The Baltimore Ravens have a growing penalty problem. An urgent one. Their first two games of the 2026 NFL season have been a penalty-filled mess.
In their Week 1 win over the Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore was flagged an excruciating number of times: 10 penalties for 86 yards. In their Week 2 loss to the New Orleans Saints, they were penalized 7 times for 34 yards.
Many of those issues have come on offense. The offensive line has had somewhat of a holding problem, and Declan Doyle’s new offense has likely played a part in the communication and alignment errors.
It’s been agonizing. You know whenever a yellow flag lands on the field, there’s a strong chance it’s going against the Ravens. They can’t afford to let that become a lasting trend throughout the year.
Baltimore Ravens need to clean up penalty issues soon
17 penalties for 120 yards in two games can’t happen. That ties them for seventh in the NFL in total penalties accepted. When you talk about discipline, it’s been a horrendous start for the Ravens.
That’s especially true for the offense. Of those 17 penalties, 12 have come on the offensive side of the ball—that’s tied for third in the league. Going deeper, 4 were false starts, 4 were for holding, 2 were illegal shifts, 1 was an illegal chop block, and 1 was an ineligible receiver downfield.
What makes this so much worse, though, isn’t just the loss of yards; it’s the fact they’re taking out big plays. According to The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec, the Ravens have lost 90 total yards of offense, 5 first downs, and a touchdown.
There’s a lack of self-control on offense right now. They need to figure it out.
It starts on the offensive line. Ronnie Stanley and Vega Ioane have been flagged twice, and Jovaughn Gwyn and Roger Rosengarten were flagged once. (Shout-out to John Simpson for playing some clean football two weeks in).
So far, it’s been an obvious technique issue. That tends to be the case when you have so many players holding on for dear life, and it’s even more evident when you look at their pass protection. Opposing defenses have been able to breeze by Baltimore’s offensive linemen—they have to clean that up and start winning those individual battles.
The offense also needs to get used to Declan Doyle’s scheming. It’s a complicated system that throws a lot of motions and eye candy at defenses. It was expected that these growing pains would occur in the early stages of the season.
Still, Jesse Minter's not willing to give his team the benefit of the doubt for that. During Monday's press conference, he spoke about the importance of solving that issue.
"It's a major point of emphasis. Right now, we have too many operational penalties on offense," Minter said. "[Blaming it on the new offense] would be a lazy excuse...Those things, in the grand scheme of the game, are a major deal...Your daily habits of how you operate need to carry over in those moments."
And this is in the softer part of Baltimore’s schedule. They were able to blow out the Colts in Week 1 based on pure talent, and really should’ve beaten the Saints if it weren’t for a complete team collapse in the second half.
Those penalties won’t fly against playoff contenders like the Buffalo Bills, though. If the Ravens are wildly out of order in those games, things could quickly go from a tightly contested game to a blowout. It’s an issue they have to fix sooner rather than later.
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