Big week For Ravens Defense

Let's forget the debacle that occurred last Saturday. Though the ease with which the Eagles sliced through the Ravens defense is alarming, Radio troubles coupled with the lacked of any scheming put the Ravens in their base, Cover three and man under coverages. An offense like Philadelphia's will carve up basic schemes a hundred times out of a hundred.

I would expect a lot more press coverage against the redskins. I also expect the Ravens to play less nickel and try to put the Redskins in third and long, just to get a chance to evaluate their pass rush.

Said Dean Pees:

We really haven’t packaged anything with certain pass rushers. In fact, in that game we just kind of [went with] whoever was in the game was in the pass rush. That’s a hard game, probably, to analyze pass rush on anyhow, because everything is off of play-action, which is going to slow you down a little bit, which is what they design it to do. I would say that is a fair assessment. I don’t know that we’re going to know. Hopefully, maybe we can find out a little bit this Saturday night – maybe a little more, hopefully. If we can get them into third-and-long, we’ll find out."

We will indeed find out. On paper, the Ravens defense should rank in the top 5 in both yards and points. It starts this week. A repeat of Saturday's performance would dim expectations and, perhaps even put Pees under the microscope.