The Ravens No. 1 Ranked Rushing Attack Could Be the Kryptonite to a Historic Patriots Defense
Despite the New England Patriots' defense being off to a historic start to the 2019 regular season, which is a large part of the reason why the team is undefeated through eight weeks of the regular season, it does have one singular flaw that has been exposed by a couple opposing teams.
In Week 4, Buffalo Bills running back Frank Gore rushed for 109 yards on 17 carries against the Patriots. This past Sunday, Nick Chubb of the Cleveland Browns had 131 yards on the ground on 20 carries vs New England. While both of those teams did wind up losing their respective games to the Patriots, each of their offenses did something that caused New England's defense to look human - they ran the ball.
While running the ball may seem like an easy gameplan to follow, it's not so easy against a Patriots team that has gotten out to early leads in most of their games this season. When that happens, it forces opposing offenses to air the ball in an attempt to catch up, leaving the run game as nothing more then a pregame concept.
In Week 9, the Patriots will be facing a Baltimore Ravens team that leads the league in rushing yards per game (204.1), total rushing yards (1,429) and yards per carry (5.5) despite just coming off a bye this past week. To put that into perspective: Baltimore is on pace to be the first team since the 1977 Chicago Bears to rush for 200+ yards per game. That Bears team had Walter Payton in their backfield...
Their triple-headed monster in the backfield which consists of quarterback Lamar Jackson and runningbacks Mark Ingram and Gus Edwards has conjured a lethal run game despite being in midst of a pass-friendly league. Their ability to churn yards out on the ground has also displayed Jackson's dual-threat capabilities, which is why the second-year QB has thrown for 1,600 yards and 11 touchdowns to go along with his 500 yards and three scores on the ground. With players like Mark Andrews, Marquise Brown and Willie Snead IV to throw to, passing the ball isn't exactly a weakness for this Ravens team that runs the ball whole lot.
"(Lamar) Jackson is a very, very talented player," Patriots defensive line coach Brett Bielema said on Tuesday during a conference call. "You can tell he’s very engaged in the plan, and the plan rotates a little bit from where they were last year to where they are this year, but a very challenging task in front of us. But, it’s something that I think is exciting for our guys and the environment that we’ll see up there on Sunday. Obviously, all the success they’ve had this year is very easy to see."
Now that New England has finally hit the difficult part of their schedule, it's time for them to show that what they did in the first half of the season wasn't a flaw. That starts with their defense, and it starts with them stalling a historically potent Baltimore rushing attack on primetime football this Sunday night. If they can do that, they may finally quiet the critics who think their undefeated record was a product of their weak schedule to start the season. If they can't, then they may be in jeopardy of suffering their first loss of the season.
