OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Last season the Ravens defense was dead last in the NFL against the pass. Nothing has changed.
Communication issues, coverage issues, receivers running right past players in purple all contributed to Sunday’s 42-38 loss to Miami. Baltimore was outscored 28-3 in the fourth quarter. They were beat by the deep ball over and over again at the worst possible times.
"Those are things that should never happen. They are below the line," said head coach John Harbaugh on Monday. "I did not expect those things to happen in this game."
The 48-yard and 60-yard back-to-back touchdowns to Tyreek Hill tied the game. Harbaugh explains the blown coverages:
"We didn’t play the technique right on the post to our defensive left. You got to stay on top of that as a corner. You got to stay on top of that as a safety. That’s three-deep coverage. Those guys know that. The other one was we didn’t have anyone in the deep half. That was a miscommunication if you want to call it that. The deep half player didn’t realize he was the deep half player and he needs to get back there."
The rookies were torched in the fourth quarter. Safety Kyle Hamilton and corners Jalyn Armour-Davis and Pepe Williams were confused and confounded when it mattered most.
"There are certain guys that got to grow up fast. They got to grow up," said Harbaugh.
The Ravens are receiving their fair share of criticism after the stunning loss, both locally and nationally, and rightfully so. Harbaugh doesn’t want that blame game making its way into the locker room.
"It’s easy to point fingers, it’s easy to talk about who’s at fault or whatever. That’s not what we’re about. You can listen to all the talking heads outside that want to make all the statements they want to make. They can make all the statements they want to make, but they’re not coaching anybody right now. This is the way it works in this league; if you look all around the league, you have challenges and you have to keep coaching guys through the course of a long season. Things turn, especially when you have good, young players who you like and trust, and we really like those guys, and we trust those guys. They’re going to learn from their mistakes. Sometimes lessons are learned the hard way. I don’t know how many times in the National Football League you come out there with a bunch of young guys and all the sudden they’re doing everything perfectly right. When you get challenged with really good players in critical situations, it goes bad and it’s painful. It hurts, but you remember those lessons."
One major injury came out of Sunday’s game. Veteran linebacker Steven Means tore his Achilles. He is out for the season. Linebacker Josh Ross was also put on injured reserve with a foot injury. Linebacker Kyler Fackrell was released from the practice squad
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