Baltimore Ravens defense very hard to blame for loss to Steelers
It’s very hard to blame the Baltimore Ravens defense as we look at this loss to Pittsburgh:
The Baltimore Ravens defense did enough to win this game. Ben Roethlisberger only had 182 yards and two touchdowns. James Connor had 47 rushing yards and Anthony McFarland was a non-factor. How am I supposed to blame the defense?
Lamar Jackson essentially gifted the Steelers 14 points. He turned the ball over in the red zone on a fumble. The Steelers only scored 28 points. Do the math, the Steelers got two touchdown resulting gifts from the Baltimore offense, they only scored twice the hard way.
If you want to complain about anything defensively, you can complain about the fact that Roethlisberger was only sacked twice in this game. That being said the pass rush was fairly noteworthy in this game and Big Ben only got into a couple mini grooves. The Ravens defense didn’t make this easy for the Pittsburgh offense. The Steelers won and didn’t look that great.
The result stinks but could you have realistically asked Don Martindale’s defense for a better effort? Could you look Patrick Queen, Marcus Peters and Calais Campbell in the eyes and say that you needed a better game out of them? If your answer is yes, you’re barking up the wrong tree. If your answer is emphatically yes, you’re just being salty.
The Ravens had 457 total yards in this game. The Steelers had 221. The Steelers averaged 4.4 yards per play and the Ravens held the ball for over 35 minutes of a 60 minute ball game. Where were the points? The Ravens should have easily scored 30 points in this game and they lost 28 -24. That’s not on the defense.
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The Ravens had four giveaways of the football. Now, the Ravens did have nine penalties and Matt Judon got ejected from the game. It’s hard to argue that this was a flawless performance from the defense, though again, how isn’t it enough? Even with the officiating clearly helping the Steelers, they scored 28 points in a game they were not producing much on offense.
The Ravens defense has been awesome. They are one of the best defenses in the NFL and going into week eight they gave up the fewest points this season. Yes, the Steelers outscored the Ravens 21-7 in the second half. It just takes mental gymnastics to call this a defensive collapse. The game changed on Jackson’s third quarter interception. The Steelers weren’t going the whole game without getting some momentum.
The Bottom Line:
The Ravens defense is not the problem. This is not the thing we need to be complaining about. Quite frankly, the Baltimore fanbase should be able to point it out when the offense is the problem. This is the franchise of Trent Dilfer, Kyle Boller and Troy Smith remember? Great defensive performances have been wasted forever with this franchise and it happened again.
Fairly assessing the Lamar Jackson problem. dark. Next
Moving forward there is very reason to doubt the defense. Moving forward there is plenty of reason to doubt the offense. Ravens fans have plenty to complain about but they must be fair. The defense is off the hook here.