PFF: nes thrived vs. Browns and Jimmy Smith returned to form It was another painful road game loss on Sunday as the Ravens couldn’t finish strong against the Cleveland Browns. In the end Justice Hill Baltimore Ravens Jersey , Baltimore lost 12-9 in overtime.OFFENSEI’m rather surprised with this number, but when you think about the offense as a whole, who really played better? Michael Crabtree dropped passes, Joe Flacco looked bad, Javorius Allen fumbled and nobody was a true threat.Crabtree said it himself, this loss was on him. He’s been struggling these past five weeks and needs to corral these failures. Hopefully, he does so sooner rather than later.DEFENSEThe defense did their job. They produced five sacks, an interception, eight passes defensed and continue their no touchdowns allowed in the second half streak. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Ravens offense couldn’t finish the game.Unsurprisingly, Smith produced a top-tier game. He was fantastic in camp all year and hopefully he creates some pro-bowl buzz soon. Since trading back into the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft to select quarterback Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens have made a couple of things clear — Joe Flacco is still the starting quarterback, but they also want to utilize Jackson during his rookie season. Although offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg reiterated during Jackson’s introductory press conference that he was a quarterback, the Ravens have lined Jackson up in different spots to show defenses exotic looks. Not all of Jackson’s snaps have been positive, but he has helped give Baltimore’s offense something they rarely had — unpredictability. Against the Broncos in Week 3, Baltimore used trickery with Lamar Jackson. He initially lined up in the slot and then motioned behind Flacco, which served as a decoy. The mere presence of Jackson on the field forced four defenders to take at least one step to his side of the field allowing the offensive line and tight ends to get leverage when blocking down the field for Alex Collins en route to the end zone. The NFL has shown throughout its history that it is a copycat league. Teams will mimic, or even steal, concepts, plays Hayden Hurst Jersey 2019 , and ideas from other teams. Todd Haley, The Browns’ offensive coordinator, admitted that he stole the Eagles’ famous ‘Philly Special’ play. With that in mind, the New Orleans Saints also have an athletic backup quarterback in Taysom Hill. Despite going undrafted in the 2017 NFL Draft, Hill ended up with the Saints after spending his first NFL preseason with the Green Bay Packers. Used primarily as a running quarterback at BYU, Hill was not expected to make a smooth transition to the NFL. Hill stands at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, which is similar to Jackson, who measured at 6-foot-2 and 216 pounds at the 2018 NFL Scouting Combine. Jackson only participated in the on-field throwing drills, but he did state during his introductory press conference he ran a 4.34 40-yard dash ‘with turf toe.’ Hill ran a 4.44 40-yard dash at his pro-day at BYU. Jackson is without a doubt the better quarterback and athlete. However, they both have similar skillsets, and New Orleans has found creative ways to utilize Hill in two-quarterback sets, which could serve as a blueprint for the Ravens.Although this play only went for two yards, it had the potential to be much more. If the tight end could secure the play side, Hill would have had a lane upfield to run and gain at least five yards. The Ravens could run end-arounds with Lamar Jackson, and the creativity can only build from there.The Giants’ defensive end collapsed to the inside towards Alvin Kamara, but Hill kept it and ran to the outside. By showing New York’s defense plays of Hill handing the ball off, they were able to capitalize on the defense’s flaw of overcommitting to Kamara. It also works conversely as Hill taking the snap forced the defense to respect his running ability, which opened up a lane for New Orleans running backs.The clips above are of the Saints running a read-option, which the Ravens have done before with Jackson. The difference between Baltimore’s read-option and New Orleans’ play is what transpired prior. New Orleans gave defenses multiple looks of Hill and this exact read option. Specifically talking about the last clip White Hayden Hurst Jersey , the Saints built off of their previous plays, and the Falcons defense collapsed to stop the running back as they thought Hill was merely handing the ball off as he did before. However, the defensive end held his ground and committed to the outside as most of the read-options the Saints showed prior were outside concepts. On this play, Hill elected to take the inside as he picked up 35 yards.Baltimore has run read-options and variations of these running plays. It is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but the distinct difference is how New Orleans sets it up. The Saints change the personnel and formations up to confuse defenses. They also run decoy plays to disguise different looks to create opportunities for other players via Hill. The real learning, or stealing, can begin with the other ways the Saints utilize Hill. This was a creative fake screen New Orleans ran in the red zone, and it nearly went for a touchdown. If Terron Armstead did not overcommit to help Max Unger, he would have likely been able to reach the linebacker, which would have given Hill space to run and one man to beat en route to the end zone. The Saints got the look they werelikely hoping for, but poor blocking and execution ruined this play. Baltimore could run a similar fake screen concept with Javorius Allen or Alex Collins and throw it to Jackson in space.Alvin Kamara dropped what could have been one of the easiest touchdowns of his entire career. However, the play design from New Orleans was beautiful. Drew Brees was on the far side, and he drew a cornerback to cover him. Once the ball is snapped, Hill faked a handoff to Michael Thomas, rolled out to his right and threw an accurate touch pass to Kamara. This play design was perfect as it drew Donte Deayon closer to the line of scrimmage as he thought it was a run. New Orleans showed this look to the Giants in a couple of different ways in the first half, which set this play up for success.Jackson has attempted five passes in the regular season, but four of them came in garbage time against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. The one pass he has thrown happened against the Browns. However, the difference was that the Ravens failed to set it up for success, and the Cleveland defense defended it well. The secondary barely bit on the fake and dropped into coverage to easily force an incompletion.Baltimore has also faked passes to Jackson, similar to the screen pass the Saints ran. This play worked well Justin Tucker Jersey 2019 , but Jackson’s presence had little to do with it. The Steelers barely covered Jackson, and if Flacco had thrown him the ball, Jackson might have picked up 20+ yards.Designed quarterback runs are nothing new to the NFL, but the subtle difference between the first two plays by the Saints and the last three run by Baltimore are the concept. The Ravens tend to run power concepts with Jackson, while New Orleans run outside running concepts.Power concepts with Jackson have not been extremely successful. These concepts rely more on the offensive line to clear a hole, and it puts Jackson in a smaller, more condensed area. While the outside running concepts obviously also rely on the offensive line to clear a hole, therefore allowing the runner to have multiple cutback lanes, ultimately giving them more open space to operate. In addition, the outside running concepts allow Hill’s athleticism to transcend on the field, while the power concepts may limit Jackson’s athleticism.Final thoughtsThe new ‘gimmick’ of utilizing athletic backup quarterbacks in certain situations, specifically in the red zone, may not last too much longer, but if the Ravens have Lamar Jackson and want to use him, they should find more creative ways to do so. The Saints have shown on tape that it is possible to have success in these concepts, but it requires creativity and proper game planning.