The 2022 Ravens did not have a problem getting into the red zone. With quarterback Lamar Jackson, especially, they were one of the NFL’s better middle-of-the-field offenses. What the Ravens lacked was a finishing move.

“We were getting into the red zone,” Jackson said Sunday of the team’s struggles under former coordinator Greg Roman, “and not scoring.”

That has not been a problem this season. A year after finishing 30th in the NFL in red-zone touchdown rate (45.8%), the Ravens head into Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the league leaderboard. With four more touchdowns in their 28-3 win Sunday over the Cleveland Browns, the Ravens have reached the end zone on 12 of their 15 red-zone trips this season (80%). Only their first red-zone possession of the year, capped by Jackson’s only interception this season, has ended without a score.

Todd Monken’s unit has in some ways inverted last year’s paradigm: decent outside an opponent’s 20-yard line, dominant inside it. Through four games, the Ravens are fourth in the NFL in yards per play (3.8), second in success rate (60%) and a runaway first in expected points added per play (0.44) in the red zone, according to TruMedia.

“We’re executing very well down there,” coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “All of the coaches do a great job of scheming. And then it comes down to the guys, again, making plays. The players deserve the credit, and Lamar is a very good red-zone quarterback. … There’s not as much space down there, so when you can spread the defense out a little more with the running game, which Lamar helps you do with his skill set, all those things are a part of it.

“But we’ve done well, and we have to keep getting better. Red-zone defenses are going to look at what we’re doing, and they’re going to make it their business to try and stop us, and we have to keep it moving and keep one step ahead of the competition.”

Here’s a look at how the Ravens’ schematic tweaks and offseason upgrades are powering their turnaround.

Run, Lamar, run

Jackson was the Ravens’ most efficient red-zone ball carrier last season. On designed runs, quarterback sneaks and read-option keepers, he had 14 carries for 54 yards (3.9 per attempt) and two touchdowns, according to Sports Info Solutions.

If the only drawback was his usage, Monken has remedied that: Jackson already has seven designed carries, or about one every two red-zone drives, a sharp uptick from last year, when he averaged one such carry every three drives. And the added workload hasn’t hurt his effectiveness, either. Jackson has 36 rushing yards (5.1 per carry) and four touchdowns and is averaging a staggering 0.65 EPA per play, according to SIS, more than triple his rate last year.

Jackson’s open-field ability has always been a headache for run defenses, which have to account for one more player before the snap. Monken has made the most of that numerical advantage. In the first quarter Sunday, Jackson opened the Ravens’ scoring on an untouched 10-yard touchdown run that stressed Cleveland’s top-ranked defense laterally with left-to-right presnap motion before he plunged up the middle on a power-running concept.

In the second quarter, on Jackson’s 2-yard score, Monken had running back Gus Edwards freeze one side of the Browns’ defense with a fake handoff from Jackson before he wound back as a lead blocker on the other side.

Passing on point

No passer has been more valuable in the red zone this season than Jackson. He’s leading the league in total expected points added on drop-backs (excluding scrambles), according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, and he’s second in average EPA, behind only the Indianapolis Colts’ Anthony Richardson.

Jackson’s success there is another night-and-day difference from last year. He finished 27-for-57 (47.4%) for 203 yards, 13 touchdowns and one interception in 2022, ranking 16th in EPA per drop-back among quarterbacks with 20-plus red-zone attempts. This year, Jackson’s 10-for-12 (83.3%) for 53 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.

That accuracy has stood out. Jackson’s completion percentage is almost 30 points higher than the league average in the red zone, and according to SIS, all 12 of his attempts have been catchable balls. Last year, just 74% were.

No sequence Sunday better illustrated his precision better than a pair of throws late in the second quarter. On second-and-goal from the Browns’ 6, with the Ravens leading 14-3, Jackson hit wide receiver Nelson Agholor, covered tightly by cornerback Greg Newsome II, on a corner route that was one toe drag away from a highlight-reel touchdown.

On the next play, Jackson went to the other side, looking for tight end Mark Andrews in an even more crowded corner. According to NGS, his leaping touchdown catch over two Cleveland defenders had a completion probability of just 17.1%.

“You never know what you’re going to get,” wide receiver Zay Flowers said Sunday of Jackson’s red-zone ability. “He can run it, he can throw it. He can do whatever you need him to do to get in the end zone. So when we’re down there, it’s kind of like automatic.”

Motion magic

Monken leaned more into presnap motion in the first half Sunday, and it helped every facet of the Ravens’ offense. Jackson was 6-for-7 for 86 yards and wasn’t sacked on his eight drop-backs following a shift or motion, according to NGS. (He was stellar without motion, too, going 4-for-6 for 60 yards and a touchdown in the first and second quarter, though he was sacked twice.)

On the Ravens’ 12 first-half runs with motion, they averaged 7.7 yards per carry; on their seven without motion, just 3.6 yards.

“It definitely adds a different element to our games when we’re able to have the time to motion and stuff like that,” center Tyler Linderbaum said Sunday. “Just see the defense’s eyes in other places.”

Odds and ends

• Defensive back Brandon Stephens had a team-high 40 coverage snaps Sunday and was targeted four times, according to NGS. None came when matched up against Browns star wide receiver Amari Cooper, his primary assignment for much of the game. “He’s played at a high level,” Harbaugh said Monday of Stephens. “He’s established himself that way, doing great. He’s gotten better every week. I think he’s getting even better and better every week at the top of the route.”
• Browns rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson went just 2-for-13 on throws of at least 10 air yards Sunday, with two of those attempts picked off. According to NGS, the Ravens have allowed an NFL-low 30% completion rate and 5.1 yards per attempt on intermediate and deep throws this season.

jonas.shaffer@thebaltimorebanner.com