it is interesting that he was named after him though.
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The Random Thought Thread
- Thread starter The Greek
- Start date
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
They are probably family friends. Tee Higgins is from Oak Ridge, TN which is very close to where Tee Martin played ball. At the very least, Higgins was named after Martin because Martin had just won the national championship and was a big thing in that area for a bit
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Ok, so I have a couple ideas to throw out there…
1) Gus is 6’1”, 238 lbs. What if we were to line him up at FB sometime? He’d be like LeRon McClain in my eyes. Defenses would not know what to do with him, LJ and JK in the field together
2) This one works off of under the center. What if we used splitback formation with Gus/LJ? The defense would not know what to do and there are so many option plays possible with this formation. Hell, a simple misdirection play, a simple handoff with the other guy blocking, a play where LJ can take an option play to one side and instead go to the other side… hell a complete fake to both guys and getting a quick pass out to Bateman/Hollywood/Andrews… damnn the possibilities
1) Gus is 6’1”, 238 lbs. What if we were to line him up at FB sometime? He’d be like LeRon McClain in my eyes. Defenses would not know what to do with him, LJ and JK in the field together
2) This one works off of under the center. What if we used splitback formation with Gus/LJ? The defense would not know what to do and there are so many option plays possible with this formation. Hell, a simple misdirection play, a simple handoff with the other guy blocking, a play where LJ can take an option play to one side and instead go to the other side… hell a complete fake to both guys and getting a quick pass out to Bateman/Hollywood/Andrews… damnn the possibilities
we saw that this year later in the year - we saw 2 back sets with both JK and Gus on the field and they were really effective mostly with JK as the ball carrier but we also had at least one play where Gus ended up catching a deep ball down the field on a pass play...
it was a wrinkle we started using after boyle went down and most notably on that 2pt play that Dobbins had vs the Browns
we've also seen Gus lead-blocking for lamar off the pull-reads where he's able to run through the hole and be a factor as a downfield blocker
it's not something i'd expect to see often because it pulls Ricard or Boyle or a WR off the field but it's a wrinkle they've used in 2020 down the stretch and i expect it to be a factor in 2021 too
i must say im not really sure what you're describing in the 2nd option - not saying it's a bad idea - i just dont understand what it is you're suggesting - you just talking about a traditional base offence look with a HB and FB but just have Gus be in that FB role?
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
1) IF, and a big if, Dobbins/Edwards are more effective together in certain situations than with Boyle/extra WR being on the field, then honestly F them and just put JK/Gus on the field in those situations
2) It’s like those old Madden games, where the splitback formation was part of the playbook. You’d line up under center, and have JK/Gus like up behind the QB… kinda like shown below
X
X ………….. X
Obviously I’m terrible at designing plus I’m half lit, but the RBs would line up behind the QB at equal horizontal distances… (and the Qb X lines up at LT instead of under C in this post, as formatted by the forum lol)
absolutely of course we put them in - that's why i think it's a wrinkle we'll continue to use - but i dont think it's something we'll see a lot of - it's not going to form part of our base offence
as to the 2nd - i guess my question would be... what's the benefit of that look vs lamar being in shotgun where he's more of a run-threat and you can add in a read element to the play that you can't do so much when under center...
like what's the benefit with those split-backs of not having lamar in shotgun...
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Benefits: if your center can’t snap a ball to save his life, that takes that out of the picture; going under center means teams expect it to be more of a pass formation since our runs 95% of the time come out of shotgun/pistol; teams would then be forced to do more than simply play disciplined gap control. Plus I’m gonna go ahead and just bring the point up that JK is even better from a standard zone stretching formation
but JK was at his best in college running the same types of stretch plays out of shotgun with justin fields at ohio state - which is where he killed with lamar last year - putting lamar under center takes away that lamar run threat that holds the safety/LB and stops them crashing on the RB
there's benefits to under center but it does need to be understood that there's a reason it's so effective for our running game because it keeps in play the threat of lamar as a runner much moreso than when under center where his biggest threat as a runner comes off deception off play-action or designed roll outs or boots
and idk what teams will think if we start using under-center more but in lamar's tenure it's mostly been something we've used in short yardage or at the goal-line but not done it a ton because one of the few types of plays lamar's actively bad at (ironically) is the QB sneak
redrum52
Hall of Famer
Remember going to my cousins and it was crazy to me how loud the bugs were coming from NY.
Was Justice Hill the Joe Flacco pick?
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
What does Justice Hill have to do with it? And as an aside, Hill was drafted in 2019
redrum52
Hall of Famer
My random thought was the Justice Hill question. Yes, we got a 2019 pick for Joe Flacco. I was wondering if he was who was selected with that pick. That post I quoted just caught my eye. Them damn bugs are louder than sirens and car crashes when you're from the city.
Dom McRaven
Hall of Famer
His post is a personification of the title of this thread.
ndub
Ravens Ring of Honor
Very interesting change of subject within one post. Carry on
I could be wrong but i believe we did it in the colts game
JoeyFlex5
Hall of Famer
Gus Edwards is what we wanted Bernard pierce to be, like I’m watching his highlights and he runs so much like he did in that very short stretch where he was playing REALLY well, better between the tackles but overall their running styles are very similar and both are RB2 but could carry the load in a pinch. Love this tandem and glad we kept it together.
RaineV1
Ravens Ring of Honor
Eh, McClain had like twenty pounds on Gus. He was thick as hell which let him be a really effective wall. Don't think Gus would have quite the same success.
JO_75
Hall of Famer
Isn't the FB role going to be filled by Ben Mason? We drafted for him a reason, you don't draft a FB now a days unless you have a plan and role defined for him.
QuothTheRaven
Veteran
Mason has been listed as a TE a lot so he could be here to fill that TE3 role - especially while Pat's still on the roster.