Not great yet: Defense doesn't come through in clutch

Mike Preston

October 6, 2008

The Ravens have a good defense, but they haven't earned the title of great in 2008.

Even though the Ravens held Tennessee to 210 yards of offense, including 47 rushing, great defenses don't allow teams to produce 11-play, 80-yard game-winning drives in the final minutes.

Great defenses don't get beat by a scrubby quarterback in Kerry Collins and second-string tight ends named Bo Scaife. Great defenses put pressure on quarterbacks or cause fumbles in crunch time.

When the game is on the line, great defenses make big plays, and the Ravens didn't come up with any in the final minutes of the game.

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"You pride yourself on being a big-time player, you have to try to make those types of plays," Ravens outside linebacker Bart Scott said. "I let an opportunity get away from myself, and I'm sure there are other players scratching their heads, wishing and [wondering] what they could've done to make a play."

Actually, the Ravens had stopped Tennessee on third-and-10 at the Titans' 20-yard line with 5:50 left in the game, but outside linebacker Terrell Suggs was called for roughing the passer for a blow to the head.

It was a terrible call, maybe because Suggs didn't hear the whistle that stopped the play, and it wasn't that hard of a hit.

But great defenses would have rebounded. Great defenses would have taken the game away from the Titans.

"Obviously this is a very disappointing loss, one that we are hurting about," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "We should have won the football game but didn't win the football game. We should have found a way to win the game, but we didn't."

Toughest test to come

Speaking of Harbaugh, we'll find out more about his coaching abilities soon. It's much easier to coach when you're winning but harder when you lose, especially because the Ravens have outplayed their past two opponents.

The Ravens jumped on board with Harbaugh when they went 2-0, but it will be interesting to see how Harbaugh and the Ravens handle their next six games, five of them on the road.

This will be Harbaugh's toughest test so far as coach.

The Ravens are on the brink of being good, or they could lose enthusiasm.

Just a bad day

Please, I don't want to hear any more "he's a rookie" excuses for those two interceptions Joe Flacco threw yesterday. Both occurred when Flacco was rolling to his right, and he could have just thrown the ball away.

Instead, he just didn't get enough on the passes. You can't use the "rookie" excuse because I'm sure coaches told Flacco to throw the ball away if there wasn't an open receiver when he rolled out at the University of Delaware.

And they tell quarterbacks that at Towson, Morgan State and even Montgomery-Rockville.

We'll just say the rookie had a bad day.

By the way, I'm wondering whether if Flacco was older, would he have had the liberty to change plays when the Titans started hitting the Ravens with so many run blitzes with 7:37 left in the game?

Walker holds his own

Reserve cornerback Frank Walker, who replaced injured starter Fabian Washington, had a few rough opening moments against the Titans, but he made several plays during the game.

It took the Titans awhile to go after Walker once he replaced Washington with 2:55 left in the third quarter, but he did well. Overall, though, the secondary remains the weakest unit of the defense.

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