 What's the bigger issue with the Ravens? The offensive line or tackling on defense? Is it time for Ravens defensive coordinator Wink to cook up a new strategy? Should Eric DeCosta make a trade that would actually make the Ravens overkill at a certain position that nobody's thinking about? These and many, many more questions on this episode of NFL Questions From Subs. Yeah, this feels like a dream. YouTube team keep it clean. What's going on? It's in Graven here with another video, another episode of NFL Questions From Subscribers. The very first question from Subscribers as we head into the buy week, which is well needed. A whole question from Subscribers is, is it a series where you can ask me any NFL question and we answer it in a video like this. If you want to be part of it, you can send me an email to teamkeepitclean at gmail.com for the patrons and shout out to all of our Team Keep It Clean patrons. Y'all can send it directly on Patreon. Without further ado, team keep it clean. We got a lot of good questions to get into. Let's go ahead and jump into it. Our first question came from my guy, Reese, and I'm giving him a pass because maybe because of the beat down that Ravens took, maybe it messed his mind up a little bit and he sent it to the incorrect email, but only just this once. Well, I'll give a pass for that. But anyway, he said, this is fresh off the beaten we took. What do you think is more important? Trying to fix the offensive line or defensive tackling? I know Bill doesn't have that purse, but if the defensive line is in the backfield almost doing the handoff, what running back is running out of that? That's my thinking of the offensive line. I would think tackling will be second nature to any defensive player. So I'm not sure what's going on with that. Not giving up on the squad, but if this tackling remains an issue, we have a big yikes for the rest of the season. Let's see what happens with the buy. If you or anybody else already repeated this, my bad is I haven't looked at any post game thoughts from you, Ega, Allen or all 22 NFL cuts. All right, so this is a really, really good question to start us off. What do I think is more important to fix? What's the bigger issue right here? Is it the fixing the offensive line or fixing the defense with their tackling? Wow, that is tough, man. It's really, really tough because you think about scenarios for both. You think about with the tackling, if defense tackle better than a lot of these big plays, they wouldn't be such big plays like Jamar Chase, that 82 yard touchdown. That's like a eight yard slam. That's it, if the defense tackles, but since nobody wanted to tackle, and he was like a slip and slide, everybody just falling and sliding, he just took off to the house, man. Wow, this is such a good question. Wow, and then you think offensive line, like that would help, because we've seen it, especially this year, you give Lamar Jackson time. Ooh, it's a beautiful thing when Lamar Jackson got time, but we haven't got to see that beautiful thing too much. And the offensive line has just been inconsistent. They've been banged up. They just been all over the place. They've been good, and they've been bad, and they've been everything in the middle too. Whew, but what's more important? Because without an offensive line, that just kills drives, it kills points. Without tackling, that continues drives, and that gives points. So it's like both are just as important as each other, because that's where everything starts. Well, not necessarily for defense, but for offense, everything starts up front. For defense, everything starts up front too, but once it gets to that second and third level, if you can't tackle, then it's gonna get to the fourth level, which would be behind the defense and in the end zone. Man, I would say offensive line by a hair. And the reason I would say offensive line is because if Ravens could, and I don't know how they would do it, like, cause I don't know how they would fix either one. How do you fix tackling? How do you fix that? Like, what do you do to fix players tackling? Like, cause that's something that's fundamental. It's not like you can go and get one player, and that one player will be the end-all, be-all to your tackling woes. It's not like, oh, you get a new coach, and that coach will be the end-all, be-all to your tackle. Like, what do you do to fix tackling? Now, for the offensive line, what can you do to fix the offensive line? Get, could you go out and sign somebody? Could you trade for somebody? I, you're a little limited for money now, but I don't know what they're gonna do there. And you just lost Patrick McCarr, you just lost your right tackle. So, yeah, you just, you gotta hope that these guys, like, get some dear endless pray before the game. I don't know, man. But anyway, I would say offensive line by hair because with the offensive line, if they're protecting a quarterback, in this case, they're protecting Lamar Jackson, less pressure is put on him to really start pressing. He'll have to do less because when he's not getting protected, as we saw last game, he starts pressing, and he's like, man, I just, I gotta do it. I gotta do everything. And that has him forcing the issue. There was like a pass on third and one, but he forced it to Hollywood. I ain't gonna say it wasn't picked off. Like it was, it just went past everybody, which was good. But Hollywood was double covered. And when you're not getting protection, that clock starts going off in your head a lot sooner than it should. And if you're not getting protection, you're getting hit all game too. Like in the bingles game, if you're not getting protection, you're gonna get sacked, you're gonna get hit. You just, you won't have a comfortable day in the pocket. And if you're not having a comfortable day in the pocket, that takes away points from the Ravens. And that does the opposing defense so many favors. Now in turn, I think when you, when you're not getting protection, with the offensive line, if your offensive line is better, and it's not only for protections for running the ball too, but we just speaking about protection right now. Like he, the receivers that they got, they got these, they got some receivers now, man. You got, you got Hollywood. You got Bateman, Bateman being coming along strong. And every single pass he's caught, went for it first down. But you got Mark Andrews. You about to get Sammy back. Like you got, you got some receivers now. But what good are they if you have no protection, you have no time to throw it to them? And when you do have time, so to speak, like, well, not even time, cause you're back there running around and trying to evade defenders, while these guys still run their routes and they just hope that the ball can come their way. And you gotta hope that you see them at the right time while you trying to make a defender missing the backfield cause the offensive line couldn't block him. So it just, and then it starts again, depressing. It starts Lamar depressing. Cause again, like I said on Sunday, he ran into two sex, he ran into two of them, one by the one by Ogondro being one of them by Hubbard. He ran into both of those. That's cause all game, he wasn't getting blocked. He wasn't getting blocked for me. So again, you just start pressing, you start forcing the issue and it's tough. So with the, the offensive line, if your offensive line isn't blocking, then you're not scoring. Well, it makes it harder to score. It's not like it's impossible, but it makes it a lot harder to score. The best quarterbacks, if they ain't got an offensive line, they look the worst. Okay, again, I hate bringing this up cause it's like it happened so long ago, but look at Patrick Mahomes in the Superbowl. Biggest stage of them all, biggest game. But that offensive line go, they disappeared. They didn't block. They didn't block for Patrick Mahomes, he couldn't do anything. He's running around. He was looking like Lamar Jackson from 2020. And a lot of times from this year too, but it was rough. So Ravens fans, we know what it's like to have an offensive line that's just not blocking. So with, I would say offensive line because that would also take a lot of pressure off the defense. And the reason I say that is because if you have an offensive line, again, we've seen Ravens with an offensive line, we've seen when they block, Ravens move the ball downfield. Right, the Ravens make some plays happen. Ravens score points. So if they score in points, then the defense, that creates less pressure on them because if they can get a couple stops early on and the offense is scoring points and that'll put the offense or that'll put the Ravens up. So with the defense, it's still gonna have to tackle, but it just, it can make the opposing offense more one dimensional. So again, while you still have to tackle, a lot of running plays could be eliminated because the opposing offense could be like, ah, we can't run the ball as much no more because we gotta play catch up because he's Ravens scored all these points on it. So we gotta try to catch up with them. So that takes away a lot of running plays. So now you just gotta wrap up catch up wrap up with all the receivers in front of you, keep them in front of you and wrap up when they catch the ball if they catch the ball. So again, it makes your job a little bit easier when the offense, they put in their work. Cause I said about this game, having this game and having some other games too. Offense is a big reason too for the defense struggling. So offense, they take some of the blame too because they weren't scoring. If you don't score and the defense would again, this last game, the defense was holding the Bengals early on, they were holding the Bengals but the offense just was not scoring. They weren't scoring. And since the offense wasn't scoring, the defense, all right, we're right back out here again. And that gives us another opportunity not to tackle. Not that it's an excuse, they should always be tackling and the tackles just, it's just been outright bad all year long for the most part. Like I said, it's been a couple of games, been a Chargers game and 99% of the Broncos game. But the tackling all year has been bad. It's been all kinds of bad. And I just, I don't get it. I don't know what, I don't know what can fix it. I don't know, but it's been bad. So that would just, again, I would say offensive line. And another reason I say offensive line to another benefit would be for the running, the running game. We know that this running game, like you said, at least in Laveonville, he ain't got that same burst that he used to. I think Raven's waiting for it. They waiting on Laveonville to make that cut and not necessarily take off. We know Laveonville not no takeoff type of running back but they waiting also because with Laveonville then blocks, they got to be perfect, man. They got to be perfect. He's not one of those running backs that's like going to create this big slain. He ain't going to create his own play. He needs them blockers to be on point. So he is a smart runner, but he ain't going like, oh, Laveonville made this at nine. That's not him at this point in his career, especially with his offensive line. But if the offensive line was better, it would make it easier for Laveonville, for Devontae Freeman, for Latavius Murray when he gets back, for Tyson Williams, who I do not think will be here by the Vikings game. I just don't. I think for Tyson Williams, I think that last play, and I was confused. I was like, what's going on? Tyson, I was like, come on, man. We've been defending you, hoping you give me more opportunity. And I know the game was, it was far. I think the Ravens were down by 17 at that point. Maybe, I think. I forgot what the score was. Oh, were they down by 10? Maybe they were down by 10. I don't even remember what the score was at that point. But where Tyson, Lamar threw it to Tyson on that fourth down. And he made one guy miss. And then the second guy was coming for him and he just slowly went out of bounds. And I was like, what was that? How can you do that? No one like, again, it's all about situational football. And then there was, I don't know if it was that same driver. Then there was the play where Lamar, they called the player or whatever. And I think they were changing the player. I think Lamar was calling the audible. There was something that was going on. And Tyson was just lost. He just ain't know what was going on. And Lamar was like yelling at him and telling him to move. And Tyson was just standing there like that. And I was like, oh boy. And then they even got a delay game where they had to call a time, something happened. I forgot what happened on that play. But it was just that confusion. And then that last play on the fourth down where he just slowly just, he made, like I said, he made the first guy miss. And this is fourth down now. So you got to get a first to keep it moving. So he made the first guy miss. And then he just all ran out of bounds after that. And I was like, what, like, you didn't try to like pitch it back or something. Like the game, again, the game is like, it's not, I forgot whether it was a 10 point game or 17 point game at that point. But you're not even trying to like look for somebody behind you to pitch it back to us, like try something. Like, again, you got to cut up field. You can't just all run out of bounds. You can't do that. So again, with Tyson Williams, I think he was already in the doghouse. He was already there. But I think this game, like I said before this game, that I didn't think he was, I thought he was going to get traded. And after this game, that stands even more. Ravens, they're not invested in him. I know we going way off from what the question was originally, but Ravens are not invested in him. And I think this game just really sealed his fate and sealed the deal for how they feel about him. And I just, I don't see him remaining with the team much longer. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Hey, okay. But I think that this game really sealed the deal for him. Cause that was just, that's a lack of effort. And it's all about effort, man. And since he doesn't have anything like, he doesn't have any ties to the team. There's nothing that Tyson Williams has right now that holds him to the Ravens. He doesn't have a big contract. He is not, he's not, he's not even drafted. He's not a draft pick. So he's, yeah, I think he's going to be gone. Next question came from my guy, Elix. He said, hey, I want to thank you and all team. Keep it clean for asking questions and you answering those questions too. Hope you guys are blessed and highly favored. Appreciate it, Elix. He said it. Number one, do you think it's time for Wink to cook up a new defensive strategy? I'm not saying this because Fruit Punch had a bad game. Look like Fruit Punch, he got stole. But anyway, I'm not saying this because Fruit Punch had a bad game or anything. Everyone has their days. And I know this because I played the sport. I'm saying this because football game is, it is chess, not checkers. And right now I like to think that Wink is playing checkers with 40 yard games. Remember the game of football is more mental than physical. So do we think it's time for Wink to cook up a new strategy? Not necessarily a new strategy, but he has to be better. He has to be situationally better. He has to be more, like somebody said in the comment section, he has to be more responsible. And you have to realize like, hey, know who your personnel is and try to put, and this is what a problem, I can only speak for myself. This is what my problem was with G-Roll, especially last year, use players to their strengths. Why are we not using players to their strengths? This year, they've been doing a much better job with that on offense. Now, on defense, use players to their strengths, but not only that, let's counter their weaknesses. If these players are struggling with this, that, and the third, okay, let's try to mask that. Let's try to hide that. Let's try to disguise that. So defense, I mean, so offenses don't take advantage of it. Cause it's so important that you put your players in positions where they can succeed. This defense hasn't been succeeding. The Ravens have been winning there, but the defense, they've been giving up a lot. Overall, it's been a couple of games here and there with, oh, yeah, but they've been giving up a lot. And it's been some games where they made some clutch plays, but they still been giving up a lot, a whole lot. And again, with the Blitzen situation, it's all about the situation. I ain't about to be like, oh yeah, wink, stop blitzing. Don't blitz no more, don't blitz. But in the game, against the bingles, oh, yeah, let's dial it back a little bit. Cause again, every time is funny because every time, well, they would usually, besides the last time we played the Chiefs, but usually every time we face a quarterback and they'd be like, oh, this quarterback is this successful against the Blitz. We'd be like, oh boy. We know Winks gonna send them. And usually, again, besides the Chiefs game this year, but the past couple of Chiefs games, they would show that statistic. Oh, Patrick Mahomes is so successful against the Blitz. He completing this many of his passes. There's how many touchdowns he threw. He ain't throwing no interception against the Blitz. And then what do Winks do? He sent them boys right at Patrick Mahomes and he got burned. But then in the past Chiefs game, he's like, nah, let's hold him back. And guess what happened? I mean, he still got burned a little bit in there, but it worked. And then Joe Burrow, yeah, young quarterback now. Second year quarterback now. But Joe Burrow, he's also been successful against the Blitz. What did Winks do? Early on, it was working. Early on, it was working. But as the game went on, it just, it didn't work anymore. It didn't work anymore. But when you blitz so much, you leave guys one-on-one and if your guys ain't like that, then they ain't like that. And right now, well, at least in that game, while the Humphrey definitely wasn't like that. But you just, you gotta give your guys help. Guys to give you guys help. So anyway, his next question, he said, do you think EDC or Every Dollar Count should send a third or fourth round pick to Chicago to get Allen Robinson? For what? Well, again, well, I shouldn't have cut him off. He said, now hit me out because he must have known that was coming. He said, now hit me out when I say this, he doesn't look unhappy over there and we are missing an actual stud. When I mean stud, I mean a guy that will tell DBs, it's gonna be a long day for you. Defenses are going into games like let's stop Lamar Jackson feet and play sticky ball with Hollywood and Bateman. With a guy like A-Rob, he requires a lot of attention and Hollywood and Bateman and other receivers are facing the two, the second or third corner backs. Well, that's why you hope that Sammy Watkins comes back. Like the receivers have been fine this year. They really have. I mean, y'all know I wouldn't mind overkill, but the receivers have been fine. But Allen Robin, I think he's on a franchise tag right now. So the Raven, if they were to trade for him, every last one of the games of this year would be guaranteed, like all the way guaranteed. And there are what, 12 games left? Cause we in week seven? Yes, I think it's 12 games left. So, oh, wait a minute. Well, we five and two, so that's seven games. And it's 17 games. Okay, so it's 10 games left. But it's 10 games left. And like, his salary began, Ravens came to for him. Long story short, they came to for him. But even still, even if they could, I mean, again, y'all know I love overkill, especially a receiver for the Ravens. Cause you know Ravens do a lot of underkill. But it's not, that's not necessary. That's like, they don't, receivers the last thing that we are thinking about right now. And that's crazy to see, right? As Ravens fans receivers, the last thing that we thinking about right now. We never said that before, ever said that before. Never. But all of our minds on offensive line, we've been thinking linebackers, corner safeties, defensive line, like that's where our minds running back. But no, we're not thinking wide receiving. That's a beautiful thing. So I would say no to Alan Robinson. And cause he's not, he doesn't put the Ravens over the top. He wouldn't put them as, oh, all right, they got Alan Robinson now. All right, well, not a legit. No, they, their receivers are fine. And that's crazy to say, but I love it. And then his last question, he said, I remember watching one of the videos where someone says that the Ravens don't have aggression on our team. But I think that it's not that. I think we just don't have any guts or pride. As a linebacker and offensive lineman, I love putting the 200 to 300 pound person on it. But then jump on them and shake my body like I caught the holy coat, boy. This guy, they are, they're missing. They just, yeah, they missing some, a little bit of heart right now, especially on defense, I would say. But even on offense, like, I think my guy Howard, he brought up in one of his questions, he said that the Ravens, they don't have one of those mall of those just big bodies that are just knocked somebody down. They don't have that right now on the offensive line. He said they got a bunch of technicians. And that was a really good point. But also too, with that, that's, I think that's one of the reasons why the running game has just not been working. One, because of the running backs. Because again, I, y'all know, I thought that losing, I mean, losing Mark and Peter's a huge blow. But I thought, I thought with Gus and JK, like, all right, losing them is tough. It sucks, especially because both of them were they about to do that thing. Like, man, this team was like so well put together this season, except the offensive line. There's some question marks there. But beside that, they were so well put together this year, so well put together. And then it just all crashed because of injuries. But I thought that with JK and Gus, I was about to say Gus Dobbins, that they, not that they were replaceable, but they would be the easiest to replace. If you get what I mean, Justice Hill. I just thought that we could, I thought it just could be plug and play. But this season has proven that it's not plug and play at all. It's not. So it's been a blow, but yeah, the offensive line, yeah, they just, that aggression, it just seems to be lacking because they haven't really been running a ball like they used to. And again, they, I mean, like Ryan Clark, how about I say Frank Clark? But like Ryan Clark said, he said, all Ravens running back, he said, they my age. And he's been retired for a while now. So, yeah, it's just just been rough. It's been rough for them at running back. It's been rough for them on offensive line. But even on defensive line, when you talk about the lack of heart, the lack of guts, again, that's tackling. That's a tackling. Like these Ravens, these ain't the Ravens of old, right? You like, imagine like somebody told you 10 years ago, even five years ago, somebody told you, hey, Ravens in the future, Ravens gonna have an issue with tackling. You probably laugh at them. You probably be like, what are you talking about? Like this team, like, I know eventually we're gonna change it to more of an offensive team, but the Ravens in issue with tackling, like these dudes were built on defense from the jump. You, you tripping, man. You, oh, you playing. Quit, quit doing. You all, you must be trolling, man. Get out of here with that. And then now, 10 years later, five years later, you look at this scene like, wow. So, it all starts up here. It starts up there, like my guy, JT, he always says, man, the body follows the mind. And if you are punk, I mean, not a punk, I can't call none of these dudes punk, cause they not punk, but if you just, if you're not looking to engage with somebody physically, if you second guessing yourself, if you're like, I don't feel like it. Oh, he looks big. Oh my goodness. I don't want to tell. Oh man, he's coming fast. Then it's, your body's going to do the same. And you, you're going to give half effort on tackles. You, you're not going to give your all to make it happen. It's just that that's how it's going to be. So with the Ravens, they is something that needs to improve mentally. Hopefully that they can take a mental break this week with the buy and just take a nice little breather and come back ready to go.