BALTIMORE For the first time all season, the Ravens defense, not the offense, had to carry the teams weight.
With the game tied at zero through the first quarter, and after a rare Justin Tucker missed field goal, the Ravens defense was forced to hold the fort long enough for the offense to get going. And once the offense found its stride, the defense didnt let up.
The Ravens defense held MVP-candidate Deshaun Watson at bay all afternoon long en route to another 30-pointwin, a 41-7 romp, at M&T Bank Stadium over the Texans.
I feel like were hitting our stride, especially with the defensive side of the ball, defensive tackle Chris Wormley said. The offense has been playing well all season and were finally clicking on all levels. Today felt pretty good being the side of the ball that got us going.
Baltimore finished with a season-high seven sacks and had 10 quarterback hits on Watson. For the entirety of the afternoon, the Ravens kept Watson in the pocket and unable to throw downfield with any consistency. The end result was the best defensive performance of the season.
Just try to contain him, keep him in that cage, Tyus Bowser said of the gameplan. Just try to get to him as best you can. They have a great front line, and we did very well as far as in the secondary of making him hold the ball. When that happens, weve got to do our job on the front line and try to get to him and we did that well.
Bowser finished with two sacks, as did Matthew Judon. The sacks kept the Texans offense, which entered ranked eighth in the NFL with 26.4 points per game, down to just seven the touchdown came when the Texans trailed 34-0.
Watson threw for just 169 yards on 18-of-29 passing with an interception. Houston had just 232 yards of total offense and possessed the ball for just 23:41 of game time.
But the most impressive part of the day was the pass-rush for the Ravens, who entered with just 16 sacks on the season.
It was part of the plan, Wormley said. We worked it all week and we stuck to it. No one was selfish and trying to do their own thing and it worked out pretty well for us.
Once the Ravens offense, which scored on its last seven possessions drives that didnt end the half or the game got going, the Ravens defense didnt let up, either.
Houston turned the ball over twice, punted three times and turned it over on downs three times throughout the game. The other two drives ended in a missed field goal and a touchdown.
The way the win happened was, admittedly, a bit shocking for the Ravens, which had to slow down DeAndre Hopkins and Watson, one of the NFLs best quarterback-wide receiver combos. Hopkins finished with just 80 yards on seven catches and the Ravens dominated one of the NFL's best teams from start to finish.
You just go out there and play the best ball that you can, Earl Thomas said. Today was a little surprising, I hope nobody on the team gets offended, but I didnt think we was going to do them like that. Just take it one game at a time and keep chopping wood.
With the Ravens defense seemingly having turned a corner, the Ravens can now seriously be discussed as one of the NFLs elite teams if they werent already.
Its a start contrast from where the defense was after the fourth game of the season, a 40-25 loss to the Browns where the defense couldnt get out of its own way. The Ravens fell to 2-2 and vowed to fix the communication errors which plagued the team for the first quarter of the season.
That loss to Cleveland on Sept. 29 was the teams last loss.
Wink (defensive coordinator Don Martindale) told us at the beginning of the week that this defense is 40 percent different than it was at the beginning of the season, Wormley said. So it just goes to show that our plan works, no matter who is in it.
With an injury to Michael Pierce, the Ravens relied upon Domata Peko and Justin Ellis, two defensive linemen who werent in the organization a week ago, to play crucial defensive snaps.
The Texans rushed for 6.1 yards a carry, but with the seven sacks, they were forced to play behind the chains for a majority of the day.
Its just what we do, Brandon Williams said. Its what we hang our hats on next man up. We've said it from the very beginning. Look, people get hurt, youve seen it. But, other people are coming in and balling out. We love to see that.
In three of the last four weeks, the Ravens have now earned victories over Russell Wilson, Tom Brady and Deshaun Watson. In none of those weeks have either quarterbacks scored more than 20 points against the Ravens.
While the offense hung 41 points, with a quarterback in Lamar Jackson seemingly gaining more MVP hype each day, Sunday was about the defense.
And while it may seem that the offense is the reason that has made the Ravens tick this season, its the defense which the Ravens will need most down the stretch. If Sunday is any indication, theyre going to be one of the toughest outs in the NFL.
Maybe theres no weak links? I dont know, Wormley said with a smile. We just talked about the offense started a little slow today, but our defense picked it up. When were beating these teams convincingly, especially these top teams in the NFL, its a good feeling.
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Ravens defense steals the show in big win over Texans - NBCSports.com
