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The Baltimore Ravens’ defense shut down the run, hit the quarterback and got the crucial turnover against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5, but head coach Jesse Minter’s still owning up to a “really unfortunate” weakness that’s threatening to undermine the unit’s progress.
Minter is becoming increasingly concerned about the Ravens’ shoddy third-down defense. He admitted “It’s really unfortunate, because I thought we definitely played our best game of normal down, first and second down defense against a really challenging running game and offense. I thought we dominated first and second down. We ended up in so many advantageous or what should be advantageous third down opportunities,” per Ryan Mink and Clifton Brown of Ravens.com.
As the primary play-caller, Minter knows the responsibility for the Ravens’ inability to get off the field on football’s money down ultimately lies with him. The rookie head coach is owning that responsibility, promising the Ravens will “look at what we’re doing, first of all with me and the staff. That’s going to be a major focal point.”
A closer look at what’s going wrong is needed after some dire stats emerged from the 30-24 win over the Falcons in overtime. Minter worryingly named some pretty basic mistakes as reasons for the problems.
Jesse Minter’s Seeing Worrying Trends on Third Down
Those elementary errors include “calls reacting to what happened on plays before. It’s a little bit of miscommunication, a little bit of missed execution, hearing a call differently than what the call was,” according to Minter.
He’s alluding to operational problems between coaches and players. Minter and his staff are making some calls for the wrong reasons, while other ideas aren’t properly communicated to key leaders on the field.
These are things the Ravens should have down pat five games into the 2026 NFL season. Even with a new staff in place.
Jesse Minter, Ravens defense
GettyMinter and his staff are struggling to get their ideas across to the Ravens’ defense in critical moments.
Minter’s a highly-regarded defensive mind thanks to his stints as a coordinator at Michigan and for the Los Angeles Chargers. His chosen DC in Baltimore, Anthony Weaver, has experience calling plays for the Houston Texans and Miami Dolphins.
They have the right defensive braintrust, but the Ravens are still allowing opponents to convert 41.54 percent of their third-down opportunities, per ESPN.
The conversion rate got worse in Week 5, when “The Falcons converted nine of 17 third-down attempts, including several occasions when they faced third-and-10 or longer,” according to Mink and Brown.
Numbers like these are why an All-Pro starter has already called out the defense more than once. A scorched-earth rant’s merited for the third-down unit, but other areas of Baltimore’s defense are growing in strength.
Ravens Showing Signs of Life Defensively
Do-all safety Kyle Hamilton hasn’t always been happy with how the defense has performed this season, but he was a difference-maker in Atlanta. Hamilton sealed the win by intercepting backup quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in OT.
It was the kind of play Hamilton suggested the Ravens haven’t made enough of in recent years. Thankfully, Minter’s defense was clutch in this moment after damaging both phases of the Falcons’ offense.
Tagovailoa was only in the game because Falcons’ starter Michael Penix Jr. had taken a beating from a fired-up pass rush. The Ravens logged three sacks, generated six pressures and hit Penix and Co. several other times.
Those numbers were impressive from a pass rush missing injured All-Pro rush end Trey Hendrickson. He’s the closer who can make Minter’s defense work on third down, so it’s a good thing Hendrickson’s trending in the right direction.
It’s also good the Ravens are mastering the core concept of Minter’s defense. They had to stop dynamic Falcons’ running back Bijan Robinson, and the Ravens responded by holding him to 86 yards on 17 carries, with 38 of those gained on one run.
Minter applauded the way the Ravens “stopped the run often times with two high safeties.” Stuffing the run with less than eight defenders in the box is the key to Minter’s scheme.
The Ravens are getting that right, so the next step is to make stops when it matters most.
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