In 2011, Ngata scored his first NFL regular season touchdown when he recovered a fumble forced by Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis on St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. A week later against the New York Jets, a sack by Ngata forced a Mark Sanchez fumble, which fellow Baltimore defender Jarret Johnson, who scored one of three defesnive touchdowns for the Ravens in that game. It later emerged that Ngata played much of the rest of the year injured, which would explain his decline in production.