KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As he exited the visiting locker room after addressing his players following their 37-20 loss to old rival the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh looked as if he’d just exited a war zone.
Hair disheveled, a dazed and bewildered look in his eyes, the coach trudged into his own dressing room to regroup and get a rundown of a growing list of injuries.
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In the Bizarro World that is the 2025 NFL season, where Daniel Jones and the Indianapolis Colts entered Week 4 with a perfect record, where, despite his age, Aaron Rodgers has the Pittsburgh Steelers looking like contenders, where the Green Bay Packers can look like world beaters one week and completely inept the next, and where perennial AFC powers Baltimore and Kansas City entered the day in must-win scenarios as the owners of losing records, Harbaugh’s Ravens had served as the get-right date for the Chiefs.
The Ravens — after blowing prime opportunities for statement wins against the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions in weeks 1 and 3 — have turned into the Can’t Get-Rights. Areas of strength have become weaknesses. Signature wins have turned into gut-wrenching losses. And with each passing week, the body count of a traditionally durable roster only continues to rise.
As the first quarter of the NFL season draws to a close, the 1-3 Ravens find themselves in a world of hurt and plagued by issues that 1. seemingly have no quick fixes and 2. are only growing worse.
After opening the game with a crisp scoring drive that took only a tad more than five minutes, the Ravens went cold. A Chiefs team previously slowed by an uncharacteristically disjointed offense erupted for 20 unanswered points while dominating Baltimore’s suddenly inept defense. Until Sunday, for all of their defensive struggles, the Ravens could at least score points and led the NFL with 37 points per game. But after that game-opening touchdown, the unit hurt itself with penalties and turnovers before eking out a field goal as the second quarter ended to cut the deficit to 20-10.
The Ravens had the feel of a team that had its soul snatched from it.
A week after the Lions beat them at their own game by outmuscling them on offense and defense and delivering a punishing rushing attack en route to victory, Baltimore still hadn’t gotten its groove back. Derrick Henry received only four first-half carries (for 31 yards) in the first half, and Lamar Jackson five.
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The swagger was missing.
No play illustrated the odd place in which the Ravens found themselves more than the fourth-and-1 play at the Baltimore 41 with 3:01 left in the second quarter and the Chiefs still within reach at 13-7. Despite the presence of the wrecking ball that is Henry, or the ever slippery Jackson, the Ravens didn’t look to impose their will on their foes as they have so many times before. Instead, they went spread formation, empty backfield, and Jackson — who hasn’t looked comfortable behind his line all season — dropped back and threw an incompletion to backup running back Justice Hill, turning the ball over on downs.
And things didn’t get any better in the second half, where mental errors and injuries to key players — Baltimore’s injured list included quarterback Lamar Jackson (hamstring), left tackle Ronnie Stanley (ankle), middle linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring) and cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey (calf) and Nate Wiggins (elbow) — continued to mount.
Lamar Jackson left Sunday’s blowout loss with a hamstring injury. (Amy Kontras / Getty Images)
By game’s end, the Chiefs — who beat Baltimore for the fourth time in five meetings — had topped their season scoring average by 17 points. Baltimore had coincidently fallen 17 points below its scoring average, and the Ravens fell to 1-3 for the first time since 2015 — a campaign that ended with a 5-11 record.
At 1-3, Baltimore puts itself in a significant hole. Since 1990, only 35 teams have managed to recover from such a start to reach the playoffs. But when asked about his concern about the state of his team and its record, Harbaugh said, “I’m concerned, but I’m not overwhelmed by it. Three losses against three of the top teams in the league — that’s the hand we’ve been dealt. But it doesn’t really matter. We’ve got to win the next game, and once you win the next game, you have the opportunity to stack some wins, and that’s what we’ve got to do, big-picture-wise. Small-picture-wise, we’ve got to do a great job of putting together a great game plan, great practice and then a great game.”
The truth is, however, the Ravens should have at least beaten Buffalo and Detroit, both of which they led in the fourth quarter. Those victories certainly would have come in handy and provided some cushion for a team that’s facing the very real possibility of having to play a stretch without injured starters at multiple positions.
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Meanwhile, teams such as Buffalo (4-0), AFC North rival Pittsburgh (3-1) and the 2-2 Chiefs (if Sunday’s showing was indeed a revival) have a chance to add to their edge over the Ravens.
The postgame locker room was eerily quiet. No one in the Ravens organization envisioned such a start. And none of them has a magic answer to how to quickly rebound.
“There’s still a lot of football to be played, so you’ve got two options,” defensive lineman Tavius Robinson said. “You can sit here and drown in the water, or we can pick ourselves up. … That’s what we’re going to do.”
It’s hard not to wonder whether this Ravens team has what it takes to pull off such a turnaround.
Even if you eliminate all of the injuries, there’s still something off with this Ravens team. There’s no nasty tone-setter or difference-maker on the defense. Jackson has the look of a quarterback who has varying trust in his offensive line, his pass catchers remain streaky, and Henry has averaged just 38 rushing yards per game in his last three outings.
Games against the Houston Texans (another playoff team that has gotten off to a slow start) and the Los Angeles Rams (one of the stronger NFC teams) await, and then comes a much-needed Week 7 bye. In theory, the Ravens could use that break to get healthy and then emerge and pick up wins against the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins to help restore their record.
But that’s in theory. Unimaginable misfortunes have the Ravens in this precarious situation, and certainly could continue. Baltimore’s players will do everything they can to reverse their fortunes — and quickly.
Said Henry, “It’s easy to have the why-me’s right now and finger-point, but nobody wants to do that. Everyone just wants to move past this one, get right for Houston and come back ready to go.”
It’s their only choice, because the clock certainly is clicking.
(Top photo of Tyquan Thornton celebrating TD in front of Kyle Hamilton: Amy Kontras / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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