As we look ahead to a matchup that the Ravens handily won on defense last time, holding the Steelers to just 221 total yards, what stands out to me is just that the unit has undergone a lot of shuffling as they’re dealing with injuries, COVID, and the Yannick Ngakoue trade. I wouldn’t take anything that happens on Wednesday (checks notes) afternoon football as a sign one way or the other that things are unsettled. That is just kind of the trouble that has been created by trying to play a season of tackle football during a pandemic.
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
Baltimore’s defense has the 10th-rated DVOA pass defense. They have the third-rated rush defense, but a lot of that has been compiled before their last few games against New England and Tennessee. Each of those teams ran on Brandon Williams-less Baltimore with impunity. The Ravens were missing Calais Campbell for each of those games as well, and I think they’ve also struggled a bit in integrating Ngakoue into the lineup on base downs.
Another factor in the fall of the run defense is just a lack of experience by rookie linebackers Patrick Queen and Mailk Harrison. This isn’t to be unexpected given the lack of hands-on experience and the fact that Queen in particular was drafted as one of those breeds of cover linebackers who can tackle. The toughest transition for a lot of players in that skill set is getting to NFL-average in filling gaps, playing gaps, and getting off blocks.
Pass defense-wise, the Ravens’ stand-out rough game was in a monsoon against the Patriots, where Cam Newton threw for just 118 yards. The Patriots did succeed at a high rate, but it’s not like they were raining balls all over the field. Newton still took a high percentage of blitzes — 12 on just 18 dropbacks — and he just made great plays when he was pressured. They gave up a touchdown on a trick play thrown by Jakobi Meyers. They didn’t get pressure on Newton’s longest completion of the day, but Marcus Peters was shifted inside to deal Meyers and the initial positioning was good:
Peters simply just bought the route to the inside, and that left plenty of space for Newton to go to the sideline as every Ravens blitzer was accounted for:
Schematically I think it’s sort of weird because Baltimore is in a place where most NFL teams use 11-personnel (three wideouts, one tight end, one back), so they focus a lot of work on stopping 11-personnel. Ngakoue is here to crush the edge in 11. They carry countless good defensive backs so offenses can’t find easy solutions to that. But when they play teams like the Titans and Patriots, who play big, those advantages go away a little bit. Harder for blitzes to get home when there are extra blockers. Harder for all these great defensive backs to matter when you can’t play them without getting run over. That’s kind of the rock-and-hard-place scenario the Ravens have had with these teams. They brought in Campbell and Derek Wolfe to help out in these situations, but with no Campbell and no Williams for most of the last two games, they haven’t had the talent they wanted to answer with to speak up.
Again, as we settle into the oddest timed game in NFL history, I don’t think there’s a lot to be concerned about in the long-term here. Everything has generally gone pretty well this year. It’s just hard to not have the solutions you’ve paid for when the test pops up.
Ravens Analyst
Rivers McCown is a writer and editor who has written for ESPN.com, Bleacher Report, USA Today, and Deadspin, among other places. He’s edited for Football Outsiders, Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and Pre-Snap Reads Quarterback Catalogue.