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When John Harbaugh met with reporters following the Ravens' preseason win over the Redskins on Saturday, he had positive things to say about the Ravens' pass defense.
Yesterday, Harbaugh admitted that he was a little quick with those compliments.
The Ravens allowed 396 total net passing yards on Saturday, 206 of which came in the first half when the Ravens had most of their first-team defense on the field.
"The passing yards are a concern, obviously," Harbaugh said. "From where I stood up there after the game, I didn't realize they threw for that many yards against us, because I felt like we were playing pretty well for the most part. They got some chunks on some plays that they made."
So what was to blame for the chunks?
"Some of it was the way we play our two-deep coverage," Harbaugh said. "We've got to work some things out there. Some of it was the way we play our quarters coverage. We've got to work a couple things out there. I think that's what preseason is for. I think the players themselves did a good job, but we don't want to give up that many yards passing at all."
Seven of the Skins' ten longest plays on Saturday came on passes over the middle of the field, indicating that the linebackers in general need to become more of a factor in pass coverage.
Part of that has to do with getting more depth on their drops and settling into those areas over the middle that teams can exploit with deep crossing routes and stuff up the seams.
"We have guys that can cover, no question about it," Harbaugh said. "I'm not worried about that at all. I think we've got a lot of coverages in that that are different than what we did last year.
"It's funny because during the week of practice, I felt like we really made progress in our basis zone drops with the linebackers handling routes. But then in the game, we weren't quite there. We want to transfer that improvement to the game this week if we can, and I think those guys will do really well with that."
