The Browns (2-6) may be what a lot of Ravens fans are saying—just the team Baltimore needs to be playing coming off its bye in order to right the defensive ship and get Joe Flacco's offense going again.
But not so fast…
The Browns are silently improving and getting better in all phases of the game. Cleveland fans are starting to believe in Pat Shurmur's system…and they love their new owner. And the Browns have been close in every game they have lost so far.
The Ravens have yielded 72 points in their last two games and a ridiculous 622 yards on the ground in their last three outings. Opposing backs are averaging 4.8 yards a carry during that time. The injury loss of future Hall of Fame LB Ray Lewis and CB Lardarius Webb have certainly taken a toll…not to mention the free agency losses of Jarret Johnson at OLB, Cory Redding at DE, and dare I say the backup safeties Haruki Nakamura and Tom Zbikowski…Oh yeah, did I mention FS Ed Reed is playing hurt with a torn labrum?
The Ravens' struggles against the run bode well for Trent Richardson, who is coming off a career-high 122-yard performance in the Browns' win Sunday against San Diego. The Cleveland offensive line is also playing well. The quintet has yielded just five sacks in the last five games.
The numbers warrant optimism, but Shurmur remains leery. He praised the Baltimore defense and warned that OLB/DE Terrell Suggs played well in the lopsided loss to Houston two weeks ago after his stunning rapid return from Achilles tendon surgery and rehab.
"I thought [Suggs] played a good all-around game," Shurmur said. "I saw him being pretty active. He was chasing, batting down passes, making tackles, putting pressure on the quarterback, all the things that he does well."
Browns QB Brandon Weeden was sacked just once in the 23-16 loss to the Ravens in Week 4. Shurmur will take that performance again, but he still heaped praise on Baltimore's defense. "They've played against some pretty good offenses the past few games," said Shurmur, "so we are not discounting that fact, and we are preparing for a tough defensive AFC-North-style battle…"
Maybe the best hope for the Ravens is they are coming off a bye week, which gave them time to rest and heal up a little, but also to diagnose and try to fix their defensive problems. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees spoke to that issue in the Ravens press conference on Thursday:
Coach, could you explain how much impact the bye week had on you guys in terms of resting. I believe your defense has been on the field as much as any defense in the NFL – plus a chance to heal and prepare. ( question asked by journalist Jerry Coleman) “I could probably tell you that better on Sunday after we get done playing. (laughing) We needed this bye week desperately, especially on defense – that’s all I can speak to. We had a lot of guys – even if they weren’t out – a lot of guys that were banged up, so we needed some time to try to rest and recuperate. The other thing that we needed the bye week for as a staff was to sit back and evaluate where we are and why we’re playing sometimes like we’re playing. You do that whether you are playing well or whether you’re not playing well. That’s what you always use the bye week for, but sometimes you really have to sit back and say, ‘OK. Here’s who we have personnel-wise. Things have changed. Guys are out. Guys are banged up. Here’s our scheme. What can they do well within that scheme?’ Look at what you did well; look at what you did poorly. When you did it poorly, was it because of the scheme? Was it because of a technique? Was it because the guy can’t do it? And then [you] kind of reevaluate and sit and go forward from there.”
Here's Dean Pees on some of the younger players in the trouble spots right now in the Baltimore defense: cornerback Jimmy Smith, OLB Courtney Upshaw, and DL Terrence Cody, all of whom have had some moments of making good plays, but also have had some inconsistency and made some big-play mistakes:
“Like all young players, I think you want to see consistency. You just want to see them doing the learning from mistakes and then not making that same mistake again. That’s what you always do on all young players. All of them are playing hard. Our guys are working hard. They’re studying hard. They’re doing all those sorts of things. The young guys – it’s like anything else – you want to see them be consistent. Learn from your mistakes – we all do. Coaches, players, everybody – you learn from your mistakes. The guys that really become good at it are the guys that learn from those mistakes and become consistent.”
That's the deal for the Ravens right now, I think— their younger players have got to step it up to the level of the play the Ravens defense used to get from guys who are now long gone.
Cleveland will be a good test of the younger guys' progress…and DL guys Arthur Jones and Pernell McPhee need to step it up a notch, too. And you know the Browns are going to run it with Trent Richardson…a lot. So Cleveland will be the ultimate mid-term exam for the Ravens 2012 run defense.
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