There was every reason to suspect that Joe Burrow was going to carve up a suspect Ravens pass defense, which was struggling in critical areas even against lowly quarterbacks. And sure enough Burrow threw four touchdown passes with a perfect passer rating in the second half, as the Bengals mustered 35 unanswered points.

Is there any reason to think it will be any different against former MVP Josh Allen on Sunday? Or a quality Jaguars passing attack on a short week after that? Was there anything in the film against the Bengals – or in obvious passing situations late in games or when attacked in the slot or when managing third-and-long situations – that would portend a turnaround anytime soon?

In a word, no.

This secondary has not been good for quite some time, and it is not good under rookie head coach Jesse Minter, no matter how much money failing general manager Eric DeCosta spends on certain players and no matter how high he picked them in the draft. It’s screaming out for a shakeup, but Baltimore already has a $370M payroll, they overpaid for lineman Cam Jurgens in trade and would have to find someone to take a big salary (like this defensive player’s for instance) off their hands to make a meaningful addition.

These DBs do not get their hands on the football, they are not scheme disciplined they look like man corners who are lost in many of Minter’s zone concepts in the most important times. At this point it’s fair to expect this to be who they are, once again, unless the pass rush ramps up in a remarkable way.

A year ago, $19M corner Marlon Humphrey and recent first-round pick Nate Wiggins were one of the three most exploited corner duos in the NFL; it’s not nearly that bad this year, but they also haven’t faced many quality QBs, and Wiggins, who had been stout against the Bengals in the past, struggled mightily on Sunday (six completions on eight targets for 80 yards and a TD) and needs to slough that off, because Humphrey isn’t ascending in any way shape or form.

“He's played better football,” longtime NFL coach and defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis told me on “The Daily Flock” of Wiggins after watching Sunday’s film. “And he just has to get back, in my opinion, to doing that. Some of the things that have happened in  a lot of their games, they've been having some communication errors in the back end.

“And I think that's you see that across the NFL quite a bit. That's why you see the offenses motioning into all these bunches and stacks and formations to make guys communicate on the perimeter. And if one guy doesn't see it the same or communicate it, then you leave a guy wide open. And that happened a little bit … Yeah there's some things probably, technically, I would clean up um guys coach people differently in today's NFL.”

Ongoing Issues

Many of these issues are lingering and deeply embedded and Minter tweaking the scheme hasn’t changed nearly enough. The Ravens are 20th in the NFL in opposing passer rating (95.5). but when you filter out the linebackers – who account for all three interceptions on this team (none in the second half of a game) you see how acute the coverage problems are.

Minter, who badly needs someone with head coaching experience like Lewis to join him on staff, is averse to blitzing and is now down a starting edge defender for the season (sack-leader Tavius Robinson). If $30M pass-rusher Trey Hendrickson doesn’t start operating like the “closer” he was hyped up to be, this defense is cooked.

Wiggins has never had strong ball skills, they refuse to move Humphrey to the slot (perhaps that will come if TJ Tampa gets activated from IR this week), and free safety Malaki Starks (another recent first-round pick) has yet to look anything like a ballhawk despite this defense being set up for him to, in theory, be just that.

Ravens corners and free safeties in coverage this season:

Opposing QBs: 91/ 135 (67.4%), 1139 yards (8.4/att.), 7 TD – 0 INT, 110.7 rating

                        7 Pass Break Ups, 12.5/comp, 17 comp 20+,  55 1st Downs

Minter said: “You could look at a bunch of different plays where it's something different - where it's certain coverage one play, certain coverage another play, certain guy one play, certain guy another play, playing a coverage one way versus the same route, or playing a coverage two different ways versus the same route even though we're in the same coverage … To me, it just starts with us putting them in a better position. [It] always starts with the coaching, in my opinion, and I'll leave it at that.”

Minter is playing in dime nearly a third of the time, which is nearly twice as much as anyone else in the AFC, and it’s not working. He’s going to end up shifting to more nickel (five defensive backs), and better hunt better match-ups in the slot. Blitzing and playing man better become more a part of this mix, too.

Slot Collapse

We’ve been writing this for weeks, but if Humphrey can’t help this team in the slot, then where can he? Should be his strength. This had been a failure from scheme and execution.

Burrow didn’t lean into the slot as much as we thought he might, but did go 5/6 for 51 yards and TD when targeting those pass catchers. On the season the Ravens are among the NFL’s worst, allowing a 121.9 rating on slot targets (27th), and 75% completions (48/64), with four TDs.

Minter needs to switch it up in there.

He probably needs linebacker Teddye Buchanan, working back from season-ending ACL surgery, to help more in coverage against bigger bodies and try to free up Kyle Hamilton to hunt the ball more. If Minter ends up having to move Hamilton more to a free safety role, it’s a bit of a white flag about how this defense was supposed to function, and time to wonder if 2026 is going to end up far closer to 2025 than anyone has the stomach for.

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