The Ravens may be fun to watch, but the Bright Holes could be in playoff trouble against the Bengals

The Baltimore Ravens are a good team. But they missed the opportunity to become great.

The NFL trade deadline arrived on Tuesday. Ravens who played last week acquired wide receiver Diontae Johnson from the Carolina Panthers, remained unchanged except for a future late-round pick trade for veteran corner Tre’Davious White. In short, nothing serious was done in defense.

And based on what we’ve seen from the Ravens, that could be a huge mistake.

Baltimore was once again illuminated by the opposing passing game on Thursday night and barely managed a 35-34 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow threw for 428 yards and four touchdowns despite not having Tee Higgins. While Ja’Marr Chase was the only weapon to really worry about, he still had an absurd 11 receptions for 264 yards, highlighted by touchdowns of 70 and 67 yards.

With All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton ankle injuryand the unknown severity of this phenomenon, the situation may worsen even further.

Through 10 games this season, the Ravens have allowed 294.9 yards per game, by far the worst of any team. How bad is this number? Take the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore’s AFC target, who are allowing 293.6 yards per game. In half of those contests, the Ravens passed for at least 300 yards, including twice to Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston, Dak Prescott and Burrow.

The dynamic duo of quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry has been the talk of the town for much of the year. Both are in the MVP conversation, with Henry having a legitimate 2,000-yard rusher while Jackson is on pace for his first 4,000-yard passing campaign. No team has a more formidable defensive back, and they’ve added wide receiver Zay Flowers to become one of the most dangerous defensive backs in the league.

Overall, the Ravens entered Week 10 with the NFL’s best offense in yards (445.6) and second in points (31.4) per game. They were giants, scoring 30 or more points five times.

Baltimore also has the best run defense in the sport, allowing just 75.7 yards per game on 3.4 yards per carry.

Still, none of this will matter in January if the pass defense isn’t fixed.

The Ravens won’t be able to avoid great quarterbacks in the AFC. There is a real chance that the road to the Super Bowl will go through a combination of Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, C.J. Stroud, Justin Herbert and/or Burrow. Good luck with that with a minor device that was regularly set on fire.

And if Baltimore is a few points behind in the playoffs, being able to run the ball will matter much less. Suddenly Henry’s punch is muffled, leaving Jackson to throw Flowers and an assortment of less talented weapons. And while Flowers is great, teams will have more answers in the postseason and rosters will be able to limit his numbers while also playing elsewhere.

For the Ravens, this is a problem they have faced at times in recent years. Since Jackson became the starting quarterback in 2019, Baltimore has ranked fifth, sixth, sixth, 32nd, 26th and sixth, respectively. In those two years, the Ravens missed the playoffs and lost in the wild card round, although with the caveat that Jackson was also injured both times. But in each case, the Ravens were not an elite contender, not on the level of the Buffalo Bills, Bengals and Chiefs.

Here are the rankings for each Super Bowl champion over the past 10 years by total passing yards and yards per attempt against:

Baltimore is currently ranked 32nd and 22nd, which would be the worst combination of those numbers for a Lombardi Trophy-winning team.

It will not be easy to improve these indicators in the future. The Ravens will face the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Chargers and Houston Texans, as well as a potential new-look Russell Wilson twice, with two games against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

We have already seen this film too.

Last season, the Ravens put up numbers that showed they were one of the greatest teams of all time. They rushed for an NFL-best 2,661 yards during the regular season.

Then, at home in the AFC title game against Kansas City, the Chiefs had the lead and made a penalty. Baltimore gave up the run, and Jackson went 20-of-37 for 272 yards with a touchdown and an interception, despite carrying the same weapons as the current edition.

Baltimore is 7-3 and is a great bet to eventually steal the AFC North from the Steelers and make at least one playoff game, if not more.

But in the playoffs, the opponents will throw for days. And Baltimore won’t have an answer, likely wishing it had added a key defensive piece back in November.