ExtremeRavens Posted Thursday at 10:30 AM Posted Thursday at 10:30 AM The Ravens cannot lose Sunday. That’s one of a few luxuries an early season bye week provides struggling Baltimore, which limps into the much-needed break 1-5 and in search of itself as much of victories. The Ravens are losers of four straight and are off to their worst start in a decade with a several players, including quarterback Lamar Jackson, battling injuries. While players get four days off beginning Thursday, coach John Harbaugh, general manager Eric DeCosta and the rest of the staff will spend their time searching for solutions. “We still believe we can do it,” Harbaugh said of a playoff push, even though only four teams in NFL history have lost five of their first six games and gone on to reach the postseason. “All of our focus goes to, really, two things; the bye week and working through every aspect and issue that we can [to] find every way we can be at our best going forward with the players we have. … And then how we organize ourselves and craft our schemes.” It is a steep climb. Here are the five biggest questions Baltimore is facing once players return to work next week. How will the offense perform once Lamar Jackson is back? It’s hard to imagine John Harbaugh stretched out on the couch of a psychologist spilling his innermost thoughts, but the 18th-year coach painted such a picture when expressing just how much he’s looking forward to Jackson’s return to spark a listless offense. “I would have to say I’m leaning really hard into that, really hard,” he said Monday. “For any kind of psychological wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, I’m leaning hard on that happening.” For good reason, obviously. DeCosta invested two years and $6.2 million into Cooper Rush with the idea that the 31-year-old veteran who led the Cowboys to a 9-5 record during his tenure in Dallas would be a capable fill-in if such a need ever arose. It hasn’t worked out that way. From training camp through Week 5 and 6 (and part of Week 4), Rush has not been good. He completed 65.4% of his passes for just 303 yards and no touchdowns to go with four interceptions for a woeful passer rating of 48.8. Rush, a prototypical drop-back passer who rarely ran run-pass option plays for the Cowboys, felt like a square peg in a round hole. Then, he didn’t even perform as well as a passer. The simple fact is the offense is built around Jackson and his ankle-breaking mobility. For the Ravens, who have largely ignored the backup role (at least financially) over the past few seasons, to spend somewhat meaningful money in the way that they did can be chalked up to a notable miss. Jackson’s return should help immediately if not immensely. Before getting injured, he completed a career-high 71.6% of his passes for 869 yards and 10 touchdowns with one interception. Yes, the offense was out of rhythm before he was sidelined. But perhaps the time off also allowed him and Monken to zero in on adjustments to the scheme. Ravens outside linebacker Mike Green blocks Malik Hamm during practice. Both could be called upon to help improve the pass rush. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff) How will the Ravens generate a pass rush now? One of the biggest problems this season has been a lack of a pass rush. Only two teams — the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers — have fewer sacks than Baltimore’s eight. This, after ranking first and second the past two seasons. Now, Odafe Oweh, who had 10 sacks last season but none this year, has been traded to the Los Angeles Chargers, and fellow outside linebacker Tavius Robinson is out at least 6-8 weeks with a broken foot, leaving just three outside linebackers on the roster. “It’s been a challenge all year to generate pressure, so we are going to have to manufacture pressure,” Harbaugh said. “But also, our guys are going to have to step up and create pressure on the four-man rush. We do it with simulated pressures, too, a lot of times.” That was the case on a few occasions against the Los Angeles Rams with the Ravens tallying two sacks, but they still had just two pressures, per Pro Football Focus, in true passing sets. With only Malik Hamm and Kaimon Rucker on the practice squad — at least one of whom could get elevated for a few games — Baltimore will need to find reinforcements quickly. Help could come as soon as the beginning of next week and a trade or two would be the most likely route with the need for a disruptive player at outside linebacker and/or defensive tackle. Still, the Ravens need to find some way to generate a rush. “We have to be to be better on first down, and then on second down, we have to be better,” defensive coordinator Zach Orr said. “Right now, a lot of teams you see they get to second-and-long, [and] they get to their third-down game plan. Well against us, they’re going [to] quick game, or they’re even running the ball or going tempo to try to keep us out of our third-down package. We just have to continue to find different ways and different personnel groups to get pressure, and I think that we’ll be able to do that.” In what ways does Alohi Gilman change the defensive picture? Five days after the Ravens traded Oweh for Alohi Gilman, the safety played 44 of 53 defensive snaps and was deployed in the box, at free safety and in the slot in its loss to the Rams. He finished with the second-most tackles (seven) on the team. “He is a beast,” Orr said of the 28-year-old former Notre Dame and Navy standout. It helped that Gilman came from a similar system and has played under several defensive coordinators during his college and pro careers. He should also help change the calculus, allowing Orr to be able to move versatile and talented Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton around, much the way Baltimore did during his 2023 All-Pro season. “It’s good to get back to that,” Orr said. “I think that you saw we were able to do some things with Kyle, and I think that benefited us. “Now, we use that to our advantage. We can make offenses predictable of where they’re going to slide and where they’re going to run the football, so that helps us out a lot. And credit to ‘K-Ham.’ He hasn’t played at the nickel position or dime position – it was funny, he was talking about it – since [middle of the year] last year. So, it’s been a long time. Like we said, he’s a unicorn.” Outside linebacker Adisa Isaac, the Ravens' third-round draft pick in 2024, could return in November. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) When are reinforcements coming? The Ravens’ sudden release of C.J. Gardner-Johnson just days after signing the veteran but embattled safety might have seemed odd given the timing and given the need for defensive help. But it was probably connected to timing, with Baltimore landing Gilman via trade a few hours later and then the former Charger playing fairly well when being thrust into a significant role. It also likely won’t be the last move, with Harbaugh having said that everything is on the table. That holds true to potential reshuffling of the offensive line to seeing what pass rush options are in-house to acquiring more players via trade or free agency. There should be some positive news on the injury front, too. At left tackle, Ronnie Stanley is still battling an ankle injury, so the bye week should help after he left Sunday’s game early and did not return. “It’s structurally good, or he wouldn’t be out there playing,” Harbaugh said. “It becomes a matter of his ability to perform on it, and the only person that knows that is the player; so you’ve got to go by that. But he’s fighting to get out there and play.” Fullback Pat Ricard’s situation, meanwhile, has suddenly gotten murkier. After Harbaugh said he expected that he could be available for next week’s game against the Chicago Bears after being sidelined with a calf injury since mid-August, he backpedaled on that certainty. “I don’t know,” he said. “The way the injury is is it’s pretty much recovered from that kind of a standpoint; it’s just a matter of him being comfortable with his level of strength and his ability to perform. It’s him being able to get out there and push himself through practice and feel like it’s going to stay healthy, feel like he can move and run, change direction and power into people. It’s really up to him. The only thing we can do is ask him how he’s doing, how he’s feeling, and if he can push himself to do more or not, because it’s his calf. That’s all we can do right now, so I can’t really make any promises.” On the flip side, Harbaugh did say that he expects inside linebacker Roquan Smith, who has been sidelined with a Grade 2 hamstring strain since suffering the injury during a Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, to be back for the Bears game. That should help take some of the pressure off rookie fourth-round linebacker Teddye Buchanan and potentially allow Baltimore to use Trenton Simpson, who lost his starting role to Buchanan, as a pass rusher on the outside given his speed. Outside linebacker Adisa Isaac, who has been injured each of his first two years, is also expected back in mid-to-late November after landing on injured reserve with a dislocated elbow in the preseason. Can the Ravens turn things around and make a playoff push? The bad news for Baltimore is that it is 1-5 and in last place in the AFC North. The good news, potentially, is that its remaining schedule is the fifth-easiest in the league with its opponents having a combined .442 win percentage. After the Bears — who have won three straight — the Ravens head to South Florida for a Thursday night tilt against the dysfunctional Miami Dolphins (1-5), then travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings (3-2) before a trip to Cleveland for a divisional game against the Browns (1-5) and then a home date with the winless New York Jets (0-6). If the Ravens can get through that stretch 4-1 to pull within a game of .500, they’d still have a shot at 10-7 — though they will have little margin for error. The schedule still has its challenges, particularly down the stretch. Over the final six weeks, Baltimore will have two games against the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, a Week 17 date at the Green Bay Packers and a Week 16 contest against the suddenly ascending New England Patriots. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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