Ravens OC Greg Roman responds to comments of defenses “calling out” plays

Baltimore Ravens starting quarterback and reigning league MVP, Lamar Jackson, made national headlines with some comments he made on an appearance on the “Rich Eisen Show” on Wednesday where he said that opposing defenses are “calling out” their plays pre-snap.

Last season the Ravens’ offense was the best in the league, hottest heading into the playoffs, and shattered several individual and single-season team records with Jackson as the focal point.

Through the first eight games of this season, they still boast the same record at 6-2 they had at this time last year, but the offense hasn’t quite been clicking on all cylinders, especially in the passing game.

Some pundits interpreted Jackson’s comments as calling out the play selection of Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman as being too predictable but that isn’t the reality of the situation nor the source of their struggles.

Any self-respecting and especially professional football player on either side of the ball is going to watch copious amounts of film on the opposing offense or defense he is going to face each week.

Picking up on tendencies and making educated guesses based on what a team shows on tape is part of the game and integral to the preparation process at the NFL level.

Anyone that has ever played football at any level will know that defenders down in the box and near the line of scrimmage will routinely shout out things like “Watch out for the run/ screen/ pass!”.

So that’s why, on Thursday in his weekly press conference, Roman downplayed the hype and dispelled the controversy surrounding the quote from his star signal-caller that went viral overnight and said that it is “nothing new”.

“They’re going to be right sometimes and they’re going to be wrong sometimes. I think we know that. But it’s definitely an element of the game. It always has been and probably always will be.”

NFL defenses in 2020 have a slight advantage that they’ve never had before when taking the field against opposing offenses with significantly reduced fan capacity in both home and away stadiums.

“With no fans in the stands, bands, or music playing, you can hear a lot right about now – some of it I can’t repeat,” Roman said. “That’s definitely part of what we talk about.”

In the days since some fans and pundits have questioned why Jackson doesn’t just change the play at the line of scrimmage when he hears the opposing defense “calling out” the plays they’re about to run or if he is even empowered to do so.

“Some quarterbacks have the freedom to audible every play. Sometimes that works out well, sometimes that doesn’t,” Roman said. “Some teams don’t really do it at all. I’d say we’re somewhere between there.”

Despite incredible continuity on their coaching staff and roster, Roman and the Ravens weren’t able to have the spring and summer install periods where they implement new plays and wrinkles to their scheme on both sides of the ball due to the physical restrictions of an offseason condensed by COVID-19.

Every offense develops tendencies and especially when they are dominant at a certain aspect of the game. While some might say that leaves the door open for predictability or some level of complacency to take place, Roman knows that teams know what his offense likes to do but also acknowledges that they can use that to their own advantage.

“We work hard to change it up,” Roman said. “We’re very aware of our tendencies. We’re aware that there are some right now. … When you’re good at something and you can keep pressing that button, then you have the opportunity to flip the script at some point moving forward.”

Teams have to find new identities from year to year whether it is a slight alteration or expansion of what it was the year before or a wholesale change.

The Ravens appear to have found their identity in the last two weeks and had it not been for Jackson’s four-turnover game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week Eight, they’d be 2-0 coming off their bye. While they are still striving for balance offensively, they are still a run-first team and are still the best in the league at it.

“If you’re not good at anything, you have no tendencies,” Roman said. “You really want to work to be good at everything. If you’re in the best possible situation, you can do basic things very well and people still can’t stop you. I think that’s what you’re striving to do.”

In the second half of their Week Nine 24-10 win over Indianapolis, the Ravens’ offensive adjustments were so spectacular that some are anointing it the turning point of the season for the team on that side of the ball.

While that will take more than two impressive quarters to prove to be true, Roman isn’t fazed by outside criticism spawned by the misinterpretation of innocent comments and is focused on continuous improvement instead.