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Here's the deal. Harbaugh, just like Gruden (and Andy Reid, BTW) scripts his starting offense. They were on-point and the end result was a 1st quarter like we just saw 8 days ago. Spags made obvious adjustments, just like he did last week (he added two left side stunts that worked later in the game) and the defense executed well.
What I saw:
1) The Ravens were looking to extend plays to the defensive left. Sure looked to me like they were trying to keep plays away from Frank Clark, which helped Ogbah and Okafor seem to be more "present".
2) Ogbah played up to the task, period. Okafor also did an excellent job staying put and not letting Jackson get upfield. This extended plays horizontally and a lot of times gave the LB's and/or DB's time to get over there.
3) The LBs are still struggling but they are WAY better than last year. Back side pursuit is better, point of attack is better. A lot of the passes to the middle of the field are "pick your poison" and quite frankly, Thornhill's growing pains are pretty obvious right now.
4) When Chris Jones is disciplined, the run defense is MUCH better. Why did the run defense get so much worse late? One, Jones looked gassed late and at one point, left the game dangling an arm. Two, you could see him freelancing early in the 3rd quarter once the Chiefs get up 23-6. He was looking to feast on that first drive and it ended in points for Baltimore.
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