Dominant in the 1st half. Duds in the 2nd. Good luck figuring out these Ravens.

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Inside the 2026 Ravens, there are two teams. One is a Super Bowl contender. The other is a fiasco. The trouble for coach Jesse Minter is that they get equal billing on game days.

The First-Half Ravens are one of the NFL’s best teams. They’ve led all but one game at halftime this season, outscoring opponents by a combined 65 points, most in the league. By net expected points added per play, no team has been better, according to Sumer Sports.

The Second-Half Ravens, as they showed again inside M&T Bank Stadium, are one of the NFL’s worst teams. They’ve been outscored after halftime in every game but one, their gross differential running to minus-70 points, also most in the league, after 35 unanswered Sunday from the Cincinnati Bengals. By net EPA per play, only the Eagles have been a worse second-half team — and Philadelphia hasn’t faced a schedule as soft as the Ravens’.

The Ravens’ issues, abundantly clear over the final 30 minutes of a 35-13 loss to Cincinnati (4-2), are profound and deep-seated. Minter has wanted this team to be at its best when its best is needed. Almost every week, the Ravens (4-3) take that message to heart, then leave it behind in their locker room at halftime.

“We can be so much better than we’re playing, and I think everybody knows that. You see it in spurts,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said after a second straight loss — and second straight second-half shutout — dropped the Ravens to 0-2 in AFC North play for the first time since 2007. “But this game isn’t a 40-minute ballgame. It’s not a 30-minute ballgame. It’s a 60-minute ballgame [with] four quarters, and we have to find a way to play a complete game with all of them.”

There is a cruel irony to the worst loss of this confounding Ravens season blotting out maybe the team’s most impressive half all year. At halftime, the First-Half Ravens, despite missing star quarterback Lamar Jackson (ankle) and top lineman Vega Ioane (knee), led the Bengals, easily the most well-rounded opponent they’d faced through seven weeks, by 13 points. The First-Half Ravens outgained Cincinnati 258-59, held star quarterback Joe Burrow to 43 yards passing and kept the Bengals out of field goal range on their four possessions.

Then the Second-Half Ravens took the field. The Bengals scored a touchdown on their first drive. The Second-Half Ravens went three-and-out. The Bengals scored a touchdown on their second drive. The Second-Half Ravens went for it on fourth-and-short and failed.

A tailspin accelerated into a doom spiral. The Bengals scored three more touchdowns in the first nine minutes of the fourth quarter, the stands emptying with each one. The Ravens’ franchise-worst 35-0 second half might’ve turned out even worse, too, if not for the mercy of Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor, who rested Burrow to insert longtime Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco for the Bengals’ sixth and final drive.

The defeat was the Ravens’ third this season with a blown double-digit lead. A week ago, in a last-second 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns, they were held scoreless after the second quarter and outscored 13-0 in the second half. After Sunday’s collapse, Minter called the Ravens “too much of a momentum team.”

“In the first half, I thought there was really some good in all three phases,” he said. “Then again, [there were] some opportunities where you can create even more that we didn’t take advantage of. Then, in the second half, we let the game kind of snowball on us once it got going and, obviously, got to find a way for that not to happen.”

Their roads to ruin on offense and defense are eerily similar. In the first quarter, the Ravens’ offense and defense rank third in EPA per play. In the second quarter, they rank fourth and third, respectively. In the third quarter, 22nd and 22nd, respectively. In the fourth quarter, 28th and 32nd, respectively.

There is no obvious culprit on either side of the ball, though getting Jackson healthy for Sunday’s game against the AFC East-leading Buffalo Bills would help both. On offense, the Ravens’ yards per play has fallen by more than a yard after halftime, from a top-five mark (6.5 yards) to a more mediocre mark (5.3 yards), undone by quick-fading passing and running games. Ill-timed penalties haven’t helped; the Ravens were flagged 10 times for 57 yards Sunday.

The Ravens’ run defense has regularly softened, and their pass defense has mostly collapsed. In the first half, opposing quarterbacks have completed 59.4% of their passes for 548 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. In the second half, they’ve completed 71.3% of their passes for 1,078 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions. By efficiency, the First-Half Ravens have made the typical opposing quarterback look like 2025 Cooper Rush. The Second-Half Ravens have made him look like, well, 2026 Joe Burrow.

“There’s something in there that’s missing,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said of the Ravens’ defense, which Burrow torched after his tepid first half (16-for-18 for 249 yards and four touchdowns). “But, obviously [it’s] there a lot, but it’s not there all the time. So just finding that and chasing that, play in and play out, quarter in and quarter out, regardless of the circumstance and being detached from the result, like I said. We will do that. But, obviously, it’s tough dropping these two.”

This is not a good time for an identity crisis. The Ravens are at the bottom of the AFC North after consecutive divisional losses. After Sunday’s trip to Orchard Park, New York, they will face the AFC South-leading Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9, the NFC South-leading Carolina Panthers in Week 11 and the über-talented (if über-inconsistent) Houston Texans in Week 12.

Wide receiver Zay Flowers (eight catches for 137 yards and one touchdown), who along with quarterback Tyler Huntley (298 yards passing, one touchdown, one interception) powered the First-Half Ravens, said the team is “not losing hope.” Running back Derrick Henry (45 rushing yards) said the Ravens “know how to get back up.” They nearly climbed out of a 1-5 hole last year.

But, with every frustrating week, the Ravens become a little more familiar with their vertiginous heights and their perilous lows. They have been good enough for long enough this season, Minter said, to know that inside them is a good team. They have also been bad enough for long enough to know that a bad team lurks inside, too.

“Right now,” Minter said, “I think it’s just a big point in the season for us to determine what type of team we want to be.”