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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) – When Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens met Miami in November, it was as uncomplicated as they looked all season.
The culprit was the Dolphins’ blitz-heavy defensive scheme — and that game is once again on Baltimore’s mind as the Ravens prepare to host Miami this weekend.
The Dolphins have a new coach, so they might not defend Jackson in exactly the same way, but there’s no denying the effectiveness of their approach last season. Miami won 22-10 and became the first team in 52 games to hold Baltimore under 14 points. It ended up being the Ravens’ lowest point total of the season.
“They just caught us off guard,” Jackson said. “We haven’t really gone over defenses where we’ve gone all-up Zero against us, like just all-up, flat-out Zero. I feel like we have an answer to that this year. We’ll see movies, so a lot of movies about those guys, because we don’t want that to happen again.”
It wasn’t just that Miami blew a lot — on 30 of Jackson’s 50 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. The aggressiveness of the Dolphins’ Cover Zero scheme seemed to rattle the Ravens, who were unable to make Miami pay with big plays.
“Other teams did Zero, but it was just the way they did it that affected us,” Jackson said.
Short ends did little to deter the Dolphins from sending extra pass rushers. Jackson, normally such a threat to run because of his elusiveness, was sacked four times and ran for just 39 yards on nine carries. At some point, even he cannot escape if he is under too much pressure from too many people at once.
Watching Jackson and the Ravens adjust to the blitz could have been a fascinating subplot for the second half of last season, but he didn’t have many chances. Due to injury and illness, he played just two full games out of Baltimore’s last eight.
The Ravens had time in the offseason to work on countering Cover Zero.
“We would have been remiss if we hadn’t worked on it,” coach John Harbaugh said. “It’s something we have to get much better at, and we’ve been studying it all off-season. We have a plan for that. Hope it works because these guys are probably the best in the league to do it.”
Jackson was sharp in Baltimore’s opener last weekend, throwing three touchdown passes in a 24-9 win over the New York Jets. Those TD runs were 25 and 17 yards to Devin Duvernay and 55 yards to Rashod Bateman.
“Maybe the first one to Devin, the fade route, would have a chance against a Zero blitz,” Harbaugh said. “The one for Bateman wouldn’t. You wouldn’t have enough time to get it off.”
DAMAGE UPDATES
RB JK Dobbins (knee) was a full participant in practice Wednesday. He hasn’t played in more than a season after going down in an exhibition game last year.
FB Patrick Ricard (calf) did not practice and CB Marcus Peters (knee), T Ronnie Stanley (ankle), DT Travis Jones (knee), WR James Proche (groin) and DB Brandon Stephens (quad) were limited.
Ravens placed T Ja’Wuan James (Achilles) and CB Kyle Fuller (knee) on injured reserve. They were both injured in the Week 1 road game against the Jets.
Earlier this week, Harbaugh mentioned the artificial turf the Jets play on as a factor in Fuller’s injury, and he discussed it a bit more Wednesday.
“It was a grass pitch, it was tangled, it was packed down, it was a bit tight,” he said. “Maybe that’s the way it should be. I don’t know, but that’s what I saw. It was a bit tough.”
FOCUS ELSEWHERE
Jackson was noncommittal when reporters asked him about talks about a contract extension, which were put on hold at the beginning of the season.
“Respectfully, I’m really done talking about it,” he said.
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Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
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