Baltimore Ravens: New Coach, Same Old Problems

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Baltimore Ravens: New Coach, Same Old Problems

Baltimore Ravens: New Coach, Same Old Problems — IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Gary Adornato · Sportsnaut

Sun, Sep 20, 2026 ·

8 min read

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John Harbaugh is gone and all three coordinators have changed, but Baltimore's 24-17 collapse against New Orleans featured an unsettling collection of familiar failures .

For one week, it looked as if the Baltimore Ravens had changed everything.

Jesse Minter's debut as head coach produced a 41-23 road demolition of the Indianapolis Colts . Lamar Jackson threw for 324 yards. Derrick Henry ran for 144 yards and three touchdowns. Baltimore piled up more than 500 yards, forced two turnovers and turned a potentially difficult opener into a rout.

The response around the NFL was immediate. NFL.com moved Baltimore to No. 3 in its power rankings. Sportsnaut had the Ravens No. 3 and wrote that Baltimore had shown why it "might be the best team in the AFC."

New coach. New offensive coordinator. New defensive coordinator. New special teams coordinator.

Maybe, finally, a new Ravens team.

Then came Sunday's home opener.

The Ravens blew an 11-point lead, scored three points in the second half and lost 24-17 to the New Orleans Saints at M&T Bank Stadium. New Orleans entered as an 8.5-point underdog.

And suddenly everything looked remarkably familiar.

John Harbaugh is gone after 18 seasons. Minter is the head coach. Declan Doyle runs the offense. Anthony Weaver runs the defense. Anthony Levine Sr. coordinates special teams.

Yet Baltimore still can't seem to protect a lead. It still can't consistently protect Jackson. It still can't win enough games in its own stadium. It still makes special-teams mistakes at damaging moments. Its pass rush can disappear when the opposing quarterback absolutely must be stopped.

Even the game-management questions that frustrated Ravens fans during the Harbaugh era haven't disappeared.

One game doesn't define Minter's tenure.

But Sunday's loss looked far too much like the games that ended Harbaugh's.

Ravens Still Can't Protect Home Field

Minter's first home game offered an opportunity to begin repairing one of the most surprising problems from Baltimore's disastrous 2025 season.

The Ravens went 3-6 at M&T Bank Stadium last season, the worst home record in franchise history. Baltimore actually went 5-3 on the road while finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs.

The Ravens talked openly about changing that before Sunday.

"We're not trying to live in the past, but this is our city, our team and we have to protect our home court," safety Kyle Hamilton said last week. "It's up to us to re-establish that sentiment throughout the building."

Instead, Baltimore is 0-1 at home under Minter.

That makes the Ravens 3-7 in their past 10 regular-season games at M&T Bank Stadium.

For a franchise that once built part of its identity around the difficulty of winning in Baltimore, that's becoming more than an aberration.

Another Double-Digit Lead Disappears

This may be the most troubling carryover of all.

Baltimore led New Orleans 14-3 late in the second quarter Sunday. The Ravens still led 17-9 entering the fourth.

They lost by seven.

The Saints outscored Baltimore 15-0 in the fourth quarter and 18-3 in the second half. Baltimore possessed the football for just 96 seconds in the fourth quarter before getting it back after New Orleans' go-ahead touchdown with 1:28 remaining.

If that script sounds familiar, it should.

Last December, Baltimore led New England 24-13 with 12:50 remaining at M&T Bank Stadium. The Patriots scored the final 15 points and won 28-24.

Different head coach Sunday.

Same stadium.

Same two-score fourth-quarter advantage.

Same result.

That history stretches beyond last season. Blown leads became one of the defining frustrations of the latter Harbaugh years. Back in 2022, Baltimore became the only team in NFL history to hold double-digit leads in each of its first six games without producing a winning record through those six games.

Minter wasn't hired to answer for Harbaugh's collapses.

He was hired, in part, to make sure they stopped happening.

Ravens Pass Rush Disappeared When It Mattered Most

Baltimore made a massive offseason investment to address another longstanding weakness by adding Trey Hendrickson .

In Week 1, the impact was obvious. Hendrickson generated eight pressures against Indianapolis, and Baltimore produced a 58.6% pressure rate when he was on the field, according to Next Gen Stats data cited by the Ravens.

There were flashes again Sunday. Hendrickson recorded his first sack as a Raven, while Mike Green had a sack, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. Baltimore sacked Tyler Shough three times overall.

But when the Ravens desperately needed to disrupt Shough, they couldn't.

With the score tied 17-17 and New Orleans facing third-and-8 late in the fourth quarter, Shough had enough time to find Juwan Johnson for a 26-yard catch-and-run to the Baltimore 4.

Four plays later, Shough scored the winning touchdown.

The Saints quarterback finished 27 of 34 for 252 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. New Orleans converted 8 of 15 third downs and both of its fourth-down attempts.

A pass rush isn't judged only by how many sacks appear in the box score.

It's judged by whether the quarterback can stand comfortably in the pocket on third-and-8 with the game on the line.

Shough did.

Lamar Jackson Took Too Many Hits

The offensive line didn't escape Sunday's problems, either.

Jackson was sacked three times for 31 yards. Chase Young 's 11-yard sack in the second quarter helped turn a promising drive that reached the New Orleans 28 into a long field-goal attempt.

That field goal was blocked.

Baltimore's inability to consistently protect its quarterbacks isn't new. The Ravens surrendered 45 sacks during the 2025 season.

There were mitigating circumstances Sunday. Ronnie Stanley was unavailable, forcing Baltimore to shuffle its offensive line.

But Jackson remains the franchise's most valuable asset, and the Ravens cannot expect him to continually erase breakdowns around him.

Especially when the protection deteriorates at the same time the offense is trying to protect a lead.

Special Teams Didn't Escape the Coaching Change, Either

For years, special teams was supposed to be one of Baltimore's constants under Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator.

Now Levine is running the unit.

Sunday brought another costly mistake.

Baltimore drove from its own 6-yard line to the New Orleans 28 in the second quarter, but Young's sack pushed the Ravens backward. Tyler Loop eventually lined up for a 49-yard field goal.

Carl Granderson blocked it.

Three points aren't guaranteed from 49 yards.

But the Ravens got none because the kick never had a chance.

In a game they lost by seven after surrendering a double-digit lead, another empty possession mattered.

Game Management Still Deserves Scrutiny

This is where Minter's transition from coordinator to head coach will receive the most examination.

During training camp, Minter acknowledged that clock management, timeouts, fourth downs and other situational decisions were among his new responsibilities. He said Baltimore had made them a "major focus," with game management coordinator Charlie Gelman working through scenarios with Minter and all three coordinators.

Sunday provided the first real stress test.

Baltimore reached the fourth quarter leading by eight but struggled to maintain possession, control the game's tempo or preserve enough margin for error late. By New Orleans' final goal-line sequence, Baltimore had only two timeouts remaining.

There will be decisions to dissect — challenges, timeout usage, clock management and the larger question of how Baltimore managed a game it controlled for most of the afternoon.

Those details were supposed to be part of the fresh start.

They now become part of Minter's learning curve.

The Ravens Went From Super Bowl Buzz to an Old Feeling

This is what makes Sunday's loss so jarring.

Baltimore entered last season as a Super Bowl favorite in several projections. The Athletic's model ran 100,000 simulations before the 2025 season and gave the Ravens the NFL's highest championship probability at 11.9 %.

They finished 8-9.

Then Harbaugh was fired.

Baltimore changed its head coach and coordinators but retained a roster built around Jackson, Henry, Hamilton, Roquan Smith and a collection of high-end talent.

After the Week 1 destruction of Indianapolis, the hype returned. Baltimore climbed to No. 3 in NFL.com's rankings, and Sportsnaut moved the Ravens to No. 3 while calling them a potential AFC standard-bearer.

Six days later, the Ravens were booed at home after losing to a Saints team they were favored to beat by more than a touchdown.

That's the danger in dismissing Sunday as merely one bad afternoon.

It wasn't just that Baltimore lost.

It was ho wBaltimore lost.

A double-digit lead disappeared.

The offense stopped scoring.

The defense couldn't get off the field.

The pass rush couldn't produce the decisive pressure.

Jackson wasn't protected well enough.

Special teams left points on the field.

Home-field advantage meant nothing.

And the new coaching staff couldn't prevent an old Ravens ending.

Minter deserves time. Two games are nowhere near enough to judge a new head coach, and Baltimore showed in Indianapolis how high the ceiling remains.

But the purpose of replacing an 18-year head coach wasn't simply to change the names on the office doors.

It was to change the endings.

On Sunday, the Ravens got one they've seen far too many times before.

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