The Baltimore Ravens have seen their defensive backfield ravaged by injuries throughout the season. The year started with Marcus Peters tearing his ACL in a training camp practice and things have not gotten much better from there.
Now, the Ravens may be without their best cornerback for the rest of the season. According to head coach John Harbaugh, Marlon Humphrey suffered an unspecified injury during the team’s 20-19 Week 13 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Humphrey is set to undergo an MRI for said injury, and according to Harbaugh, “It could be a while.”
Subsequent reports indicated that the injury is to Humphrey’s shoulder or pectoral and the team expects him to miss the rest of the season.
The injury to Humphrey (and the general state of the team’s defensive backfield overall) is what motivated Harbaugh to go for a two-point conversion and the win after Lamar Jackson found Sammy Watkins for a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the game. Baltimore was down by a point after the score and could have sent the game to overtime by kicking the extra point, but Harbaugh elected to put trust in his offense and go for two instead.
Baltimore entered the game against Pittsburgh with its top five cornerbacks listed as questionable for the contest, though four of them did eventually suit up for the game. Still, with Humphrey out and the team just having given up a long drive that allowed Pittsburgh to take the lead, Harbaugh obviously felt he had to go for the win in regulation. If Humphrey has to miss time down the stretch, as is expected, that will put even more pressure on an offense that has already had to unexpectedly carry the defense for much of this season.
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