I'll say it again. I believe James Casey holds the key to this game. If he can get open for some quick 5-10 yard pickups, it can free up the run game, which can in turn, free up the play-action boot game. He was inactive (I believe) the last time we played the Ravens. Get to Flacco, and get him rattled. The Texans are in this game more than people think Texans - 20 Ravens - 13
I'm worlds more concerned about Andre Johnson. Kubiak absolutely fibbed about him being ready to go heading into Saturday - he was noticeably slower and the team sent him on underneath routes the majority of the time. His cuts and route running were still first rate, and he twisted Pacman like a pretzel a couple times to get open deep. But he isn't stretching the secondary (with consistency)...which means the other receivers are on their own to get open, which they can't do to save their lives. Against the Raven's secondary (and with Yates facing a geeked up pass rush), that's going to be a major problem. Two tweaked hammys - no one is going to be full speed after that. I have to wonder if we need to look to more swing passes to Foster or even think outside the box and put Tate (dive strong) with Foster (arrow route weak) in the backfield together. Ravens will want to make life hell for Yates, and they're far better equipped to do so than the Bengals. He can't hold onto the ball and give Johnson the same time to get downfield as we could Saturday. We need quick throws (which carry a risk of DBs anticipating and breaking on them for picks). I don't envy Kubiak this week. At all.
In the stadium, watching him his whole career, I can say with absolute certainty he was missing a good amount of speed and acceleration. Normally off a boot, he could take off on a simple post route (with almost no break used) and dust his CB no problem. Saturday on the one post route I watched, he ran a complex weave to get free...and couldn't get under a ball that he'd normally have to hold up for. Yates led him perfectly (for vintage AJ), and he had to leap with a S in the way and couldn't come away with it. And they sent him underneath endlessly for a reason.
I think we'll see A LOT of screen passes early on. They'll do this to try and keep the early blitzing honest. With Foster, that can scare a lot of teams into limiting their blitzing. I believe, even with Yates, the Texans have a much better offense than the Ravens. If the defense can contain Ray Rice and force Flacco to be the hero, I like the odds.
You kind of expanded on my point as to why I think Casey is pivotal in the game. If Daniels is out (which he may or may not be), Casey becomes all the more valuable to make those 5-10 yard catches that keep the offense moving. If Casey is catching those, the run game could open up. If the run game opens up, it could give Andre that extra "step" he needs to get free. If the passing game is working and they start blitzing, hell, it's time to start running screens. I really believe that if we can get James Casey going early, he could open up a lot for us on offense. He's a good, undervalued weapon we have that the Ravens have not seen. I hope that Casey lines up either at tight end (if Daniels can't go), in two tight sets (if Daniels can go), fullback, or in a three back set, and I hope he is used multiple plays every series.
