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Game plan: Ravens at Raiders
 
Focal Point: Top run offense/defense
 


Inside the Playbook: Ravens at Raiders

These yards, like Tennessee's last week, will be very hard to come by. If you're going to attack the Ravens, you have to attack them head-on -- not to the perimeter. You have to get guards on Ray Lewis to get at his body and legs. Usually, though, Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa use up a lot of these blocks.

The fullback has a huge block on this play. He'll be taking on someone whether it's Peter Boulware or Jamie Sharper. After that, it's BYOB -- Bring Your Own Blocker. Tyrone Wheatley knows that when he gets into this hole, someone is going to be there. If he's lucky, it won't be Ray Lewis. Wheatley isn't exactly small, so he will have to dish out some punishment of his own. Lincoln Kennedy doesn't have to take Lewis down, he just has to shield him from filling the hole and stopping Wheatley at the line of scrimmage. If the Raiders get five yards on this play, they win. And that's how they'll win the ballgame. This is muscle-on-muscle and Jon Gruden will run this repeatedly to get some tough yards and to set it up to make a play later in the game. Everybody has this play in their book, not many can succeed with it against Baltimore.


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