Baltimore Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley (5) on the field with head coach Jesse Minter before the game against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium.
Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
There’s no doubt that the Baltimore Ravens need to make changes after their performance Sunday. Trey Hendrickson said the team needs to meet the standard. And here are the people most to blame for the brutal second-half meltdown in the loss to the Bengals.
After dominating the first half and leading 13-0, the Ravens went into cold storage while the Bengals heated up. By the time the game ended, the Bengals had earned a 35-13 road victory. That moved the Bengals (4-2) past the Ravens (4-3) in the very tough AFC North.
So who let down their end of the bargain on Sunday?
When any team starts as strong as the Ravens did against the Bengals, and then goes into the locker room and gets blown away in the second half, it’s a direct reflection of the head coach. Minter authored one of the worst displays of halftime adjustments in quite some time in the NFL.
How bad was it? The Ravens became the first team in 76 years to lead by at least 13 points at halftime and lose by at least 20, according to Sportradar via ESPN. The Baltimore Colts were up 20-7 on the New York Giants on Nov. 19, 1950, before losing 55-20.
Minter said his team has relied too much on momentum, according to ESPN.
“Right now, we’re too much of a momentum team,” Minter said. “We’re riding the wave when it’s good, and we’re riding the wave when it’s bad. I think that’s a main focus for us to be able to stay a little bit more even-keeled and continue to make plays and do things.”
Minter tried to soften the blow of the embarrassing second half, according to baltimoreravens.com.
“The message is that I think in every game we've proven that we're good enough to be the type of team that we want to be, and we've proven that we're bad enough to be a not very good team as well,” Minter said. “There's a consistency level that we need to find where it's less riding the wave of momentum and more about staying even-keeled and finding a way to have each other's back and finding a way to pick each other up. You can look at really all three phases in the second half of completely momentum-losing type of plays.”
Minter said his team let the game get away.
“In the second half, we let the game kind of snowball on us once it got going, and obviously, [we have] got to find a way for that not to happen,” Minter said. “But only we can change that. … That's what we need to understand is we have complete control over that mentality.”
Ravens RB Derrick Henry
After starting the season with five fairly strong games, including three typical performances for the future Hall of Famer, Henry hasn’t been effective over the last two games. And against the Bengals, he managed only 45 yards on 17 carries.
Henry admitted that his effort matched that of other Ravens players — in a bad way.
“Just not good enough at all,” Henry said. “We started off, I feel like, on a good note, getting things going and then fazed out. Two weeks straight of that. I think it's on us.”
Henry said he needs to get back to splash plays, according to Bmore Sports Podcast via Heavy.com.
“(I) just ain’t making no plays. Stagnant. Not effective, no explosives,” Henry said.
But Henry said he thinks the team can turn things around, according to al.com.
“I still believe in this group,” Henry said. “We got knocked down. It’s how you get back up, and that’s what you got to focus on doing. ”It’s all about how you respond. I feel like everybody on this team just follows onto it.”
Ravens offensive and defensive lines
The unit didn’t get the job done, period. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley said it comes down to the mental part of the game, according to The Athletic.
“I think we’re just too much (in our) heads (during) the game,” Stanley said. “We have one bad drive, and they have one good drive — we start to feel something happening in the game. For us, it’s just a refocus, and just focus on our identity and what we need to do, and really just not look at the scoreboard. That’s something that we talk about a lot, but I don’t think that we’ve really put that into action.”
But it wasn’t just the offense. The defense didn’t have much to offer against Joe Burrow and company in the last two quarters. And they didn’t have their own star quarterback, Lamar Jackson, to bail them out. Jackson missed another game with injury.
“We don’t want to give up 35 points when he’s on the field or not,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. “That’s just not something we want to do on defense. But obviously, he’s one of the best players in football and one of the best players to ever play the game of football. When he’s on the field, you feel a whole lot better.”