Baltimore Ravens: 3 big things from 24-23 loss to Saints

1. The Baltimore Ravens defense didn’t blow it, you need more than 23 points against the Saints:

All week, I had written that the Ravens needed to keep the New Orleans Saints under 30 points. I thought that if they did that, they would win the game. My prediction for the game was 31-24 Ravens, a prediction that nearly played out perfectly. The Ravens defense made this a very compelling fight. While it easy to blame the defense for giving up 17 points in the fourth quarter, it is hard to be mad at the defense. The Ravens came into the game as the number one scoring defense and the number one defense in total yards. They left the game still ranked number one in both categories.

Baltimore’s defense held the Saints to 7 points through three quarters of play. While Drew Brees only had eight incomplete passes, he also only had 212 yards passing. The Saints ran the ball for over 100 yards, but Taysom Hill (Their version of Lamar Jackson) was the only runner to average over four yards per carry.  Alvin Kamara, a running back with more receptions than most Ravens wide receivers, only had two catches in this game. If I told you all of those stats would happen before the game, you would say that there is no way the Saints could have won like that.

Yes the Saints were able to stay on the field for long chunks of time. Yes, the dam did break at the end of the game. However the Saints had a substantial lead in time of possession. The Ravens had only three possessions in the second half and only one of them ended with points. That’s not on the defense. The defense had their hands full with the number one offense in the NFL. They held a team that scores 40 like it’s nothing to 24 points. That was the hardest win the Saints had this season. It was a total team loss, but the defense deserves less blame than the offense. Much less.