The Baltimore Ravens are coming off a stinging loss to the Indianapolis Colts. The Ravens were shorthanded, but it was a game they certainly could have won. For John Harbaugh and company, this has to be a focused week. The Ravens have to get themselves right for a divisional battle in Cleveland.
With that in mind let’s go for it, here are our four downs:
First Down: Your Only opponent is the Cleveland Browns
In Week 3 the Baltimore Ravens had two opponents. And no, this isn’t a dig at the NFL officials who worked that game. The refs didn’t help, but the Ravens’ true second opponent in Week 3 was…themselves. They made ridiculous mistakes. Lamar Jackson had a costly fumble and took a reckless sack late in the game which is inexcusable from any veteran quarterback. Zay Flowers called a fair catch after the safety, and Kenyan Drake started the avalanche of mistakes with his fumble. In short, it was a mess.
The Ravens got away with sloppy football against the Houston Texans. It was Week 1 and the starters sat during the preseason. Fine. It happens. What was their excuse against the Colts? To a degree, you can cut the Ravens some slack for their injury problems. Yet the same offensive line that got worked in Week 3, protected Jackson like a charm against the Bengals. The uncomfortable truth is that the Ravens have played three games of football and they only executed at the level of a Super Bowl contender in one of them.
The biggest priority for the Ravens against the Browns is to handle their own business. They can’t have any silly turnovers, special teams miscues, or sloppy mistakes. After a game where the Ravens looked like they were sleepwalking, they have to prove that their Week 2 performance wasn’t just a convenient outlier.
If the Ravens play sloppy against the Browns, that Bengals game will look like the exception to a very sad rule.
2nd Down: Garrett is the Biggest, Baddest Man in the Dawg Pound
Ronnie Stanley didn’t participate in practice Friday, while Tyler Linderbaum has been limited all week. The former is listed as DOUBTFUL while the latter is QUESTIONABLE. If the two starting offensive linemen can make their return it could help the Ravens immensely. The Browns have a scary defensive front. The leader of the Browns’ impressive surge toward the quarterback is Myles Garrett, who already has 4.5 sacks on the season. The 6-4 275-pound defensive end is shaping up to be one of the best defensive players of this generation. He’s had back-to-back 16-sack seasons and he’s on pace to beat that impressive mark. For context, the Ravens record for the most sacks in a season belongs to Elvis Dumervil, who had 17 in 2014. No matter who lines up against him, the Ravens have to account for the impact he can make on the game.
Jackson has already taken eight sacks and he’s lost a couple of fumbles. He needs to emulate what he did against the Bengals: account for some of the pass rush himself, beat the Browns with his arm, and control the game with good decision-making.
It will be interesting to see how the Ravens attack Garrett. Will they run right at him and keep him busy as a run-stopper? Will they try to nickel and dime the Cleveland defense with the short passing game? How much trust will the Ravens have in their offensive linemen? Do the Ravens want to use heavier sets to help their poor offensive tackle out? The answers the Ravens have to these questions will dictate a lot of this game. If the Ravens aren’t careful Garrett can wreck the game.
Third Down: Which Watson?
Deshaun Watson has had an interesting season. After the Browns’ Monday Night Football loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, much of the fallout was centered around Watson’s disappointing contribution to the team. In Pittsburgh, Watson was 22/40 passing for 235 yards a touchdown and an interception. He also had a costly lost fumble and somehow managed to have two facemask penalties as a quarterback. While the interception wasn’t all on him as the Steelers scored on a ricochet pick six off the tight end’s hands, Watson’s performance was lackluster at best. I can only imagine how nasty Cleveland sports radio must have been because the national conversation did Watson no favors.
Then Watson had a great game against the Tennessee Titans. He only missed on six of his passes and had 289 yards and two touchdowns, to go along with 16 yards on the ground. The Browns won 27-3. It’s worth noting that the Titans are 1-2 for a reason, however Watson and the Browns were a brand new team. The Browns had 341 yards of offense, picked up 23 first downs and dominated the time of possession battle. In every way the Browns were efficient and on point. It wasn’t just Watson. The Browns only gave up six first downs to the Titans, holding them to 94 yards. Ryan Tannehill was sacked five times and Tennessee punted seven times. It was a good old fashioned shellacking. What version of the Browns team will the Ravens play? Baltimore, cross your fingers for the mess you saw in Pittsburgh!
Fourth Down: Watch Where the Pressure Comes From
The Baltimore Ravens have 10 sacks on the season and they are coming from everywhere. The Ravens don’t have one guy who is just dominating at the line of scrimmage, and they are getting their sacks by committee. Kyle Hamilton made a splash with three sacks against the Colts. Jadeveon Clowney and Roquan Smith both account for 1.5 sacks, and the rest have come from Ar’Darius Washington, Patrick Queen and Justin Madubuike. The key for Mike Macdonald as the defensive coordinator will be to keep sprinkling in the pressure from everywhere and anywhere.
He’s going to have to switch it up. The Browns are going to be ready for Hamilton off the edge. My guess is that Hamilton will mostly drop into coverage against the Browns but be lined up as a potential blitzer to make Cleveland account for him. Hamilton will always be a weapon as a blitzer, but they could be setting up another way to mess with the opposing quarterback. The main point is that the second the pressure becomes predictable is the second the sacks and quarterback hurries fade from the box scores. The Ravens need to win their one on one matchups along the defensive front when they can. That said, Macdonald needs to keep making pass rushing hot handed players through his scheme.
