After blowing a two-score lead for the fourth time this season Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Ravens moved down in all eight sets of power rankings we monitor.
NFL.com dropped the Ravens (7-4) three spots to No. 11, but they remained in the top 10 —although just barely — in the other polls.
NFL.com’s Dan Hanzus said the 28-27 loss to the Jaguars "might have been the most brutal" setback yet.
"The Ravens' inability to close out their opponents is increasingly looking like it could be a fatal flaw in the DNA of John Harbaugh's team," Hanzus wrote.
The Athletic's Bo Wulf isn't as alarmed about Baltimore.
"There's no such thing as a good loss, but it's hard to feel too concerned about the Ravens after Trevor Lawrence's star turn in Jacksonville's come-from-behind win," Wulf wrote.
| Source | Ranking | Last Week's Ranking | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFL.com | No. 11 | No. 8 | “The Ravens' inability to close out their opponents is increasingly looking like it could be a fatal flaw in the DNA of John Harbaugh's team. Baltimore is up to four losses on the season despite having a lead of at least nine points in the second half of all four of those games. The latest setback might have been the most brutal, as the defense was shredded by Trevor Lawrence on a last-minute touchdown drive before surrendering a two-point conversion to cap a 28-27 loss.” — Dan Hanzus |
| Bleacher Report | No. 9 | No. 7 | “By virtue of Baltimore's Week 5 win over Cincinnati, the Ravens are still in first place in the AFC North. And they have a soft schedule with just one more game against a winning team. But the contest against the Jaguars was supposed to be part of that soft schedule — and we see how that turned out.” — NFL staff |
| ESPN | No. 10 | No. 7 | “Despite getting upset by the Jaguars, the Ravens have a favorable schedule the rest of the way. Baltimore plays five straight games against teams with losing records before playing at the Bengals in the regular-season finale. That's why Baltimore has a 78.2% chance to win its first division title since 2019. The bigger question is how far the Ravens can advance in the postseason. Lamar Jackson is 1-3 in the playoffs for his career, throwing three touchdowns and five interceptions.” — Jamison Hensley |
| Sports Illustrated | No. 9 | No. 8 | “We drop the Ravens to No. 9 this week because they seem to look out of rhythm offensively. At their best, there is such a notable flow and rhythm to this scheme. Jackson is involving a lot of receivers (eight were targeted Sunday), but without some connectedness, and with their defense reverting to late-game porousness, they are hard to trust.” — Conor Orr |
| CBS Sports | No. 9 | No. 8 | “They have to get the offense going in terms of the passing game — or else. The defense let them down late at Jacksonville.” — Pete Prisco |
| The Athletic | No. 9 | No. 7 | “There’s no such thing as a good loss, but it’s hard to feel too concerned about the Ravens after Trevor Lawrence’s star turn in Jacksonville’s come-from-behind win. The one issue emblematic of their season so far was a 2-for-5 performance in the red zone. Baltimore has converted only 51.2 percent of its red zone trips into touchdowns (24th in the league) after topping 60 percent in each of Jackson’s three prior full seasons as a starter.” — Bo Wulf |
| The Ringer | No. 9 | No. 6 | “Lamar Jackson is rightfully frustrated. Much of the Ravens’ roster is injury-plagued and lacking talent. Like Jackson, OC Greg Roman doesn’t have a ton of options to work with, but he is struggling to maximize Jackson in the dropback passing game. ESPN’s win probability model had the Ravens at 70 percent or higher to win in the fourth quarter in all four games they’ve lost this season, including Sunday’s game in Jacksonville. As talented as Jackson is, none of it will matter if the Ravens can’t play more complementary football and close out games in the playoffs.” — Austin Gayle |
| Sporting News | No. 10 | No. 9 | “What was that? The Ravens blew another late lead, negating another late comeback with Lamar Jackson. Their defense got hit with some key injuries in Jacksonville, with old struggles vs. the pass happening again.” — Vinnie Iyer |
