Ravens' defense was manhandled by Cowboys

For the second straight week, the Ravens’ run defense was gutted. It was painful and embarrassing to watch because run defense has been a major point of pride for the Ravens since the Super Bowl-winning season in 2000.

While the Ravens were celebrating their 5-1 record Sunday, there was major concern about a defense that allowed 227 yards rushing -- a franchise record -- and 481 yards of total offense. The Ravens got physically manhandled and also missed a lot of tackles.

“I don’t like it. I think it’s just disgusting, and we need to fix it right away because we’ve got a good Houston team that we’re going to play against next week,” said Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata. “So we’ve just got to find out what we need to do and fix those things and hopefully we can get better as these weeks go along.”

Ravens safety Ed Reed, who missed a lot of tackles, didn’t seem as concerned, especially about the whiffs.

“That’s about fundamentals and technique and wrapping up,” Reed said.

“That’s what it comes down to. We know that everybody here has that attitude and knows how to tackle. It’s just a matter of us putting it all together. Guys were a little fatigued. And you’ve got to look at it like Dallas is a great team. They came in here with the heart of a champion to win today, and they played a hard-fought game. Hats off to them. They came in, and I actually started counting their running backs. Like how many did they have, man? It was like, ‘God, here’s another one.’”

Instead of counting them, Reed should have tried tackling them.