Derrick Henry has led the NFL in rushing attempts in four of the last five seasons, but that trend may not continue with the Ravens.
The Ravens have many offensive weapons led by two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson and won't rely on Henry dominating the offense as much as he did with the Tennessee Titans.
Against the Kansas City Chiefs last week, Henry finished with 46 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while Isaiah Likely (nine catches, 111 yards, one touchdown) and Jackson (273 yards passing, 122 yards rushing) were the offensive stars. Henry's workload will vary from week to week, but Head Coach John Harbaugh wants the Ravens to take full advantage of their offensive versatility.
"Every game is going to be kind of interesting and different," Harbaugh said. "We didn't bring Derrick in here to be the guy that gets the ball 30 times a game. He's done that before. That's really not the plan.
"I'm very confident there's going to be games where Derrick's going to go for 100+ or more, and you're going to be asking me why Isaiah only got two catches. That's going to be good for us. That's what we want to be, we want to be unpredictable that way."
Henry opened the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run against the Chiefs, but was held to 3.5 yards per carry and his longest run of the game went for nine yards. While Henry did not explode for a long run, the Ravens had 186 yards rushing and Harbaugh was generally pleased with the ground attack.
"I like the way the run game looked for the most part with just the running back run game," Harbaugh said. "There were some plays I'd like to see blocked a little better, but other plays that were blocked really well."
Tracking Data Could Support Ronnie Stanley's Argument That He Was Lined Up Legally
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley was flagged three times for illegal formations, including twice on Baltimore's opening touchdown drive, in Thursday night's opener. The Chiefs, meanwhile, were not penalized once for the same infraction.
The Ravens knew the NFL planned to emphasize illegal formations on offensive tackles this season and had focused on that in practice throughout the summer. After reviewing the tape, the Ravens are curious to see if more evidence supports their belief that Stanley should not have been flagged.
"We do have data on that – tracking data, they have chips in their shoulder pads," Harbaugh said. "We know exactly where Ronnie was lined up relative to where their guys were lined up.
"I'm not worried about it going forward. I thought Ronnie was in reasonable position there, most all the time. I do think that the adjustment that needs to be made, is that.. if it's something that you didn't expect, and it's totally different what they're calling in the game, you have to make the drastic adjustment right away, and then we'll talk about it later. Ronnie actually thought he was doing that. When you watch the tape, I believe what he said bears out."
Justice Hill Wasn't Supposed to Be Blocking Chris Jones
The Ravens almost rallied to beat the Chiefs, but Likely was ruled out of bounds after catching Jackson's would-be touchdown pass on the game's final play.
Had Likely's catch been ruled a touchdown, running back Justice Hill would have been an unsung hero. Hill picked up All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones in pass protection, and Hill managed to shield Jones away from Jackson long enough for him to get the pass away. Even on the previous play Hill blocked Jones.
"I thought Justice was amazing," Harbaugh said. "I give him all the credit in the world."
The crowd noise played a part in Hill finding himself matched up one-on-one against Jones, without help from right tackle Patrick Mekari. However, Hill rose to the occasion, using his strength and quickness to keep himself between Jackson and Jones as the quarterback danced around the pocket.
"We wanted to go to a base six-man protection and fan our tackles," Harbaugh said. "But we didn't get to it with the crowd noise. In that protection, Justice made the adjustment. He was expecting the tackle to fan probably, but the tackle didn't fan and there he was with No. 95 right in front of him. I thought he did a pretty darn good job, given the circumstances."
Updates on Injuries to Come on Wednesday
Five Ravens did not practice on Monday – Jackson, Kyle Van Noy, Nate Wiggins, Deonte Harty, and Adisa Isaac.
Steve Wyche of NFL Network reported that Van Noy suffered a fractured orbital bone during the game and would undergo testing to determine how much time he would miss.
Harbaugh did not go into detail about the reasons for Monday's absences.
"We had a number of guys that weren't out there – some personal [and] some physical," Harbaugh said. "[The] injury report comes out Wednesday afternoon, so you'll be better advised on that day regarding all those guys."
