GOOD, BAD & UGLY: “We need to find ourselves”

There is a dimension beyond that exists, which is known to fans. It is a dimension as vast as the optimism of a once promising season and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between a winning culture and one seemingly in decay; one that struggles between sound execution and blown assignments. How a team navigates this dimension determines winners and losers. It is the dimension of imagination.

Fans in their wildest imaginations could never have envisioned the reality that is the Baltimore Ravens. One so drenched in surrealism that you deny its existence. Yet, here we are. The Ravens are (1-4) following the most recent embarrassing loss to the Texans, 44-10.

Welcome to the Ravens presentation of The Twilight Zone.

Fans imagined a championship season for the purple and black. The talking heads validated the fantasy. And with 5 minutes left to go in the season opener, leading the Bills 40-25, the vision came into focus. But in a flash, the beautiful oblivion hit a wall as if it was dipped in Narcan. The reality of a defenseless defense brought the wonderful hallucination to a crashing halt.

Today, the Ravens are a rudderless ship with a broken Orr. With no direction home and undeniably a complete unknown.

Devoid of any worthy identity.

The only identity they now have is that of an underachieving team that lacks passion or purpose supported by a defense that has given up more points in the first five games of the 2025 season than they did for the entirety of the 2000 season. This Ravens team OD’d on the hype and now need to be enter rehab. But John Harbaugh says, no, no, no.

“We’re going to have to find a way to turn it around and figure out who we are this next week and then into the bye [week]. And after the bye, we’re going to have more than half the season left, and we’re going to have to find ourselves. So that’s what our aim will be going forward.”

Translation: “We’ll do the same shit the same way and expect better results.”

During his postgame presser John later added:

“You try to do the most productive things, and I do not think [firing Zach Orr is] the answer. We have to go to work, is what we need to do. We need to stick together, is what we need to do. We need to find ourselves. And that has to do with coaches and players [working] together.”

Find ourselves?

Do the Ravens need to hire a team shrink now?

So, while the Ravens are finding themselves, I decided to help and what I found is a team that has given up a league worst 177 points in 5 games. And their defense has the:

• 4th worst passer rating v. opponents (109.8)
• 3rd fewest sacks in the NFL (6)
• Just 1 INT, better than only 2 other teams
• 2nd most yards allowed
• 3rd worst in rushing YPG allowed
• 2nd worst time of possession
• 2nd worst in third down conversions
• Worst defense in 4th down conversion attempts
• 2nd worst number in opponent’s punts v. offensive scores

The Ravens 44-10 loss to the Texans featured:

• The most points allowed by a Harbaugh-led team at home
• 66 plays for the visitors v. 40 by the Ravens
• 417 yards v. 207 for Cooper Rush & Co.
• 3 turnovers by the Ravens v. 0 for the Texans
• 167 yards rushing for Houston v. 44 for the Ravens
• Derrick Henry with 0 yards before contact.
• Houston possessing the ball 36:33 to the Ravens 23:27
• The Ravens being flagged 9 times for 49 yards v. 4 for 26 yards for Houston.

This 30th anniversary celebration isn’t going quite the way the franchise drew it up, has it?

But don’t worry, John and his staff will figure it out…together.

These are the good old days… pic.twitter.com/ZdPcGwxEKl

— Lombardi Party of One (@RSRLombardi) October 6, 2025

Meanwhile, judging from the empty seats at M&T Bank Stadium, a rather large contingent of the RavensFlock has apparently flown south already despite the moderate October temps. The announced crowd of 70,077 might look great on the Ravens accounting books but with performances like those in 2025 so far, fans dressed as purple seats will grow in numbers. Yesterday, seats at the 35 yard-line in the lower bowl, 33 rows off the field, were going for $84 each on Seat Geek. Face value of those seats there weren’t that cheap when The Bank opened in 1998.

Fans are still streaming in, but here’s a look at the upper levels inside M&T Bank Stadium just before kickoff. pic.twitter.com/31I86rJjnV

— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) October 5, 2025

Apathy has gripped Baltimore. This is what happens when lofty expectations aren’t even remotely close to reality. This is what happens when a fan base is not only fed up with the same tired message, but they’re also fed up with the same tired messenger.

Happy 30th anniversary, Ravens? Tough to celebrate an anniversary when one of the two sides in the relationship wants a divorce!

Who saw this coming 5 weeks ago? Yet here we are… pic.twitter.com/25BVvYpr84

— Lombardi Party of One (@RSRLombardi) October 6, 2025

You can’t blame the fans who have morphed from excited to concerned, to pissed off and now on the verge of not caring. The team certainly doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass so why should the paying customers?

C.J. Stroud and the Texans came into town with the league’s 25th-ranked offense scoring just 16 points per game good for 29th best in the league. Despite the injuries, this was supposed to be a “get-right” outing for Zach Orr’s crew. Instead, the Texans scored on their first 8 possessions, jumped out to a 24-3 lead by halftime and then with 5:53 left in the 3rd quarter they were up 34-3.

The Ravens are now (1-4) for the second time during the Harbaugh era. Their defense is a league bottom feeder. They have an injury list nearly as bad as those we experienced during the pandemic and the same weaknesses that they carried into 2025 not only linger like fumes from a Billy goat’s ass, they’ve worsened.

The coaching staff and personnel group have convinced themselves that they have adequate guards across the offensive front; that they have capable edge rushers; and that Roquan Smith can help elevate the play of his sidekick of the week when even he isn’t playing (when available) at an average level despite having the second-highest take home pay at his position in the league. Oh, and let’s not forget the mammoth salary cap number he’ll carry into 2026 ($32.7M).

It’s an ugly situation and there is absolutely no sign that it will get better soon. Will Lamar Jackson be back for the game against the Rams? What about Ronnie Stanley and Kyle Hamilton? Will Smith and Marlon Humphrey return? What is the buzz along the sideline and in the locker room? Might these injured players make a few business decisions to take more time off if there is no compelling reason to race back to the field of play under the guidance of a regime that is crumbling?

What happened to Travis Jones? A preseason pick to be among the game’s best seems to disappear and when he does, the entire defensive front becomes a sieve. They can’t control the line of scrimmage, and they never move it back! And that leaves it up to ILB’s who can’t shed blocks and DB’s forced to come up quickly from deep zones because apparently Zach Orr has a dire fear of anyone throwing the ball over the secondary’s head. Although the Texans still managed to do that anyway.

The only bright spots of the afternoon for the grape popsicles were Zay Flowers and DeAndre Hopkins and surprisingly, the pass protection which was far better than I expected given the statue wearing No. 15.

At the end of the day, it didn’t take Nostradamus to envision a loss on Sunday given all the injuries. But to get skunked by 34 points at home against a (1-3) team averaging 16 PPG? How embarrassing.

One of the things I’ve admired about John Harbaugh teams over the years is that even when they were in the grips of crippling injuries, the next men up still played hard, still played with purpose and gave the team a fighting chance. Yesterday, there was little fight and it’s reasonable to trace that back to the coaching staff and their passive play-not-to-lose approach. That style is a loser. They are getting destroyed on defense, so why not go balls to the wall and play close to the line and dial up exotic blitzes! Can it be any worse?

When asked about the challenges of the season so far, the losing and the injuries, and if this is his most challenging season to date, Harbaugh said,

“Like I told the guys, this becomes a measuring stick for all of us. So, what ends up happening is, when you go through situations like this – and everybody does in their life, and every team does in their career, players and coaches and everybody else – it’s [about] how you handle it. And when people look back and say, ‘Hey, when things were the toughest, when things looked the worst, when we were at our lowest point, how did you handle it? How will you be remembered for how you handled it?’ And I’m looking for people to come out fighting and give their best in those kinds of situations. That’s what you have to do. When you do that, you come out the other end.”

Sounds like something John would say to his team.

I just don’t think anyone is listening anymore.

“We’re gonna have to find ourselves.”

If this keeps up, many will find themselves outside of Baltimore.

And for me, although it took awhile to get here, that hopeful reality can’t come soon enough.

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Editor’s Note: If you’re looking for the Good, Bad & Ugly, we’ll get to it when the Ravens actually do some good in a game. This week was just Ugly, Uglier & Ugliest.

The post GOOD, BAD & UGLY: “We need to find ourselves” appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/10/06/gbu-paige-spiranac/ravens-crushed-by-texans/