Countering The Ravens Bump-n-run Coverage

[MRSTEVEO]

I PLAY IN A LEAGUE USING THE BUFFALO BILLS WITH THE LATEST ONLINE UPDATED ROSTER, AND THE TENNESSE TITANS PLAYBOOK. I CANNOT SEEM TO PASS THE BALL AGAINST THE BALTIMORE RAVENS DEFENSE WHEN THEY PLAY BUMP-N-RUN COVERAGE (NO WR GETS OPEN). ARE THEIR ANY PLAYS OR TIPS ANYONE CAN GIVE ME, OR IS IT A SPECIAL STATEGY TO BEATING THE RAVENS? I NEED THEM FAST BECAUSE THE PLAYOFF ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER, AND THE RAVENS ARE THE ONLY TEAM I CAN'T BEAT. HOLLA BACK SOMEBODY WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS.

[JPar]

I PLAY IN A LEAGUE USING THE BUFFALO BILLS WITH THE LATEST ONLINE UPDATED ROSTER, AND THE TENNESSE TITANS PLAYBOOK. I CANNOT SEEM TO PASS THE BALL AGAINST THE BALTIMORE RAVENS DEFENSE WHEN THEY PLAY BUMP-N-RUN COVERAGE (NO WR GETS OPEN). ARE THEIR ANY PLAYS OR TIPS ANYONE CAN GIVE ME, OR IS IT A SPECIAL STATEGY TO BEATING THE RAVENS? I NEED THEM FAST BECAUSE THE PLAYOFF ARE JUST AROUND THE CORNER, AND THE RAVENS ARE THE ONLY TEAM I CAN'T BEAT. HOLLA BACK SOMEBODY WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS.

Well, for one, most leagues have rules against the bump every play, but from the sounds of it, yours does not.

A few tips to beat bump:

1) Unbumpable routes - Take a look at the VG Sports guide on unbumpable routes. Basically, when you have a Trips formation, you hot route the 2 outside guys to screen passes and the inside guy will go unbumped. However, if they assign a DB to Moulds, this won't work. There are also some routes in different playbooks that aren't bumpable. The Shotgun Tight WR Option, supposedly is one of them. Lab it up, see what you find....

2. Hitting the WR off the bump - When a DB bumps a WR, they'll usually lose some ground after the WR beats the bump. The next few games you play against the bump, watch the WR and see what happens. They'll almost always get a few steps on the DB. As soon as you see them break the bump, fire a pass with lead towards where the bump led them (ie, if Josh Reed gets bumped inside the DB on a streak, then throw the ball with up and inside lead). The best patterns for this method are posts, streaks and slants. Be careful not to try to force it past the DB (ie, if the DB forces the WR to the outside, don't try to throw it over him. Look for someone else.) Also, look to see if he has safety help. If you can buy enough time, and he bumps without safety help, chuck it to Evans or Moulds with pass lead towards the endzone (bullet it!) and watch them take it the distance. With the Ravens mediocre offense, the best way to beat them is to force them into a passing shootout and negating Jamal Lewis.

3. Establish the run - Easier said than done against the Ravens, but the better you run the ball, the more he will have to adjust to it.

4. Play action - After you establish the run, or at least establish that you want to run, you can run play action passes. The bump is negated by play action and someone is usually open.

4. Utilize the RB and TE into the passing attack - Don't just leave them at their normal positions. Move them to the slot, both in running plays and passing plays. The TEs and RBs will kill DBs on the bump much quicker than a WR.

This is about the best advice I can give you. The Ravens are tough to play, especially when someone bumps and blitzes all day. Important thing is to stick to your gameplan, no matter how frustrated you get.

[Erox]

Good points Jpar. Moulds shreads BnR coverage if you can get him away from Mcalister. Package Moulds into the slot to get him a little off the bump and you can hit slants and corners all day. Moulds and Evans will both kill BnR on fly patterns if there is no saftey help. Look for Henry out of the back field on outs and corners (Shot Trips TE has a ton of these type of plays). If you can abuse him with Henry, this may lead him to manually use the safety to double cover him, thats when you hit up the fly or corner to Moulds/Evans for a big gain. Keep Bledsoe in the pocket, use the TE (Cambell is a drop machine anyway) and FB to hot block blitzes or else Suggs will be on top of him all day with that outside rush. And don't stop running, Henry will break at least one huge run a game if you can get him 20 touches (this was really true with fatigue on). Buffalo's Def should shut down the Ravens offense if you can get Lewis out of the game plan early.

[weasel3000]

use passing sets were you can see all your wrs. this will allow you to see which Wr completely beats the bump and which position they after the bump(inside or outside)