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You might want to say "the defense minus their best CB and their best pass rusher was the side of the ball that allowed BAL to score 3 straight TDs in the last 20 minutes or so of the game". It's hard to compete when you've lost your best pressure option and your best big CB to man up on the bigger WRs. We saw in the divisional games that even Seattle's very good secondary had trouble stopping Matt Ryan from driving down the field in 30 seconds with the game on the line when they didn't have Chris Clemons and couldn't get effective pressure.
But yes, the defense will have to do better, injuries or not. So will the offense, which squandered multiple red zone chances and turned the ball over multiple times.
I will concede that the defense was playing much better prior to the departure of Talib, but this trend has been ongoing now for quite some time, and that's why I am not as inclined to give them as much benefit of the doubt as you may be due to injuries.
The defense has given up 33, 28, 28 in 3 of the last 5 playoff losses, and the other 2 were the entire field driving late game losing TD's in the past 2 SB's.
Talib's injury may have a lot to do with it this year, and I agree that they seemed to be growing and progressing on that side of the ball, but even this year we saw some pretty major defensive collapses. Until this side of the ball can continue to progress to the point where the secondary is no longer a liability against the pass, we will need to score 30+ in every single game.
The problem is that once you get to the playoffs, scoring 30+ becomes incredibly difficult due to better matchups, and more talented defenses overall. In my opinion it really shouldn't even be expected.