Baltimore Ravens week 5 spotlight: Don Martindale

Heading into week 5 there is a handful of players you can blame for the Baltimore Ravens defense’s utter collapse against the Cleveland Browns but none of them are in the spotlight as much as their coach, Don “Wink” Martindale.

The past four weeks I have put the spotlight strictly on players hence the name “player spotlight”, but this week I’m sure you could forgive me for coloring outside the lines a bit. Myself, along with presumably every Ravens fan, was confused and quite frankly mad at the Ravens defensive performance last week.

It seemed as if whenever Lamar Jackson pulled the team back into the game the defense would give up a big play and that’s exactly what happened.

With 9:51 left in the game Lamar Jackson threw a dart to tight end Mark Andrews in the back of the end zone pulling the Ravens closer to the Browns with a score of 18-24. At that moment, it seemed as if the momentum had flipped in the Ravens favor and there was hope they could comeback.

That hope lasted about 10 minutes real-time because on the Browns very next play running back Nick Chubb out raced the Ravens entire defense for an 88-yard touchdown. That was the backbreaker for this team and an indicator something was truly wrong with this defense.

If the defense, as a whole, is allowing big plays and consistently falling victim to miscommunication issues there is only one person you can blame and that’s defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale. Last year, Wink did an awesome job leading the best defense in football but with the losses on defense he may have overestimated his ability to disguise those losses. Along with the departures of Terrell Suggs, Eric Weddle, Za’Darius Smith, and CJ Mosley it didn’t help losing standout slot cornerback Tavon Young for the season due to a neck injury.

With all that being said, Wink has been forced to work some serious magic with Young out and Jimmy Smith still recovering from a sprained MCL. I hate to say this, but you can’t really say you’re surprised with the defenses performance if you look at the total losses he’s had to make up for. Wink is missing six STARTERS from last years #1 ranked defense, not role players, but actual starters.

Of those six starters, two of which he didn’t expect to lose so if you look at the bigger picture, this defense was bound to take a few steps back even with their offseason acquisitions in Earl Thomas III and Pernell McPhee. We all fell victim to assuming this defense was going to pick up right where it left off which was a bit arrogant of us.

Here in Baltimore, we’re all used to defense being our strong suit but with the investments the front office has made in the offense these last two drafts the defense was going to take a hit. As the saying goes “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” and that’s exactly how we have to approach this. These past two games may have been a disappointment but this team is adjusting to the “new era” in Baltimore. With Pittsburgh next up on the schedule this Sunday, the spotlight isn’t shining any brighter on anyone else but Wink Martindale.