Ravens' Season Isn't Over, But It's 'Teetering'
The phrase "add insult to injury" is apt to sum up the Ravens' 37-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Not only were the Ravens outplayed for the second week in a row to fall to 1-3, but an already banged-up squad saw one starter after another leave the game early with an injury, including quarterback Lamar Jackson (hamstring), left tackle Ronnie Stanley (ankle), inside linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring), and cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey (calf) and Nate Wiggins (elbow).
The Ravens' list of injured players looks like a Pro Bowl roster.
Following the defeat, pundits looked at the state of the Ravens and assessed their chances of digging out of the hole they find themselves in.
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley: "Is the Ravens' season over at 1-3? It's definitely teetering. The Ravens have been 1-3 in only two previous seasons (2005 and 2015) and they failed to reach the postseason each time. There is always hope with quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has led Baltimore to the playoffs in all five seasons that he has finished, but he left in the third quarter because of a hamstring injury. The biggest hurdle for the Ravens is a reeling defense, which has given up 133 points – the most in the first four games of a season in franchise history."
The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec and Jayna Bardahl: "The Ravens will presumably say it's early in the season. They'll bring up that their schedule lightens up and they have an early bye to give guys a chance to heal. They may even mention that they won't have another road game in a month. Regardless, it's undeniable that this looks like a team in big trouble. Jackson looks frustrated and is suddenly mistake-prone. The defense is a mess. And the injuries to key players are starting to mount. By halftime of Sunday's game, the Ravens were without six defensive starters. Without so many key players, it's hard to see this getting better any time soon."
USA Today’s Joe Rivera: "The Ravens are sitting at 1-3 and were in a bad way even before Lamar Jackson's hamstring injury. Yes, the Chiefs are the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes is Patrick Mahomes – but the Ravens simply did not look crisp, prepared, or like in any way AFC championship contenders in their Week 4 loss. It's probably not too early to sound the alarm bells, either."
The Baltimore Sun’s Sam Cohn: "This season is on life support. The schedule gets easier from here, but there is every reason to worry about where the Ravens go from here if their health doesn't improve. Grab the panic button and cautiously hold your hand above it while we await injury news."
CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin: "Baltimore is in significant danger of seeing its season slip away soon. The Ravens were decimated by injuries coming into the game already, with Nnamdi Madubuike and Broderick Washington on injured reserve and Kyle Van Noy and Travis Jones out for the game. To then lose three more defensive starters (cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins, plus linebacker Roquan Smith) is absolutely brutal. The defense cannot get stops, either. It has given up at least 322 yards to each opponent, and allowed every non-Browns opponent to score at least 37 points. The Ravens haven't forced any of those non-Browns opponents to turn the ball over, and they've yielded at least 24 first downs to each of them as well. The Ravens usually play their way into shape on defense over the course of the season as they zero in on the best way to utilize their personnel, but things are looking particularly bleak at the moment."
CBS Sports' Tony Romo: "You can't afford many more losses before you have to go on some crazy run. This is a huge two- to three-week stretch for the Ravens. If I'm a Ravens fan, I'm concerned right now."
The Baltimore Banner’s Paul Mancano: "Stating the obvious: Nothing matters more to the 1-3 Ravens than the health of their two-time MVP. If Lamar Jackson's hamstring strain keeps him out for multiple weeks, Baltimore will be lucky to enter the Week 7 bye with more than one win. Even if Jackson returns soon, the Ravens have massive issues on defense and multiple injured stars to work through. It's too early to say the Ravens' Super Bowl dreams have faded. But they seem awfully hazy."
The Ringer’s Steven Ruiz: "If the Ravens can get to their bye in Week 7 without falling out of the AFC North race, I'd still consider them the favorites to win the division. The schedule gets a lot easier after these next two weeks, and it's hard to see the Steelers, whose schedule gets tougher in a few weeks, or a Joe Burrow–less Bengals team running away from the Ravens. But with Baltimore already three games back in the race for home field advantage in the playoffs thanks to two tiebreaking losses to Buffalo and Kansas City, they'll be looking at another tough road through the playoffs — provided they can make it there."
Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame: "For Baltimore, this season is reminiscent of last year in some ways, but also much more concerning in others. In 2024, the Ravens were awful defensively through their first 10 games, allowing 25.3 points per game. The Ravens then adjusted, moving Ar'Darious Washington from corner to safety alongside All-Pro Kyle Hamilton. From there, the Ravens went 5–2, permitting 15.4 points per game to catapult themselves to a second consecutive AFC North title. That same script could play out. The Ravens could move around some personnel, find the right mix and get rolling. But they also have the aforementioned crush of injuries which didn't exist last season and they were 7–3 last season when they found the right mix defensively. That record seems highly unlikely given the roster's current state. However, the schedule could be favorable, with three consecutive home games against the Texans, Rams and Bears before road games against the Dolphins, Vikings and Browns."
Chiefs Again Stymied Jackson and Ravens Offense
The Ravens defense continues to play below its standard, but the offense, which entered Sunday's game leading the league in scoring, struggled to put points on the board after the opening touchdown drive.
Jackson looks like Superman against most of the league, but the Chiefs continue to be the team that he once referred to as the Ravens' kryptonite. The two-time MVP is 71-27 as a starter, but just 1-6 against the Chiefs, including an 0-4 mark in Kansas City.
Instead of Jackson and the Ravens exorcising their demons, it was another exercise in frustration.
"Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had Jackson's head in a spinner," NFL.com’s Kevin Patra wrote. "The blitz-happy coordinator brought pressure from every angle. The linebacking spies didn't allow the swift QB to find space to scamper free. After the opening-drive Ravens score, K.C. allowed just 167 total yards on the next six Jackson drives. In that span, the Chiefs forced two turnovers, a turnover on downs, and held Baltimore to six points. The Chiefs pressured Jackson on 48.1% of the QB's dropbacks and earned three sacks. Add that to holding Derrick Henry to 42 yards on eight carries with a long of 14 yards, and it was a smothering performance by Spag's crew."
Press Box’s Bo Smolka noted that the Chiefs followed the defensive blueprint the Detroit Lions drew up against the Ravens in Week 3.
"The Chiefs employed a scheme much like the Lions did a week ago, using a 'spy' linebacker to read Jackson and keep the middle of the field occupied, then range with Jackson if he moved, while blitzers and other rushers brought the heat," Smolka wrote. "The NFL is a copycat league, and the Ravens can expect to see that kind of pressure and scheme again and again until they show they can handle it."
Injury Woes Bring Back Bad Memories of 2015 Ravens
The Ravens were the healthiest team in the NFL by a wide margin last season, and duplicating that good fortune was unlikely. But to go from one end of the injury spectrum to the other is jarring.
The spate of injuries is reminiscent of what the 2015 Ravens experienced.
"By season's end, the 2015 Baltimore Ravens had 19 players on injured reserve," Zrebiec wrote. "Any chance of the Ravens stabilizing their season after an 0-3 start ended with an unrelenting wave of injuries to key players. Baltimore finished 5-11, the first losing season of John Harbaugh's head-coaching career.
"It's still premature to predict that fate for the 2025 Ravens, but the similarities are getting harder to ignore. For starters, that was the last time before Sunday that Harbaugh's team was 1-3."
Hamilton Earns Praise for Leadership Skills
When asking a question to Hamilton in the postgame press conference, a reporter noted that the All-Pro safety was one of the few remaining healthy starters on defense, to which Hamilton used the podium to "knock wood."
The Baltimore Banner’s Kyle Goon said that if Hamilton were to end up being the last man standing on the unit, it couldn't be in better hands.
"With injuries to Nnamdi Madubuike, Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey and a whole host of others, the Ravens' defense might just be too broken to fix this year. And yet, if there is one guy in the locker room you'd want trying to tackle a problem that may be too big to solve, it's Hamilton," Goon wrote.
Goon noted that Hamilton's undeniable talent is matched by his leadership skills.
"We may be watching the Ravens' 2025 campaign implode. But I also believe we are watching Hamilton, who has established himself as one of the league's best defensive backs, mature in real time — which reflects positively for the Ravens' chances to win Super Bowls beyond this season," Goon wrote. "His leadership has been apparent when the Ravens have been at the top of the heap. Now that they've stumbled, his leadership is apparent as well."
Goon praised Hamilton for his accountability, which included apologizing for comments he made earlier in the week that rubbed some Ravens fans the wrong way.
"I feel like earlier in the week I used a poor choice of words just saying Ravens fans were spoiled. I retract that," Hamilton said. "I meant that in a sense that Ravens fans have been accustomed to great defense, great teams. There haven't been a lot of teams in Ravens history since '96 that have underachieved to the point where fans felt disappointed in the season as a whole. And I felt like as of right now in Week 4, obviously, a long way to go in this season, but we're disappointed and I'm sure the fans are disappointed too."
