-Ray is absolutely great at rushing the passer as he, like I said, hits every gap that his linemen create which, logically, results in hits on the quarterback.
-His role isn't, and hasn't ever been to cover backs/TEs/slot recievers.
-He is stout against the run as is evidenced by his takedown of RBs on game deciding-plays, and role as leader of the team in tackles even at his mature age. Like I said.
How can we have a debate about Ray Lewis' skills when you a) don't watch the Ravens and b) disregard statistics?
Using a combination of my personal insights and stats from ProFootballFocus here (although I always take PFF with a grain of salt- its statistics produce some pretty whacky results from time to time that make it clear that they still have major kinks to iron out).
Re: Rushing the Passer:
For an ILB, he is very good at rushing the passer. There aren't a whole lot of 3-4 ILBs in the NFL, so these rankings should be taken with a grain of salt, but he was tied for fourth in sacks for 3-4 ILBs in 2008, and was #1 in QB hits. Didn't get very many pressures, but on the whole you'd gladly take that from your ILB.
Either way, ILB pass-rushing stats usually have as much to do with scheme as they do with player talent, since very few ILBs are consistently rushing the passer. Hence why only one had more than 5 sacks (Bradie James). Frankly, I think that even those rankings are more a product of Rex Ryan than anything, hence David Harris leading 3-4 ILBs in sacks and QB hits through 3 weeks of 2009. Ryan blitzes the ILB a lot, but it's hard to fault to Lewis for that. No matter how you look at it, he's shown that he can rush the passer very capably.
His role/versatility:
In the Pats' traditional 3-4 defense, LBs have to be much more versatile than they have to be in most, which is probably why some Pats fans perceive that as a must, and see it as a shortcoming if a guy can't do it. Obviously, Lewis is not in the Pats' defense, so whatever shortcomings he may or may not have don't matter so much. Also, the stats don't exactly support that that is a weakness in the first place. In 2008, he was statistically very good against the pass, although that's definitely a stat that requires context. FWIW, those same stats say that he's been pretty bad against the pass so far in 2009 (even without the Pats game).
Against the run:
He clearly isn't as good as he once was, when it was standard for him to be assigned two gaps on the same play, and he still just didn't allow positive plays, end of story. That was freakish, though, and there's no shame in going from freakish to very good. For a baseball analogy, it's sorta like how Manny simply can't hit sliders down and away anymore. He no longer has the physical tools to do it, and doesn't even practice it- he's just acknowledged that if a pitcher can place that pitch, then he's striking out. He's still a very good hitter, though, and most guys could never have hit that pitch even in their primes, so it's hard to fault him for it. Not as good as he once was, clearly on the decline, still one of the best: just like Lewis in 2008. Whether or not that's carrying over into 2009 is an interesting question that maybe you can shed some more light on.
My outlook:
I still don't trust many advanced defensive statistics in the NFL. There's too much that they don't account for- far more than offensive statistics, even. I think they're a great starting point, but further insight requires watching a lot of a player. So when the 2009 statistics say that Ray Lewis is playing as a league-average ILB, I don't buy them necessarily. Small sample size, for starters, plus they don't tell everything. You've obviously watched way more of Ray Lewis, so you have that, but OTOH your analysis shows a pretty clear bias, which is understandable.
What I
do think defensive statistics are good for, at least, is challenging perceptions. Defensive players, I think, have a tendency to get by on reputation for years at a time. Prior to 2008, I thought that Lewis' reputation as a super pass rusher was ridiculous, and the stats supported that: 2 sacks, 0 pressures, 0 QB hits. In Lewis' case, the stats are going to challenge two perceptions: 1) that he's horribly overrated, and 2) that he's still great. He's neither- he's a top 6-or-7 ILB among 3-4 teams in the NFL (which is still the distinct minority of teams, so he doesn't have a lot of competition either).
In this case, I think the stats are right on for 2008, and I'm anticipating a major 2009 decline that's already been extremely evident through the first quarter of the season. He's 34, has absorbed a beating throughout his career, is asked to take on guards on every play, and was playing for a new contract last year. A contract, btw, that no other team wanted to give him. Given the lack of FA interest in him, I think it was pretty clear how the rest of the league, right or wrong, viewed him. Even Rex Ryan, who was literally waiting in Bart Scott's driveway at midnight on the day that FA opened, had no real interest in Lewis.
In fact, if I'm a Ravens fan, there are two things that I'm really worried about from Sunday. One is my team's poise. Even if they were screwed as badly as they think they were, their reaction was still the wrong one. Say that the league favors the Pats if you want, but we've been screwed worse. There was a pass interference call against Hobbs in the 2006 AFCCG that basically won the game for Indy, and was so egregiously bad that the league issued a letter of apology for it. Yet the Pats still refused to blame anyone but themselves. That's how accountable, disciplined teams conduct themselves, and it's a trait that every SB-winning team since 2001 has shared. If you don't think that's a problem, then that's that, but FWIW I think that it's huge.
The other thing that I'm worried about is Ray Lewis. Not just because that manic, frenetic, ultimately undisciplined culture starts with him, but because the Pats went after him. From my observations, it certainly looked like they were targeting him, and he was flustered by it. On Brady's rushing TD, in particular, he plowed right over Lewis. Well before that play, I was already remarking that we seemed to be running it at Lewis. And the real reason why this is a problem is because the rest of the league is notorious for replicating the Pats' gameplans. There was a stat a year or two ago that broke down teams' winning percentages before they played the Pats vs. after, and the discrepancy was startling. Belichick identifies teams' weaknesses, and they get exploited for the rest of the season, and as I see it the defensive liability that Belichick targeted was Ray Lewis. I could definitely be wrong, but I'll be interested to see if he continues to get picked on.
