Keith Allison-Flickr
Two games down and the Baltimore Ravens are 2-0 in the Preseason following a 37-30 win against the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night. Winning is great in the Preseason but let’s take a deeper look. There is more to be examined in how these games were won and the battles that were lost during. While the end result appears that the Defense is holding it down for the team, there is still something missing from the Ravens of old. Where is the “Blitz”?
Where I’m from, we were always told that “pressure burst pipes”. We are missing that swag-like punch that comes with a normal Ravens punishing Defense. Some pundits will blame it on the departure/retirement of two-time Super Bowl Champion and Future Hall-of-Famer, Ray Lewis. However, this is not the case. The Ravens have been lackluster in getting after the Quarterback since the departure of Chuck Pagano and Rex Ryan.
Ryan focused primarily on the run-stop, but he knew if he could stop the run, Terrell Suggs could get after the QB in third-down and long situations. Ryan’s intimidating 2006 Ravens’ Defense led the league in Interceptions (28) and were only second in Sacks (60). Ryan new the pressure up front would cause turnovers on the backend. In the 2011-2012 NFL season, Pagano focused on the pass-rush during his tenure as Defensive Coordinator and brought the Sack total up to 48, from the dismal 27-sack performance in 2010; we’ll blame Greg Mattison for that down-year.
Thank goodness Mattison took a job in Michigan; with John Harbaugh’s “buddy system”, he might still be in Baltimore, if he had not. I am not saying Dean Pees’ scheme is any better, I’m just saying with Mattison’s scheme it look as if it could get worse.
Pees has no excuse for the lack of pass-rush. He has arguably two of the best pass-rushers in football in Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil. This duo combined with the highly talented Haloti Ngata and powerful Courtney Upshaw makes this unit one to dream about. And yet Pees can’t generate pressure on the QB.
This may be Preseason but we would like to know that we’re going into the 2014 NFL season with more than a “vanilla” Defense. All of Dallas’ QBs were able to sit back and throw, due to the lack of pressure by the Ravens’ D. Dallas had a 40% Third-Down Efficiency rate and the despite the lone Sack from Pernell McPhee and Upshaw capitalizing on the erroneous fumble-exchange between Tony Romo and Demarco Murray, the unit as a whole looked ho-hum. This is in full contrast to what D-Coordinator Pees told a reporter for WBALTV prior to the game when he said:
“This Defense is better when we are playing aggressive, and we’re going to play-call that way.”
I want to give Baltimore a pass, due to the depth/strength of the Secondary but Ravensnation deserves to see more “moxy” from the front-seven in the future, regardless of who’s in the Secondary. People need to recognize the AFC North for hardnosed, smash-mouth Defense once again and it starts with the “Black and Purple.”
Jermaine Lockett is a Writer and CEO for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on Facebook or twitter.
