The Baltimore Ravens defense did not have a game to remember in Week 3. After an opening drive where they forced the Kansas City Chiefs to punt, the defense struggled to get to quarterback Patrick Mahomes or cover any of his receivers. It left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, but it seems that defensive coordinator Don Martindale might dislike the taste more than anyone else.
On Thursday, Martindale joked he lost weight after throwing up every time he watched the game film.
After allowing Mahomes to throw for 374 yards and three touchdowns while completing 73% of his passes, while also allowing 140 yards and a touchdown on the ground, the queasy feeling makes sense.
It’s part of a coordinator’s job to go back and watch game film to see what the team did well and what they could improve upon. Given Martindale’s take, it sounds like there’s a lot more of the latter. While he’s joking about having to vomit as a result of watching this film, it has to sting for him to watch his defense fail to do anything consistently a week after having similar issues against the Arizona Cardinals.
Though the defense had to deal with injuries to Jimmy Smith and Marlon Humphrey, that doesn’t excuse the performance that they turned in Sunday. And if that keeps happening this season, a lot of people are going to be feeling like vomiting.
