After failing to reach the playoffs for the third straight season the Baltimore Ravens are looking to fix their problems and become once again a team that frequently plays in January.
To accomplish that the Ravens need, first and foremost, to fix their defense. Their D needs to return to prominence. Baltimore needs to go back to the type of intimidating defense that they had during the Ray Lewis years.
During that era, they were a top-10 defense in 12 out of 13 seasons and three times they were inside the top-3. The good news, of course, is that while three years ago they were ranked 25th in the league last year they ranked sixth in the NFL so they are evidently taking steps in the right direction.
Those steps have been possible thanks to guys like C.J. Mosley, who last season has 132 tackles, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who held opposing quarterbacks to the lowest completion percentage in the league; Casey Hayward and A.J. Bouye.
The 2018 Ravens also need to learn how to close out big games. The team as a whole needs to find ways to play at their best late in the games to stop their opponents from engineering dramatic comebacks.
Last year the team couldn’t shut the door on their opponents and several times they allowed them to take the game away from them and that ended costing them a place in the playoffs.
Last season in Week 17 they needed to beat the Cincinnati at home to clinch a postseason berth and they blew it. In a heartbreaker, the Ravens, who led by four late in the game, lost in dramatic fashion when they couldn’t stop the Bengals on 4 and 18 and allowed them to score a touchdown.
And last but not least the offense has to show more juice and create a higher number of big plays from scrimmage. Last year the longest touchdown the Ravens had was 48 yards, which is jaw-dropping when you consider that even the Cleveland Browns, with all their struggles, had longer scoring plays.
If the Ravens want to win consistently in today’s NFL they will need more deep-threat plays, longer runs from scrimmage, and receiving plays with more yards after contact and after the catch.
