The Baltimore Ravens looked like they were well on their way to one of their most impressive wins of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals. With no Lamar Jackson, they had held up defensively and were shutting out a Joe Burrow-led offense.
But the second half saw a complete turnaround. Even then, a former Pro Bowler believes some of the Ravens' issues fell directly on new head coach Jesse Minter. Calling out one particular decision to go for it on fourth down, he was unimpressed by the aggressiveness.
After missing the playoffs outright last season, the Ravens chose to move on from a Super Bowl-winning head coach, John Harbaugh. In his place, they brought in Minter as head coach, given his success as the Los Angeles Chargers' defensive coordinator.
However, with Jackson's injury once again limiting the franchise, Minter hasn't been a transformative force for the defensive unit. Currently, the team is ranked 18th on PFN's Defense Impact Metric.
But the game against the Bengals was looking like their most impressive outing yet, as they jumped to a 13-0 lead in the first half. Unfortunately, it was a complete 180 after that, as Burrow led his team to five consecutive touchdown drives to open the second half.
On the other hand, the Ravens went scoreless, despite getting into the red zone at the end of the third quarter. Facing a 4th & 2 from the 12-yard line to open the fourth quarter, Minter attempted to go for the touchdown rather than settle for a field goal.
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The plan backfired, and the Bengals expanded their lead on the very next possession. For two-time Pro Bowler and four-time second-team All-Pro Justin Simmons, that was a true turning point in the game, as he argued on the "NFL on CBS" studio show:
"You take the points. I'm so confused. You can't keep doing this. For Jesse Minter, and he's a great young coach, he's gonna do fine. But you gotta take the points."
Given the stakes of the game as a divisional matchup, this sentiment was echoed by other analysts and voices around the game, including J.J. Watt, whom CBS recently named its permanent lead NFL analyst.
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It remains to be seen if Minter can fix those mistakes as he grows as a head coach. But the road is about to get a lot tougher for the Ravens, who have two more games in the next 10 days, against the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It's still unclear if Jackson will be back on the field by then, but there were encouraging signs before the Bengals game. Jackson returned to practice on a limited basis throughout the week and was initially listed as questionable before being ruled out a day before kickoff.
But with or without Jackson, it is going to be a tough challenge for the Ravens to stay in the thick of the playoff race over the coming weeks.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
