BALTIMORE — Derrick Henry walked to the sideline and angrily slammed his helmet down, losing his balance and falling into the bench in the process. It was that kind of night for the Ravens, who were off-balance all night as the Detroit Lions came to M&T Bank Stadium and ran over the Ravens, 38-30, in a “Monday Night Football” showdown Sept. 22.
With Henry and quarterback Lamar Jackson, the Ravens are thought to have one of the elite rushing attacks in the league, but it was the Lions’ running game that bludgeoned their opponent in this one. Lions running back David Montgomery ran 12 times for 151 yards and two touchdowns and the Lions totaled 224 yards and four scores on the ground as they pulled away to the win.
“That’s bad run defense, and that’s not who we are,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said. “It cannot be who we are. … It’s not going to be good enough. It’s not going to be acceptable, and it has to be better.”
A Ravens defense that in August was viewed as one of the most complete in the league has been gashed twice in three weeks, leaving players and coaches alike reckoning with what can be done to fix it.
Detroit (2-1) had touchdown drives of 98 and 96 yards and totaled 426 yards of offense. Jahmyr Gibbs capped that 96-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter that put the Lions ahead for good at 28-21.
The Ravens (1-2) trimmed the lead to 28-24 midway through the fourth quarter, but the offense was stymied by a tenacious Detroit pass rush and the third fumble in as many games by Henry.
Montgomery’s second touchdown of the game, this one from 31 yards, padded the Lions’ lead to 38-24 with 1:42 left, and although Jackson and the Ravens tacked on a late touchdown, the game was sealed when Detroit recovered the Ravens’ onside kick attempt with 27 seconds left.
Jackson completed 21 of 27 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Mark Andrews, who led the Ravens with six catches for 91 yards in by far his most productive day of the young season. But Jackson was inundated by the Lions’ pressure.
He was sacked seven times, tied for the most in his career, including on fourth down from the Lions 3-yard line as the Ravens squandered a major scoring chance in the second quarter.
The teams had traded touchdowns through a first half that ended in a 14-14 tie. The Lions put together a 98-yard touchdown drive that consumed nearly 11 minutes for a 14-7 lead, but the Ravens tied the game just before halftime with a 32-second drive that was culminated by Jackson’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman.
After the Lions jumped to a 7-0 lead on their opening possession, the Ravens answered with a 28-yard touchdown run by Henry, who finished with 12 carries for 50 yards. But with the Ravens trailing 28-24, Henry coughed up a fumble in the fourth quarter, leading to a Detroit field goal, and leading Henry to slam his helmet on the sideline in a scene that pretty much typified the Ravens’ frustrating night.
Here are five quick impressions of the loss for the Ravens, who had been 22-3 in home primetime games under Harbaugh:
1. The Lions abused the Ravens’ run defense.
The Ravens pride themselves on being a physical team that can control the game by winning at the point of attack. But the Lions physically mauled the Ravens’ defense pretty much from start to finish, especially on the ground.
The Lions found huge holes up the middle and at times also won to the edge. That included a creative play call on fourth-and-1 from the Ravens’ 4-yard line when quarterback Jared Goff handed off to receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who tossed a pitch to Jahmyr Gibbs, who beat the Ravens’ defense to the right corner of the end zone for a touchdown and a 28-21 Lions lead on the first play of the fourth quarter.
But most of the Lions’ success on the ground was much more methodical, no-nonsense, smash-mouth power, plowing through the belly of the Ravens’ defense. Marlon Humphrey earlier this year said he felt that in recent years, teams haven’t feared the Ravens’ defense like they once did, and that seemed to be the case in this one. Facing the Ravens’ defense, the Lions were aggressive, confident and relentless.
Whether the Ravens were spread in their nickel defense to counter the Lions’ dangerous passing attack, or whether they had three down linemen on the field designed to stop the run, the Lions found daylight pretty much whenever they wanted to.
The Ravens were playing without Pro Bowl defensive lineman Nnambi Madubuike (neck) and outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy (hamstring), but safety Kyle Hamilton said, “No excuses can be made at this point.”
“Our run defense, it’s been pretty good the whole time I’ve been here,” Hamilton added, “but when a team runs the ball like that, it just demoralizes you more than passing the ball. They’re challenging you mentally [and] physically, so it’s on us as a defense just to put that fire out ASAP, and we didn’t do that.”
“It’s running and it’s hitting,” Hamilton said, “and we have to run and hit better.”
2. The Lions dominated the Ravens’ offensive line, too.
Not only did the Lions dominate up front on offense, but they also dominated up front on defense, sacking Lamar Jackson seven times and by and large containing the Ravens’ ground game. Other than the 28-yard first-quarter touchdown run by Derrick Henry, the Ravens totaled 57 yards on 18 carries.
One sequence late in the second quarter was indicative of how the Lions controlled the line of scrimmage. The Ravens had second-and-goal at the 1-yard line after a 34-yard pass play from Jackson to Devontez Walker put the Ravens inside the Lions’ 5-yard line. Running up the middle, Henry was bottled up for no gain on second down. On third down from the 1, he tried to bounce out to the right and was swarmed and dropped for a 1-yard loss.
Facing fourth-and-goal at the 2-yard line, Jackson rolled out, ran into trouble and was sacked to kill the drive.
“I can’t tell you what went wrong,” Jackson said. “We just didn’t score, and that rarely happens. I feel like we just have to put points on the board right there.”
On a fourth-quarter drive, Jackson was sacked on back-to-back plays as the Lions held the Ravens to a field goal.
Pro Football Focus credited the Lions with 30 pressures and seven sacks as well as the forced fumble. Al-Quadin Muhammad had 2.5 sacks, and Aidan Hutchinson had one sack and also punched the ball free on the fumble by Henry.
Jackson said the Lions were using a “spy” on him to contain him, and that they kept three safeties back to limit his options. But time and again, the Ravens’ offensive line was overmatched, and Jackson couldn’t find any opening to run or anyone open to throw to.
3. The Ravens’ pass rush was a glaring shortcoming, with no clear answers.
The difference in the pass rush was a difference in the game. Jackson was frequently under duress, while Goff usually had all the time he needed to make the throw he wanted, whether it was a third-down throw to tight end Sam LaPorta over the middle, or a floater to the sensational St. Brown, who finished with seven catches for 77 yards and a touchdown.
In fact, Goff was not sacked at all, ending the Ravens’ NFL-best streak of 57 straight games with at least one sack.
Van Noy has been one of the Ravens’ top pass rushers for the past two seasons, and he’s likely to be out at least a couple of more weeks with a hamstring injury. Madubuike, the Ravens’ top interior pass rusher, is out for an undetermined amount of time with a neck injury. (Harbaugh had no update on Madubuike after the game.)
Harbaugh said he couldn’t really put a “measurement” on the absence of Van Noy and Madubuike, but he added, “You play with the guys that are out there, and the guys that are out there are good enough to do it. We, as coaches, have to figure it out, and we have to get it done.”
Don’t look now, but Patrick Mahomes and other good quarterbacks are looming, and defensive coordinator Zach Orr is going to need to find some answers. The Ravens are still waiting for Odafe Oweh to make his first big impact play of the season. He did have one nice run stop early in this game, but he finished with two tackles, two quarterback hits and has yet to record a sack this season.
Second-round rookie Mike Green will need to step into a larger role as long as Van Noy is out, and same with Tavius Robinson, who is known more as an edge-setting run defender but will be asked to do more in passing situations.
If David Ojabo is ever going to live up to his second-round draft pedigree, now would be a good time. He made his 2025 debut in this game after being inactive for the first two games, but he had no tackles or quarterback hits. None of the Ravens edge rushers are consistently winning one-on-one battles.
Orr is going to have to get creative. Maybe he dials up more corner blitzes (though a couple of those were picked up tonight). Maybe he gets Kyle Hamilton more involved as a slot blitzer. Maybe he asks more of the inside linebackers.
And maybe general manager Eric DeCosta is going to have to get creative and go shopping for some edge help via the trade market in a year when the Ravens look built to contend.
The Lions in this game showed what can happen when you can apply consistent pressure. And the Ravens showed what happens when you cannot.
4. Derrick Henry’s ball security problem is officially a trend.
Derrick Henry has never been known as a fumbler, but three fumbles in three games has to be weighing on the Ravens running back. For the second time in three weeks, Henry was left to apologize after his fourth-quarter fumble factored in a Ravens loss.
“I apologized to my teammates, to my coaches. And I apologize to Flock Nation,” a sullen Henry said. “I have to get better.”
Henry’s fourth-quarter fumble came with the Ravens trailing 28-24. They had just taken over after the defense had come up with a stop. But as Henry ran to his left, Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson punched the ball loose and the Lions recovered.
Four plays later, they kicked a field goal for a 30-24 lead.
“I didn’t see the guy coming from behind,” Henry said. “I just have to hold onto the ball. He made the play, and I don’t know. You just have to keep working. That’s all I can think of. It sucks right now. I’m not going to lie.”
Henry’s fumble at Buffalo in Week 1 proved to be a critical play as the Bills roared back to stun the Ravens, 41-40.
The year before he came to the Ravens, Henry didn’t fumble at all on 280 carries with the Tennessee Titans. This season, he has three fumbles in 41 carries. He says he has no explanation, and both Jackson and Harbaugh came to the defense of the All-Pro back, but Harbaugh, who has never had much patience for fumbling, stated the obvious: “We have to get it fixed.”
5. The Ravens’ trip to Kansas City feels even bigger now.
The Ravens’ showdown against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs next Sunday feels even bigger now, with two of the teams thought to be in contention for AFC supremacy staring at 1-2 records after three weeks. The loser will be 1-3 at the end of September, with a sense of doubt perhaps starting to creep in after the season’s opening quarter.
The Chiefs are still playing without receiver Rashee Rice (suspension), but they could get receiver Xavier Worthy back after he missed the past two games with a shoulder injury.
The Ravens, meanwhile, could have tight end Isaiah Likely in uniform for the first time this season. Likely has been sidelined since fracturing his foot in late July and undergoing subsequent surgery. Last year in the season opener at Kansas City, Likely caught what appeared to be a potential game-tying touchdown pass on the final play of the game, but upon his review, his foot was out the back of the end zone by about an inch, and the Chiefs held on for a 27-20 win.
Coming off this loss to the Lions, the Ravens have a lot of things to sort out on defense, and a short week to do it before they face one of the most prolific offensive players of the past decade.
The AFC has pretty much run through Kansas City most of Mahomes’ career, and it’s up to the Ravens, Bills and others to try to change it.
That will require the Ravens’ defense to play much better than it did against Detroit, and for Jackson to get the better of the team he once called the Ravens’ “kryptonite.”
Jackson is 71-26 as a starter in the regular season, but he’s just 1-4 against the Chiefs and also lost to them in the 2023 AFC championship game.
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