[wwharton]

I didn't think it was worth going down a detailed list in response to what was clearly an uninformed comment, but I'll add to what Sidion said. Ray Lewis is a coach on the field, and he reads plays on that side of the ball on par with what Peyton Manning does presnap. There's a reason all of these LBs leave the Ravens for a big pay check but do nothing on their new teams. There is also a reason so many defensive coaches have left Baltimore to become head coaches with moderate success. The constant on the Ravens D being good over all the years is Ray. Ray puts players in the proper position presnap. That added to the emotional leadership on the field that pushes guys to give 100% in a way that can't be done from the sideline.

Slow and old is also a reach, if we are going to go into actual production on the field. Ray lost a ton of weight to be faster. That makes it harder for him to get off a block, and the DTs in front of him aren't doing a great job at keeping him clean. It's not like he's missing tackles. The huge holes that are being created have little to do with Ray, it's the job of the guys in front of him to prevent that. The broken tackles are by other defenders who most people can't even name... besides Reed who has been tackling like Deion Sanders ever since he got the pinched never in his neck a few years ago. Pollard is a great hitter and Webb was (out for the year now) a good tackler... nobody else worth even mentioning. Teams just needed to get a big lineman on Ray and force someone else to make the play.

Most of us Ravens fans are saying Webb is the bigger loss because the team is just garbage stopping the run on a whole right now. But go check Ray's comments about the DTs the year before drafting Ngata. THAT Ray wouldn't be able to do much more to stop the run than this year's Ray has done. Too many holes in the trenches.