After a 24-20 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon, Ravens working again Kenyan Drake didn’t assume a lot about his particular person effort.
Drake loved his greatest recreation with Baltimore, dashing for 119 yards and a landing on 10 carries — even outperforming Giants famous person Saquon Barkley (22 carries for 83 yards, landing) — however none of that mattered to him because the Ravens blew one other second-half lead.
“It’s a group recreation,” Drake stated. “So any particular person accolade is on the again burner relating to the final word purpose, which is profitable the sport.”
Nonetheless, Drake’s efficiency shouldn’t be ignored. With J.Ok. Dobbins restricted after his knee tightened up Sunday and Justice Hill out for the second straight recreation with a hamstring harm, Drake grew to become the primary Ravens working again to hurry for 100 yards this season. In actual fact, coming into Sunday, a Baltimore working again had exceeded 100 dashing yards simply 4 occasions because the begin of the 2020 season.
Drake’s stellar efficiency was a results of his pace and talent to reap the benefits of the gaps created by the Ravens’ offensive line, which paved the way in which for 211 dashing yards on a mean of 8.8 per carry.
“[Drake] did a superb job,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh stated. “He hit some runs, made some performs the place he needed to bounce someway, entrance aspect or again aspect, [and] hit some downhill runs.”
On Drake’s second carry of the afternoon, he burst via an enormous hole and ran untouched 30 yards for a landing to present Baltimore a 7-0 lead. The Giants had simply 10 males on the sector through the play, however Drake nonetheless created 22 yards over anticipated primarily based on the blocking and positioning of defenders, in keeping with the NFL’s Subsequent Gen Stats.
With beneath three minutes to go within the second quarter, heart Tyler Linderbaum and fullback Patrick Ricard created sufficient area for Drake to interrupt free for one more 30-yard acquire that he completed with a violent stiff-arm on the Giants’ 34-yard line.
“I used to be working via holes, and I wasn’t getting touched till the second degree, so it's a must to give your hats off to the boys up entrance,” Drake stated.
Drake identified that the Ravens took benefit of the Giants crowding the road of scrimmage, noting that the offense gave “numerous jet sweep appears to be like to unfold them out skinny.”
After dashing for 1,209 yards and 12 touchdowns and catching 55 passes for 428 yards the previous two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders, Drake signed with Baltimore in August to function depth behind Dobbins and Gus Edwards as they labored their approach again from season-ending knee accidents.
Drake himself is coming back from a severe harm after fracturing his proper ankle in December, nevertheless it hasn’t appeared to sluggish him down.
“I feel each [running] again apart from Mike Davis is coming off like a season-ending harm,” Drake stated. “That’s simply soccer, so we’re all sort of getting our pace up.”
After a comparatively quiet begin to the season, together with being inactive in opposition to the New England Patriots and Buffalo Payments, Drake took benefit of his alternative Sunday to show he can nonetheless be an necessary a part of the Ravens’ dashing assault. When Dobbins’ knee “didn’t reply to the turf,” as Harbaugh stated, limiting him to seven carries for 15 yards, it was as much as Drake to hold the load.
After dashing for 70 yards within the first half, he made some huge performs within the second, together with a 21-yard acquire within the third quarter that helped arrange a 23-yard discipline purpose. Though Drake had simply 10 carries, he averaged 11.9 yards per try.
“It’s all the time [the] ‘subsequent man up’ mentality,” Drake stated. “I felt nearly as good as I felt since my harm, and I wish to proceed to make use of that momentum transferring ahead.”
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