This Ravens defense hasn’t been particularly good even when close to full strength this season.
With cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins out, standout defensive tackle Travis Jones limited by a Week 7 ankle injury, and fellow defensive linemen Michael Pierce and Brent Urban exiting in the first half of Sunday’s game in Cleveland, no one could have expected an elite performance on that side of the ball. Playing on the road on a short week against an opponent with a new starting quarterback and a new offensive play-caller was a recipe for hiccups — even against a 1-6 Browns team going nowhere.
But allowing Jameis Winston — who was making his first NFL start in 25 months — to throw for 334 yards and three second-half touchdowns? Surrendering 29 points and 401 yards to an offense that hadn’t scored more than 18 points in a game all season and had eclipsed 300 total yards just once?
That’s below the bar. Period.
“It’s frustrating for sure. We’re the Ravens,” defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike told reporters in Cleveland. “We pride ourselves on defense, and obviously, everybody is referring to how great we were last year. Just comparing it to this year, it’s just not the same.”
No, it’s not, and the concerns are becoming too great to ignore as we’re nearly halfway through the season. It was only last week that Hall of Famer Ed Reed opined on ESPN that the Ravens “don’t understand the other side of finishing and being a championship team right now.”
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After a 29-24 loss to the Browns that snapped a five-game winning streak and dropped Baltimore to 5-3, it’s tough to disagree with the Ravens legend, especially when referencing the defensive side of the ball. As incredible as two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson is, you can’t expect him to be Superman every week, and the league’s No. 1 offense was bound to come back to earth some like it did Sunday.
Baltimore can’t keep chalking up its ugly pass defense numbers to garbage time and an early-season schedule of tough quarterbacks after what we witnessed Sunday. As excruciating as safety Kyle Hamilton’s drop of a game-sealing interception was, Baltimore still allowed the game-winning 38-yard touchdown pass from Winston to Cedric Tillman on the very next play with 59 seconds to go.
The pass rush again wasn’t disruptive enough as Winston completed 23 of 32 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns from a clean pocket, per Next Gen Stats. The lack of pressure has been particularly glaring in third-and-long situations, which has led to too many big plays. The Ravens need more help behind the 33-year-old Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh, and the early optimism for David Ojabo has evaporated with the 2022 second-round pick being a healthy scratch Sunday.
Couple the inconsistent pass rush with weekly instances of blown coverages and pre-snap confusion, and it’s impossible not to point to first-year coordinator Zach Orr and the defensive coaching staff. The timing of former defensive coordinator Dean Pees’ addition to the staff raised some eyebrows earlier this month, and scrutiny is only intensifying. The defense needs to be better, and Orr is the one in charge.
That the Ravens were missing two of their top three cornerbacks and still benched starting safety Marcus Williams — who carries the third-highest salary cap number on the team — spoke volumes about the state of the secondary. In the third season of a five-year, $70 million contract and graded by Pro Football Focus as one of the league’s worst safeties entering Week 8, Williams didn’t play a single snap even as the problems persisted on the back end.
Head coach John Harbaugh’s explanation for the benching didn’t provide much clarity as the 28-year-old Williams was active for the game after being a full participant in practices throughout the week.
8“It was a personnel decision. We’re kind of working through some things there,” Harbaugh said. “I feel very confident Marcus is going to be out there playing great football the rest of the season. I’ll just talk about it being an internal type of situation.”
Entering the Week 7 game at Tampa Bay, Orr praised Williams for having his best week of practice of the season. And though his performance against the Buccaneers didn’t stand out, it was far from his worst game of the season, leading one to wonder if there’s more to the situation than meets the eye.
Even with the pass defense struggles, the Ravens had their opportunities to win and let down in all three phases of the game at different points, which is something that can’t happen in any AFC North matchup — even one against the lowly Browns. And as many anticipated, Winston mixed in his share of mistakes while earning his first win as a starting quarterback since Sept. 11, 2022.
Hamilton’s backbreaking drop followed two other potential interceptions that went through the hands of safety Eddie Jackson earlier in the game. It’s been an all-too-common theme for a defense that’s struggled to get off the field.
“We just have to keep our foot on the pedal. Everyone [has] to be on one accord, continue to play, not get relaxed,” said Eddie Jackson, who made no excuses for his dropped interceptions. “We have to make those plays. There’s no excuse for anything that happened out there. We just have to make those plays when they come to us. They were huge game-changing plays for us.”
Considering how explosive, efficient, and versatile their offense is, the Ravens don’t need this to be the 2000 defense or even the 2023 version to get to the Super Bowl. The injuries and circumstances entering Week 8 weren’t ideal, and after Sunday’s debacle, general manager Eric DeCosta will only ramp up efforts to find a defensive upgrade or two by next week’s trade deadline.
But when you can’t finish the job against teams like the Browns and Las Vegas — not to mention the other close calls in victory — over the first half of the season, the Ravens know they have a long way to go to make this defense trustworthy enough by January standards.
“It’s going to take ‘want to’ and the will to just want to [finish] the game,” cornerback Brandon Stephens said. “We pride ourselves in finishing, and we haven’t done that, especially we didn’t do it today. But it’s just going to take work — day in and day out — to excel.”
