OWINGS MILLS, MD. — Marlon Humphrey looks around the Ravens’ secondary and sees unlimited potential, with a pair of Pro Bowl corners in himself and Marcus Peters, a ball-hawking safety in Marcus Williams, a savvy veteran in Chuck Clark, and several talented younger players.
But then he sits in the cafeteria, and he sees the team’s struggles staring back at him.
Humphrey said TVs in the cafeteria are frequently tuned to NFL Network or ESPN, and the ticker or other graphics intermittently proclaim a harsh truth: The Ravens’ pass defense ranks 32nd, dead last, in the league, allowing 315.3 passing yards a game — after finishing dead last in 2021 as well.
“The cafeteria will humble you,” he said as he met with the media after practice Oct. 5.
“To look up there and be eating lunch and see 32nd … it’s great to see, because I like to stay humble, but we’re still trying to gel together, and we really want to get that 32nd down. It’ll be a tough road, but I’m really excited for it, especially with this bunch coming in. We’ll definitely all have our hands full.”
The Ravens (2-2) have blown three-score leads in both of their losses. They host the Cincinnati Bengals (2-2) in an AFC North showdown on “Sunday Night Football” on Oct. 9.
The Bengals come to M&T Bank Stadium with the league’s No. 8-ranked passing offense led by quarterback Joe Burrow and a trio of potent receivers in All-Pro Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. Last year, the Bengals thumped the Ravens twice, winning 41-17 in Baltimore and 41-21 in Cincinnati.
In the first matchup, the Bengals scored the game’s final 28 points — including an 82-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Chase after he slipped out of the tackle of Humphrey and safety DeShon Elliott. Chase finished that game with eight catches for 201 yards.
In the second game, in which the Ravens were missing three starters in the secondary, Higgins finished with 12 catches for 194 yards and two scores, and Chase had seven catches for 125 yards. Burrow shredded the Ravens’ short-handed defense for 525 yards, the most ever against a Ravens team.
Boyd is best known in Baltimore for the 49-yard touchdown in the final minute of the final game of the 2017 season that gave the Bengals a stunning 31-27 win and kept the Ravens out of the postseason.
“They all just bring so much to the table, and really, can kind of do it all,” Humphrey said. “It just depends on how they want to use them, and it’s a really tough matchup. Everyone will really have to be on point.”
The Ravens’ defense has been opportunistic this year; they already have seven interceptions after recording just nine all of last season, and the team’s turnover ratio of plus-5 ranks second. But they have watched two big leads vanish, and there’s that No. 32 pass defense ranking staring at Humphrey in the cafeteria.
“The numbers don’t lie,” he said. “As much as that sucks to say … to me, it’s just unacceptable. I feel like it falls on the weight of my shoulders. So I really want to get that number down.”
NOTEBOOK
BATEMAN, HILL, DOBBINS, ALL ABSENT: The Ravens were missing three of their top offensive weapons from practice on Oct. 5, as wide receiver Rashod Bateman (foot), running back Justice Hill (hamstring) and running back J.K. Dobbins (chest) all were sidelined. Bateman and Hill both missed the end of the Week 4 game against Buffalo after being injured late in the game.
Speaking at his Wednesday news conference, head coach John Harbaugh characterized Bateman’s injury as “a day-to-day type thing. That’s the way he described it to me.” Harbaugh said he is “hopeful” that Bateman plays against Cincinnati. Hill’s status for this week remains uncertain, though Harbaugh said earlier this week that Hill’s injury wasn’t as bad as originally feared. Hill pulled up at the end of a run late in the game against Buffalo.
Dobbins, meanwhile, has played two games since coming back from his 2021 knee injury, and Harbaugh implied Dobbins was given a rest day, though according to the injury report, he missed practice with a chest injury.
Linebacker Justin Houston (groin) also missed practice, as did defensive end Calais Campbell and cornerback Marcus Peters. Those two veterans were given a rest day, according to the injury report.
EDWARDS RETURNS TO PRACTICE: Running back Gus Edwards practiced for the first time since suffering a torn ACL before the 2021 season began. Edwards is officially on the Reserve/PUP list, which means he has now begun a 21-day practice window; by the end of that time, the Ravens must either place Edwards on the 53-man roster or keep him on the Reserve/PUP list for the remainder of the season.
For his first day on the field, Edwards “looked good,” Harbaugh said.
“He’s done a really good job with his rehab,” Harbaugh added. “He’s worked really hard. … It’s obviously just the first day back in quite a long time. We’re going to have to see where it goes, but it was certainly a good start.”
HUMPHREY DOWNPLAYS PETERS-HARBAUGH SPAT: Humphrey downplayed the sideline spat between Peters and Harbaugh at the end of the Ravens’ 23-20 loss to Buffalo. In the closing moments of that game, with the Bills lining up for a game-winning field goal, Peters stormed off the field and got into a heated shouting match with Harbaugh. Peters slammed his helmet to the turf and stormed off to the locker room.
“Families fight all the time,” Humphrey said. He noted that conflict amid the emotion of football will happen, but with the Ravens it never lingers, and the team remains unified in one goal: winning.
“We fight all the time in this building,” Humphrey said. “Not getting into it, but I’ve fought with some people in here myself, whether it’s staff, whether it’s coaches. It’s a lot that goes on; it’s an emotional game. … We all want to win on Sunday, and we all think we can have a part that goes into winning on Sunday. So there’s always a lot of conflict. As long as we can hug it out after, that’s all that really matters.”
Peters declined to speak to reporters when approached at his locker after practice.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox