Ravens Defense 'Needs To Do Better' vs. Bengals

The Baltimore Ravens lost two of three games to the Cincinnati Bengals last season and defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald wants his unit to be better because of it.

The Baltimore Ravens lead the all-time series against the Cincinnati Bengals with a 28-27 win-loss record. 

However, the Ravens have lost four of the last five and were eliminated from postseason play just last year by the Bengals.

Both of the losses Baltimore took at the hands of Cincinnati last year had one major similarity in that their opponent got a fumble recovery for a score in each. 

On January 8th it was a fumble recovered in the end zone in an 11-point loss.

Then, one week later it was a 98-yard fumble return by Bengals defender Sam Hubbard that proved to be the winning score in a seven-point loss. 

It would be easy for the Ravens' defensive unit to claim they were not fully responsible for the losses then, or at least not for the total scoring margin difference. 

USA Today

But defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald isn't interested in those threads to pull on, focusing only on the final outcome as the team is concerned.

"I have a hard time saying we had success," Macdonald says. "We lost two of the three [games], and they ended our season. Our mentality is, 'Play well enough to win the game.' There are things we need to do better, situationally, and that's the focus this week - specifically, [we're focusing on] third-down [and] red zone [situations] where we can get off the field and get our offense back in those situations - so we can emerge victorious unlike the end of the [2022] season."

While Baltimore doesn't come into this weekend's divisional clash with a whole lot of recent success to lean on, it is the lone unbeaten team on the card. 

Meanwhile, Cincinnati is coming off of an embarrassing loss to open the season against fellow AFC North Division rival Cleveland Browns who not only beat them but embarrassed them to the tune of 24-3.

Better defensive play and some help keeping the Bengals off the scoreboard by the offense could lead to a big 2-0 start for the Ravens, and sending a division rival to 0-2 would just make it that much better.