troy Smith in and flanked Flacco out as a wide receiver in the three-tackle set. In just 10 seconds from the time the Ravens started heading to the line, the Texans had to adjust to the unbalanced, lopsided line, then also adjust to the fact that the Ravens had a running threat at quarterback. As you would expect, as a one-play surprise it worked well. Smith ran for eight yards and a first down before the Texans knew what hit them.

Understandably the Falcons and the Cardinals turnarounds have gotten most of the attention this year, the Ravens have shown that they have put last year's debacle behind them. And with second-year talents like Gaither and an innovative offensive coordinator, the Ravens seem to have a bright future as well.