Rewind to 2016, a chilly Christmas night at Heinz Field. The Ravens had taken a 27-24 lead with a little over a minute to play. A victory over the Steelers would put them in position to advance to the post season with a victory in Week 17. Instead, Roethlisberger put together a 10 play, 75 yard drive that culminated in Antonio Brown’s “Immaculate Extension”. Just like that, the Ravens were eliminated.

A little over a year later, New Year’s Eve in Baltimore, the Ravens defense had a shot at redemption. A late rally had put the Ravens ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals, 27-24. A Ravens victory would send them to the playoffs. However, history would repeat itself as yet another division foe would go on another last minute drive and break Baltimore’s collective heart. Ravens fans know the play all too well; 4th and 12 from the Baltimore 49 yard line, 3 man rush, 8 drop into coverage and Andy Dalton hits Tyler Boyd for the game winning touchdown. Once again, the Ravens post season plans go up in smoke in the wake of another defensive collapse.

Back to back late season disappointments (which appeared to be as the result of conservative defensive play calling on the decisive possessions) lead the organization to make a change at defensive coordinator and promote Don “Wink” Martindale to defensive coordinator. Sometimes referred to as the 3rd Ryan brother, Wink brought an aggressive philosophy to the defense, which would be a welcome change from Dean Pees soft, zone, coverage style defense. Nowhere was the difference between the 2 coordinators more on display than in the Week 17 matchup against the Browns in 2018.

Once again, the Ravens were clinging to a late 4th quarter lead and needed a victory to secure a spot in the post season.  With the Browns trailing by 2 and on the cusp of field goal range, Wink decided he would force the action. On the next 4 plays, Martindale threw the kitchen sink at Baker Mayfield. The results were 3 straight incompletions and then a CJ Mosley interception to seal the game and win the AFC North.

After years of Dean Pees “bend but don’t break” style of defense, Martindale’s attacking, devil may care philosophy was a welcome change and more befitting of the Ravens defensive tradition. Ironically, it seems to be that what the organization once loved about Wink that ended up being his undoing.

Now that Wink Martindale and the Baltimore Ravens have agreed to “move forward in separate directions” what do we want to see from the next chapter of the Ravens defense?

Several replacement candidates are being bandied about by the local media, some internal candidates, some former Ravens employees and some with loose ties to the organization. Rather than try to point to a specific name, I’d like to instead point out some things that the new defensive coordinator will have to improve upon in 2022 and beyond.

For all of the talk about Martindale’s aggressive, attacking defense, it didn’t yield the desired results as often as one would think. During Wink’s 4 seasons as defensive coordinator, the Ravens lead the league in blitz percentage 3 times, yet they were never higher than 13th in total sacks. Perhaps another indictment of Wink’s defense, we’ve seen edge players Za’Darius Smith, Yannick Ngakoue and Matt Judon leave the organization in free agency and rack up double digit sack seasons. The Ravens drafted the physically imposing but somewhat raw, Odafe Oweh to beef up their pass rush. Owen showed some flashes but he finished with only 5 sacks and none in his last 4 games. Seeing a pattern developing, the organization had to wonder what is it about Wink’s scheme that, despite the high percentage of pressure, doesn’t result in sacks? Furthermore, why are edge rushers seemingly not performing up to their potential in this system?

Martindale was on record as saying sacks are overrated and I have to say that I agree. With that said, if you’re going to pressure at a high rate and not get the quarterback to the ground, you should generate a decent amount of turnovers; specifically, interceptions. In Wink’s 4 years as coordinator, the Ravens ranked, 19th, 6th, 23rd, and 28th in total interceptions, respectively.

If the consistently high blitz percentage is not yielding sacks or turnovers, it’s going to leave you vulnerable to big plays. This situation reared its ugly head in 2021 as the Ravens defense gave up the most pass plays over 20 yards (74), along with the most pass plays over 40 yards (16). Yielding big plays may have ended up being the straw the broke the camel’s back when it came to Wink’s job status. Martindale seemed to insist on sticking to his high pressure, cover 0 look nature, despite not having the personnel to do it. Nowhere was this more evident than in the Week 11 game in Chicago, when he left young corner Chris Westry (who was fresh off an injury and making his 1st start) on an island and he yielded a 49 yard touchdown on 4th and 11.

Generally speaking, when NFL coaching changes are made, teams will go in the opposite direction from their previous employee. By no means do I want to see the Ravens bring in a coordinator that would return to a Dean Pees type of philosophy. However, the next coach that leads the Ravens defense need to focus on things that have been problematic over the last few seasons.

For starters, fundamentals must improve. Above all else, the Ravens must improve their tackling. Too many missed tackles lead to entirely too many YAC yards, which certainly contributed to the amount of big passing plays given up. Next, the linebackers need to improve in zone coverage. Too often, the Ravens have been victimized when playing zone because the inside backers are looking in the backfield and/or not getting enough depth on their drops, resulting in easy completions over the intermediate-middle of the field time and time again. Lastly, we would see “communication breakdowns” happen multiple times a game, which also would yield big plays and more easy completions.

While you could argue that Martindale is taking the fall for an injury depleted roster, you could also argue that the lack of talent may have exposed Wink’s shortcomings. In other words, it’s easy to play cover 0 when you have two All Pro caliber cornerbacks but you can’t continue to play that way when you don’t have those guys. When you have guys that are experienced in your system, you can play exotic coverages but, once again, you can’t continue to play that way when you don’t have those guys.

What it all boils down to is this; Martindale’s insistence on his sticking with his attacking philosophy was certainly almost what lead to his ouster.

Now the Ravens begin the search for the author of the next chapter of their storied defense.

Jamie Sieck
Jamie Sieck

Jamie has been a Baltimore sports fan since he can remember. He grew up in Gwynn Oak and currently resides in Hampstead with his wife and 2 kids. He graduated from UMBC with a Bachelor of Arts in History. He’s currently employed at Verizon Communications in Hunt Valley.

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