The Ravens suffered perhaps their most painful loss of the season Sunday against Jacksonville, which Head Coach John Harbaugh described as “gut wrenching.”
Part of the reason the loss stung so bad is the fact that the Ravens should have won the game, as the NFL admitted that the officials missed a penalty on Jacksonville that would have ended the game with Baltimore leading.
Here are some other plays you might have missed watching the game live. All of these plays were viewed using NFL Game Pass, which is available for fans to purchase.
Upshaw Shows Pass-Rushing Ability
Outside linebacker Courtney Upshaw
hasn’t registered a sack since 2013, and he’s shown throughout his career that his best attribute is setting the edge against the run. The Ravens have put Upshaw into some more pass-rushing situations this year with the absence of Terrell Suggs, and while Upshaw has yet to notch a sack, he has made his presence felt at times. He showed good quickness to get around Jaguars left tackle Luke Joeckel and deliver a hit on quarterback Blake Bortles that forced an incompletion. This quarterback hurry doesn’t show up in the stats, but it was key in the Ravens forcing a punt on Jacksonville’s opening drive of the game.
Webb Gets Looks At Safety
The talk of cornerback Lardarius Webb getting looks at safety has been a fairly popular topic over the last few years. He played safety in college, and his skills as a ball hawk make him an intriguing option to roam the back end of the defense. The Ravens put that theory to the test against Jacksonville, using Webb as the deep safety in third-down passing situations.
The photo below shows the look the Ravens went with when Webb was at safety. In this third-and-8 situation, the Ravens moved strong safety Will Hill up to the line of scrimmage and free safety Kendrick Lewis manned the middle of the field. Cornerbacks Jimmy Smith and Shareece Wright played on the outside, and Asa Jackson was the slot cornerback. The Ravens could go with this kind of look partly because of the versatility of their players in the secondary. Hill has the size to play at the line of scrimmage as a blitzer or even a linebacker, and Webb is a good fit to roam the back end of the defense.
Dumervil Overpowering At Times
Outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil’s stellar game was overshadowed by the disappointing finish and his costly facemask penalty, but Head Coach John Harbaugh said, “He’s one of our best players who played a heck of a football game. I’m certainly not down on Elvis Dumervil by any stretch.” Before the facemask call, Dumervil played one of his best games of the year by notching a pair of sacks. Dumervil is known as a gritty defender who isn’t afraid to try to overpower an opponent who has a distinct size advantage over him. Dumervil proved that with this fourth-quarter sack where he completely blew right by tackle Sam Young off the ball. Dumervil is giving up nine inches and 65 pounds to Young, but he still pushed him into the backfield and then brought down Bortles.
How Maxx Got So Open
Tight end Maxx Williams caught the first touchdown of his career against Jacksonville, reeling in a 21-yard score in the second quarter. Williams was basically wide open on the play, and he can thank the Jaguars for biting hard on the short route to running back Buck Allen. Three defenders went chasing after Allen – Williams did a nice job selling the fake by initially looking like he was blocking on the play – and that left the tight end wide open in the second level for the pitch and catch from quarterback Joe Flacco.
