New identiity in Baltimore now

Ever since I can remember, when the Ravens defense was out on the field, I couldn't have felt safer. However, this season, I feel the opposite way unfortunately. Our defense looks like a sieve out there, letting anything run or pass through it at any given time. When our offense is out there, I feel like we always have a chance to score, and our opponents offense isn't on the field, which means our defense isn't.

In the Vikings game, we were letting both Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor gain substantial gains on the ground that we haven't allowed in the past years. Grant it, Peterson is probably the best back in the league, and Taylor is no scrub, but we are the Ravens. We are supposed to be a top five defense in every category. Not this season though. I'm not one to hop on the bandwagon of blaming our defensive coordinator, but there has got to be something. Greg Mattison still has, from what I thought, some of the best defensive football players in the entire NFL.

Ray Lewis is going to the Hall of Fame one day as arguably the best linebacker to ever play the game. Ed Reed is "reediculous" out there, picking off quarterbacks left and right (not so much this year). Terrell Suggs is a great all around linebacker and is still yet to reach his prime, at least this season. And we got two tremendous big boys, Haloti Ngata and Kelly Gregg, who clog up the middle of the trenches. Everyone else, in my opinion, is solid enough that this defense should be playing better.

A lot of people are getting on the secondary, which may be completely just, but it might not be 100% on them. Mattison needs to put these guys in a position to succeed. We have been playing against some of the best quarterbacks in the NFL the past three losses, with the likes of Tom Brady (who absolutely blew up with six touchdown passes), Carson Palmer, and finally, Brett Favre. These three men know how to play this game and can pick apart a defense. And they all have pretty good receivers to throw the ball to. Our secondary looks vulnerable, but maybe it's not Domonique Foxworth and Fabian Washington's fault. They need some help over top, and if Ed Reed and Dawan Landry aren't there to support them, well I'm sure it's hard to cover Randy Moss, Chad Ochocinco, and Sidney Rice (who is emerging this year as a Pro Bowl caliber wide receiver).

All I'm saying is that our offense is here to stay. We can put up points with the best of them now. When the Ravens were down by 17 points on Sunday, it looked like the game was over; people were giving up. One person who didn't give up was Joe Flacco. He brought us back to take the lead late. And he gave Steve Hauschka a chance to let Baltimore forget who Matt Stover was. Instead, he missed a 44 yard field goal by the narrowest of wide lefts, and the Ravens fell just short. But I know one thing: if the Ravens defense would like to show up sometime soon, the Ravens could still be considered a Super Bowl contender.

Joe Flacco led a formidable comeback that wasn't quite enough to beat the Vikings.