Defensive Notes : Week 8 Steelers @ Ravens

2 Comments

1. 

   Tom K on November 6, 2020 at 11:21 am

   Ken,
   Great analysis of the Raven’s defensive effort against the Steelers. The Ravens D was not helped by the poor officiating in the second half and the loss of Judon forced adjustments that definitely weakened the Defense principally, as you noted, Patrick Queen is a liability in pass coverage. Still, if the Offense takes care of the ball, the Ravens likely win the game. It will be interesting to see how the Ravens adjust to shore up the secondary. It think we will see emphasis on “next man up” to try and find a combination that works going forward. At this point, the Ravens can now focus on getting ready to play in the post season on the road, The Steelers will likely only lose one or two games at most as they have an incredibly easy schedule ahead. For a long time fan of the Ravens, this is a familiar turn of events, how many years did we go on the road for the play-offs and lean on our rushing attack to win. I think we escaped from this pattern in 2019 and paid the price for it with a one and out in the play-offs. Hopefully the next five weeks serve as a forge in which we can settle the offense down and continue to adapt our defense to the players we have available. Goodbye MVP, AFC North title, and Number 1/2 seeding, Hello Ravens football!!!

   • 

     Ken McKusick on November 11, 2020 at 2:19 am

     Thanks for all your thoughtful comments, Tom.

     I still think playing home playoff games is a positive, despite the results of the last 2 years. That said, it was a lot of fun to go to all those road games for years with the Ravens success on the road in January.