Nine things every fan should know about the Chiefs and Ravens
New faces on the Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens were the most dominant defense in the NFL in 2018 only allowing 293 yards per game. This number ranks them as the seventh most dominant defense in the past five seasons, putting them near the production of teams like the Seattle Seahawks from 2014 and the Denver Broncos of 2015. In case you forgot, both those teams made the Super Bowl.
The Ravens defense was good last season, but they lost some key contributors. Terrell Suggs, who played for the Ravens for 16 seasons and generated 132.5 sacks for the team, signed with the Cardinals this off-season. C.J. Mosley, who had played for the team his entire five year career and averaged nearly 120 tackles a season, signed with the New York Jets. Eric Weddle, who had only played for the team for three years but made the Pro Bowl in each, moved on to the Los Angeles Rams.
They replaced all three, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll be able to maintain the same level of dominance they had in 2018. In Suggs place they brought in Pernell McPhee. McPhee is a nice player in his own right, but in his nine year career has only produced 32.5 sacks. That’s a far cry from the production of Suggs, even in his later years. Will they be able to pressure Mahomes into making more difficult throws?
In Mosley’s place they shifted Patrick Onwuasor and promoted former fourth round pick Kenny Young to the starting team. Where Mosley was a four-time Pro Bowler and veteran, Onwuasor and Young are young and much less experienced. It’s hard not to think this unit fell off a bit this offseason.
Finally, where there was once Eric Weddle now stands an aged but still very productive Earl Thomas. Of all the attrition on the defensive side of the ball this is probably the area least affected. In fact, no disrespect to Eric Weddle but it’s possible they Ravens actually upgraded the backend of their defense with this move.
We don’t know much about this season yet, and we won’t for quite some time. Through two games the Ravens seem right on pace with their 2018 defense, only allowing 274.5 yards per game on offense. However, that doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
In the first game against the Dolphins, the Ravens defense only allowed 200 total yards on 10 drives which resulted in 10 points. Yet, as I’ve said in this article a couple times, whatever a team’s result is from playing against the Dolphins has to be taken with a grain of salt. The Dolphins are terrible and they aren’t even trying at this point. I’m not sure they should play any more games with the product they’re putting on the field.
What’s interesting is the second game against the Cardinals. In that game the Ravens defense was still respectable, only allowing 349 total yards. However, the statistic that stands out is in the passing game. Kyler Murray, a rookie quarterback with few weapons on offense and a rookie play caller and head coach in Kingsbury, actually had himself a pretty nice day completing 63 percent of his passes for 329 yards.
Given the turnover and the production allowed so far this season, does this defense still have the talent to compete with a quarterback like Patrick Mahomes? Based off Mahomes’ performance so far this season, I expect this to be a significant challenge.