The Big Picture: Ravens Lament ‘Terrible’ Season They Fumbled Away

M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore) — Lamar Jackson leaned into a locker and spoke for three minutes, a constant grimace on his face, sharing the pain in his back that had taken him out of Saturday’s game and the pain of a season that has slipped away from the Ravens.

Jackson took a knee to his lower back late in the first half against the Patriots and said he even took a Toradol shot trying to get back in a game Baltimore needed to win, but the pain never went away and he stayed on the sideline. Much the same way, no answer can bring solace to how the Ravens got a 7-8 record, on the outside of the playoff picture with two games left.

“Yes, it’s B.S., bro,” Jackson said of the frustration of this season. “I can’t control that. I’m on the ground. I’m down. I gave myself up. I got kneed in the back, but yes, for the most part, you can say that, because [I’m] getting injured, and then we’re fighting for a chance to make the playoffs. I can’t finish the game with my guys. It’s B.S.”

Before the season started, expectations couldn’t have been higher. Oddsmakers projected the Ravens to have as many wins as any team in the league, wondering if they were poised to take over if the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes took a step back. Kansas City did, but a slew of injuries on defense depleted Baltimore in a 1-5 start, giving up 40 points a game in their first four losses.

Baltimore got healthy and regrouped, winning five straight games, mainly against lesser competition. At 6-5, they were again the favorite to win a middling AFC North, but back-to-back losses to the Bengals and Steelers set them back again. For all the ups and downs, they knew entering Sunday’s showdown with New England that if they won their final three games, they would be division champs.

“We’ve been in tough circumstances all year. It’s been a grind, for sure,” coach John Harbaugh said at the podium. “And we’ve come out and fought every single game. We haven’t played well every single game. … You have to do the things that are required to win, to win a lot of games. And we haven’t done that enough.”

A year ago, Jackson was a first-team All-Pro quarterback with a case for a third MVP, throwing for 41 touchdowns with only four interceptions, rushing for another 910 yards and four more scores. This season has been one injury after the next, missing three games with a hamstring, then being limited by knee, ankle and toe injuries. Then, his back on Sunday. As a result, he has only 18 touchdowns and has rushed for 340 yards, both less than half of his 2024 numbers.

The defense has been inconsistent, and Sunday was another case of them being unable to close out a win late. The Ravens led 24-13 with 10 minutes left in the game, only to give up two touchdowns to the Patriots for a 28-24 loss. A year ago, Baltimore was 6-3 on its home field, including a playoff win, but now it’s finished this season with a 3-6 record at home.

“It’s frustrating at this point to keep having the same conversations with you guys, and I’m sure it’s frustrating on your end to keep asking these questions,” safety Kyle Hamilton said at the podium as he was also limited by an ankle injury. “It’s redundant, and [there are] no excuses at this point. You said we had six losses at home. Is that right? Yes, that’s terrible.”

What has happened to a Ravens defense that was the No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL two years ago? One NFL front-office source pointed to the “brain drain” from that 2023 coaching staff, with defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald becoming the Seahawks’ head coach, and assistants Anthony Weaver and Dennard Wilson now working as defensive coordinators for the Dolphins and Titans, respectively. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr is only 33 and was able to lead the defense to much better play in the second half of the season, but the overall numbers aren’t great.

Baltimore went from the league’s best run defense to 13th. It went from 10th in total defense to 27th. It went from sixth to 31st in sack percentage. No current Ravens player has more than 3.5 sacks — a midseason trade with the Chargers netted safety Alohi Gilman, but they gave up Odafe Oweh, who after having zero sacks in Baltimore this season, has seven in 10 games with the Chargers.

It’s also a remarkably young defense. Six of the top nine tacklers are 24 or younger, including three rookies in linebacker Teddye Buchanan, first-round safety Malaki Starks and second-round edge rusher Mike Green.

Sunday’s loss saw inexplicable coaching decisions that factored in the game getting away in the fourth quarter. That 24-13 lead came on Derrick Henry’s second touchdown run, giving him 128 yards on 18 carries with 12:50 left in the game. Henry would not touch the ball again, with the Ravens turning to running back Keaton Mitchell instead. Mitchell had two carries for 4 yards and the Ravens punted before a Zay Flowers fumble — their NFL-high 12th this season — ended their last drive after just two plays.

Why did they go with Mitchell, who had 13 yards on nine carries, instead of a 1,000-yard rusher who’d given them the lead despite a backup quarterback in the second half? Harbaugh didn’t have an answer after the game.

“Looking back, would I rather have had Derrick starting the drive? Yes,” Harbaugh said.

Henry was as disappointed as any player after the game, saying he understood the rotation with Mitchell and was frustrated with a fumble he’d lost early in the game — his first since Week 3 — that set up the Patriots’ first touchdown after an early Ravens lead.

“It’s just really embarrassing,” Henry said in a postgame scrum. “I feel like some of that momentum that we had in that drive – I feel like we would have scored, and that would have given us seven — so I took seven points away. 

“… Kind of like this whole year, you kind of work hard to be the best player you can [be], be consistent and have the most success, and sometimes it doesn’t go that way, which is upsetting. 

“But like I said,” Henry continued, “I’m going to keep working and try to do my best for this team. But yes, this year has kind of been frustrating; not as a team, but like for me, for me as far as my play and just the mistakes, it costs the team.”

Harbaugh hasn’t faced the same public scrutiny this season as the coach he’s trailing in the AFC North standings, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, though they’re in much the same position. Harbaugh has coached the Ravens since 2008, Tomlin the Steelers since 2007, both with single Super Bowl championships early in their tenures. 

Both have found consistent success — Tomlin 10.1 wins per season, Harbaugh 9.9 — and are perennial playoff teams, with the Ravens making the postseason 12 times under Harbaugh, the Steelers 13 times under Tomlin. But recent playoff success? Pittsburgh hasn’t won a playoff game since 2016, and Baltimore has four playoff wins in the last 12 years. Both have a single conference championship game appearance in the last 12 years.

Tomlin has secured another winning season, extending a streak of good-not-great teams that has his future uncertain. But Harbaugh would have to win his remaining two games to avoid a losing record, so the national microscope could shift to Baltimore and Harbaugh — a decade older than Tomlin at 63 — and his future moving forward.

The big question for the AFC entering this season was that if the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes took a step back, which franchise could take advantage of the opening? The Ravens and Bills both had recent MVPs and stars at quarterback, but the conference’s best teams have been the Broncos and Patriots, both with second-year quarterbacks. The Jaguars and Chargers are also both now at 11 wins with quarterbacks younger than Jackson.

The Ravens are not eliminated from playoff contention, but their fate is out of their hands. Not only do they need to beat the Packers on Saturday, but they need the first-place Steelers to lose to the lowly Browns on Sunday. Only then can Baltimore face Pittsburgh on the road in the season finale with the division on the line. A season of hope and promise has been reduced to slim mathematical possibilities, and while Jackson was hopeful of returning, it’s possible the Ravens will need to make do with Tyler “Snoop” Huntley making another start as an injury replacement.

“This year, we just had some unfortunate circumstances, and things that haven’t swung our way,” Henry said. “We have had some adversity, and it just hasn’t been good enough, honestly, as a whole. I think everybody on the team would say that we just haven’t been good enough, and like I said, we have two games left, and we can end it the way we want to end it. But yes, it just hasn’t been good enough. It’s as simple as that.”

Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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