Lighter load sought for Suggs
Ravens claim Gilman grad Jones; White cut
Terrell Suggs played a season-high 66 snaps in the Ravens’ 12-9 overtime loss Sunday at the Cleveland Browns. He collected his 19th career sack against Cleveland, which gives the outside linebacker the most sacks in his career against a single opponent.
Sunday represented Suggs’ heaviest workload since playing 71 snaps in last year’s 31-27 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the season finale Dec. 31 at M&T Bank Stadium. The defense’s reliance on Suggs on Sunday was partly based on the absence of outside linebacker Tim Williams, who was deactivated because of a hamstring injury before the game.
But coach John Harbaugh said he would prefer a lighter load for the 16-year pro, who turns 36 on Thursday.
“That’s more snaps than you want him playing,” Harbaugh said Monday. “It’s a little bit Timmy Williams being hurt, a little bit just how many snaps we had in the game. But yeah, we’d like to not have him out there for 65 snaps. We’d like not to be out there for 65 snaps on defense total.” Gilman grad Jones claimed; White waived: The Ravens announced Monday that they have claimed former Gilman standout and New England Patriots cornerback-returner Cyrus Jones off waivers.
The team cut wide receiver-returner Tim White in a corresponding move to make space for Jones on the 53-man roster.
The Patriots released Jones, 24, for the second time this season Saturday. The 2016 second-round draft pick was released at the end of training camp, joined the Ravens’ practice squad Sept. 3 and was re-signed to New England’s 53-man roster two weeks later.
Jones played in two games for the Patriots, recording one tackle on defense and returning five punts for 45 yards. With the return of Julian Edelman, a capable returner, Jones was inactive for their Thursday night win over the Indianapolis Colts.
White, who lost the preseason return battle to since-demoted wide receiver Janarion Grant, averaged 8.3 yards per punt return and 22.5 yards per kickoff return in his three games with the Ravens this season. But he fumbled on a punt return Sunday during the team’s loss to the Browns, and Harbaugh said Monday that White was not especially careful with his ball security on another return.
“It’s the tale of two Tims,” Harbaugh said at his weekly news conference. “The ball security is not where it needs Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield scrambles away from Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs. Suggs, who turns 36 on Thursday, played 66 snaps Sunday. to be — he knows that — yet he made some really good decisions. He picked the one ball up off the goal line after they tapped it back and made some good decisions on fielding some punts and things like that. Should have had a punt return that we blocked somebody in the back on, shouldn’t have happened. I loved the decision-making and hated the ball security. He hated the ball security, too. I hope he hated it as much as I did. We’ll find out.”
If White clears waivers, he could rejoin the Ravens’ practice squad. He started the season there in Baltimore. No setback for TE Hurst: Hayden Hurst left a lot to be desired Sunday, but maybe that was expected from a rookie tight end playing for the first time in more than a month after being sidelined by a stress fracture in his foot.
Hurst, the organization’s first of two first-round picks in April’s NFLdraft and the first tight end selected overall, was targeted twice, caught one pass for 7 yards and was otherwise quiet in his NFL debut. He played 21 snaps, which trailed Nick Boyle’s 39, fellow rookie Mark Andrews’ 33 and Maxx Williams’ 27.
Pro Football Focus, the scouting website, gave Hurst a grade of 47.0, which wasthe lowest amongtheRavens’ offensive players. Harbaugh had a more positive view of Hurst’s performance.
“He got out of it good physically,” Harbaugh said Monday. “He’s in good shape, and I think he did OK — probably what you would expect. He’s going to be better as he gets more reps, but he’s going to be fine.”
Meanwhile, cornerback Jimmy Smith played 35 snaps and did not surrender a catch on the only target thrown in his direction, according to Pro Football Focus. Smith made his season debut after returning from a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s per- sonal-conduct policy.
“He played a lot,” Harbaugh said. “I don’t know the numbers exactly. It wasn’t any big disparity that made me take note. But he played well, and he looks good.”
Defensive tackle Willie Henry also made his season debut, making two tackles and one sack on 39 snaps. Henry had been recovering from hernia surgery Aug. 24.
“I thought he played very well,” Harbaugh said. “I was pleasantly surprised by how well he played. He had a good game. We didn’t expect him to play that many snaps. It kind of just turned out that way. So it looks like he’s back, and he didn’t miss a stride.” Nocriticism: One day after quarterback Joe Flacco took umbrage with a block-in-the-back penalty on wide receiver Chris Moore in overtime, Harbaugh declined to take a similar approach.
The call on Moore negated running back Alex Collins’ 17-yard run that would have taken the offense to the Browns’ 36-yard line, and Flacco called the penalty “kind of bogus.” But Harbaugh chose the diplomatic route.
“The officials do the best job that they can,” he said. “There’s a lot of calls out there that you look at and you scratch your head about, whether it be holding or defensive holding or offensive tackle’s holding. You can go back at the tape, and you can find a lot of that. So to do that is just not worth your time as a coach.
“You coach your guys, coach your team. We have not had a lot of trouble with penalties. We’ve been very disciplined that way, unlike a number of teams that we’ve been playing. And that’s good, that’s an advantage for us. We want to keep building on that advantage.”