OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens say all focus is on Sunday’s home opener against Cleveland, but shaking off the meltdown in Buffalo is easier said than done.
Especially after you prepared all offseason for that opportunity and understand how consequential that result could prove to be come January.
There was plenty of blame to go around in blowing a 15-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the biggest on-field culprit was clearly the Baltimore defense when you’re talking about a franchise with a proud tradition suffering its first ever loss when scoring 40 or more points.
John Harbaugh has repeatedly cited the need for both players and coaches to be “intentional” when addressing this recurring habit of not finishing games that should have been in hand, but four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey said the 18th-year head coach shared a hard truth in a team meeting earlier this week.
“He said we’re just not mature enough as a team yet,” said Humphrey, one of the Ravens’ longest-tenured players. “It’s very clear we’ve got great players on both sides of the ball, but defensively, we have to work on our maturity too. It doesn’t matter what our offense is doing. We have to go up there and win the game. Right now, our maturity level, sadly, when we get in those situations, it’s just not enough.”
But why is that the case for a defense that returned all but a couple starters and has accomplished Pro Bowl talent at every level as well as a coordinator now with a full season under his belt? Shouldn’t this defense have learned that lesson by now?
The Ravens ranked among the league’s best defenses over the final seven games of 2024, which was supposed to signal those early-season woes being behind them for good.
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Edge rusher Kyle Van Noy said it’s about “controlling what your 1-of-11 job is” for the defense. More than a couple players referenced individuals too focused on making the game-sealing play rather than simply doing their job on every play.
Safey Kyle Hamilton called Sunday’s performance “more so lackadaisical than immature” in a fourth quarter in which the Ravens surrendered 22 points and 251 passing yards to reigning MVP Josh Allen.
Despite major pass defense woes early last year, Baltimore waited until midseason to make changes that included benching safeties Marcus Williams and Eddie Jackson and adjusting the roles of Hamilton and Ar’Darius Washington. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr vows there won’t be the same degree of patience before making changes if necessary this time around.
It’ll be interesting to see what that could mean in the short term for someone like oft-injured cornerback Jaire Alexander, whose struggles stood out above the rest in Sunday’s loss after he missed the final three weeks of training camp managing a knee injury.
“We’re all about being upfront and honest with each other, and we know it wasn’t good enough from all ends — coaches and players from the defensive side,” Orr said. “We’re going to do things that are going to help us get it right, and the players and coaches that are going to be here are the ones that are going to do it the right way. It was a good message. It wasn’t in a demeaning way.”
Of course, the Ravens only have to look to last year for a lesson about not letting a difficult loss bleed into the next week. After a narrow defeat — but hardly an egregious one — at Kansas City to open the 2024 campaign, they blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead against journeyman quarterback Gardner Minshew and Las Vegas in the home opener, which resulted in a 26-23 loss.
Though the circumstances surrounding the matchups have varied, the Ravens and Browns have split the season series in each of the last four years. If the pass defense proves to be as sloppy as it was against the Bills, a 40-year-old Joe Flacco remains capable of making Sunday uncomfortable for his old team.
8Considering how ugly the response to the Buffalo collapse has been, one only shudders to think about the possibility of starting 0-2 for the second straight year, especially with the schedule to follow.
“We’ve been through it, and we don’t want to go through it again,” said Hamilton about rebounding from the Week 1 defensive showing. “Snap back into it before it gets out of hand because you don’t want to have a conversation like we did last year. Week 11 and on, the Ravens were good on defense, but we want to be [good in] Week 2 and on.
“It’s now or never for us. We’re not trying to put too much pressure on us going to the game because we need to go out there and play through it, but we know there’s a job that we need to do. We have to get it done.”
Madubuike back at practice
As Harbaugh indicated, two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike returned to practice Thursday after sitting out the first workout of the week with an ankle injury.
Madubuike appeared to be moving well while wearing a support on his left ankle during the portion of practice open to reporters. He was listed as a limited participant.
Fullback Patrick Ricard (calf) and tight end Isaiah Likely (foot) remained sidelined and appear all but certain to miss a second straight game.
8Below is Thursday’s full injury report:
BALTIMORE
DID NOT PARTICIPATE: TE Isaiah Likely (foot), FB Patrick Ricard (calf)
LIMITED PARTICIPATION: DT Nnamdi Madubuike (ankle)
FULL PARTICIPATION: CB Jaire Alexander (knee)
CLEVELAND
LIMITED PARTICIPATION: OT Jack Conklin (eye/elbow), DT Michael Hall (knee), OT Dawand Jones (knee), CB Denzel Ward (shoulder/Achilles)
FULL PARTICIPATION: G Joel Bitonio (non-injury), RB Quinshon Judkins (non-injury)
