nfl_a_asa2_cr_600x400

Injuries are a part of football.

Such an expectation seems reasonable considering the high impact nature of the sport and every team must deal with them and their effects on the field at some point during a season. But the Ravens seem to have been hit extra hard this season, especially in the depleted secondary.

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

This past Tuesday, the team placed running back Lorenzo Taliaferro (foot), safety Terrence Brooks (knee) and cornerback Asa Jackson (knee) on season-ending injured reserve. So Baltimore now has sixteen players on I.R., five of which are rookies. This is the most players the Ravens have placed on the list since 2008, when they had nineteen during Head Coach John Harbaugh’s first season.

The recent rash of injuries has left the league’s 30th ranked pass defense simply looking for warm bodies to fill the void. Lardarius Webb could pair with several options to start with him at Corner in Houston this Sunday. Rashaan Melvin, who looked solid in his Ravens debut this past weekend could see an increased workload though he has no career starts to his credit. Or perhaps converted Safety Anthony Levine or recently acquired corners Antoine Cason or Chris Greenwood could get the call. Regardless of who you plug in back there the Ravens achilles heel is even weaker.

Still the Ravens (9-5) have a chance to potentially wrap up a playoff spot this Sunday with a victory over the Texans and some help and can secure a spot in any case if they win out. Of course the schedule looks favorable for the purple and black as Houston will most likely start their fourth-string quarterback after the losing the rest of the depth chart to injury while Johnny Manziel’s Cleveland premiere couldn’t have been a bigger disaster. So for the time being Baltimore will need to lean on their productive pass rush to keep the secondary from too much exposure as they hope to punch a playoff ticket.

Here are a few more random thoughts:

  • When Elvis Dumervil was signed over a year ago fans dreamed of the possibilties of pairing him with Terrell Suggs to form an unstoppable pass rushing duo. After a disappointing 2013, this season both players are playing at a high level. While Doom has been setting records, Suggs has been steady and productive. He has at least one sack in his past five games, which is the top current streak in the NFL and ties the longest in Ravens’ history. During this streak, Suggs has recorded 7.5 sacks. Only Dumervil (nine) and Houston’s J.J. Watt (eight) have produced more over this stretch.
  • While the Ravens slugged their way to an uninspired 20-12 home win it should be noted that Joe Flacco’s play continues to impress. Flacco barely missed posting his fourth straight game with a 100 Quarterback Rating or higher which would have matched his personal best – the 2012 Super Bowl run. Flacco’s play since the Bye has been solid. Over the past four games, he has completed 69.5 percent of his passes for 958 yards. He’s thrown six touchdowns and one interception for a 107.2 passer rating, which ranks fourth-best over that span. If the running game flounders as it did against Jacksonville it’s good to know that Joe can keep the offense churning.
  • Speaking of Flacco, I’m still amazed at how this guy continually gets bashed in the media. SI’s Peter King had this to say in Monday column.

“Great call by Baltimore Offensive Coordinator Gary Kubiak on third-and-five late fourth, green-lighting the glacially slow Joe Flacco to run. It worked,”

I guess Pete missed the fifteen yard scramble in Miami that led to a touchdown drive a few weeks ago. Joe isn’t the fleetest of foot but he’s not nearly as slow as some people think and he should probably run a little more when needed.

  • We’ve found out over the past two weeks that Timmy Jernigan is a pretty good football player. He notched four tackles, two sacks, and five quarterback hits Sunday against Jacksonville. He also disrupted several running plays with penetration into the backfield. You have to wonder what that means for Haloti Ngata’s future in Charm City.

 

Matt Jergensen
Matt Jergensen

Matt has lived in Maryland his entire life and is a graduate of Calvert Hall and Towson University. has always been an avid Baltimore sports fan. Since 2007, he has been writing and talking about Baltimore sports, especially the Ravens. His work has appeared on Ravens Gab, Russell Street Report, and he currently co-hosts a podcast “The Blitz- A Ravens podcast” with Brent Harris.

X