Baltimore Ravens Already Showing Commitment to Strong Ground Game

Don’t take too much away from the score in the 30-27 win the Baltimore Ravens pulled off against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday night. Probably the least important part of any preseason game is the final score, because both teams shuffle so many players in and out of the game that it is more about execution than production.

Fortunately for the Ravens, when the starters and key backups were on the field in the first half, they showed that this season, teams had better be ready to deal with a new and improved rushing attack.

Any team that wants a truly elite ground game has to start up front. Against the Saints, the Ravens starting offensive line was dominant. Between the stretch and the counter, it was able to manhandle the Saints starters on multiple plays for nice gains.

However, this really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. After all, as Pro Football Focus analyst Gordon McGuinness tweeted out, Baltimore had two of the five best guards in the league in 2014.

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The Ravens have two of the top five guards in football, per our top 10 rankings pic.twitter.com/JlkSL2n5lF

— Gordon McGuinness (@PFF_Gordon) August 13, 2015"

If that wasn’t enough to convince you this team is built to run, Ravens writer Garrett Downing sent this out about guard Ricky Wagner.

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Ravens RT Rick Wagner is rated as @PFF's 5th best offensive tackle in the NFL. pic.twitter.com/LPLake6Rs9

— Garrett Downing (@gdowning14) August 12, 2015"

And of course, we cannot forget running back Justin Forsett. He was an afterthought in Thursday night’s game plan, as he got his two carries for three yards and called it a night. After all, when you burst on the scene the year before with 1,266 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, you deserve most of a night off.

What Forsett got to do while he was sipping Gatorade from the bench was watch the two guys who will be spelling him this season put on a nice show in the first half.

The first guy we want to talk about is running back Lorenzo Taliaferro. The veteran backup got 12 carries in the first half for 36 yards and showed excellent quickness and a great forward lean. Taliaferro looks to be a bit lighter than he played last year, which could really help him in the offensive scheme. Ravens writer Ryan Mink also was impressed with the second-year pro's first-half performance.

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Lorenzo Taliaferro definitely one of the early winners tonight. Running hard and caught 2 passes for 18. Looking like the No. 2 RB.

— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) August 14, 2015"

The other half of this young running back tandem is rookie Javorius “Buck” Allen. He had 10 carries in the first half for 35 yards, and he shows great patience and vision in this zone-blocking scheme. On one stretch play in particular, Allen just glided behind his offensive linemen and waited for them to pick up their blocks, and when the crease was there, he burst through for 12 yards.

Ravens beat writer Brian Bower noted on Twitter that this was what Baltimore expected out of Allen, and this echoed his effort and performance in practice.

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Rookie Buck Allen flicked the switch. This is the Allen we have seen for much of training camp. #Ravens

— Brian Bower (@sportguyRSR) August 14, 2015"

The Ravens finished the first half with 22 called runs, and for the game they had 44 total carries on designed runs. Last season, Baltimore averaged 23.75 total carries per game, which would have included scrambles by the quarterback. This is a new wrinkle for Baltimore, but when you have three backs who can do what these guys are capable of, why not?

Maybe the biggest beneficiary of a more focused and concerted effort in the run game will be quarterback Joe Flacco. With some questions about which wide receivers are going to start this year, having a ground game that forces defenses to respect it really opens up that play-action game. It was on display Thursday night, as designed roll-outs and waggles led to steady production.

The AFC North needs to respect that this is a new Ravens offense, and it’s built to ground and pound.