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Ravens Want More Turnovers, Key Opportunity in Week 1

Baltimore had added playmakers to secondary.
Todd Karpovich|
Ravens Want More Turnovers, Key Opportunity in Week 1
Ravens Want More Turnovers, Key Opportunity in Week 1

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Baltimore Ravens

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Throughout the preseason, the Ravens have preached the importance of creating more turnovers.

That's an area where they struggled last year. 

Baltimore had just 15 takeaways — nine interceptions and six fumbles— that were its fewest since 2015 and third-worst in the league behind the New York Jets (14) and Jacksonville Jaguars (9).

In six games against AFC North opponents, the Ravens had a minus-8 turnover ratio.

The Ravens should have an opportunity to get some interceptions in Week 1 against the Jets and quarterback Joe Flacco, who might have 30 pass attempts. 

“I’m really hopeful," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "I want to see interceptions, and batted-down balls and tackles, caused fumbles and then recovered fumbles by us. I want to see all that stuff, just like you do and just like the fans do.”

The Ravens boosted their secondary this offseason with the addition of safeties Marcus Williams and Kyle Hamilton, the team's first-round draft pick. Williams is a ball hawk that can patrol the middle of the field.

Cornerback Marcus Peters will also be back in the lineup after missing all of last season with a knee injury. 

Since entering the NFL in 2015, Peters has the league's most takeaways (39), interceptions (31), interception-return yards (814), and interception returns for touchdowns. and defensive touchdowns (7). His 86 passes defensed stand as the fourth-most during that span, but teams are reluctant to throw his way.

"Turnovers are a huge thing for us," cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. "We want to preach turnovers, think turnovers. I might be walking in the cafeteria and hit somebody’s lunch plate out of their hands trying to get a forced fumble. So, that’s a really big thing for us. 

I think you can have a great, fundamentally sound defense, but if you have no turnovers, your defense still just kind of is whatever. So, I think turnovers are the name of the game.'

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Todd Karpovich
TODD KARPOVICH

Twitter: @toddkarpovich Email: todd.karpovich@gmail.com Skype: todd.karpovich Todd Karpovich has been a contributor for ESPN, Forbes, the Associated Press, Lindy's, and The Baltimore Sun, among other media outlets nationwide. He is the co-author of “If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Baltimore Ravens Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box,” “Skipper Supreme: Buck Showalter and the Baltimore Orioles,” and the author of “Manchester United (Europe's Best Soccer Clubs).” Karpovich, a Baltimore native, is a graduate of Calvert Hall College high school, Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, and has a Masters of Science from Towson University. 

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