The Baltimore Ravens must confront the reality of their situation. This isn’t a good enough football team. Of course they’ll struggle without Lamar Jackson, but even with him on the field, they never looked like real contenders.
They have too many flaws, and in Week 8, they were humiliated, losing 36-10 to the Buffalo Bills. It may not have been as bad as the score suggested — the defense played well until they ran out of steam, and the offense never had a chance to get rolling without Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley. However, these problems have followed the Ravens since Week 1.
As the team prepares to play without Lamar Jackson for at least four weeks, they must face a brutal reality. Here are five brutal truths.
5 brutal truths Baltimore Ravens must face after Week 8 loss
The quarterback position will have Ravens fighting desperately for at least 4 weeks
If the Ravens want to remain competitive in 2026, they’ll have to somehow make the best of an ugly situation. Lamar Jackson is headed to IR with a thumb injury, and Tyler Huntley is expected to miss time with a reported turf toe. Simply put, the quarterback situation is a mess.
No one’s really sure how Baltimore will survive this. As of now, it’s up to Joe Fagnano and Austin Reed. Let’s be honest, though, if you leave it to them, you’re practically throwing away the season.
No disrespect to those two, but Fagnano and Reed probably don’t have enough firepower to turn things around. A three-game losing streak may quickly turn to five, then six, then seven…you get the point.
Maybe a trade happens. Maybe a free agent is signed. Regardless, the season is on life support amid this quarterback crisis.
You can’t win many football games with that offensive line
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the offensive line is holding the Ravens back. A tale as old as time.
The Bills embarrassed Baltimore’s offensive line on Sunday. Everyone was on skates. Here’s how each offensive lineman fared, per Pro Football Focus.
PLAYER | PRESSURES |
|---|---|
Roger Rosengarten | 4 |
Ronnie Stanley | 3 |
Andrew Vorhees | 3 |
John Simpson | 2 |
Cam Jurgens | 2 |
Some of the quarterback injuries were unlucky mishaps, but you could really say the offensive front let all three quarterbacks get injured in Week 8. It was pressure after pressure, hit after hit, sack after sack.
You’d expect the pressure to ramp up when Fagnano entered the game — Jim Leonhard unleashed relentless blitzes on the undrafted rookie quarterback. This has gone on all season, though, and the quarterbacks, and even running backs, continue to pay. There’s never enough time to operate.
Hopefully we get to see what a fully healthy group looks like. Throwing Vega Ioane back in there could make things way better. Unfortunately, one man probably won’t save them … probably.
Coaching staff still has a way to go
The coaching staff isn’t the issue. They’re also not paving the way to wins. Two things can be true.
Jesse Minter and Declan Doyle have drawn up terrific schemes for the offense and defense, and mostly, the players aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. However, Minter and Doyle have also struggled to adjust to the adjustments.
In the first half, things tend to go swimmingly for the Ravens.
The offense ranks third in first-half scoring at 15.6 points per game. In the second half? They drop to 31st with 5.9 points per game. It feels like every time the defense switches things up at halftime, Doyle hasn’t brought a winning script out of the locker room.
A similar story goes for the defense. In the first half, they’re tied for third in points allowed with just 7.9. In the second half, it balloons to 16.8 points allowed, which is firmly in dead last.
That’s partially on the coaching staff. This team isn’t entirely built to Minter and Doyle’s desires — they were hired by a contending team; it wasn’t a unit that would be blown up and rebuilt to fit their schemes. So maybe with another offseason, we see it take shape.
The running backs will have the weight of the world on their shoulders
Joe Fagnano had some encouraging moments on Sunday, and he was one of the better players in the preseason. But it won’t be the Fagnano Show; it’ll be the Derrick Henry Show.
That’s what happened when Tyler Huntley started games, and the Ravens should lean on Henry more than ever with Fagnano likely under center Thursday night, and potentially for multiple weeks. It’s the only way they’ll have a realistic shot at winning football games. They need Henry to look like his most dominant self.
That goes for the running backs in the passing game, too. The offensive line barely gives their quarterbacks time to throw, which forces Baltimore into quick passing situations. Fagnano must turn to his security blankets in those situations, and those guys will become Henry, Justice Hill, and maybe even Adam Randall.
Without Jackson and Huntley, the running backs should pick up most of the yards.
Defense may not solve their second-half issues until next year
The defense still has the same second-half issues that have plagued them for years. The hope was that firing John Harbaugh and hiring Jesse Minter would change that. It hasn’t. In fact, you could debate that it’s gotten worse.
In 2025, the Ravens gave up 12.9 points per game in the second half (tied for 24th). Eight weeks into 2026, it’s nearly four points worse and ranks 32nd.
Missed tackles, coverage breakdowns, and an inconsistent pass rush have been a theme.
It’s an ugly cloud the defense can’t shake, and honestly, there aren’t signs of it getting fixed this year. It’ll take longer to coach those problems out of this team than initially thought. Jesse Minter has his work cut out for him.
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