The Ravens had to feel good jogging into the locker room.
They had a 13-0 lead. Starting in place of an injured Lamar Jackson for a third straight game, backup quarterback Tyler Huntley and the Ravens offense was playing well. Defensively, the Ravens capped six straight quarters of holding Joe Burrow and the potent Bengals offense off the scoreboard.
The second half was a very different story.
The Bengals reeled off five straight touchdown drives in the second half against Baltimore's defense. The Ravens offense was shut out in the second half for a second straight week.
The Ravens not only lost, 35-13, Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals. It was one of the starkest second-half turnarounds in franchise and NFL history.
The 35 points were tied for the most the Ravens have ever allowed in a second half. It was the first time and opponent scored 35 unanswered. Not since 1950 had a team lost by 20-plus points after leading by 13 or more at halftime, per the Associated Press.
The Ravens now have a plus-65 scoring differential in the first half versus minus-62 in the second half this season â a massive difference that is still hard to explain.
Head Coach Jesse Minter and Ravens players did their best to do so after the game. Minter's takeaway was multifaceted â one of mentality, scheme, and execution â but he addressed the mental side first.
"Right now, we're too much of a momentum team," he said during his opening comments. "We're riding the wave when it's good, and we're riding the wave when it's bad."
The Ravens held the lead at halftime in all three of their losses and now sit in last place in the AFC North because they weren't able to hold on in any of them.
"The message is that I think in every game we've proven that we're good enough to be the type of team that we want to be, and we've proven that we're bad enough to be a not very good team as well," Minter said.
"There's a consistency level that we need to find where it's less riding the wave of momentum and more about staying even-keeled and finding a way to have each other's back and finding a way to pick each other up. You can look at really all three phases in the second half of completely momentum-losing type of plays."
The momentum began to shift from the start of the second half when the Bengals marched down the field for a nine-play, 66-yard touchdown drive. The Ravens offense responded with a three-and-out. The Ravens then gave up a 31-yard punt return.
A hush fell over M&T Bank Stadium, and players said they felt the momentum shifting under their feet.
The Bengals took the lead on their next drive. Baltimore's offense responded with a 10-play drive that reached Cincinnati's 12-yard line. The Ravens gambled, going for it on fourth-and-2 to try to recapture the game's momentum, but rookie tight end Josh Cuevas collided with a Bengals defender on a crossing route, which left Huntley's pass in his direction incomplete.
On the next play, safety Kyle Hamilton missed a would-be tackle for loss on Bengals running back Chase Brown. Linebacker Trenton Simpson missed a sack when he had an open lane, and Burrow hit Tee Higgins for a 44-yard gain. To cap it off, Hamilton missed another tackle for loss opportunity on the goal line, as Bengals running back Samaje Perine scored on a 1-yard run.
Those were far from the only mistakes in the second half Sunday, but they exemplified what Minter is trying to correct.
"In the second half, we let the game kind of snowball on us once it got going, and obviously, [we have] got to find a way for that not to happen," Minter said.
"But only we can change that. ⊠That's what we need to understand is we have complete control over that mentality."
The Ravens' offensive problems are exacerbated by Jackson's absence, which makes Baltimore's passing game less explosive and the run game easier to crack down on with extra defenders and aggressiveness.
Baltimore entered the past two weeks knowing it needed to run the ball well against two AFC North rivals to win. They didn't do so well either week, as Derrick Henry had just 45 yards on 17 carries (2.6 per attempt).
"Just not good enough at all," Henry said. "We started off, I feel like, on a good note, getting things going and then fazed out. Two weeks straight of that. I think it's on us."
Offensive line injuries have been part of that in recent weeks. The Ravens were hopeful that the arrival of center Cam Jurgens, who made his debut Sunday after a concussion, would solve the problem and allow the offensive line to build momentum. That lasted less than a quarter, as rookie first-round guard Vega Ioane left with a knee injury.
Still, the Ravens have started the game with an opening touchdown drive in back-to-back weeks only to see the offense falter more as the game plays out. The Ravens haven't scored a second-half touchdown in four of seven games this season, including three of the last four.
"We need to make sure that we go into the game with enough plays and enough adjustments â and forward-thinking adjustments â of what teams may do so that in the second half we have a great plan to help us be able to move the ball," Minter said.
Some of the Ravens' most veteran players agreed with Minter's analysis.
Defensive lineman Calais Campbell said, "once momentum got away from us, it was like quicksand."
Inside linebacker Roquan Smith said he's tired of hearing about the Ravens losing second-half leads, "but it's about chasing that consistency, and finding that missing piece."
Left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who has been with the Ravens since 2016, is the longest-tenured of anyone on the team. He's seen Baltimore lose late leads in recent years, but over the past two weeks, it was a second half problem â not just the waning minutes.
Stanley was asked if there's a "here-we-go-again feeling" that starts to creep in when the game turns south.
"I'm sure that can seep into the psyche of guys out there. Guys are humans, and that's something that we're trying to beat," Stanley said.
"We talk about it a lot. We can't just live by momentum and what's going on in the game. We have to just focus on our standard and what we expect. If we're down 40Â [points], if we're up 40, we should have the same mentality going out there on the field."
