Lions quarterback Jared Goff is coming off a 52-point rout of the Chicago Bears in which he threw five touchdowns. He also wasn’t sacked once. The week prior, the Green Bay Packers sacked him four times and Goff threw as many touchdowns (one) as interceptions.
Getting pressure on the Lions’ veteran quarterback, who is more of a classic pocket passer, is paramount for Baltimore’s defense on Monday night. When the Ravens beat the Lions, 38-6, two years ago, they sacked Goff five times, including a pair from Van Noy.
Green feels the learning curve has been steep since coming to the NFL from Marshall, where he led college football with 17 sacks last season. In the NFL, everyone is huge and talented, Green said. He’ll certainly face that against Lions right tackle Penei Sewell, who has gone to the Pro Bowl the past three years.
The Ravens are going to need a strong performance from the entire defensive front. Defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike leads the team in the early running with two sacks. Robinson is the only other Raven with a sack so far, as he forced a game-sealing fumble when he took Flacco down in the fourth quarter.
“We’ll all have to step up,” Robinson said. “Van Noy, he’s still going to be in the film room with us. He always does a great job of giving us tells and stuff like that. So, we’ll still have his knowledge out there on the field with us.”