In addition to the defense allowing big yards and the offense struggling to move the ball on the road, the Ravens have also been their own worst enemy at times.
They are the most penalized team in the NFL through the first seven weeks of the season, and cutting down on those penalties is a priority.
"You can coach against penalties, and we always want to do that," Head Coach John Harbaugh said Monday. "We've got to keep working in that direction."
The Ravens have been penalized 63 times, and opposing teams have accepted 57 of those penalties. The yellow flags have amounted to 495 yards on the year, which ranks second-most in the NFL.
Penalties have come on both sides of the ball, as the Ravens average 33 penalty yards a game on defense and 25 yards a game on offense.
In Sunday's loss to the Texans, the Ravens were hit with five infractions for 56 yards, with the bulk of the damage going against safety Bernard Pollard for a facemask and then for hitting a defenseless receiver. The Texans ended up getting 10 points on those two drives.
Tight end Dennis Pitta was also flagged for a facemask on a punt, which gave the Texans favorable field position and led to a touchdown.
"There were a couple of [penalties] that weren't really that necessary," Harbaugh said.
Penalties have been a problem for much of the season, and a focus earlier in the year was to clean up the pre-snap penalties on offense. The Ravens have 14 false start or delay of game penalties on the season, but they didn't have any against the Texans in a loud road environment.
"We had been having a lot of trouble with that, so to go down there in that kind of an environment and not have the pre-snap penalties was a big plus, and that was something that was a goal of ours," Harbaugh said.
