The Baltimore Ravens added another win to their current six-game streak this past Sunday, convincingly beating the Houston Texans 41-7. The marque matchup was pegged as a battle of two of the NFL’s young premier quarterbacks Deshaun Watson went up against the MVP front-runner in Lamar Jackson. While the two quarterbacks were supposed to steal the show, a different weapon made a statement — the Ravens defense.
After being incredibly unimpressive throughout the Ravens first five games, Baltimore’s defense is back in its elite form. The Ravens finished the 2018 season as the NFL’s best yardage defense and look a lot more like that team 11 weeks into the 2019 season than they did within the first month. Injuries derailed their strongest unit, the secondary, but look scary now that they’re finally healthy. While the Ravens defense still doesn’t look statistically great, they’ve come a long way since surrendering the sixth-most yards through the first four games of the season.
While Baltimore’s offense has dominated with great performances over the Texans, Seattle Seahawks, and New England Patriots, the Ravens defense is coming around and could be very scary going forward.
Baltimore Ravens Defense Is Finally Elite Again
Remaking the Inside linebacker Position
Throughout history, the Baltimore Ravens defense is known as one of the most iconic units of all time. They’ve had a plethora of stars since their team’s inception in 1996 and are always a good bet to finish the year within the top-10 in scoring and total yards. However, an off-season that saw probably the two biggest faces of the Ravens defense leave – Terrell Suggs and C.J. Mosley – left this year’s defense somewhat faceless. Maybe that is why Ravens’ general manager Eric DeCosta had no problem making a number of large scale moves leading up to the Week 8 trade deadline.
It started with completely remaking the Ravens inside linebacking position. Mosley was the best player to walk out of Baltimore this off-season and was notably missed over the first four weeks of the season. As the unit struggled and watched starter Patrick Onwuasor miss two games following Week 5, in and out went bodies. Out was the struggling second-year player Kenny Young, and in were two veteran journeymen.
L.J. Fort and Josh Bynes were both signed within a five-day period and have made a huge difference in the Ravens defense. Since the two were assembled for Baltimore (though Fort did not play against Pittsburgh), the Ravens have moved from the bottom-10 in both points against and yardage defense, to third in points against and sixth in yards allowed. The duo has combined for 46 tackles, six pass defenses, two interceptions, and a sack.
While Fort and Bynes aren’t the permanent solutions to the middle of the field, they’ve done a great job filling the void in 2019. That coupled with better play from Onwuasor has made the Ravens’ largest weakness a lot less vulnerable.
The Secondary Is Finally Playing to Its Ability
The Baltimore Ravens defense teetered to start the year. A defense built around its secondary was down two key starters one game into the season and a unit that was perhaps the deepest in the entire NFL experienced a number of growing pains early. The success of the Ravens’ defense hinges on the secondary and a struggling unit meant no turnovers and no pass rush.
The decision to move Young also brought in perhaps the biggest Ravens acquisition of the year: Marcus Peters. Peters was acquired from the Los Angeles Rams and has been nothing short of elite as a Raven. He was the highest-graded corner by Pro Football Focus between weeks 7 and 10 and has brought new life to an already solid unit.
Acquiring Peters did two big things for the Ravens: get them a ballhawk and interception machine in Peters, and allow Marlon Humphrey not to have to always shadow his opponent’s best receiver. Adding Peters has allowed the Ravens to played more matchup oriented coverage and it has shown in the turnover margin. Since Week 7, the Ravens are averaging 2.25 turnovers a game (t-4th) including two pick-sixes by Peters himself.
That added reinforcement to the secondary has also allowed the pass rush to have significantly more success. The pass rush like the linebacking corps has seen a few changes but has been noticeably better since Week 7. Going into the game against the Seahawks the Ravens had only registered 11 sacks in six games. Over their last four, they have 12.
Finally Getting Healthy
Though the Peters trade was one of the biggest bolsterers to the Ravens defense and Secondary, perhaps the most underrated was Jimmy Smith finally being healthy. The Ravens secondary had lost three preseason starters in their secondary going into Week 6.
Smith’s health has been an issue throughout his entire career but being down two of your best three corners (Tavon Young being the other) coming out of Week 1 is a challenge for any team. The other big loss was starting strong safety, Tony Jefferson. Jefferson had been wearing the green dot on his helmet to communicate the plays from the sideline. His replacement DeShon Elliott was also lost for the season the following week. With so many injuries to the Ravens secondary, it was always going to be hard for them to play to the level expected of them. Players coming in and out of the starting lineup always creates inconsistencies.
Perhaps one of the most untimely injuries was also Brandon Williams‘ injuries prior to the game against the Cleveland Browns. Half of the Ravens big run-stuffing duo with Michael Pierce, Williams’ absence allowed the Browns to run for 193 rushing yards, the most the Ravens have given up on the season. That’s 36 more than any other game. Since that performance, the Ravens have given up the seventh least rushing yards in the NFL and have dropped their yards per rush against from 4.86 to 4.18.
While every team in the NFL has injuries, it’s how you adjust to them that defines your team. The Ravens are lucky to have almost all of their key players healthy during a critical time of year.
The Defense Is Integral to a Ravens Playoff Run
As impressive as the Ravens offense has been this year, having a good defense is integral to a playoff run. Baltimore is close to a lock to make the playoffs sitting at 8-2 but giving the number-one scoring offense a somewhat comparable partner on the other side of the ball could be what launches the Ravens from a really good regular season team to Super Bowl favorite in January. Look no further than the Ravens team from a year ago. Though they were completely inept on offense through three-quarters of their Wild-Card matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers, Jackson had the ball in his hands in the fourth quarter with a chance to win the game. Their defense in 2019 might not be playing as lights out as the one from 2018 but they don’t need to. The offense is just that good.
The Ravens have come a long way since Humphrey was the only standout player on the defensive side of the ball. Don Martindale‘s unit is coming around and the NFL should take note.
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