The Ravens fourth-quarter defense remains as broken as it ever was.
Whatever you thought of it under Wink Martindale his final few years in charge, or in Mike Macdonald’s first year-and-a-half in charge and during both of Zach Orr’s years in charge, it’s just as bad under rookie head coach Jesse Minter.
And it’s only getting worse.
The parable that was pushed by Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, who has been a vastly overhyped evaluator and pedestrian roster-builder going on a decade on the job, was that the former coaches were preventing this team from breaking through. And Minter, a former Ravens assistant, was supposed to arrive with the secret sauce, and DeCosta added a $30M pass rusher to a $20M defensive tackle and a $20M inside linebacker and a $19M corner and a $20M hybrid safety and all those first-round picks on the defense, and yet it’s same as it ever was.
Maybe, just maybe, the Ravens defense simply includes some of the most bloated contracts and overpaid players in the NFL (linebacker Roquan Smith and corner Marlon Humphrey carrying the top cap charges at their positions), who continue to succumb to mostly bad quarterbacks when it matters most. And maybe, just maybe, DeCosta getting carte blanche to build a rookie coaching staff after John Harbaugh was fired after nearly 20 years on the job, came at a price too.
Because for all of the issues this defense has – lack of late-game pressure and lack of late-game interceptions and lack of late-game playmakers – the novice head coach trying to run a sideline and manage a game for the first time, while also getting the best out of his defense in the clutch, is proving to be a massive issue, too. Sunday’s debacle to the Browns, allowing 130 yards and 8 first downs and getting outscored, 10-0, in the final quarter in a 13-10 loss, was all too familiar; Minter’s defense has already blown three double-digit leads and lost twice, and the disparity between his first half and second half defense is kind of sickening.
This team now has a record 16 losses with a double-digit lead since the start of 2019, Lamar Jackson's first full season at QB, his first MVP season and the start of a ridiculous run of dominant offensive football in which the Ravens were the second-most prolific teams in the NFL through three quarters but can't hold leads like everybody else.
“I'm not going to sound like a broken record,” said hybrid defender Kyle Hamilton, the voice of this team who played his tail off Sunday. “It's 'Groundhog Day' with this question. I don't know. I'm not going to give you an answer. I really don't know. So, sorry, that's the best I can give you, but we've had this conversation so many times. I don't even feel like addressing it again."
For the season, here are the Ravens defensive ranks in the first half and second half:
First Half Second Half
Passing Yards: 462 (5th) 780 (28th)
Oppo Passer Rating: 71.8 (4th) 102.3 (22nd)
Points/Drive Allowed: 2.55 (24th) 1.44 (4th)
Points Differential: +52 (1st) -35 (31st)
The nasty trends get most acute in the fourth quarter and Minter needs to get all of this turned around quickly:
Too Much On Minter's Plate?
You can’t manage to consistently suffocate teams in the first half like noted above, and then become a total sham in the fourth quarter and tell me coaching isn’t playing a role in this. Come on man. You can’t tell me that Minter has far superior roster in his two years running the Chargers defense and those teams did get turnovers and key sacks to close out games and were above average in points per drive allowed in the fourth quarter and touchdowns/drive in the fourth quarter.
Is he spread too thin, too soon?
I’m not saying I think defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver would have all the answers, either, but this has become a deeply-entrenched, personality flaw of the Ravens. And while DeCosta is the common denominator, he ain’t fixing it and he won’t be taking any accountability for it and he hasn’t been able to fix it despite inheriting a two-time MVP quarterback. So Minter best consider any and all options to redistribute game-day responsibilities to try to keep his defense from falling apart late.
The Ravens fourth-quarter rankings:
Yards: 113/G (29th) Pass Yds: 94/G (31st) First Downs: 7/G (29th)
Pts/Drive: 3.5 (29th) TD/Drive: 37.5% (28th) Points Allowed: 56 (30th)
Watson picked them apart in the middle of the field – an issue for years – in mustering two scoring drives in the fourth quarter after virtually nothing in the first 45 minutes.
“The frustrating part is the fact that we lost,” defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike said. “That was a game that we believed that we should have won, and we didn't. We didn't make the plays that we were supposed to make. [We have to give] credit to the Browns, but that's on us, and we are going to get it fixed."
Weak Coverage/Predictable Schemes
The Ravens corners and safeties still do not have an interception all season (Kyle Hamilton’s pick came when he was deployed as a linebacker). Free safety Malaki Starks at least broke a pass up. But when Browns head coach Todd Monken – one of the coaches the Ravens fired – opened up the pass game late when he had to, Baltimore suffered.
Deshaun Watson threw for 94 yards on them in the fourth quarter and rookie KC Concepcion, who works the slot where the Ravens really stink, finally got going. Minter benched struggling rookie nickelback Chandler Rivers on defense but the problems persisted. Hmm.
Minter doesn’t want to blitz or go with heavy fronts, but his nickel and dime defenses got exposed in the fourth quarter once more (again, I don’t see play makers). Seems he gets pretty predictable late in games and better change his spots some. Here are the season numbers in the fourth quarter:
Pass Yards: 583 (31st) Comp %: 70% (24th) Opp Pass Rating: 107.8 (23rd)
Third Down Conv: 37% (22nd)
No Pass Rush
Same as it ever was.
Watson can still move some but he’s no Josh Allen or Trevor Lawrence (oh yeah, the Ravens will see them soon). Anyone a little slippery gives the Ravens fits with the game on the line. The Ravens got a push off the edge and were getting pressure at times even with a three-man rush … until the fourth quarter. They're lucky Michael Penix couldn't come back in the game in OT last week.
This Sunday the Ravens had five sacks in the first three quarters but none on 14 dropbacks in the fourth quarter and just a couple of pressures. On the season in the fourth quarter:
Pressure Rate: 30.1% (26th) Sack Rate: 3.9% (T-27th)
Hendrickson got his first sack, though the finger injury and bandage on his hand still seems to be impacting him. He’d better have a helluva second half. Again, Minter didn’t have this problem with the Chargers, but he also better figure out that trying to replicate what he did there, with this GM in charge who has repeatedly put coordinators in positions where they had to gamble more than they’d like, probably won’t work, either.
Subscribe To "The Daily Flock" For Elite Ravens Content And Conversations:
Add us as a preferred source on Google