Ravens defensive tackle Haloti Ngata said last week that injuries to his knee and shoulder have kept him from playing the way he’d like this season.
The injuries weren’t enough to force Ngata, who didn’t record a tackle in the Week 10 win over the Browns, into street clothes for Sunday’s 55-20 win over the Raiders, but they were enough to keep the Ravens from putting Ngata on the field. Ngata didn’t play a snap in the game, something he said afterwards was precautionary as opposed to any setback that would have made playing impossible.
“We were hoping that we wouldn’t have to play him,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said, via the Baltimore Sun. “It turned out that we didn’t have to play him.”
The Ravens have their first date of the season with the Steelers next Sunday and a Steelers win on Monday night will put the division lead on the table in that game. It’s unlikely that the Ravens will be able to cruise to such an easy victory in that game without Ngata, making it easy to understand why they’d want to do anything possible to make sure he’s feeling well enough to play at a higher level than we’ve seen in recent weeks.
Rookie DeAngelo Tyson started in Ngata’s place and deflected a pair of passes to help the Ravens overwhelm Oakland.