Ravens in Crisis: Uncovering the Shocking Truth Behind Their Struggles and the Path to Redemption
Ever wonder what happens when the very pillars that have long upheld a franchise suddenly start to crumble? The Baltimore Ravens, a team once synonymous with electrifying quarterback heroics, a relentless ground attack, and rock-solid defense, finds itself wandering through the 2025 NFL season like a lost ship in fog. Dropping to a disheartening 1-3 start, their worst since 2015, it’s clear that the magic just isn’t there anymore. Injuries have piled up, performances have faltered, and the schedule ahead doesn’t exactly offer a soft landing. So, can this proud team claw its way back from the brink—or are we witnessing the unravelling of a once iconic force? Let’s peel back the layers and dig into what’s really wrong with Baltimore in this perplexing season. LEARN MORE.
The key hallmarks of what has made Baltimore great – sensational quarterback play, a great running game and good defense – haven’t been there in the 2025 NFL season.
The Baltimore Ravens haven’t woken up from a nightmare start to their season yet.
They dropped to 1-3 for the first time since 2015 after a blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4, following debilitating losses to the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 and the Detroit Lions in Week 3. Now, Baltimore is tied with the only team it beat this season, the Cleveland Browns, at the bottom of the AFC North.
Not much has gone right for the Ravens so far. Baltimore ranks 21st in offensive success rate and 26th in defensive success rate, while quarterback Lamar Jackson is middle-of-the-pack in well-thrown rate and catchable thrown-ball rate.
And on top of it all, injuries ravaged the team in Week 4.
Jackson left late in the game with a hamstring injury and is expected to miss at least two games. Defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike suffered a season-ending neck injury, and other starters like left tackle Ronnie Stanley, cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey, Jaire Alexander and Nate Wiggins and linebacker Roquan Smith all sustained potentially multi-week injuries.
The schedule doesn’t get much easier, either. While Baltimore only has the 24th-hardest strength of schedule remaining on the year (the combined win percentage of the team’s next 13 opponents is .471), they still have to face the Pittsburgh Steelers twice, the Browns again, the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers — all teams with quality defenses.
The Ravens’ next two matchups will be critical for the team’s season-long chances. They’ll take on the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams – both playoff teams from a year ago.
The path to the postseason isn’t impossible, but it will be very arduous. Baltimore still has a 58.1% chance to make the playoffs, per the Opta supercomputer, but only a 27.6% chance to win the AFC North. That means that, barring something wild, the Ravens’ best shot at winter football is a wild-card berth thanks to a dramatic turnaround.
So, what’s wrong with the Ravens? To put it simply: everything. But the key hallmarks of what has made Baltimore one of the elite teams – sensational quarterback play, a great running game and good defense – haven’t lived up to the billing this season.
Has Lamar Plateaued?
Losing Jackson for any stretch of games hurts the Ravens, but the two-time MVP has not looked like himself through four games, either.
This is not meant as an indictment of one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, but he seemingly isn’t getting any better. Yes, he has 10 touchdown passes with only one interception, but his advanced metrics have effectively remained stagnant over the past few years.
These are still elite stats, but something to consider is that Jackson is using his superpower – running – less and less. Or, at least, he’s not nearly as effective as he once was with his legs.
His 6.33 yards per carry on designed runs and 5.78 yards per carry on scrambles are his lowest since 2023, and his 41.5 rushing yards per game are the lowest of his career.
Even if Jackson successfully heals from his hamstring injury, the ailment could hamper his explosiveness all season long. That does not bode well for a Ravens offense already reeling from a lack of production on the ground.
Derrick Henry’s Decline
For a while, it seemed as though Father Time had yet to catch up to the 31-year-old Henry. He rushed for nearly 2,000 yards with a league-best 16 rushing touchdowns in 2024 (the year he turned 30). And in Week 1, Henry looked like himself with 169 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
However, that production has since faded. Henry hasn’t cleared 50 yards on the ground since the opener and is averaging just 3.7 yards per carry in the past three games.
Part of that is game script, as the Ravens faced a tough run defense in Week 2 and had to throw the ball more in shootouts in Weeks 2 and 3. But Henry and the Ravens simply haven’t been able to get the running game going of late.
If we separate Henry’s Week 1 from his Weeks 2 to 4, the numbers are troubling. Everything is either half or a third of what he produced against a middling Bills run defense.
Now, the Ravens didn’t have a great run-blocking to begin with heading into the 2025 season. Baltimore had the 27th-ranked run-blocking unit, according to our team ratings. And after Week 4, the Ravens also rank 25th in run success rate at 32.4%, which is the worst in the Jackson era.
Typically, Henry has been able to make the most out of these issues, especially when Jackson is a threat to run. But a bad run-blocking unit combined with a quarterback who’s less effective with his legs isn’t a good recipe for success when it comes to an aging running back, even one as good as Henry.
The Depleted Defense
The Ravens haven’t looked good defensively since they gave up 16 points in the final four minutes of their Week 1 loss to the Bills. Baltimore ranks 26th in overall defensive success rate, 26th in run defense success rate and 19th in pass defense success rate.
That’s just based on the play on the field.
It gets even hairier when you consider the key defensive players they lost in the game. Without Madubuike, Smith, Humphrey and Wiggins, the Ravens’ defensive team rating drops from 11th to 29th.
Madubuike’s injury was the biggest blow for Baltimore. He’s the ninth-best run defender among interior defensive lineman, per our NFL ELO ratings.
Madubuike had a 25.0% pressure rate and a 35.0% run disruption rate during his 95 total adjusted snaps (no kneel downs, penalty plays). Those numbers ranked seventh and fifth, respectively, among interior defensive linemen with at least 50 pass snaps and 20 run snaps.
Without Madubuike, Baltimore’s defensive line didn’t get much worse but did decline. The team’s pass-rush rating ranks in the bottom five and its run defense in the bottom eight.
The secondary is where things get rough, though. The unit ranked third in team rating heading into the year and first after four weeks. Now, without Humphrey and possibly Wiggins for some time, the Ravens’ pass defensive rating fell all the way to 24th.
Unless the Ravens get incredible performances from their backups, one of the better defenses in the league will suffer greatly until their key players return.
What’s Next?
There are two schools of thought when it comes to the Ravens’ 2025 season: Pack it in, see what you have in younger players and prepare for next season, or try to gut out some wins as the schedule lightens up while the team gets healthy.
Given the competitiveness of the AFC North, the Ravens can sneak into the playoffs if they steal some victories between now and January. As we mentioned earlier, the Ravens still have an almost 70% chance to make the postseason. That will increase if they win some divisional games down the stretch.
But right now, the future looks bleak. Unless the Ravens rediscover their identity – an explosive Jackson, a dominant ground game, and a stingy defense – this season could spiral from disappointing to disastrous.
Data modeling from Opta Analyst’s Kyle Cunningham-Rhoads. For more coverage, follow along on social media on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.
The post Purple Pain: What’s Wrong With the Ravens and Can They Recover? appeared first on Opta Analyst.
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