Lamar Jackson Feels Ravens Have More Answers for Dolphins Blitz

The Dolphins beat the Ravens by blitzing heavily last year, and Baltimore has worked hard to find answers. Sunday’s home opener against Miami will shed light on the Ravens’ ability to handle “Cover-0” blitz pressure in 2022.

The Dolphins blitzed more than any team in the NFL last season (39.6%), and during their 22-10 upset win over Baltimore, the Dolphins blitzed Lamar Jackson on 31 of his 50 dropbacks and produced one of the most frustrating losses of his career. Jackson was sacked four times and was held to 15 of 27 completions for 139 yards, one touchdown and one interception with a 66.7 passer rating.

Mike McDaniel has replaced Brian Flores as Miami’s head coach, but Josh Boyer is still Miami’s defensive coordinator and the starting defense has returned virtually intact. Dolphins safeties Brandon Jones and Jevon Holland are masterful at timing their blitzes, and Miami won its opener by stifling the Patriots’ offense during a 20-7 victory.

It will be no surprise if Miami blitzes heavily again, and Head Coach John Harbaugh said the Ravens will be prepared to counter.

“We would have been negligent if we hadn’t worked on it,” Harbaugh said. “It was something we needed to get a lot better at, and we studied it the whole offseason. We’ll have a plan for it and hope it works, because these guys are probably the best in the league at doing it right now. They do it more than anybody, they do it better than anybody and it’s just something they’re committed to.”

The Ravens hope to make Miami pay for blitzing by popping some big plays. Jackson connected with Rashod Bateman on a 55-yard touchdown pass in Week 1, and many of the Dolphins’ Cover-Zero packages could leave Bateman, Devin Duvernay and Mark Andrews in one-on-one coverage. Duvernay’s first touchdown Sunday against the Jets came on a quick step drop that would also be effective in beating a blitz.

Jackson says the Ravens are better prepared this time for Miami’s blitz.

“They just caught us off guard, really,” Jackson said. “We hadn’t really gone over defenses doing all-up zero against us – like, just all-up flat-out zero. But I feel like we’ll have an answer for it this year. We watched film – watched a lot of film on those guys – because we don’t want it to happen again.

“Other teams did zero [blitz], but it was just the way they did it that kind of affected us. But like I said, we’ll have an answer this time around if they do the same thing.”