Ravens DC Don ‘Wink’ Martindale says pass rush is a ‘work in progress’

The Baltimore Ravens Week Three matchup with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs was prematurely dubbed the ‘Game of the Year’ when the 2020 NFL schedule was released. However, the highly anticipated primetime bout between two of the NFL’s elite failed to live up to the hype as the Ravens had their 14-game winning streak in the regular season unceremoniously snapped in a humbling 34-20 loss.

It was a total team collapse by the hosting Ravens and as bad of a day at the office that reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson and the offense had last week, Baltimore’s vaunted defense had an even worse outing.

Defensive Coordinator Don ‘Wink’ Martindale is renowned around the league for his aggressive scheme as well as his creative blitzes and pressure packages that he uses to simulate and bring pressure to take down and or confuse opposing quarterbacks.

Unfortunately, his defense was dismantled by reigning Superbowl MVP Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs’ head coach/play-caller Andy Reid called a near-perfect game on offense, and the Ravens had a handful of quarterback pressures and hit but weren’t able to record a single sack on the night.

Forcing Mahomes into making mistakes, corralling him for sacks, and keeping him from performing at an elite level is getting increasingly more difficult the more experience he accrues. Martindale conceded that he played one of his best games and got the ball out quicker than he’s ever seen him do before but also believes that his unit struggled with execution and that the pass rush isn’t a finished product yet.

“I think it’s a work in progress,” Martindale said. “The way that Patrick got rid of the ball, faster than I’ve ever seen him do it, that was something they did different. Also, our execution needs to be better and our pass rush, whether it’s a defensive lineman, safety, linebacker, whatever. We need to execute better.”

The Ravens have just six sacks as a team through the first three games of the season. Fourth-year outside linebacker Tyus Bowser leads the team with two but last year’s sack leader, Matthew Judon, has yet to log his first.

The additions of veteran interior defensive linemen Derek Wolfe and five-time Pro Bowler Calais Campbell this offseason has panned out so far in terms of their overall performance and impact. However, their presence was not only supposed to improve the interior pass rush and allow Brandon Williams to return to his natural spot at nose tackle, but the hope was that it would create more one-on-one opportunities to get pressures and sacks off the edge.

While the pressures have definitely been there, the sack numbers are still low. The success of a pass rush isn’t always quantifiable by sacks accumulated alone, however, they can effectively kill drives, knock opponents out of field goal range and even lead to turnovers either on downs or via forced fumbles in the best-case scenario.

Today’s league is systematically tailored to help offenses to have success and protect the quarterbacks by encouraging defenders to not knock them out of commission for extended periods of time with bone-crunching hits and laying the majority of their body weight on them when they down take them down.

Offensive numbers through the first three weeks of the 2020 season are shattering records and some of that could be credited to unorthodox offseason that was condensed and dramatically altered by the global pandemic.

While quarterbacks were able to meet up with their receivers and tight ends on high school and private fields across the country for organized throwing sessions, defenses around the league have struggled out of the gates to start the because they didn’t have the organized team activities and mini camps to get on the same page and hit it padded practices.

Ravens fans have been clamoring for the team to bring in some additional pass rush help of the outside linebacker variety for years but the organization and coaching staff have the utmost faith in the guys they already have in-house and are banking on them stepping up and heating up as the season progresses like Bowser and second-year pro Jaylon Ferguson did down the stretch last season.