FanPost

Ravens at Seahawks gifs

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In the interest of not crashing everyone's browsers I've linked to the gifs instead of embedding them. You're welcome.

Play 1 - James Carpenter vs Cory Redding. He still looking rough in pass protection. Please don't be hurt for too long, James.

Play 2 - Gallery vs Haloti Ngata. Hit it, Mr Muth:

The other thing Gallery is good at is driving his feet when a defender tries to disengage. Defensive linemen are taught to explode off the ball, get leverage in their gaps, find the ball, and get off a block. It sounds like a lot, but it should all happen within the first two seconds of the play. There are two ways to effectively block defenders in the NFL. One way is to out-leverage them at the snap -- this is what the stretch game is based on. The theory is that once a defender loses his leverage on his gap, he panics and starts overcompensating to recover, opening up cutback lanes. The other way is to run your feet like hell when the defender is looking for the ball and he’s trying to disengage the block. When a defender is trying to do those things, he isn’t moving forward as much, and is less focused on the blocker. By running your feet, you can really move a defender right as the back is hitting the line of scrimmage. This is what announcers are referring to when they say that someone is "finishing his block." Finishing your block results in late-opening cutback lanes and a lot of arm tackles. Gallery excels at finishing blocks late by running his feet.

Play 3 - Marshawn Lynch vs a cutback lane. I've heard people say that Marshawn Lynch does more with less than any other running back. Plays like this are why I disagree. As great of a game as Marshawn had, cutback lanes are still being wasted.

Play 4 - Marshawn Lynch vs a hole. I'm not exactly sure what to make of this play, other than that it should have gone for more yards. Lynch appears to ignore the hole Miller is trying to lead him through, instead opting to run up the back of Jeanpierre. It's easy to put all of the blame on Lynch for picking the wrong hole, but it does look like Gallery misses his block on Ray Lewis. Lewis would've had a play on Lynch if he had followed Miller, and Lynch may have had more room to run behind Gallery if he doesn't miss. Ultimately I don't like Lynch's decision but Gallery also has a part in why this play isn't more successful.

Play 5 - Seahawks' offensive line vs Ravens' defensive front 7. This got some attention in the game thread comments. The only thing that isn't sexy about this gif is that CBS didn't cut to the play until well after the snap.

Play 5 - Marshawn's view. Cory Redding going backwards.

Play 6 - Tarvaris Jackson to Golden Tate. You know who isn't very good? Tarvaris Jackson. You know who made one hell of a pass on third down in the fourth quarter to help put away the best team away in the AFC? Tarvaris Jackson.

Play 7 - Marshawn Lynch vs everyone. You know those people that say Marshawn does more with less than any other running back? They're not getting that from nowhere. This ends up being a team effort, but I don't think many running backs would've kept this play going with or without his entire offensive line pulling him along.

Hold up, are you back already? That gif isn't over, Marshawn is still running. Go watch it again, all the way through this time.

Play 7 - I like this view better. You can see the name on the back of Ray Lewis' jersey better.