Why the Baltimore Ravens defense is so bad right now

The Baltimore Ravens defense has major problems. They may be unworkable problems. Here is why it’s not working:

The Baltimore Ravens’ defense is bad. For one thing it can’t tackle. The Ravens missed tackles on a handful of occurrences this Sunday. Tony Jefferson had a sorry attempt of a tackle that allowed Jarvis Landry to scamper down the field. Half the defense missed Nick Chubb on a touchdown run. Odell Beckham Jr. was dead to rights in the back field on a trick play, with two Ravens there to stop him. They allowed him to throw the football any way. The entire game was riddled with horrible tackles.

The tackling is just laziness. It’s throwing shoulders instead of wrapping up and driving through. That’s why this all hurts if you’re a Ravens fan. It’s fundamental football. It’s simple things. It’s taking a bad angle. It’s poor technique in tackling. The coverage scheme isn’t the issue when the players are going to execute it like this. This is just bad play.

The secondary is horrendously bad. Brandon Carr is playing about as bad as a cornerback can play. Tony Jefferson has done very little right and he’s taken very poor angles. The best defensive back not named Marlon Humphrey today was Maurice Canady. Nothing else needs to be said because that paints the picture. That being said, explaining this is my job so the show must go on.

The linebackers can’t cover. They are lost in space. In fact every single player on that defense looked lost. The pass rush has a habit of showing up for the first drive and vanishing for the rest of it. After sacking Baker Mayfield on the opening drive for a big stop, the Ravens stopped having good things happen (for the defense at least). They can’t tackle, they can’t cover and they don’t get to the quarterback consistently. It’s simple. They just played absolutely awful football.

The run defense was bad. Nick Chubb got to the outside for a long touchdown run because that was just the way this game went. An 88 yard run, without much of an argument from the Ravens, this was ridiculous. This erased a great drive by the offense. Lamar Jackson and company made this a game before that play. That broke the Ravens’ back.

I’d love to absolve Don Martindale from all of this. The players played poorly and there wasn’t really an answer that was going to change that. However before the first half the Browns had a fourth and inches where they converted on a quarterback sneak. The Ravens came out in an even front, meaning nobody was over the center. When all the Browns needed was a inch, they allowed the obvious play to beat them. That’s pretty absurd, am I right?

There wasn’t a good thing to say about the Ravens’ defense against the Browns. There just wasn’t. This was one of the worst defensive performances I have ever seen. This wasn’t Ravens football. And while the offense did things wrong too, this game is on the defense. I don’t even need stats to explain that. It was obvious.

Baltimore has a problem. It’s called defense. It’s what the franchise is known for but it’s not what they do well right now.