The Ravens’ secondary continues to flail in win over Bengals
Going into Thursday night's game against the Bengals, the Ravens' secondary hoped to make it more of a fight after Joe Burrow walloped them in Week 5 with 392 passing yards .
"We're not proud of that game," Kyle Hamilton said of what was ultimately a 41-38 win for Baltimore .
In Week 10, Cincinnati lost again , but Burrow uncorked 428 yards, even without star receiver Tee Higgins. Ja'Marr Chase alone accounted for 264 yards and touchdown receptions of 70 and 64 yards.
While the Bengals came up short, Chase's final TD catch — a jump ball just behind a leaping Nate Wiggins and Ar'Darius Washington — exemplified just how much the Ravens' pass defense continues to come up short.
Burrow's 428 yards were a new opponent high for a unit that already is ranked dead last in the league in passing yards allowed.
You could also call it a new low.
While the Ravens improved to 7-3, there haven't been many weeks without the defense needing to do some soul-searching. Marlon Humphrey said winning is getting harder and harder to enjoy as the issues continue to pile up.
"It's becoming more of a mental thing, I think, but we've got to get that fixed," said Humphrey. "It's not cool to win a game, and you look up and a team has 300 passing [yards on you] every week."
The long receptions by Chase were of the greatest concern to the secondary, which has given up explosive plays due to coverage communications all year long. The Ravens primarily tried double coverage against him, but when they got beat their worst, they were in zone coverages that John Harbaugh said shouldn't have allowed the plays to happen.
On the 67-yard catch and run (that bore some resemblance to a touchdown Chase scored in the last meeting), Washington fell while attempting to contest the catch, and Marcus Williams and Brandon Stephens couldn't catch him. On the 70-yarder, Chase somehow beat the Ravens in Cover 4, running past Stephens and catching a seemingly unprepared Williams off-guard.
Once the game ended, Harbaugh said he was searching for Chase on the field to personally compliment his performance.
"I was looking for him after the game and couldn't find him," Harbaugh said. "Maybe that was appropriate."
The familiar names in the coverage breakdown are of definite concern to Baltimore, which benched Williams just two games ago for reasons Harbaugh never made explicit . But cycling through players hasn't improved performance. It's worrying, too, that when the Ravens' pass rush stepped up, recording three sacks and 13 quarterback hits, the secondary was still exposed even as Burrow was getting drilled.
Humphrey said what made it more frustrating was that the Ravens had a good week of practice against some of the route concepts that burned them. After deflecting blame for defensive coordinator Zach Orr earlier in the week , he again called the struggles a player-driven problem.
"I think each guy has got to look at themselves in the mirror and figure out, 'Why are you not playing how you practice something?'" he said. "'You practice this route concept [and then in] the game, you don't do it how you practice.'"
More concern is on the horizon after Hamilton left the game in the second quarter with a sprained ankle . Harbaugh said Hamilton's injury isn't serious, but added he couldn't tell yet how soon his star safety might return.
Humphrey didn't attribute any of the struggles to Hamilton going out, after which the coverage breakdowns became much more apparent. As the longest tenured member of the Ravens secondary, he placed the blame on himself for failing to keep up the defense-first mentality that has defined the franchise for so long.
"We've really lost that standard, and I feel like that falls on me," he said. "We're going to keep chasing at it. We're going to keep working at it, because I'm not really satisfied with what I've built in this secondary [and] where it's gone. I just don't think playing like this, we can go far. It's cool winning; it's great we're winning, but I want to go far. I want to go to the end."
