The Baltimore Ravens played their annual horrible game of the year Sunday dropping a crucial AFC North Division matchup with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns took the matchup somewhat convincingly 40-25 but the game seemed more about what the Ravens did wrong as opposed to what the Browns did right.
As a collective, the Ravens made mistake after mistake, dropping passes, missing tackles, and blowing coverages. It seems every year, the Ravens play one horrible game in which everything unravels. In 2017, it was their Week 3 debacle in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars, in 2018 it was their collapse against the Carolina Panthers. This year, that took place in a game in which they had a chance to assert themselves as the class of the division and fell on their faces.
Whether it was completely on them or not, the Ravens defense once again had a poor showing against the Browns. Just one year after finishing as the league’s #1 yardage defense, Baltimore’s once-elite unit looks desperate. Hindered perhaps by a number of injuries and household names leaving in free agency, the Ravens have had a first four games to forget. Not only that, but their schedule hasn’t exactly been particularly taxing. How they bounce back will be a test of their will, but is something that badly needs to happen.
In a year where the Ravens look a lot closer to figuring out their offense, their defense is the unit that badly needs to improve.
The Baltimore Ravens Defense is Struggling
The Ravens Are Missing C.J. Mosley
The biggest loss for the Ravens over the 2019 off-season was without a doubt losing their Pro-Bowl linebacker C.J. Mosley. Mosley led the Ravens in tackles three of his five seasons as a Raven and was easily the best tackler on the team. He was also the quarterback of the defense who played a large role in communicating the Ravens middle of the field.
In replace of Mosley, the Ravens have looked to a combination of Patrick Onwuasor, Kenny Young and Chris Board. None of the three have looked up to the task of taking over Mosley’s role but the most concerning member is probably Onwuasor. General manager Eric DeCosta likely had huge expectations for Onwuasor coming into the season, after electing not to resign Mosley, and Owuasor looks out of place in his first year anchoring the interior linebackers. He played significantly more as a Will linebacker leading up to this year as opposed to in the middle of the field in 2019. His numbers are on the uptick after receiving a larger portion of snaps but he isn’t making the impact plays that he was when he was lined up beside Mosley.
This can be seen very clearly seen on Nick Chubb‘s 88-yard touchdown late in the game. Both Young and Ownuasor were nowhere close to taking him down.
Between the three, neither have very much experience being heavily relied on in the NFL, but one of them needs to step up and support the run game. Chubb was allowed to gash the middle of the Ravens defense against Cleveland and it was largely because the linebackers failed to get in his lanes or missed tackles. Mosley was a prime piece of what has made the Ravens so stingy against the run over the last two seasons, and the Ravens are feeling his loss.
The Pass Rush Is Still Struggling
Starting in 2018, the Ravens pass rush has been underwhelming. They lost some notable firepower coming into the season but Baltimore has had a reputation for reloading the pass rush every season despite letting talented players walk in free agency. This year, no one is stepping up and filling that role.
The Ravens pass rush now has just two sacks over their past two games. What could be even more concerning is that their lone QB hit in their game against Cleveland came on the single sack. The Browns offensive line has looked incredibly fragile through three games, and they were able to have their way with the Ravens Week 4. Coming into the game, Cleveland’s offensive line had surrendered the sixth-most sacks (12) in the NFL. Playing without starting defensive end Brandon Williams only contributed to their inability to put pressure on Baker Mayfield. Mayfield was easily the least-mobile quarterback the Ravens have seen since Week 1 and they were almost never able to pressure him.
The Ravens simply need someone to apply consistent pressure outside of Matt Judon. Tyus Bowser notched his first sack on the year against Cleveland but has looked fairly ineffective outside of a couple of splash plays. Neither he or Tim Williams have been able to step up to fill the pass-rushing void in the Ravens defense after being handed expansive roles prior to the season.
A player head coach John Harbaugh could look too for a change of pace is 3rd-round rookie Jaylon Ferguson. Ferguson has been a healthy scratch outside of nine snaps against the Kansas City Chiefs but could provide a spark to a struggling unit. Given the way the rush has played so far, incorporating Ferguson is a very low-risk/high-reward move.
The Secondary Needs a Jolt
Going into the season, the Ravens strongest position group on either side of the ball was their secondary. Early in the season, they lost two starters in Jimmy Smith and Tavon Young to long-term injuries, but the addition of Earl Thomas and depth on the roster should’ve somewhat helped them manage their loss of bodies. However, that hasn’t really been the case.
While the secondary has not been horrible, it needs to be the impactful group it was pegged as early in the year. The Ravens have currently given up the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL (302.0 per game) due to simply not playing tight enough coverage and missing tackles at important times. This happened yet again against the Browns. Ricky Seals-Jones had one of the games largest chunk plays when a miscommunication between Marlon Humphrey and Tony Jefferson left the tight end streaking down the sideline for a 59-yard play. Jarvis Landry also had a 65-yard catch and run after three Ravens missed tackles on a drive that ended in points against. Then later in the game, the flood gates opened.
Eliminating the big plays in the secondary will go a long way. 212 yards of the Browns total 530 came on three plays.
If there was one big positive in the game, it was that Humphrey had a terrific game blanketing Odell Beckham Jr. for almost the entire game. Humphrey in coverage against Beckham only allowed two catches for 20 yards on seven targets. Maybe once Humphrey and Thomas are on the same page they can begin to better assist the rest of the members of the secondary.
The Good in the Bad
Just like what the Ravens are dealing with now, every team has its problems and they don’t last forever. Baltimore is clearly playing below their capabilities but that doesn’t mean they don’t have talent on that side of the ball. Thomas is going to improve as he gets to know the Ravens system throughout the year, and their young players will become more comfortable as the year progresses. It could also be argued the Ravens only played a bad second-half against Cleveland after holding them to just 10 points in the first. The game was a six-point game with just under 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter.
The most notable problems have come from communication errors, ending up in broken plays resulting in surrendering large chunks of yardage. These very rarely happened over last season in Don Martindale‘s first year as defensive coordinator and the Ravens will likely spend a lot of time trying to simplify and fix these very avoidable mistakes. Giving up 395.5 yards per game is an absurdly high number for a team that hasn’t averaged giving up more than 340 yards per game since 2012 (a year in which they won the Super Bowl).
Even with the Loss to the Browns, the Ravens still have the same record as eight of the 16 AFC teams at 2-2. They are coming into their easiest stretch of the season leading up to their bye Week 8 and their offense is still recording the most yards on offense per game in the entire NFL. Though the Ravens defense badly needs to improve, they are still going to be competitive and vying for another AFC North title in 2019.
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