In dominant debut win, Ravens ‘take the vision’ of Jesse Minter — and look like contenders

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INDIANAPOLIS — The planning for Sunday started almost eight months ago. Jesse Minter had earned the right to celebrate a little early. His Ravens were 95 seconds from a season-opening 41-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts, their offense was in victory formation inside Lucas Oil Stadium, and Rick Minter had a loving arm around his son.

Jesse looked overjoyed. And maybe a little relieved. This was what Ravens officials envisioned when they hired Minter as head coach in late January: explosive on offense, sturdy on defense, reliable on special teams. The buildup to Week 1 had been immense, a strange brew of Super Bowl expectations and elementary team-building steps.

But, for much of their first 60 consequential minutes together, the Ravens looked like they were supposed to. And what if this is what a Jesse Minter-coached team looks like?

“The opener obviously sort of feels like that first real opportunity to be the type of team we want to be,” Minter said.

The Ravens brought fireworks to his head coaching debut. Led by quarterback Lamar Jackson (324 yards passing and 40 yards rushing), running back Derrick Henry (144 yards rushing and three touchdowns) and wide receiver Zay Flowers (career-high 150 yards receiving and one touchdown), the offense rolled for 506 yards and 7.9 yards per play. The Ravens’ 41 points matched the 2025 season high they set in a win over the Green Bay Packers last December.

Coordinator Declan Doyle’s pyrotechnics, along with injuries to Flowers (hamstring) and rookie wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane (wrist), overshadowed the Ravens’ own fire suppression systems. Last year, the Colts had the NFL’s best offense over the season’s first two months. On Sunday, they were held to 251 yards total, their fewest in 14 games with quarterback Daniel Jones as a starter. Indianapolis went just 3-for-10 on third down.

On defense, the Ravens were connected, opportunistic — and resilient. Indianapolis marched to the end zone on the game’s opening possession, covering 65 yards in nine plays. The Ravens’ presnap communication looked suspect; their pass defense, holey.

Over their next five possessions, however, the Colts had more turnovers (two) than first downs (one). Not until late in the second quarter, with the Ravens leading 28-6, did they cross midfield again.

“Jesse was talking to us about it like a boxing match,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “They’re going to throw punches, and we’ve got to take their punch and have a strong chin. So we threw more punches, and we landed more. And I thought that we responded well and just played the whole game.”

The result validated the Ravens’ preseason focuses, big and small. Teaching points surfaced throughout. Jackson played on time and in rhythm — except on broken plays, when he scrambled like his old self. Receivers converted into blockers almost instinctively downfield, helping pave the way for 171 yards after the catch, according to Pro Football Focus.

Offensive linemen fired off the line in Doyle’s outside-zone-heavy run game. Defenders swarmed to the ball and tried to rip it away. Explosive pass plays were kept in check; Jones had just one completion of at least 15 air yards.

And, as the game’s momentum tipped Indianapolis’ way in the second half, the Ravens played as if unafraid of their old ghosts. Their 31-16 lead entering the fourth quarter felt surprisingly tenuous; coach John Harbaugh had lost his job in part because of the team’s history of late-game collapses.

With Flowers sidelined the Ravens’ offense was suddenly off track, and their run defense looked vulnerable.

The Ravens did not wobble for long. Henry scored a 3-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 38-16. After the Colts answered with a touchdown themselves, the Ravens killed over six minutes of game clock with a 10-play, 43-yard field goal drive. They had the ball for the game’s final 3:22, too.

The Ravens were not at their very best when their best was needed late. But they were certainly good enough. Too often last season, leads gave way to letdowns.

“Last year’s flushed,” outside linebacker Tavius Robinson said. “We’re focused, one game at a time. And we’re going to do that the whole way through.”

Said running back Justice Hill: “We always want to take the vision of the coach. He’s always preached, ‘Be the best when your best is needed.’ And today’s game day, we were the best team on the field.”

Minter’s opener doubled as a reminder of how far he’s come — not only since January but since his coaching career started. Two decades ago, he was a defensive coaching intern at Notre Dame, about a 150-mile drive from Indianapolis.

On Sunday, he had a wife, three kids and a Ravens team eager to celebrate his debut win in the locker room. Inside linebacker Roquan Smith joked that “every guy” spoke up as the team handed out game balls, including one for Minter himself.

Afterward, Minter called the moment with his dad, a longtime college coach and now an analyst on the Ravens’ staff, “surreal.” The enormity of the afternoon, he acknowledged, hadn’t fully sunk in.

“There’s so much work that goes into this, and it’s not about me,” Minter said. “It’s about these guys and the work that we have all put in together over the time so far. I told them, ‘Now you get a lot of time for that first game, but now we have to get into a rhythm.’ Because now it’s a normal week and we have to figure out what that looks like and make sure that we are ready to play our style of football, play to our identity, play to our best version of ourselves every week. If we do that, we will be able to live with the results.”