Knee-Jerk Reactions: Lions 38 Ravens 30

The Ravens fell to 1-2 with a 38-30 loss to the Detroit Lions at home on Monday Night Football.

RSR staff react to the loss here.

Rob Shields

Well, that was one of the worst games the Ravens have played in a while.  They got run on, they got no pressure, gave up seven sacks, struggled to run and Henry coughed it up again in a big spot.  They gave up two 95+ yard TD drives, after not allowing a single such drive at home since 2001.

At no point did Orr try to do anything differently on defense. No blitzing. He played soft all night. Coached scared.

The defense is missing key guys for sure and you knew the Lions would put up points, but this was a brutal outing.

Lamar played well overall but he didn’t have a lot of time or places to throw tonight.  Speaking of which, why doesn’t DeAndre Hopkins play more snaps?  I don’t understand that at all.

And now you have KC on the road. The schedule gets easier after next week and you figure things will start to calm down some, but they are staring at 1-3 and that’s not good.

Derek Arnold

Those first three quarters in Buffalo feel like a lifetime ago, huh?

Until further notice, these Ravens are pretenders. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Reports from M&T Bank Stadium pre-game were that the atmosphere was absolutely electric – the best in years. Secondary market prices remained elevated until gametime. The Flock showed UP!

The Baltimore Ravens, specifically the defense, did not. They’re an absolute joke, getting walked down the field for not one, but TWO 95+ yard touchdown drives. Third downs were like shooting fish in a barrel for Jared Goff, who had allll day to sit in the pocket. Despite the improvements down the stretch last year, Zach Orr looks completely over his head once again. Yes, they were missing some pieces. But all NFL teams have injuries, and find ways to get off the field on third down. Or to produce a SINGLE turnover. A SINGLE sack. These frauds wearing black did nothing of the sort.

Roquan Smith, coming off the game of his life, was invisible. Kyle Hamilton? Nowhere to be found. Malaki Starks made a sorry effort to bring down David Montgomery on his 72-yard run. Marlon Humphrey chased Montgomery down to momentarily prevent a TD, but was otherwise toasted by Amon-Ra St. Brown. Odafe Oweh made a nice stop in the backfield early, and we never heard his name again. Travis Jones threw a body into Jahmyr Gibbs for a loss, but the team needed more. Then because of their inability to get off the field, the thin DL were gassed and pushed around.

On offense, things started off well, but of course fell apart at the exact same time the defense managed an actual stop or two. Derrick Henry fumbled again, in a tight game in the 4th quarter, because of COURSE he did. He also got stuffed at the 1, twice. The offensive line was manhandled, Lamar Jackson was trying to put on the cape and do everything himself once again, but instead was sacked seven times.

Lions just ran 3 dwn with a spy and forced Lamar outta the pocket. That’s unacceptable pass protection

— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) September 23, 2025

And Todd Monken doesn’t escape criticism. For all the good he does, he once again got entirely too cute inside the 5, and Henry nearly threw an interception.

It’s incredible that the Ravens front office can watch their seasons end due to being eaten alive in the trenches every season, and then spend every offseason beefing up everything BUT their offensive line and pass rush. They have first-rounders littering the secondary, and insist on playing soft zone coverages. Mike Green, drafted to get to the passer, drops into coverage on an early 3rd-and-8.

Jordan Stout had some great punts, but turned in his once-a-game shank in crunch time. Tyler Loop was good putting it through the uprights (barely, on a 41-yard FG), but missed the landing zone on a kickoff for the third straight week. Can Stout do that instead? For crying out loud.

Sure, we’ll all feel great again if they can pull to 2-2 with a win in KC next week, but does that seem realistic when they can’t even make Goff uncomfortable?

Gets back to the level of perfection Lamar needs to achieve for this team to win against quality teams.

He’s not exactly playing his sharpest. But the defense is useless.

No pass rush, no turnovers. You even have great field position. Stout has been punting well. #Ravens

— Dev Panchwagh (@devpanchwagh) September 23, 2025

EDC needs to get aggressive about finding some help along the DL, or we’re seeing yet another year of a Hall of Fame QB’s prime wasted.

Nick Polinsky

Nnamdi Madubuike’s absence was the main culprit of this disaster. The Lions thrashed the Ravens front-7 all night long. Big run after big run and Jared Goff had all day to throw on every single drop back.

David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs created a problem all night and when they had to air it out on third down Sam LaPorta was wide open over the middle time after time.

Lamar Jackson looked out of sorts the entire second half and ball security has somehow become a problem for one of the most reliable ball security backs in the league.

If Madubuike is out long term, the Ravens need to do something to fix the defensive line because this simply won’t cut it.

Chad Racine

The Lions earned and deserved this win. The Ravens couldn’t seem to stop the run without Madubuike. Lamar was sacked seven times behind a porous offensive line. Derrick Henry with his 3rd fumble in as many games. For the final drive Dan Campbell stayed aggressive and passed on 4th and 2.  This loss isn’t the worst because the Lions are a good team (and in the NFC) but the Ravens have some problems that need fixing.

Chris Schisler

Lions 427 yards

Bills 497 yards

Browns 322 yards

The Ravens have a defense problem. The Lions got seven sacks. The Ravens also have an offensive line problem.

They are a flashy team. I’m still waiting for all of this talent to matter against a NFL contender in 2025. The Ravens are a very flawed team and it showed. The Detroit Lions are good. The Ravens patterns are troubling and it does not matter how good the Lions played, the Ravens have serious work to do. Cue the coach speak.

Kevin McNelis

If you’re a fan of exciting, back-and-forth games, you’ve probably loved watching Ravens games to begin the year. I wish I could say the same.

This just isn’t a Ravens team we’re used to seeing. The defense was porous, and the infinitely-dependable Derrick Henry coughed it up on a fumble for the third straight week, this time killing the start to a drive that could have won them the ball game.

They’ve made things SO hard on themselves the last few weeks, in ways that are almost entirely in their control and it’s painfully predictable at this point. All of the things you figured would be a problem showed up in this one: soft coverage, bad pass protection down the stretch and a non-existent pass rush with KVN and Beeks out.

Surely we won’t see this defense struggle at Arrowhead next week against Mahomes and crew, right?

Vermont Raven

I tried to hold my head up high after Bills game collapse, but this team once again proves it folds when the pressure is on.

The run defense looks completely lost with Nnamdi Madubuike out.  Let’s hope his neck injury heals and he is back soon.

Derrick Henry has three fumbles in three games and has seemingly lost his edge.  Obviously you can’t bench Henry but they need to activate Keaton Mitchell and give him a shot as a change-of-pace back.

Tyler Loop kicks another kickoff short and almost misses short field goal. I knew there would be lumps with rookie kicker, but it’s still shocking very little competition was brought in. I would give Stout a chance to try kickoffs in practice and see if he can do it adequately.  If he can, have Loop focus on field goals. I’d also bring in a kicker to the practice squad to provide competition.

Lamar seems to be holding the ball too long, taking sacks and looking for huge plays and not taking the shorter outlet passes or throwing ball away.

The Ravens are staring 1-3 in the face with a short week headed to KC. Mahomes will shred them if they don’t get pressure.  If Lamar continues to hold the ball too long, the KC defense will crush them.

This team better figure it out quickly if they want to be contenders.

Jason Woolbert

It’s always something with the Almost-Ravens.  In this case, Derrick Henry has suddenly become a fumbler, and the loss of one DT turned the whole defense into swiss cheese against the run.  I saw miscommunication on offense, body language that showed confusion, and a strange indecisiveness by Lamar regarding whether to throw or scramble.  If I had to sum it all up in one phrase – I would say the Lions outcoached and were better prepared than the Ravens.  This was like the Eagles game last season.  The Ravens didn’t give this game away, despite a few gaffes.  The Lions legitimately looked like the better team.

We’ve seen this before however.  We saw it just last season.  The team starts slow, loses some tough games, and then figures out their weaknesses and goes on a tear as the season grinds along.  The team is still a playoff team, and the best team in their division (I think).

Then they will find a way to lose in the playoffs again, because that is who this iteration of the team is.  Until proven otherwise, they are last generation’s Atlanta Falcons.

Jared Pinder

God, this team man. What a disgraceful performance from everyone tonight. The offense was good at points, but the constant pressure on Lamar and the horrible fumbles by Henry are killing this offense. Meanwhile, we have a truly spineless defense right now that simply can’t do anything right. No, don’t even come at me with the injury excuse either, this defense is bad again after EDC brought in multiple reinforcements. This team really has no shot until they get rid of Zach Orr. I am sorry, good guy great story, but he stinks as a Defensive Coordinator. They have no pass rush, have to blitz, yet they completely telegraph said blitzes so they’re easily picked up, and the highly paid players on defense just sit there and do nothing. I wish someone would wake this team up and get them to play better than they are, but that won’t happen until the biggest issue, Harbaugh, is gone. At this rate, we all will be dead when that happens.

The one thing they can do is get rid of Zach Orr tonight and give the defense to Dean Pees or Chuck Pagano and hope and pray that one of them can squeeze some juice from this lemon. Still, that wouldn’t fix this o-line or the other issues plaguing this team.

For years, the Ravens’ biggest issues were the quarterback and skill positions; now they have a quarterback and skill players and nothing much around them—a true football tragedy.

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