What are the best performances a Ravens player has had over the course of a season?
All stats are collected for this post from pro-football-reference.com
5. Elvis Dumervil’s 2014 season:
Well if you set the Baltimore Ravens franchise records for sacks in a season, you have to get on this list. Elvis Dumervil was unstoppable in the 2014 season. He had 17 sacks that year and forced two fumbles. He had six games with two sacks or more. Dumervil gave the Ravens elite play that season. He got constant pressure on the quarterback and was a player that the opposing team would always have to game plan for. That’s saying a lot when you have Terrell Suggs tearing it up on the other side.
Dumervil and Suggs were the best pass rushing duo the Ravens ever had at outside linebacker. Suggs had 12 sacks and benefited greatly from Dumervil getting so much attention. Getting 29 sacks out of your top two outside linebackers is an incredible boost to the defense. Everything the Ravens did defensively that season generated from the front seven. The secondary was going through the most difficult season imaginable. If it were not for Dumervil being the best play-maker on the entire team, that season could have gone dramatically different. Dumervil made the Ravens defense better than it was that year.
While we’re only talking regular season here, Dumervil played a big part in the Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the playoffs. Dumervil’s two sacks against Ben Roethlisberger give him some extra credit here. There was no way to keep Dumervil off this list, just like there was no way to stop him in the 2014 season. This was one of the best pass rushing seasons you’ll ever see from an outside linebacker in the NFL. Dumervil had a serious case for being the Defensive Player of the Year. It went to J.J. Watt, but Dumervil was arguably the biggest difference maker that season.