Every stadium the Ravens go to, about “10 coaches” go up to Kyle Van Noy and tell him: “My brother, you have BEEN around.”
At least that’s how a widely grinning David Ojabo told the tale following the Ravens’ 35-10 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. The 24-year-old outside linebacker emphasized 33-year-old Van Noy’s age and experience in the same breath that he marveled at his youthfulness after Van Noy’s third straight two-sack performance.
“KV is that boy, that man,” Ojabo said, barely containing his laughter, as Van Noy shook his head from the locker beside him. “He’s a vet. He doesn’t age. And he’s got Gucci on his chest.”
“The old man out there ballin’, having fun,” defensive tackle Travis Jones added with a snicker. “[...] He just an old man. The way he act, the way he carry himself — he’s just older.”
Van Noy’s age was a common theme in interviews with Ravens pass rushers after the game. He’s at least six years older than his fellow outside linebackers, and he’s the oldest by 40 days if you throw in all the defensive linemen. Despite the jokes, every player made it clear how much he looks up to the veteran.
By stats alone, Van Noy commands respect from his teammates and opposing offenses. After going without a sack in the season opener, Van Noy has had two sacks each in the three games since for a total of six. Against the Bills, Van Noy had one of the most important defensive plays of the game when he strip-sacked Josh Allen on a trick play, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton.
But it’s more than that. Ojabo said Van Noy has set an example with how he works, and he passes his knowledge on to the younger players. Nnamdi Madubuike added that Van Noy has a high football IQ and knows how to impart his wisdom to the guys along the line in the midst of the game.
“He’s damn near a coach on the sideline,” Madubuike said. “He’s so smart. And he just knows things are coming before they even come.”
Despite being the third-oldest player on the team, Van Noy predicted big things for himself all the way back in minicamp.
Last season, he was a late addition to the Ravens, joining the team in Week 4. In just 14 games, he had nine sacks, a career high at 32. One more year hasn’t led to a decline in his athleticism — Ojabo said Van Noy is “almost” as fast as Odafe Oweh, who ran a 4.36-second 40-yard dash. But one more year has, in fact, made a difference in his pass rushing abilities.
Over the course of his career, Van Noy said, he’s filled a lot of responsibilities. Last season was a rare chance to focus on the pass rush. With a whole offseason and training camp to continue honing his skills, he hoped to see even more results than the nine sacks he had last year.
“I feel like hopefully — it’ll be like my third year ever out of my 11 that I get to focus on just pass rushing,” Van Noy said at minicamp. “The other year was in 2019, where I had a really good year. Last year was just all pass rush. So I’m expecting big things from myself, and hopefully you guys are, too.”
Less than a quarter of the way through the season, Van Noy is two-thirds of the way to his sack total from last year.
His teammates are picking up on his vibes.
The whole defensive line started doing a celebration in which they hold their hands up and bounce every time any of them does something good. They also did it on the sidelines as they watched the offense toward the end of the game. Neither Madubuike nor Jones knows what the celebration is called or where it came from.
“I just saw KV started doing it, so I just joined in,” Jones said, laughing.
But Van Noy’s game did more than just bring smiles to his teammates’ faces. Madubuike said his play was contagious, and the pass rush as a whole had a good night.
In addition to Van Noy, Oweh finished with a sack. Five players finished with a quarterback hit for a total of eight. Van Noy had three, Oweh had two and Ojabo, Madubuike and safety Eddie Jackson had one. Even rookie outside linebacker Adisa Isaac made a tackle for loss in his first NFL action.
Overall, the Ravens’ pressure rate was up to 37.8%, a big improvement over the first three weeks when it was 26.7%. It was a testament to the pass rushers figuring out how to finish their plays, Jones said. But it was also the result of new defensive coordinator Zach Orr’s plan and play calling. Jones said the plan relied on keeping Allen in the pocket as much as possible to allow the pass rush to get to him.
“We did good — I think we got to him a bunch,” Madubuike said. “Zach was calling up a bunch of plays that caused him a lot of pressure. He wanted to scramble through the B gap, and he didn’t do that, so he had to go through the perimeters, and that’s when he kind of threw those little crazy — he threw so many crazy, off, out-of-bounds throws. So that just shows how much pressure we were bringing toward the whole game.”
And the Ravens weren’t doing it against any old offensive line, either. The Bills were the No. 1 pass blocking team coming into the game with a win rate of 85%.
This, the pass rushers said, is who they truly are.
“Working as a cohesive unit, man, it goes a long way,” Ojabo said. “We have all the pieces. That’s never been in doubt. It was just bringing it all together. ... Happy all my dogs ate, man. It means the world when we win and we all do good.”
