Ravens' Banged-Up Secondary Finally Falters, Costs Baltimore Shot at Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens had few weaknesses heading into Saturday's divisional-round playoff matchup against the New England Patriots. They had a run-stopping defense and an excellent pass-rushing front seven. That was joined by a balanced offense led by quarterback Joe Flacco and unheralded running back Justin Forsett.

However, the Ravens had one glaring shortcoming—the secondary. Of Baltimore's 19 players on injured reserve, six were defensive backs, including starting cornerback Jimmy Smith, backup Asa Jackson and backup-to-the-backups Danny Gorrer.

That left the Ravens with few options. Safeties Anthony Levine and Matt Elam had been tapped to play slot corner, while career practice-squad journeyman Rashaan Melvin was called up to start alongside cornerback Lardarius Webb. And it was Melvin and Elam, in particular, who sunk Baltimore's Super Bowl aspirations in a 35-31 loss.

After the game, defensive end Chris Canty told Garrett Downing of the Ravens Official Website: “The offense scored 31 points. They held up their end of the bargain. Defensively, we didn’t do enough.”

The Ravens masked their secondary with the aid of their pass rush in the team's 30-17 Wild Card Round defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers. In that game, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sacked five times. However, Tom Brady and the Patriots offense neutralized the pass rush by throwing quickly and by targeting those quick passes at the most vulnerable members of Baltimore's secondary.

Brady ended the day completing 33 of his 50 pass attempts for 367 yards and three touchdowns. He did throw an interception in the first half that led to a Baltimore touchdown, and he was sacked twice. However, with the Patriots offense forced into one-dimensionality, Brady came away cleaner-than-expected.

Melvin was also tormented by a trick play, a pass from receiver Julian Edelman to fellow receiver Danny Amendola for a 51-yard touchdown. That the Patriots rushed only 14 times for 13 yards didn't matter, with the left side of Baltimore's secondary allowing Brady to feast. ESPN.com's Jamison Hensley discussed Melvin's role in the aforementioned trick play: 

While Melvin was the Ravens' leading tackler with 11, he had no passes defensed while being the most picked on of their defensive backs. In fact, Baltimore had just two passes defensed on the day, which seems nearly impossible considering the 51 total passes thrown by the Patriots.

Elam fared even worse, with multiple tackles missed and only one made. As Aaron Wilson of The Baltimore Sun pointed out, Elam was the Ravens' missed-tackles leader heading into this game with 16: 

Elam also gave up a second-quarter Amendola touchdown that tied the game at 14, which marked the first of two times in the game that the Ravens gave up a 14-point lead. The second time was the aforementioned 51-yard Edelman pass to Amendola. 

Baltimore's offense kept the Ravens in the game, with Flacco throwing four touchdowns and Forsett earning 129 yards on his 24 carries. Even Flacco's two interceptions—the first postseason picks he's thrown since 2011—didn't lead to Patriots points. 

But there was only so much that the offense could do. Smith's 62 receiving yards led his team; however, four Patriots receivers either matched or beat that total on the day. Steve Smith Sr. got the best of Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis—or as much as is possible—with three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown on four targets. Forsett averaged 5.4 yards per carry.

Player	Tgts.	Rec.	Yds.	TD	Long
Gronkowski	13	7	108	1	46
Amendola	6	5	81	2	51
Edelman	14	8	74	0	13
LaFell	7	5	62	1	23
Hoomanawanui	4	4	43	0	16
Vereen	5	4	39	0	14

However, none could quite hurt New England's defense as badly as Brady's passing offense hurt Baltimore's secondary.

At some point, this weakness was going to be exposed. There is only so far a team can go in a pass-first NFL with a crippled secondary. It's a testament to the overall prowess of the team as a whole that the Ravens made it all the way to Foxborough when other teams would have been left-for-dead weeks ago.

It's not even that the Ravens need to rebuild their secondary. They just need it to get healthy. If the Ravens would have had Smith, or even Jackson, in the game in place of Melvin, Saturday's outcome could have been drastically different. Injuries are a way of life in the NFL, to be certain, but having that many players unavailable in one single area of the defense is going to take a toll.

Player	Injury
Terrence Brooks	Knee
Danny Gorrer	Knee
Asa Jackson	Knee
Tramain Jacobs	Thigh
Aaron Ross	Achilles
Jimmy Smith	Foot

The good thing for the Ravens is that their long-term Super Bowl window has not closed. If anything, the Ravens should be much-improved—and likely markedly more healthy—in 2015. Though that does nothing for the season that has just ended, at least this loss is not a discouraging sign for the future.

But, needless to say, the Ravens will be watching the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl from the comfort of their couches, and the secondary holds the most blame for that. Converted safeties and practice-squad cornerbacks simply had no chance against a Brady-led offense on Saturday.