Cover Photo: Joe Robbins/Getty Images


Forget about the Legion of Boom in Seattle and the Sacksonville Jaguars. The best defense in the NFL right now just might be that of the Baltimore Ravens, also known as Purple Pain.


After racking up a franchise-record 11 sacks on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, the team's Twitter account made sure to point it out to all of their more than 1.4 million followers by adding 11 Ss to their name -- one for each sack of Titans QB Marcus Mariota.

Those 11 sacks were more than eight other NFL teams have on the entire season so far. That's right, one game by the Ravens out-did eight entire defenses when it comes to sacking the quarterback.

To get even more perspective on just how dominant Baltimore was on Sunday, you only have to look as far as the completions line on Mariota's stat sheet. It reads 10-for-15 for 117 yards. That's one more sack than passes completed.

On the season, the Ravens defense has 26 sacks, which is almost 4.5 a game. Led by outside linebacker Za'Darius Smith's 5.5 sacks and future Hall of Famer Terrell Suggs' 4.5, this defense should continue to bring the pain to opposing QBs over the next 10-plus weeks.

The real test comes next week when the Ravens take on the New Orleans Saints -- a Top-5 offense. Even with Drew Brees, Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas and Mark Ingram in tow, you might still want to start the Ravens' D in Week 7.

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