Over the ultimate few weeks of what could be his remaining season in Baltimore, Don “Wink” Martindale, all the time good for a quote, discovered himself speaking about TV and films. Possibly it was as a result of they have been higher than something his injury-depleted Ravens protection was placing on tape, perhaps it was as a result of he figured everybody wanted fun, however each different week or so, the coordinator would drop a pop-culture reference from out of nowhere.
Earlier than the Ravens’ Week 15 loss to the Packers, Martindale in contrast Inexperienced Bay’s Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams to Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. After the Ravens’ Week 16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, which they’d entered with over two dozen gamers on both injured reserve or the reserve/COVID-19 record, Martindale joked, “I don’t know if we’re enjoying soccer or the ‘Squid Video games,’” referring to Netflix’s widespread present that options contestants competing in kids’s video games with lethal stakes.
And earlier than the season finale towards the Pittsburgh Steelers, finally his final recreation in command of the Ravens’ protection, he considered a comic who finds humor in brutal honesty.
“It’s been fairly a season; we might in all probability write a e-book about it,” he stated in early January. “It’s like a Larry David episode.”
On Sunday, when Martindale welcomes the Ravens (3-2) to MetLife Stadium, the jaunty theme track for David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” wouldn’t appear too misplaced. On one sideline: Martindale, restoring the New York Giants’ protection to respectability with a ragtag group of gamers and an unflinching dedication to strain. On the opposite: John Harbaugh, the coach who changed him this offseason with Mike Macdonald, a former defensive assistant below Martindale, nonetheless trying to find the success that his predecessor recurrently loved.
On the road: an opportunity for a marquee win, and a complete lot of pleasure. So far as storylines go, it’s fairly, fairly good.
“Wink is a superb coach, an incredible man. Love him,” Ravens defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who performed below Martindale for 2 seasons, stated Wednesday. “He’s positively going to have the troops riled up. I do know this implies one thing to him; it’s solely pure. … Whenever you go some place else, and also you come again or get to face your previous crew, it positively simply provides you slightly bit extra of an edge. So I do know this was circled on the calendar, and it’s going to be a giant recreation.”
The Ravens’ choice to fireplace Martindale in January, with a 12 months nonetheless remaining on his contract, was stunning, even to these across the facility. Harbaugh had questioned Martindale’s aggressive play-calling after a Week 13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers — “You go to the properly too many occasions,” he stated, referring to Martindale’s “Cowl 0″ blitz schemes, “they usually get you” — and the protection had struggled mightily amid accidents and sickness.
However earlier than bottoming out final season, ending a franchise-worst twenty eighth in Soccer Outsiders’ effectivity rankings and final within the NFL in move protection, Martindale’s defenses had been persistently among the many league’s finest, a rarity in a high-variance period. From 2018 to 2020, the Ravens ranked within the prime 10 in general effectivity every year and led the NFL in scoring common (18.2 factors per recreation allowed) and whole protection (307.8 yards per recreation). Additionally they tied for first in defensive touchdowns (12).
Within the assertion the Ravens launched asserting Martindale’s departure, Harbaugh praised Martindale’s “main” contributions to the crew’s protection as a place coach and coordinator. However Harbaugh stated it was the “proper time” to “transfer ahead in separate instructions.” On Wednesday, he stated he had “nothing however respect and love” for Martindale, who joined Harbaugh’s employees in 2012 and was promoted to coordinator six years later.
“I understand how a lot he loves Wink personally,” proprietor Steve Bisciotti stated on the NFL homeowners’ conferences in March, acknowledging his personal shock on the transfer. “When he referred to as me to inform me that he was going to make the change, I used to be shocked — and I imply, as an proprietor, not as a fan. I used to be identical to, ‘Wow. OK.’ When issues get stale and also you wish to change, it’s very arduous for John to come back to that conclusion.”
Harbaugh didn't have to go looking far for Martindale’s alternative. Macdonald had joined the Ravens’ employees as an intern in 2014 and labored his manner as much as defensive backs coach by 2017. He was coming off a celebrated turnaround of Michigan’s protection in his first 12 months as a school coordinator. When Macdonald, then solely 34, was launched in January because the NFL’s youngest defensive coordinator, he acknowledged that he and Martindale “see a variety of issues the identical.”
However over the Ravens’ offseason and erratic first 5 video games, Macdonald has distinguished himself from Martindale — and never simply along with his buttoned-up information conferences and close-cropped haircuts. Ravens defenders have raved about Macdonald’s method to instructing his protection, how he expects gamers to be interchangeable and the way simple he makes it to be taught.
In concept, Macdonald’s protection is perhaps nearer to Martindale’s than another within the NFL. Ravens inside linebacker A.J. Klein, who spent a few days on the Giants’ observe squad, final week referred to as them “the identical defensive system.”
However in observe, their approaches on recreation day, at the very least early this season, have diverse enormously. In line with Professional Soccer Reference, the stunning Giants (4-1) lead the NFL in blitz price (43.4%) below Martindale, a perch the Ravens occupied in Martindale’s first three years because the coordinator in Baltimore. Beneath Macdonald, the Ravens this season rank twenty first (24.4%).
As a part of their extra conservative method, the Ravens have performed extra zone protection this season. In line with The thirty third Crew, opposing quarterbacks have confronted zone appears on at the very least twice as many drop-backs as they've confronted man-to-man appears in each Ravens recreation this season. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was blitzed simply 3 times and noticed simply 4 man-coverage snaps in Cincinnati’s loss Sunday to the Ravens, an method that at occasions appeared anathema to Martindale.
Different tweaks have been subtler. In line with Sports activities Data Options, the Ravens have run a “Cowl 0″ blitz — no deep safeties, man protection throughout the board — simply six occasions this season. That’s as many as Martindale despatched after Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr in final 12 months’s season opener.
With fewer defenders dedicated up entrance, Macdonald has diversified the Ravens’ appears within the again. On Sunday, the protection appeared to shift right into a “Tampa 2″ protection shell, wherein a linebacker or extra central defensive again drops right into a deep-middle zone, at the very least twice. Inside linebacker Patrick Queen estimated Wednesday that the Ravens had referred to as a Tampa 2 play perhaps 3 times within the earlier two seasons.
Macdonald’s additionally relied extra on two-high-safety appears, becoming a member of a wave of coordinators across the NFL keen to sacrifice some integrity of their run suits for improved safety towards downfield passing performs.
“It’s simply much less stuff that we’ve obtained to fret about on our plate,” Queen stated. “I believe it’s extra, ‘We are able to attempt to cease this, but when we get one thing else, then simply play ball.’ So far as Wink, it was like looking for a key for all the things, looking for a method to cease each play.” He referred to as the 2 defenses “very, very related, however very totally different on the similar time.”
“When you might have carryover, you’re nonetheless” reinventing your schemes, Harbaugh stated Wednesday. “You’re not simply throwing the identical playbook on the market. You simply can’t do this on this league and final.”
Slowly however certainly, Macdonald and the Ravens are discovering their footing. Regardless of accidents of their secondary (cornerback Kyle Fuller and security Marcus Williams) and alongside their entrance (defensive deal with Michael Pierce and outdoors linebacker Justin Houston), the protection enters Week 6 having held the Buffalo Payments and Bengals properly under their typical output. After rating twenty first in defensive effectivity after Week 2, the Ravens are as much as 14th general, based on Soccer Outsiders, buoyed by one of many NFL’s finest takeaway charges.
Macdonald final week acknowledged that, in his overview of the protection’s movie, he’d discovered performs the place he regretted not placing gamers in higher positions. However within the locker room, his public assist hasn’t wavered. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey stated final week that Macdonald’s play calls have been “excellent,” spoiled often by poor execution or miscommunication. Change, the Ravens imagine, has been for the higher.
“We have now a brand new defensive coordinator, some new items to the puzzle, a variety of the blokes that haven’t been right here lengthy,” Campbell stated Sunday. “Not that I've any excuses or no matter, however we must always get higher with time. That’s simply the way it goes. The extra we do it collectively, the higher we’ll be.”
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