The Ravens are tied for one of the best document within the AFC. They have a 1 1/2 recreation lead within the AFC North. Their protection, by any variety of metrics, is one of the best within the NFL. And quarterback Lamar Jackson’s career-best 71.5% completion price leads the league.
Unsurprisingly, coach John Harbaugh, who’s fond of claiming groups don’t win a championship through the common season, is unstirred.
Asked Monday if his group has performed at an “elite” degree and performed so towards a few of the greatest groups within the NFL, the third-longest tenured coach within the league basically stated it doesn’t matter.
“It’s really not a measuring stick against the other teams,” he stated. “It’s irrelevant that way because it doesn’t matter until the end.”
Still, the Ravens (7-2) have stood out by means of the primary half of the season, most notably on protection.
They are first in sacks (35), factors allowed per recreation (13.8), factors allowed per play (0.214), yards allowed per play (4.1), purple zone protection (33.3%) and touchdowns allowed per recreation (1.1). Baltimore has additionally allowed the fewest yards per cross (4.6), is second in passing yards allowed per recreation (170.7) and is eighth in speeding yards allowed per recreation (91.9).
Many of these numbers are borne out of getting success on all three ranges of the protection.
Defensive sort out Justin Madbuike is tops amongst inside linemen and tied for ninth general within the NFL with 7 1/2 sacks, already a profession excessive. Inside linebacker Roquan Smith, the bodily and emotional chief of the protection, is fourth within the league in tackles with 87, whereas his operating mate Patrick Queen is fifteenth with 75.
In the secondary, Geno Stone has emerged as excess of a dependable fill-in with a league-leading six interceptions, whereas Kyle Hamilton continues to be probably the most versatile and proficient safeties within the league. There have been loads of different important contributors, too, together with veteran edge rushers Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy together with the rising Odafe Oweh, in addition to cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens.
“‘Beeks’ was a problem in camp [and] OTAs,” Ravens heart Tyler Linderbuam, himself a budding star, stated Wednesday when requested what it’s been prefer to go towards Madubuike in observe. “He’s been a problem for us [on the] O-line for a while now. We’ve all seen the issues that he’s caused — the havoc that he’s caused in games, and we’ve gone against that in practice.”
The man behind the scheme, defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, has additionally emerged over the previous two seasons as one of many recreation’s vivid younger minds and a possible NFL coach.
Yet the protection continues to search out methods to play with a chip on its shoulder.
“I feel like we are getting more respect, but I feel that it’s still not the respect that we want,” Queen stated. “Honestly, we haven’t accomplished the things that we want to accomplish yet, so I feel like there is a lot of respect out there to still be taken.”
The similar can definitely be stated of the offense.
Though Jackson leads the league in completion share, he has extra fumbles this season (10, six of them misplaced) than landing passes (9). Baltimore can be simply twentieth in passing yards per recreation (208.7) and at occasions has struggled within the purple zone or with dropped passes, albeit briefly in each instances.
Still, Baltimore is first in yards per recreation on the bottom (160.3). Jackson’s 440 speeding yards additionally lead all quarterbacks by a large margin, and his 5 speeding scores are third-most amongst quarterbacks. His 100.8 passer score is his highest mark since 2019, when he was the unanimous NFL Most Valuable Player.
“It’s just [that quarterbacks coach Tee Martin] wants us to be perfect,” Jackson stated. “Every morning, he’s got something [about] championship quarterbacking, and ‘I want you to be a championship quarterback.’ He always tells me, ‘I’m going to grade you harder than probably anybody else will.’”
It maybe helps, too, that Jackson faces the league’s greatest protection on daily basis in observe.
“Not trying to toot our own horn, but I believe our defense has no weakness,” he stated. “Just from the defensive line, the linebackers, the secondary, how they’re flying around and disguising defenses — making it look like one coverage, but it’s something else — and how they time up their blitzes, it helps us out a lot, because when we’re playing other teams, they’re flying around and giving us their best shot.”
Baltimore’s particular groups, in the meantime, have been inconsistent at occasions — notably permitting a punt return for a landing towards the Bengals in Week 2 and having a punt blocked by the Steelers for a security in Week 5 — however have additionally excelled.
Kicker Justin Tucker has related on 16 of 19 area objective makes an attempt. Jordan Stout is averaging 48.5 yards per punt and has usually flipped the sphere or pinned the opposition deep with 17 punts contained in the 20-yard line.
But to Harbaugh, all that issues is what’s forward, together with two vital video games towards the Cleveland Browns on Sunday and the Cincinnati Bengals 4 days later in prime time on “Thursday Night Football.”
“What the standings are now are not important,” he stated. “It’s what the standings are after the last regular-season game that matter. Our guys really understand that.”
Week 10
Browns at Ravens
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Fox
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 6 1/2
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Source: www.bostonherald.com