MIKE BURKE
Allegany Communications Sports
The Baltimore Ravens were booed off the field by the Baltimore fans after Sunday’s 44-10 loss to the meh Houston Texans, making them 1-4 for the first time in 10 years.
Put this up there with one of the most embarrassing losses in franchise history, let us count the ways. As someone said, Baltimore has gone from “Super Bowl contender” to “top-5 draft pick,” and it’s only Week 5.
The 2025 defense is one of the worst in franchise history. It continues its streak of allowing opponents to have career moments such as Houston quarterback CJ Stroud on Sunday, who had the longest rushing gain and highest completion percentage of his career, as Houston got its first win in Baltimore in franchise history.
The Ravens offense wasn’t any better. Cooper Rush threw three interceptions and Derrick Henry averaged 2.2 yards on 15 carries. But it has nothing to do with Cooper Rush, or Tyler Huntley, who is back in the neighborhood. When Lamar Jackson doesn’t play, the Ravens don’t win as they’re now 3-10 without him.
When he does come back, likely sometime after the bye in two weeks, can the offensive line protect him, or will he go back to running for his life?
Will owner Steve Bisciotti and general manager Eric DeCosta stand by and continue to watch this fall, or will they do something soon? For even when many of the top players return from injury (presumably after said bye), will the coaching suddenly be better? It wasn’t better before all of these players were injured.
The defense stinks, and it has all season. They can’t stop the run, they can’t pressure the quarterback and they can’t cover anybody. On Sunday, there was no hustle or physicality. CBS analyst J.J. Watt, who is very good, by the way, was astonished by what he was seeing, saying more than once, “This doesn’t even look like the Ravens.”
Of course, they were without eight starters, seven Pro Bowlers, five of them on defense and nearly half the team’s salary cap. Marv Levy once said, “Depth is great until you have to use it,” and now the Ravens are being forced to use it, and what they’re using is clearly not up to standard.
Without All-Pros Kyle Hamilton, Marlon Humphrey, Roquan Smith and Nnamdi Madubuike (best player on the team, out for the season), there were six rookies on the field at one point, two of them undrafted, and the Texans had 417 yards of total offense, 167 on the ground, compared to 207 for Baltimore.
Through the years, the Ravens organization has always made two things a thing – “Play Like A Raven Today” and “Next Man Up,” as brought to light nationally by the late, great John Feinstein’s 2005 national bestseller chronicling the year he spent covering the Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens coaches have been talking up their depth and their undrafted free agents all season, but as Watt said, “When you’re talking up your undrafted free agents, it’s usually not a good sign.”
The Ravens were bullied by an offense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL, and have now given up 177 points this season, the most in a five-game span in team history.
Since the game of football was invented, the best way to build a team – a good team – is from the inside out, but in this pass-happy, computer-games/betting/fantasy age of the NFL, too many teams have fallen for the sexy of building from the outside in, loading up with highly-paid quarterbacks, receivers and cornerbacks, and the Ravens are one of them.
But to win any football game, a team must first control the line of scrimmage, and the Ravens don’t even hold their own on the line of scrimmage.
The Ravens have paid their quarterback millions of dollars, and I get that, and have surrounded him with great receivers, and I get that, too. But they haven’t done much to fortify the offensive and defensive lines.
The defensive line can’t protect the linebackers or tackle ballcarriers, and the offensive line can’t pass-block, which makes matters worse without a strong running game, which the Ravens no longer seem to have, or choose not to utilize.
I would be very surprised if anything as drastic as firing the head coach will take place, at least during the season, because the Ravens, historically, have never operated that way. Of course, historically, they haven’t been 1-4 very often.
Only 16 teams in NFL history have made the playoffs after a 1-4 start and the 1975 Baltimore Colts, coached by beloved Ted Marchibroda, were one of them. A remarkable team.
There doesn’t seem to be much that is remarkable about the 2025 Baltimore Ravens, although it would seem there should be. Yet Sunday might have been the first time the Baltimore Ravens were booed off the field in Baltimore.
We’ll see, but don’t hold your breath. There’s something seriously wrong here.
Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT