The only thing worse than lining up against the Ravens’ defensive legends of the past might be disappointing them.
In the plodding final minutes of Baltimore’s embarrassing 35-13 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday, former All-Pro linebacker Terrell Suggs tweeted his dismay: “35 UNANSWERED “MF” POINTS?!”
Hall of Famer Ed Reed commented: “Wow, terrible coaching decisions week in week out crazy!”
You can only imagine what other Ravens alums were thinking in their own private corners, wondering what has become of a franchise that used to be synonymous with ironclad, willful defense. Throughout the last 30 years, if you came to Baltimore, win or lose, you were leaving black and blue. The Ravens of the past left their mark.
These players are so far below that standard that franchise legends are calling them out. And they deserve the thrashing.
Only three previous times had Baltimore allowed 35 points in the second half — and they had never been unanswered. The last instance in 2022 against Miami, the Ravens managed 10 second-half points. It was still one of the most gutting losses ever, but there was at least a bit of juice coming out of the locker room.
Lamar Jackson is still shelved with an ankle injury, but there’s no excuse for falling this far — especially on defense. Kyle Hamilton is here. Trey Hendrickson is here. Roquan Smith and Nnamdi Madubuike and Marlon Humphrey are all here.
That particular quintet accounts for half a billion dollars ($507.9 million, if we’re being exact) in contracts that the Ravens have awarded in the last few years. The Ravens bypassed more experienced head coaching candidates for Jesse Minter, who carried a reputation as a defensive guru.
And yet these guys can’t hold a double-digit lead to save their lives.
Suggs, Reed and Ray Lewis all had bad losses in their time but never quite this bad. Part of the accounting in the coming week should require the defensive players to look at the busts in the halls of the team’s Owings Mills practice facility and ask if they have earned the right to wear the same purple and black after their efforts the last two weeks.
It’s not just a question of whether the locker room can keep its composure. It’s if Ravens are playing hard enough to keep this franchise’s pride.
Smith was one of the few defensive leaders still in the locker room to talk to reporters when the media shuffled in. At least he understands the predicament.
“Especially in the second half, that wasn’t to the standard of ‘Play like a Raven,’” Smith said. “It’s about us chasing that. And, regardless of words, chasing consistency, play in, play out, that’s something we all have to do.”
It’s even more frustrating that this Ravens group showed the ability to compete at that level in the same game.
For one half, Minter’s unit was revved and ready, holding Joe Burrow to 43 yards and no touchdowns on 6-for-12 passing. It was pushing him around in the pocket, hitting the Bengals hard and keeping them off-balance. This energy helped push the Ravens to a 13-0 lead.
But no one in Baltimore is buying the act anymore. Ravens fans have seen enough blown leads to know it’s all about the second half. Next Gen Stats reported that Baltimore’s win probability peaked at 87.5% in the first half after its second field goal — but if I were a betting man, I would have put my house on that 12.5% outlier.
It’s the lack of finishing when the Ravens front gets pressure. It’s the missed tackles. It’s the busted coverages that go for more than they should. Minter isn’t above accountability either, he acknowledged. Burrow and his top-tier receivers were busting holes in the corner of his zone schemes, making his safeties look flat-footed.
The perfect illustration of the letdown was shown in two bookend plays. In the first quarter, Hamilton stuffed Bengals running back Samaje Perine for a loss on third down. In the fourth, he bounced off Perine, who traipsed into the end zone.
Say it out loud — 35 unanswered points! It’s a figure that makes those proud folks in the history of great Ravens defenses shudder. Part of the problem might be that this group doesn’t seem to have a tight connection to that legacy.
Look at some of the sound bites from the veterans of this defense last week. Humphrey joked that it would be better if he didn’t get matched up often with Ja’Marr Chase (and a missed fourth-quarter tackle he had is liable to be a Marlon meme until the end of time). Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time is kind of Humphrey’s hallmark at this point.
When Hendrickson was asked why the team let down in the second half again, he gave an internally focused response: “I go out there with everything I got every play, and the will to win is not out of my lungs. So taking care of my one-eleventh is my job, and elevating other people around me also.”
He may be the best pass rusher the Ravens have, but he’s not the charismatic leader who will rally this locker room. For all the money Baltimore paid him, it has gotten five tackles and two sacks out of the deal so far.
Minter has been in Baltimore before, so he gets the weight of history. But the tone he took after the loss — the second straight game in which his team was scoreless in the second half while allowing double-digit points — didn’t smack of the urgency you’d want to see from a coach who now is behind the rest of the AFC North in his first season. He said the Ravens need to stop riding waves of momentum and keep poise when the game feels like it’s slipping from their grasp.
“We have total control over that, and that’s what we need to understand,” he said.
The Ravens also have control of their pride. They can play defense with the passion of history behind them, with the shadows of Lewis, Reed and Suggs burnishing their resolve instead of weighing them down. If they can connect to a sense that they’re not just playing for themselves but for Baltimore’s legacy, I think we’ll see a higher level of execution.
Right now, there’s only one impression this group is leaving on Ravens history:
A stain.
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