The Baltimore Ravens entered this season as the betting Super Bowl favorite, boasting a Pro Bowl-filled roster that seemed primed to help quarterback Lamar Jackson capture that elusive championship.
One month later, Baltimore has gone from a contender to an early-season catastrophe. After Sunday’s painful 37-20 loss at the Kansas City Chiefs, the Ravens have tied the worst start in the franchise’s 30-year history and have watched their playoff aspirations take a hit with a 1-3 record.
With Baltimore getting pushed around by similar championship-caliber teams, its struggles on both sides of the ball are only matched by its list of injured starters which includes Jackson, who left Sunday’s game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury. Inside the quiet postgame locker rooms, the players have repeatedly looked stunned about the surprising meltdowns on defense and the problems to protect Jackson.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh faces the challenge of digging his team out of a hole that few have been able to climb out from. In the Super Bowl era (since 1966), only 10.6% of teams that started 1-3 were able to rebound and make the playoffs (43 of 405 teams).
“I’m concerned, but I’m not overwhelmed by it,” Harbaugh said of the disappointing start.
The way the Ravens have lost this season has been cause for concern. In the season opener, Baltimore failed to hold a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter and lost at the Buffalo Bills 41-40. In Week 3, the Ravens allowed their most rushing yards (224) in eight years in a 38-30 loss to the Detroit Lions. And, on Sunday, Baltimore fell apart as five starters left with injuries in its most lopsided loss in four seasons.
“We have issues that we’re dealing with,” Harbaugh said, “and we have to deal with them in a real smart way.”
Since the NFL expanded to a 16-game schedule in 1978, the Ravens are the third preseason Super Bowl favorite to start 1-3 or worse through the first four games. The other teams — the 1987 New York Giants and the 2002 St. Louis, now Los Angeles Rams — both missed the postseason.
But the Ravens aren’t panicking because they have a more favorable schedule the rest of the way, beginning with Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans (1-3) (1 p.m. ET, CBS). Baltimore remains the favorite to win the AFC North and has a 69.7% chance to reach the playoffs, according to ESPN Analytics.
Despite how much has gone wrong in September, the Ravens don’t appear daunted by what lies ahead.
“Bring it on,” running back Derrick Henry said. “I look at it with a positive mindset. We are 1-3. Nobody is going to come out and do it for us. We have to go back to work.”
THE RAVENS’ CHANCES of bouncing back depend on the health of Jackson, who was last seen limping out of the locker room, and their ability to protect him.
On Monday, Harbaugh declined to say whether Jackson would play Sunday but made it clear that the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player was in no condition to return after injuring his hamstring.
“There was no way he was going to go back into the game,” Harbaugh said. “The injury precluded it.”
If Jackson can’t play, Cooper Rush is expected to fill in for him. In the past, the Ravens have faltered without Jackson.
Since Jackson became the starting quarterback in the middle of the 2018 season, the Ravens are 74-32 (.698) with him, averaging 28.1 points per game. Without Jackson over that span, Baltimore is 4-10, averaging 16.6 points per game with the likes of Tyler Huntley, Robert Griffin III, Josh Johnson and Anthony Brown Jr.
“It’s definitely a big impact,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “Losing Lamar is losing Lamar.”
With Jackson, the Ravens have shown they can go on a run. In Jackson’s previous seven seasons, Baltimore has put together six winning streaks where the Ravens have won five or more games in a row.
The key is keeping Jackson healthy. He has been sacked 15 times in four games this season. This comes after Jackson was sacked 23 times in 17 games last season.
Before he was knocked out of Sunday’s game, Jackson was under duress on 56% of his dropbacks, which was the highest pressure rate he has ever faced in a game with at least 10 dropbacks, according to ESPN Research. Harbaugh was critical of how offensive coordinator Todd Monken handled the blitzes by the Chiefs.
“I think we didn’t stick to the plan that we had,” Harbaugh said. “We had an idea of how we wanted to approach their defense, and we didn’t stick to it. I’m not happy about it, and neither is anybody, none of our coaches are happy about it, especially — I’m talking about the coaches right now. That was us. So, it was not a good job.”
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HAMILTON, A TWO-TIME Pro Bowl safety, began his postgame media session by apologizing to the fans.
“The product that we’re putting on the field right now is not up to par with what the Ravens have been in the past and have been in the recent past,” he said. “I think we know that. We’re trying our best to correct it, but obviously, something is wrong, so it’s up to all of us to try and fix that.”
The Ravens’ underachieving defense has been a big reason for the slow start. Baltimore has given up 37 or more points in all three losses. The Ravens rank 31st in total yards allowed, 27th against the run and 31st against the pass.
Harbaugh supported defensive coordinator Zach Orr on Monday when asked if Orr was the right coach to turn the defense around.
“I have confidence in all of our guys, including Zach, our players, our coaches, and I watch our guys every day,” Harbaugh said, “watch how they work. I watch how well they coach. I’m in meetings, I watch the meetings, I know the schemes that we’re running. I know the soundness of what we’re doing. I understand what we’re up against from week to week and play to play even in this game. This is a challenging game against a good offense.”
Harbaugh then added, “I really feel confident that we’re going to play really good defense this year. I really am. I know the fans hear that, and I hope they have a little bit of confidence in us that we’ve been down this road before a little bit. We do need to get healthy, for sure.”
Of Baltimore’s 11 starters on defense, seven of them are dealing with injuries, including four Pro Bowl defenders. The most significant loss is defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, who has been ruled out for the season with a neck injury.
The Ravens also placed defensive end Broderick Washington Jr. (ankle) on injured reserve and had two other starters — outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy (hamstring) and nose tackle Travis Jones (knee) inactive on Sunday. Then, three more starters left Sunday’s game with an injury: middle linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring) and cornerbacks Nate Wiggins (elbow) and Marlon Humphrey (calf).
“Obviously, you’re losing multiple All-Pro guys, and that’s not going to help a defense,” Hamilton said. “But again, I think guys came in [and] had the right mindset. Anybody who’s out there could make a play, could do their jobs to the best of their abilities and just play hard. That’s the price of entry – just playing hard. We’ll deal with the result later, but obviously, we want a better one. But if you play hard, then you can play for us.”
AT THE START of training camp, the Ravens tried to downplay one of the toughest starts to a schedule in team history. In September, Baltimore had to face the Bills, Lions and Chiefs, all of whom were a combined 43-8 last season.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley said in July. “You’re going to go against tough opponents here and there, and it’s going to come in clusters. You just kind have to roll with it.”
Even though the Ravens were favored in every game, Baltimore fell to 1-3 for the third time, equaling the poor starts in 2005 and 2015.
“The three losses are against probably three of the top teams in the league, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “That’s just the hand we’ve been dealt, but it doesn’t really matter. We have to win the next game. And then once you win the next game, then you have a chance to start stacking some wins.”
The Ravens’ remaining games get much easier. Over the final 14 weeks, Baltimore’s strength of schedule ranks 25th in the NFL.
The Ravens have home games against the Texans and the Rams before their bye. After the week off, Baltimore doesn’t play a team currently with a winning record over a five-game stretch (the Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns and New York Jets).
Then, the Ravens head into the final stretch, where Jackson is often at his best. Jackson is 22-4 (.846) in regular season games in December and January, which is the best among quarterbacks with at least 10 starts.
But the players are taking a more short-sighted approach in trying to get their season back on track.
“I’m trying to focus on here and now,” Hamilton said. “In Week 16, if we’re 12-4, we’d be like, ‘Damn, we would’ve been 15-1 if we didn’t lose those games.’ We can’t think like that. We have to think about the Texans this week and focus on getting that win, getting to 2-3. You can’t get to 3-3 without getting to 2-3. [We need to] focus on them. Don’t even want to worry about who we play after that. Don’t even worry about when our bye week is. Just focus on the Houston Texans coming to the Ravens and us beating them.”
