2. The front seven is still coming together
The Ravens gave up way too many rushing yards to the Cleveland Browns, yet a lot of that yardage came in chunks. The defense only gave up six points so it’s safe to say they get a passing grade. The front seven is still coming together and that’s okay. There are two rookies at the linebacker position. Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe weren’t here last year. There was no preseason, training camp was kind of weird and if there is any part of the team that needs time to gel it’s the front seven.
Patrick Queen and Calais Campbell did make a positive impact in their purple debuts. Queen had a sack and a forced fumble. Calais Campbell caused a turnover on the first possession of the game with a tipped pass. Queen had nine tackles. Harrison had some impressive moments. The best is yet to come for the defensive front of the Ravens.
This was the first actual game for the unit to work out the kinks. There will be a lot of learning moments from the first game and the unit will start playing together more as the season progresses. When you have a lot of new faces in any chunk of the roster, it’s going to have some side effects.
The secondary made the biggest impact in the game. Baker Mayfield only had 188 yards passing. Odell Beckham Jr. had 22 receiving yards and Jarvis Landry only had 61. The stars of the Browns weren’t able to take it to the Ravens. That is impressive considering that Tyus Bows and Patrick Queen got the only sacks of the game and the Browns had three players average five or more yards per carry. The front seven showed positive signs. It was a good first start for the rookie linebackers and Campbell made an impact on the defensive line. The front seven is going to get better. In this game we saw the raw talent that they had up front defensively, now Don Martindale has to hone that talent into a dominant force.