The Baltimore Ravens have held a reputation of being a defense-first organization since the turn of the century—one earned by winning two Super Bowls and producing multiple All-Pros and Hall of Famers on that side of the ball.
It would be easy to port that reputation over to 2025; after all, the current Ravens defense features six former first-round picks (five of whom were drafted by Baltimore) in the starting lineup. And individually, stars like Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey and Roquan Smith check boxes that are synonymous with Ravens football over the past 25 years: fast, physical, relentless, and prepared to meet the biggest moments. The standard is that the Ravens defense should always be the one throwing the first, hardest, and most decisive punches. That’s the legacy left behind by champions such as Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and Haloti Ngata—and it’s become the expectation for the stars on that side of the ball today.
Those defense-first superlatives just don’t ring true right now, though. The Ravens enter a critical Week 4 game against Kansas City at 1-2. Those losses came against Detroit and Buffalo, two Super Bowl contenders whose high-powered offenses snatched control of their respective games away from Baltimore in the fourth quarter. As such, this has been a disastrous start to the season for the Ravens defense. Baltimore has allowed 46 fourth-quarter points in its first three weeks. That ties for the worst mark in the NFL over the last decade, a distinction shared with the objectively awful 2020 Falcons defense that got Dan Quinn fired as head coach. To make matters worse, this isn’t just a 2025 issue; the Ravens also had rocky starts in fourth-quarter points allowed in 2022 and 2024.
Great defenses finish games and make the plays necessary to get off the field in key situations, even against great quarterbacks or well-schemed offenses. The Ravens are doing the opposite. The Ravens are stranding Lamar Jackson on an island late in games, leaving their superstar two-time MVP quarterback helpless as the opposing offense marches down the field for go-ahead and put-away scores. Baltimore’s offense hasn’t been perfect (Derrick Henry’s three fumbles in three games is a concern), but it should not be unreasonable to ask that an offense averaging 37 points per game get better support, rather than making this sort of history:
It seems especially fair to make that request of a defense that includes multiple elite players, including safety Kyle Hamilton, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, and linebacker Roquan Smith—each of whom earn over $19 million per year and rank in the top 10 of the highest paid players at their respective positions. Hamilton might be the best off-ball defensive player in the league, with the range, versatility, ball skills, and sound tackling to line up anywhere from deep safety to linebacker and make an impact. The veteran Humphrey held the title as the NFL’s best slot defender early in his career, and still produces in that role and when lined up out on the perimeter. He’s typically excellent in zone coverage and as a blitzer. Madubuike, though currently sidelined with a neck injury, wreaks havoc on the interior by slashing through gaps to create opportunities in the backfield, while Smith is a prototypical sideline-to-sideline run defender. When healthy, that’s four bona fide, blue-chip stars.
Yet for all of this defense’s top-end talent, speed, and experience, the Ravens have been incredibly easy to take advantage of schematically.
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Opposing offensive coordinators have been able to manipulate the Ravens defense in ways that have essentially erased Baltimore’s best players late in games. Defense is largely a weak-link system—offenses thrive by targeting the vulnerable spot. And Baltimore has a couple of relative weaknesses, both at outside corner and on the edges, where the Ravens are relying on cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, who is on his fourth team since 2020, and rookies Mike Green and Teddye Buchanan to rush the passer.
To keep quarterbacks and offensive coordinators from taking advantage of Baltimore’s matchup problems, it needs a good play caller of its own. Right now, defensive coordinator Zach Orr may be the Ravens’ weakest link of all. The early-season tape is littered with schematic problems and breakdowns in execution. Whether it’s been pre-snap, in coverage, or stopping the run, Baltimore has had breakdowns and communication issues that made it possible for Detroit and Buffalo to rip those games away. Let’s identify some key examples on tape and why offenses have made a loaded defense look this bad.
Let’s start this review looking back to the season opener against Buffalo. Late in that game, the Bills broke the huddle in a three-receiver formation, with the slot and tight end aligning to the boundary (or short side of the field) to force the Ravens defense to show its hand. With Humphrey playing to the wide side of the field instead of matching up with receiver Khalil Shakir, this is an indication that the Ravens don’t intend to play man coverage.
Watch how Buffalo running back James Cook motions out of the backfield and back pre-snap, and notice that none of the Ravens defenders react to his movement. That’s another signal for quarterback Josh Allen; if Baltimore were playing a two-deep zone, a linebacker would be responsible for matching up with Cook and would have reacted to the pre-snap movement . When Shakir motions across, and Humphrey creeps towards the box instead of communicating coverage responsibilities with safety Malaki Starks, the Bills know exactly what’s coming: Humphrey on a blitz with a single-high zone behind it. Allen easily beats the blitz, going immediately to the throw he knows will be open, a comeback route to Keon Coleman on the sideline.
Buffalo’s offense is exceptional at sussing out what defenses are doing pre-snap, and we should also credit Allen’s machine-like efficiency as a passer to his processing ability. Still, it speaks volumes that a relatively routine offensive formation can totally uncover the Ravens defense. It wasn’t the only time in the fourth quarter that Buffalo had this unit figured out.
On a key third down, Orr wanted to run an all-out blitz against a spread-out Bills offense. On paper, the Ravens should have been in a good position against that look to pressure Allen and force an errant pass, because they were trying to rush six (or more) players against just five Buffalo linemen in pass protection. Again, though, Buffalo’s pre-snap motions take this blitz apart before it even has a chance.
Hamilton is aligned outside the numbers over tight end Dawson Knox, and both of Baltimore’s linebackers are lined up on the line of scrimmage, both hinting that the Ravens are playing man. This time, when Shakir motions across the formation, Humphrey trailed him—a dead giveaway that the defense was playing some kind of man or match coverage. And when Humphrey moves, none one else on the defense adjusts accordingly or communicates with each other. Here’s why that final detail is the biggest pre-snap tell of all: Humphrey, no. 44 in the video, is playing as the “nickel”—and most defenses orient coverage responsibilities around what side of the formation the fifth defensive back is on. But for Baltimore in this case, the nickel moved, but nothing else changed. Advantage, Allen. The Bills’ MVP QB knew the blitz was coming, so he motioned Cook into the backfield and changed the play call to a quick pass. Meanwhile, Baltimore’s linebackers were confused about who should cover Cook and who should blitz. The result was that Cook was totally uncovered, and he caught a screen that ended up being a huge play for Buffalo.
These kinds of scheme breakdowns extend to Baltimore’s run defense, too, which was supposed to be the strength of this unit because of its size and athleticism up front. But the run defense has been bad in a way that’s unprecedented for the Ravens. Baltimore has allowed 447 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns over the first three games—by far the most rushing yards or scores this team has allowed in its first three games over the last 15 years. The most recent struggles in Week 3 can be at least partially tied to the absence of Madubuike, who will not play this week against Kansas City. Generally, though, opponents are finding whatever yardage they want on the ground against this front seven. With Madubuike out last week, Detroit ran with brutal efficiency (224 yards and four touchdowns on 38 attempts).
The Ravens defense had a clear respect for Detroit’s play-action passing game, and didn’t want to get caught with the wrong matchups on either tight end Sam LaPorta or receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. Because of that focus, the Ravens often kept five defensive backs on the field, with Humphrey in the slot, even if the Lions had multiple tight ends in the game—typically an indication an offense is going to run. With Baltimore going with fewer big bodies on the line of scrimmage, Detroit has an opportunity to hunt for the run plays it wants, which is exactly what they did on this play in the fourth quarter.
Here, the Lions are running “duo,” a scheme designed to create double-teams at the point of attack and force the nickel corner (Humphrey) to be a run defender. While Humphrey puts up a good fight, he’s not making much impact against tight end Brock Wright. The bigger problem is that defensive tackle Brent Urban is getting worked by the double-team block from Detroit’s Taylor Decker and Christian Mahogany. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs gains about 5 yards before he even has to make a move. No defense can survive that.
With the Lions knowing they could essentially do whatever they wanted between the tackles, Baltimore was doomed. The Lions gained 167 yards on the ground after halftime, and sought out as many chances as it could find to get double-teams against the interior of Baltimore’s defensive front. On David Montgomery’s 72-yard run, the Lions brilliantly manipulated Baltimore’s defense into changing edge rusher Odafe Oweh’s alignment. Detroit used a bunched receiver set to widen Oweh out and create a clean angle for the linemen to set up their blocks and rush lanes. Hamilton tried to rotate down on the snap, but the Lions had everything blocked up and got enough push up front to create a huge hole for Montgomery to run through:
These schematic issues have to be addressed by Orr and head coach John Harbaugh quickly, or this defense is going to be what keeps another Lamar Jackson team from being a serious Super Bowl contender. Yes, the Bills and Lions have elite offenses, and there are times where a play caller or quarterback just has their opponent’s beat, but the Ravens were trending in an alarming direction when Cleveland scored 17 points in the second half in Week 2. And after the Lions game, it feels like a full-blown crisis.
Baltimore’s current success rate against the run would be the worst mark in the last decade, its sack rate is bottom three, and its success rate against the pass is below the decade-long average. This defense isn’t just a disappointment, it’s a betrayal of a standard established decades ago.
It’s still early, and it’s reasonable to expect Baltimore’s defensive performance to normalize a bit as the schedule eases up. If they play well this week against Patrick Mahomes and the desperate Chiefs, it could be just the confidence boost the Ravens need. That said, you don’t often see a defense get its butt kicked as badly as Baltimore’s has over the first month of the season and expect it to flip a switch back to elite.
When training camp opened for the Ravens in July, Harbaugh drew inspiration from writer Ernest Hemingway by highlighting the phrase “gradually, then suddenly.” While Harbaugh intended to use that quote to inspire belief that a Super Bowl breakthrough was around the corner, there’s a deep irony in calling upon that particular phrase, because Hemingway used it to describe how someone goes bankrupt.
And right now, the Ravens defense is closer to going broke than breaking out.
