There is no question that Ravens fans felt some level of cautious optimism following Sunday’s road win over Dallas. Lamar Jackson’s incredible record against NFC teams improved to 21-1, and the Ravens as an organization improved to 6-1 against the Cowboys. The Ravens offense looked ferocious at times as their rushing attack, led by Derrick Henry, rumbled for a total of 274 back-breaking yards, and the Ravens offense overall totalled 456 yards on the day. Baltimore also managed to hold Micah Parsons and the entire Cowboys defense without a single sack, which was a monumental improvement over their inability to stop Maxx Crosby a week earlier. The Ravens offense even managed to close out Sunday’s game with a timely first down off of an impressive carry by Lamar. One would expect with 28 points, no turnovers, and nearly 35 minutes of possession, that this game would not be remotely close—hell, they even had a 22 point lead going into the 4th quarter.
John Harbaugh said last week that the Ravens needed to find their offensive identity, and perhaps they did, but they unfortunately also found their defensive identity, which happens to be utterly collapsing in the second halves of games. The Ravens defense has looked so dominant at times in the first halves of games this season that it’s tempting to wonder if they’ve regained their mojo, but their pass defense is dead last in the league in yards allowed, and while it’s tempting to blame it on poor coverage late in games, the bigger glaring issue appears to be the almost total disappearance of the pass rush as the game wears on.
There are undoubtedly schematic corrections for the Ravens new defensive coordinator Zachary Orr must make to attempt to address the disappearance of the pass rush late in games, but he can only work with the personnel he has been given. Just as the Ravens were forced by salary cap limitations to let veteran offensive linemen go, so too were they unable to afford to retain Jadeveon Clowney. Many questioned what Clowney had left in his figurative tank when he signed with Baltimore in the 2023 offseason, but that was mostly because they looked purely at his sack numbers and neglected to examine other telling statistics such as his QB pressures and his grade against the run. Clowney was actually an elite run defender coming into Baltimore, but his pass rushing presence helped elevate everyone around him even when he was not the one recording a sack. Clowney’s disruptive presence is certainly missed thus far in 2024.
Eric DeCosta is seldom one to sit on his hands when the Ravens display glaring deficiencies at one position or another. He has shown himself to be far more aggressive with free agent acquisitions and trades during the season than Ozzie Newsome ever was. One such trade was with the Minnesota Vikings in 2020 for Yannick Ngakoue. Yannick logged a disappointing 3 sacks during his short stint in Baltimore, but he proved immediately thereafter that Baltimore simply failed to utilize him correctly by totaling 10 sacks in 2021 with the Raiders and then 9.5 sacks with the Colts in 2022. Yannick only logged 4 sacks in 2023, but his season was cut short and limited to 13 games because of a broken ankle.
Despite an already fairly lengthy 9-year career, Ngakoue is still only 29 years old, and because his season-ending injury was just a broken bone instead of a torn ligament or tendon, it is not unreasonable to expect the veteran to still have a fair degree of the quickness and burst he displayed in 2021 and 2022. His veteran presence could help provide mentorship to a host of young defensive starters, but more importantly, he could provide the depth and spark needed to reignite the Ravens pass rush late in games.
The pass rush certainly is not the only missing piece to the Ravens’ puzzle in their quest to regain last year’s dominant form, but it would help to cover up other defensive deficiencies and end opponents’ drives sooner. Eric DeCosta and John Harbaugh will also be forced to address Justin Tucker suddenly becoming the actual worst kicker in the league, and they will doom the team if they cannot end the failed Daniel Faalele experiment and start the correct players on the right side of the offensive line. With that said, acquiring Yannick Ngakoue is definitely a solid first step.
Stay tuned later this week for a Week 4 preview!
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