What Makes Mike Macdonald a GREAT Head Coach Choice

What Makes Mike Macdonald a GREAT Head Coach Choice

putting opposing offenses in a full nelson all season long the 2023 Ravens defense has brought honor to what is already a legendary franchise of defensive stal wordss Mike McDonald has put together a unit designed to bring the attack to the offense implementing constantly shifting zones and creative pressures bruising breaking and shattering QBs and game plans along the way our vision is easily fooled and the Ravens love to mess with a QB’s eyes forcing them into constant hesitation with their speed and talent the Ravens are able to shape shift and roll to multiple exotic looks constantly interrupting the pocket play call and possession the majority of the Ravens defense starts from a twoo high look but this is really just a neutral position and a blank canvas of which to work from there’s almost never any static Zone looks with Defenders constantly shifting to create confusion starting with the league staple and that’s the safety roll down to become the hook curl player in a cover three but one thing to note is the timing of which they execute Baltimore really aims to move their confusion as late as possible while still being early enough to be able to play the newly assigned angles Marcus Williams Shimmy’s inside following Burrow’s eyes and the young signal caller actually reads a coverage wrong not spotting that this is Zone attempting to come to his second slant in the concept but Williams is there for the emphatic breakup on third from that same to high look the Ravens won’t stay static bringing the slot corner on the rush dropping Clowney off the other Edge to the hook curl to form a cover three watch the timing as Arthur mollet comes right as stoud is calling for the ball the Ravens essentially pattern match here there’s no static Zone with each Defender knowing to pick up the man entering his area and sticking to him stra doesn’t see it until the pressure is right in his face and just forces this out flat to avoid the hit drawing an intentional grounding penalty and they aren’t afraid to run this against any look Seattle try to spread them out but they’ll still bring that slot pressure this time in the form of Patrick Queen who’s forced wide due to alignment but the angle opens up a big inside loop Blitz that gets him a free Rush when timed well knowing Gino is going to throw hot right to where the blitz came from watch Hamilton clamp down fast when he sees jsn head to the flat anticipating the out and giving Gino zero space to make the throw luckily the pressure forces this ground or it’s probably a pick multiple rushers are always an option and the shape shift continues with them on this short fourth down the Lions choose to spread it out this time but again that allows the Ravens to get cre the line is staggered and will also bring Queen this side to try and pressure G with Hamilton sliding down to form a 33 trying to reroute Williams in the process Goff is all sorts of lost and just tries to get them back in the game throwing up a nasty ball for Gino Stone to almost fair catch five more are coming to hunt down Herbert here but it’s never that simple with the Ravens as Queen drops and roquan rushes again forming a 3-3 on the back end Justin is quick to read and stays calm among supressors finding gon on the drag route but mollet has his eyes locked back to the QB flying downhill to Halt the Run being rejoined by a second flying Queen to hand out the punishment and here they’ll just rush three choosing to drop eight to try and catch Tua off guard the safety again sinks to his spot when Tua calls for the ball but he spots this and thinks he has a breaker this is cover three this skinny post to Cedric Wilson will be open with the corner out leverage but this isn’t cover three with vanoi dropping off the right Edge allowing ran to operate in a Tempa Zone and he has his eyes locked on sniping this one with one hand and taking it back the other way for 25 yards they also love to run the trendy cover zero but as you’ve seen when they send pressure they’re going to send it late and they use it much more to create confusion often dropping certain rushers in the look to muddy passing Windows it starts out pretty tame here against the bolts with Hamilton first drifting over with Keenan Allen on the shift the Ravens seem to communicate passing it off and Herbert seems satisfied ified he’s seeing man but he doesn’t suspect the slot corner to be rushing as part of a late creep up cover zero look ran blitzes to force the guard’s attention The Tackle has to take o and mullet is free to Crunch into Herbert in the cover zero you can also drop two interior rushers on the strong side of the protection as the line has already slid this way making their jobs pretty much redundant and unlikely to get home in turn providing Extra Protection to a backend relying on matching up quickly and man the cyborg still Has the strength to throw this while getting spun to the ground but it was a bad decision leading to an intentional grounding and is almost picked by the dropping nose tackle Michael Pierce and this is an example of what really makes them special it’s the same late creep up cover zero defense against the Lions but they’ve got a full speed motion to deal with here and seamlessly pass it off reading GF hike for the snap they all trigger and start the rush with the slot Corner again getting free and G is straight to the ground they also love to spook teams by standing everybody up and threatening the rush but then rolling out of it into a deep dropping zone they’ve got six up at first but Hamilton will creep off the slot forcing the protection in tight but this is all a bluff as they roll into a deep dropping Tampa Zone with Hamilton cleverly tagging the slot and staying matched if he attacks vertical and middle burrow quickly realizes he’s not going to have any options trying to escape the pocket quickly but the pressure is won and he’s got some dirt to eat and because they’re so good at in through the traffic they can even pattern match from this look here it’s just man but with great intelligence to work out their matchups Hamilton has the half field to stop any deep crossers or verticals from the solo receiver and roquan will drop to the hook curl to cut off any curl routes my debuk knives straight up the middle under the confusion and Lauren shows us the third intentional grounding penalty of the video so far they got his QB Shook You Can’t achieve a complex defense with intricate timing for shape shift ing without excellent players we’ve shown how the linebacker pair of Smith and Queen helps so much in the coverage game with disguising but this team is truly stacked with smart and fast Defenders all throughout the roster one thing that allows them to achieve such complex looks is that they’re always getting interior pressure hurting offenses early and making QBs move off the spot outside of Raven circles I haven’t heard many people mention just how well Justin Muk is playing and he’s been a force inside he’s supposed to be the pck player here on the TT stunt put he’s straight through the Right Guard and into Go’s lap before he’s had any chance to even scan on third down and how’s this for some speed and movement at 300 lb over the left guard This Time Justin Jabs with his right foot before hitting a perfect spin move back through the a gap dismissing the hands and getting his own onto the back plate of daily springing himself clean through the dos and dragging him down by the ankles sh alongside matuk is another man that moves far too quickly for his size my Pierce who despite being listed at 355 is effective both in run stuffing and pass rushing simply overwhelming interior lineman at times across the entire defense they play with speed and haste giving up the flats because they know they have Pace to get there and shut down any threat and they are always there as a team it isn’t one player that reacts and flies downhill they act as a gang inflicting big hits on those that dare trouble the flats but if there’s one man who can do this all on his own it’s seconde sent sensation Kyle Hamilton easily in the thinking football all proo team this season he’s been a oneman wrecking crew and really deserves his own video and if you’ve been following us over on patreon you would have seen our Kyle Hamilton College breakdown where we told you he was going to be this good we told y’all you best go subscribe over there too because we have a Caleb Williams video dropping very soon this ability to decipher and react like lightning make screens and absolute noo on his side backed up on second and long Hamilton has seen the cardinal motion into this before and as soon as he sees Trey McBride blocked down and started back up to create space he’s flying downhill beating any blockers to the angle and forcing the offense back even further this swing screen stop against the Chargers not only shows great physical tools but also great discipline Kyle knows what the play is here but he isn’t going to just jump the swing with Herbert extending in case this is a bubble seam in behind continues to drift wide to hold the outside angle then when Herbert commits to the throw breaks off the block with a six spin dragging Keenan down by an ankle it’s not often that a second-year player is someone you got to avoid but he just wrecks so many of these they’re straight up negative plays for your offense and it’s not just his speed throw the screen away from him and the beastly parot linebacker will hunt you down too they’re quick enough to go under the block here racing each other to the ball having two of the fastest linebackers in the league continuous interior pressure and a safety that plays like his hair is on fire unsurprisingly creates a phenomenal run run defense and yet they still add more talent to this department with javien Clowney being one of the best run stuffers at Edge in the entire league he detects the outside Zone run immediately widening and benching his man back to win the edge and he’s joined by the AFF forementioned Michael Pierce sending the center straight into the back field eckers forced to cut back and watch Pierce’s ridiculous athleticism to disengage and grab him by the legs this time it’s Muk teaming up with Clowney to shut it down clown again wins that edge this time Against All Pro lar me tonsil shoving him back and forcing the run inside Muk has played the role of interior Destroyer pushing the guard all the way back into Devon single ter disengaging then driving him back too and here’s a ridiculous athletic play by the 355 lb Michael Pierce watch him swim and shove aside his man wrapping up the back and dumping him straight into the turf keeping the card short when they need just a foot and much like his ability to read the screen Hamilton is all over the Run tape too and if you run anything slightly long developing he will punish you the Chargers try to get creative giving this to Darius Davis on the motion but Hamilton sniffs it out taking on Keenan Allen and blowing right through him diving to take out the legs with a runner and this one is just brilliant Instinct he knows there’s nobody to account for him on the Run practically teleporting into the back field for the easy tackle for loss so the talent matches a scheme and they’ve handled all that’s come their way so far but the biggest test of the season is still to come momes makes mere mortals of even the most Monumental of units it’s a different task entirely to take him down in the playoffs when his powers only seem to somehow grow stronger McDonald is locked in for a job if he wants one but what they’ll really be chasing are the final two dubs on the season report card

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