Fast and furious ready to tangle
Ravens’ pass rush prepares to line up against Saints’ prolific passing attack
On third-and-13 midway through the second quarter Sunday, Ravens outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith lines up across from Tennessee Titans left guard Quinton Spain. Six Ravens teammates lurk at the line of scrimmage with him. All but two Titans are clustered together in front of them.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh would remark later how the defense’s 11 sacks of quarterback Marcus Mariota, a franchise record and NFL high this season, weren’t so much a showcase of individual brilliance but of teamwide excellence — defensive t ackles creating space for blitzing linebackers, a sticky secondary giving edge rushers enough time to collapse the pocket. But Smith’s third-and-long was a solo act t hat would’ve done just fine on Nashville’s Broadway.
At the snap of the ball, Smith charges into Spain. Just as quickly, he discards the 330-pound lineman with an inside swim move. He is so quick into the backfield that when Mariota finishes his five-step drop, Smith is already within arm’s reach of the ball as Mariota steps into a throw. Smith’s momentum takes him wide of the quarterback, but he extends his right hand instinctively, as if he’s Chris Paul testing a 7-footer’s ball-handling. The football falls, and Mariota falls on it.
The play was over in 2.5 seconds, the Ravens’ fastest sack of the fall and tied for the 13th fastest in the NFL this season, Sunday, 4:05 p.m. TV: Ch. 45 Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM Line: Ravens by 21⁄
berger.
It means that the Ravens are going to have to do all the things they did so well on offense against the Titans, except they’re going to have to do them against a bunch of teams that do them better.
Don’t misunderstand. Nobody’s saying that the Ravens aren’t also an imposing offensive team.
They rank ninth in the league with an average of nearly 400 total yards per game and rank a respectable 12th in scoring with an average of 25.5 points.
Their plus-76 point differential ranks behind only the undefeated Los Angeles Rams.
They might be able to improve on those numbers against a bunch of pretty explosive teams that have been giving up almost as many points as they’ve been scoring.
The Saints, for instance, are allowing 28 points per game and rank 26th in scoring defense. The Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs, who host the Ravens on back-to-back weekends in early December, also rank among the most porous defenses in the league.
The Falcons rank ninth in scoring (28.7 points) and have a minus-25 point differential. The Steelers and Bengals, who will visit M&T Bank Stadium before and after the Ravens bye week, respectively, also rank among the league’s top 10 scoring teams, yet outscore their opponents by an average of less than three points.
That dichotomy has been playing out in some amazing games around the league over the past few weeks. The Patriots and Chiefs just delivered one of the most exciting Sunday night games in history, as Tom Brady barely outdueled Mahomes in a game that featured 83 points and was decided by a last-second field goal.
The Monday night game also delivered a classic shootout, with Ravens defensive coordinator Don Martindale will contend with seven teams that currently rank among the league’s top 10 in scoring in the last 10 games. Aaron Rodgers staving off a big upset bid by the San Francisco 49ers and understudy quarterback C.J. Beathard at Lambeau Field.
So, the wild card in all this is Don “Wink” Martindale’s defense, which is allowing an average of just under 13 points per game and has to be feeling pretty good about itself after Sunday’s dominant performance.
Now, there’s just the small matter of doubling down on that performance against a Saints team that celebrated the growing legend of Brees at the expense of the Washington Redskins a couple of weeks ago and has had all that time to prepare for the Ravens.
Coach John Harbaugh acknowledged as much while he broke down the victory over the Titans during his Monday press conference at the Under Armour Performance Center.
“Winning a game like that on the road doesn’t mean nearly as much if you can’t follow it up,’’ Harbaugh said.
Obviously, the Ravens are configured as well as any team to slow down the Saints, who have been held under 33 points just once this year (by the occasionally surprising Cleveland Browns) and have scored 43 or more points in three of their five games.
The Ravens also appear very capable for exploiting the vulnerable Saints defense, which is why the wise guys in Vegas posted them as a slight favorite and project a fairly highscoring game.