Following on from our review of the defensive tape posted earlier this week, we did the same for the offense much to our dismay. In a similar manner we reviewed each player’s performance and ordered them by their Net Score Per Play to establish how impactful each player was in respect to their playing time.

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As we can see the scores reflect how poorly the offense played as a whole in comparison to the defense. This was mostly down the the quite frankly abysmal combination of horrible quarterback play from Easton Stick and the offensive line’s inability to give him any kind of reliable pass protection. So let’s examine some notes on those two areas of disappointment, first up the offensive line:

• I think the biggest indictment of the day was that, for the mostpart, the reserve interior lineman (Willis Patrick, Brent Laing and Bucky Williams) out played the backups (Brenden Jaimes, Foster Sarell and Jordan McFadden) handedly and, it’s very important to note here, they were actually playing against the same guys as Seattle’s defensive line played most of the game. That said those defensive lineman were 40 snaps deep when the reserves came on and looked a little bit leggy however, even then it begs the question of why there was such a big difference in quality despite the supposed talent levels being the reverse. From my perspective I think that the interior of the reserve line had better chemistry with successful passing off of stunts and combo blocks looked more in sync. Jordan McFadden was the exception here as he played well but for the other two I think we see a reduction in playing time.
• The tackle spots on both units were mostly occupied by Leatherwood and Sarell (who moved out from Guard once Joe Alt’s day was done) who both looked awful and I am concerned to say the least. Neither players could deal with simple pass rushing moves like speed to power or long arms meaning a lot of longer developing concepts Roman would have wanted to see went out the window. This HAS to improve against the Rams and I would be a fan of seeing more time for Karsen Barnhart instead of subjecting us to more abysmal Leatherwood snaps.
• The only reason those two played so many snaps is that out of all the players likely to make the roster who can play tackle, they were the only healthy ones that don’t need to be protected as starters. The good news is that the line has flexibility to correct this with most players having multiple spot experience. I think a reshuffle is needed going forwards. Players like Leatherwood, Sarell and Jaimes can’t see as many snaps as they did in this game as it hinders the rest of the offense.
• On a more positive note Joe Alt looked a level above his opponents and after an early misstep on a run block he was foot perfect in pass protection and he didn’t look out of place when you put him next to Rashawn Slater. That in itself is a very encouraging start.

The quarterback play from Easton Stick is well illustrated by his horrific statline (5/13 for 31 yards at 2.4 average with 0 TDs, 1 INT, 2 sacks and a rating of 14.6) but it was actually been worse than that with some dropped interception opportunities and a complete loss of tempo control or pocket awareness. It was by far his worst performance as a Charger and a far fall from a solid end to the 2023 season where he played pretty well. It is clear he isn’t getting the hang of this offense.

On a slightly upbeat note we have now found some competition for him in Luis Perez, the MVP of the 2023 XFL Championship Game, as he stepped up in front of Max Duggan and provided some hope for Chargers’ fans to takeaway from this game. Perez was unafraid to hit his reads in a scheme he’d barely been in for a week before suiting up. The concepts were all simplified for him but it didn’t mean they were more likely to succeed. I’m excited about seeing his growth with a bit more time in Romans offense. Perez looks like a really well drilled pocket passer with a good feel for pressure, tidy footwork with his balance on his toes and an understanding of when to drift, dovetail or roll out. At this rate he could well be in the mix for QB2 but we’ve seen promising starts that have faltered when the light shines on them, let’s hope this isn’t the case here.

In terms of a glimpse into the scheme we are going to see when the starters return to the offense I thought this was not as clear as Jesse Minter’s blueprint for the season. Having such a drastic drop off in quarterback play and offensive line experience made it hard for the offense to do anything but we can only work with what we can see so let’s take a look at what did take place on the field:

• In terms of personnel groupings the game started in the expected smash mouth football 21, 22 and 12 personnel packages but after that it was mostly 11 or 12. This may have been due to the game context of trailing for the entire game.
• Whilst I liked the overall attempt at the 21/22 personnel stuff on the opening drive but it didn’t seem clear what the primary options were, the runs had split reads with McFadden going against the grain on the 2nd play and it’s a waste to have a nice hole open up and your 300 lb fullback is going backside to cut off what would be the third tackler.
• However after the first drive we didn’t see any gap exchange blocking schemes until near the end of the first half and even then it was out of lighter personnel groupings. It was all Duo and Inside/Outside zone with some RPOs being used more frequently to align with the shift to quick game.
• I’ve watched tape of both Roman and Harbaugh’s offenses and this isn’t what they looked like, it was all with direct intent so I am buying what Greg was selling in his post game press conference; this was certainly a simplified version of the offense.

On this last point I was doing some research into offensive personnel and formation usages and I was able to create the tables below using some very useful data from Sumer Sports. The source data shown here has proved itself to be very interesting regarding Greg Roman’s offense in 2022, his last year as OC of the Ravens. From this data we can determine that Roman has certain tendencies when comparing it to the league averages.

• Now I don’t have the data from the game vs the Seahawks but it seemed to me that he used less than his normal dose of 22 personnel and I expect this to see a large uptick with both Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins on the gameday roster.
• I actually think that the McFadden as fullback feature is here to stay and the release of the team’s only true fullback in Ben Mason supports this theory. He blocks so well on the move and it fits into Jim Harbaugh’s mantra of getting a sixth lineman onto the field.
• He also use a lot of 3 x 1 formations with 11 but I think that was more to do with the players available to him as it certainly does not align with his normal deployment pattern. His Ravens’ offense was ranked last in 11 personnel usage in 2022 at a staggering 49% below league average.

Some additional notes I had:

• I didn’t like the early quick game pass concepts; they seemed to all be coming back to the ball whilst turning outside to the sideline with no opportunity for extra yards and, if the ball is played safe and outside, it’s tough to get any kind of yardage this way. This was likely symptom of working with a signal caller that was not seeing the field well and was struggling to even achieve the most basic of progressions but it still brought back bad memories of a Joe Lombardi offense.
• There were some blocking concepts I think were interesting and I would like to see more of:

  • There was a really nice shotgun trap gun towards the end of the half that Willis, Jaimes & McFadden executed very nicely to give a nice gain. Want to see more of this with the faster backs on the field. Greg called a nice play with the linebackers sitting deep expecting a pass but it didn’t get back the yardage lost on the false side penalty.
  • I really enjoyed the QB C/T Counter concept that Roman rolled out for Duggan, the second string of lineman seemed more comfortable with this and if Bucky Williams didn’t spin on the spot in the middle of the rushing lane it could have gone for even more. It will be interesting to see if they run with a prize QB like Herbert in the backfield given his recent injury history.
  • I liked the wrinkle of rolling a puller in parallel with the sift motion to draw the linebackers in on a passing down, it was a shame that Max Duggan missed Jaylen Johnson so badly after a nice in breaking route from the impressive young wide receiver.

• The 4th down attempt from Perez to Rice was the right throw to try and find the crisp route Brenden ran including some nice pop off his plant foot, it was just a shame the ball was a little low but you can see Perez was trying to protect Rice from being nailed by the safety. The same cannot be said of Stick who almost got Hayden Hurst decapitated with a horrible hospital ball across the middle earlier in the game. Perez continued his brave streak but this was a tight window with the safety playing downhill early and fast but this could have been a narrative altering completion if it landed.

In summary I think Greg Roman was trying to call a game in a style he didn’t want to run, whilst having two hands tied behind his back (he in no doubt contributed to his own curtailment here) thanks to injuries. The next two games will need to bring significant improvement from all parties on this side of the ball if the team are to have any kind of confidence come Week 1 against an underrated Raiders’ defense.