The honeymoon between first-year head coach Jesse Minter and the Ravens came to an end with Tyler Loop’s kickoff in Indianapolis at 1:05 p.m Sunday to open the 2026 season.
Spring and summer vibes don’t matter much without winning football games in the fall.
But if what we watched over the three hours that followed was any indication, the sides could be in for a fruitful marriage and a whole lot of fun. You never know exactly what to expect in Week 1 and shouldn’t overreact either, but the convincing 41-23 win over the Colts couldn’t have gone much better.
Minter and new offensive coordinator — and first-time play-caller at any level — Declan Doyle deserved rave reviews for how Baltimore played, but they’d be the first to tell you how much smarter a healthy Lamar Jackson makes any coach look. Doubts about Jackson’s willingness to run after his career-low 349 rushing yards in an injury-plagued 2025 campaign were eased by his 5-yard designed touchdown run and his impossible escape and scramble to convert a third-and-16 over Baltimore’s first two drives. Operating under center at the highest rate of his career, the 29-year-old looked rejuvenated and every bit the part of the two-time NFL MVP version of himself with his first 300-yard passing game since Week 6 of the 2024 season.
Arguably even more impressive than Jackson was the career day for two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers, who made critics of the four-year, $140 million contract extension he signed in August look pretty silly. The zigzagging playmaker needed just 25 minutes of action to catch five passes for a career-high 150 yards and a touchdown as the Colts had no answers for someone lining up all over the formation and running away from would-be tacklers.
We were also reminded how critical Flowers has become to this offense, regardless of the coordinator. After moving the ball at will over their first five possessions, it wasn’t a coincidence that Baltimore failed to score on four of its next five drives when the star receiver aggravated the hamstring injury he’s been managing since the second half of August.
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Fortunately, the 28-6 lead built in the first half set up the Ravens to lean on the Indianapolis front with running back Derrick Henry, who finished with 144 yards and three touchdowns. The big day on the ground moved Henry past Marcus Allen into third place on the NFL’s career rushing touchdowns list. Henry showed no signs of slowing down entering his age-32 season.
The offense overshadowed a mostly solid day for the defense beyond Indianapolis using a surprising pass-happy approach on the opening drive to march right down the field for a touchdown. To his credit, Minter went out of his way to take the blame for the defense being on its “heels a little bit” before the group settled down to allow only one first down over the next five Colts possessions combined.
That effort included two takeaways from arguably the most scrutinized veterans on the Baltimore defense entering 2026. First, it was four-time Pro Bowl inside linebacker Roquan Smith intercepting a pass over the middle on the second Indianapolis drive that zapped the early momentum for Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. Midway through the second quarter, four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey — whom many fans wanted general manager Eric DeCosta to release in the offseason — stripped Colts running back Jonathan Taylor of the ball and recovered the fumble to put Jackson and the Ravens on another short field.
While there’s much optimism about what the defensive-minded Minter can do with a talented group that underperformed over the better part of the last two seasons, Smith and Humphrey remain two of the players most pivotal to how good this defense can be in 2026.
Not to be outdone, the special teams offered its own bright spots with the headliner being the much-maligned Tyler Loop hitting a career-long 57-yard field goal to close the first half and a 45-yarder that capped a six-minute-plus drive that slammed the door in the fourth quarter. The second-year kicker has a long way to go to earn full trust, of course, but all he can do in the meantime is make his kicks.
The day wasn’t perfect as the Ravens drew 10 penalties for 86 yards with the offensive line — which remains a work in progress — being responsible for much of that. Not only did Flowers injure his hamstring, but rookie wideout Ja’Kobi Lane left the game with a concerning wrist injury and reserve cornerback T.J. Tampa exited in the first half with a knee injury.
The initial diagnosis on #Ravens rookie WR Ja’Kobi Lane is a fractured wrist suffered in today’s win over the #Colts, sources say. He’ll undergo further testing, including an MRI, tomorrow to determine the full extent of the injury. pic.twitter.com/B5ilLl8Msx8
While there will be enough to correct for players not to puff out their chests too much over a single win, there was much to like as you size up the Ravens’ chances of returning to AFC contender status after a nightmare 2025. The idea of moving on from longtime head coach John Harbaugh and transitioning to Minter wasn’t a reboot as much as a much-needed refresh.
As All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton noted last week, the expectations haven’t wavered for a franchise whose identity of falling short of lofty goals had become too excruciating to ignore any longer.
“We made all these changes and brought a bunch of people in, brought a whole new regime in, and it’s not just to be mediocre,” Hamilton said. “I think it’s to step on the gas even more. A lot of teams are in the situation where they get a new coach and it’s kind of a rebuild. I don’t think anybody thinks that we’re in that position. I think we made these changes to get to the mountaintop and achieve our ultimate goal, which is winning a Super Bowl.”
The Ravens have a long way to go for that, but Sunday was an impressive first step in a new season and a new era.
