Breaking: Ravens Emphasize Ball Security After…
The Baltimore Ravens shot themselves in the foot repeatedly in Sunday’s 29-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns, and one way they did so was with a bad case of the drops.
Throughout the game, the Ravens dropped several passes. Some were on offense, but the most impactful ones came on defense. Eddie Jackson had a few of them throughout the day, and Kyle Hamilton had a particularly brutal one late in the fourth quarter, just before Jameis Winston found Cedric Tillman for the game-winning touchdown.
Understandably, the Ravens were none too happy about those drops after the fact. At the end of Wednesday’s practice, they sent their defensive backs and linebackers to catch passes from coaches, then from a JUGS machine before officially wrapping up. The goal is to emphasize finishing the catch, even more than before.
“It’s just a repetition thing, and I can’t blame the coaches for wanting us to get out there on the JUGS [machine] and catch extra passes,” Hamilton said. “I feel like it’s something we should do whether we’re dropping picks or not dropping picks – [we should] just make a habit of it.”
According to the team’s website, the Ravens lead the league with eight dropped interceptions on the season, three of them coming against the Browns.
“I was obviously pissed about it after the game. I was probably the most mad out of anybody,” Hamilton said. “I feel like that’s part of being a good football player. You have to let the good stuff go, let the bad stuff go [and] just move on. I feel like I’ve done that, and I’m ready to go play the Broncos.”
Even if Hamilton had come down with that interception and the Ravens won the game, the issues would still remain. They’ve still allowed by far the most passing yards in the league, and the injuries and benching of Marcus Williams aren’t helping. Simply put, there’s a lot of issues to sort out here.
“I don’t think we would feel any different,” Hamilton said. “Picks are cool, but picks don’t tell the whole story of the game, and we’re close to the bottom of the league right now in pass yards per game as a defense, and that’s something that picks aren’t just going to solve. You’re not just going to go out and get a pick every possession. That’s something schematically and execution-wise [that] I feel like we can get better at, and I feel like we’re striving towards that.”
