The Baltimore Ravens’ defense has suddenly morphed into one of the stronger units in the league over the past five weeks. Since their Week 6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, they have yet to give up more than 19 points in a game. They continued this impressive surge in their Week 10 win against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
They have continued their bend-don’t-break mentality and adjusted as the game went on. While Minnesota running back Aaron Jones found paydirt on their opening drive to put the Vikings up seven early, Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr’s unit shut them down from that point moving forward.
Baltimore limited Minnesota to just three drives in the red zone and forced field goal attempts by kicker Will Reichard in a couple of other favorable situations. While things got close in the end, it was an impressive showing after a so-so first half, and the catalyst for this recent defensive breakout could not be more obvious.
Ravens' defense on impressive takeaway streak
After a disastrous start to the season, where the defense was giving up yards and points at a historically bad pace, they have tightened up. While they are still having a troubling go of it in terms of pressuring opposing quarterbacks, they are starting to force more turnovers. A LOT of them.
The Ravens' defense got Vikings’ quarterback J.J. McCarthy for two interceptions on Sunday (and probably should have been three if not for a Roquan Smith pick being overturned). The special teams coverage also forced two fumbles on kick returns, one of which they recovered. Baltimore converted each of those takeaways into points, putting 13 points on the board as a result. Safety Malaki Starks (interception), cornerback Marlon Humphrey (interception), safety and special teams ace Keondre Jackson (forced fumble and recovery) got in on the action.
Baltimore has now forced turnovers in four straight games. They had one against the Rams, another in their Week 8 win over the Chicago Bears, three last week against the Miami Dolphins, and added another three in Week 10.
The Ravens had seven turnovers coming into the game, and now leave Minnesota with 10 to their name. Eight of those have come during their recent surge, which all started after the acquisition of Alohi Gilman from the Los Angeles Chargers.
Gilman has paired excellently with Starks in the back end of the secondary, and is allowing versatile safety Kyle Hamilton to play closer to the line of scrimmage and have a more significant impact on the game.
While their recent competition has not been elite, the Ravens' defense appears to have turned over a new leaf.