Getty Ravens DBs (L-R) Geno Stone, Marlon Humphrey, and Kyle Hamilton.
The Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens face off in an exciting Week 9 NFC-AFC battle. Seattle comes in at 5-2, locked in a tight NFC West battle with the San Francisco 49ers, while the Ravens are 6-2, with their entire AFC North division behind them with only three losses. Getting a win on Sunday, Nov. 5, will give one of these teams a huge boost heading into the second half of the 2023 season, and the chess match that is likely to determine the victor is Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith vs. the vicious Ravens defense‘s defensive backs.
The Ravens defense is the best coverage unit in the NFL in 2023
The Ravens defense backfield is the best in the NFL heading into the team’s Week 9 matchup with the Seahawks. Safeties Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, and Geno Stone, as well as cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey, Brandon Stephens, Ronald Darby, and Arthur Maulet, are the driving force of this defense.
The Ravens D is the No. 2 scoring defense with 121 points allowed, just one point more than the No. 1 Dallas Cowboys. The unit is third in yards allowed (2,212), first in yards per play allowed (4.2), and first in sacks.
While that last number usually indicates a stellar defensive front, it’s the Ravens DBs that are the key to the team taking down the quarterback this season.
Hamilton is third on the team in sacks with 3.0, and Maulet is sixth with 2.0. Plus, the reason defensive tackle Justin Madubuike (6.5 sacks) and linebackers Patrick Queen (3.5), Jadeveon Clowney (3.5), and Kyle Van Noy (3.0) are getting home is because the Ravens have the highest PFF coverage grade in the NFL this season at 90.8. That means when Hamilton and Maulet come, Williams, Stone, Humphry, Stephens, and Darby are locking wide receivers down, too.
Additionally, defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald is an expert at disguising his pressures, as ESPN’s Greg Cosell explains well in the video below.
#Seahawks v #RavensFlock! How do the Ravens lead the league in sacks? Through complex, simulated pressures that are a nightmare to decipher. @gregcosell breaks down one of their many pressure schemes that have led to big sacks this season.
This is going to put a lot of pressure on Smith to diagnose where the pressure is coming from in the Seahawks Week 9 matchup and get the ball out quickly to WRs DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Jake Bobo, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
How Geno Smith Deals With Pressure
There’s good news and bad news when it comes to Geno Smith and dealing with pressure. On the one hand, whether teams rush four or sends blitzes at the Seahawks QB, Smith is equally adept at dealing with these different styles.
According to PFF’s pressure grades, the Seahawks’ passing game earns a 72.8 grade when no blitzes come, and that number actually goes up when the opposition sends more rushers. The team’s grade against the blitz is 75.5.
The bad news is that the Ravens defense is getting pressure this year without sending extra rushers. It might be a DB coming at the QB, but it’s not extra rushers. Macdonald only sends blitzers on 24.9% of the team’s defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, which is dead average in the league, ranking 16th overall.
What Smith is struggling with this season is pressure.
With a clean pocket, the Seahawks’ passing game gets an 84.9 grade. Under pressure, that drops dramatically to 57.2. And in these scenarios, Smith’s completion drops from 75.9% with a clean pocket to 52.6% when he’s under duress.
A lot of this seems to stem from the fact that Smith is much better this season when throwing deep down the field. The Seahawks’ grade on deep passes (20+ yards) is a stellar 92.2. On medium routes (10-19 yards) it drops to 82.6, and on short routes (0-9 yards), it’s an ugly 66.1.
In the Seahawks Week 9 matchup with the Ravens, the matchup to watch is Smith vs. the Baltimore DBs. The Seattle QB must quickly diagnose where the pressure is coming from and get the ball out of his hand before the rushers knock him off his spot. He can only do that if Metcalf, Lockett, Bobo, Smith-Ngigba, and the rest of the offense beat their marks fast and get open on underneath routes, which they’ve struggled to do at times.