It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Chris Collier should have been thinking about his footing, about where he was on the field as a kickoff came his way in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Browns. Instead, Collier said, he was thinking about making a big return that could turn around Baltimore’s six-point deficit.

“I guess I was just real confident,” Collier told me this week in the Ravens’ locker room. “Undrafted rookie, I want to go out there and try to make a splash play. So I was excited.”

Collier caught the kick a yard inside the end zone, then ran to the 26-yard line the hard way. If he had simply knelt, he could have gotten Lamar Jackson and the offense to the 30.

Collier’s two flubs this week when he brought the ball out of the end zone on kickoff returns were not the reason Baltimore lost — far from it — but nonetheless they represent how the Ravens’ special teams have struggled to give them an advantage in the most underappreciated phase of the game.

Collier needs no additional feedback. Coach John Harbaugh was most harsh on the special teams in his Monday press conference, saying of his returners, “I do think they lose a sense of where they’re at sometimes.” For Collier, looking at his returns on film this week with coach Randy Brown was … rough.

“Yeah, I was cringing a little bit,” Collier said. “I’m like, ‘What am I doing?’”

Special teams are easy to take for granted when everything is going right, and for many, many years, Baltimore has been among the NFL’s best. It’s in part a reflection of Harbaugh, a former special teams coordinator. The Ravens have had two of the best specialists — kicker Justin Tucker and punter Sam Koch — of a generation. According to FTN, the Ravens special teams has finished no worse than third in efficiency each of the previous four seasons.

This year, the special teams rank 25th in FTN’s efficiency metric while struggling in multiple areas, seemingly a different way every week. They’ve given up two onside kick recoveries. Tucker is just 13-for-17 on field goal attempts. They’ve yet to make a truly game-changing return, and the kick return (27th) and punt return (14th) units are unspectacular by return average. It’s not helping that Deonte Harty, the projected top returner, has been in and out with injury.

Special teams coordinator Chris Horton admitted that, at the season’s halfway point, his units have yet to play a clean game.

“When you talk about our standard, there is no way,” he said. “If anyone is out there watching that tape, you can’t say we’ve played a complete game [in] all six phases.”

It’s one thing when the mistakes come from Collier, an undrafted running back out of Division II Lock Haven. But he’s not the only one. Also in the fourth quarter, fourth-year wideout Tylan Wallace fair caught a punt at the 6-yard line that he acknowledged he probably should have let go.

Those judgment calls can be tough, Wallace told me. The week before, he had let punts go over his head that, in retrospect, he should have caught.

“So in my head I’m trying to catch the ball,” Wallace said of his fourth-quarter fair catch. “It just kinda pushed me back more than I thought it was going to. In those situations, I gotta be aware of where I’m at on the field and I gotta let that one go.”

One of the inherent tensions of NFL special teams is that they are populated by players living on the edge of the roster. Collier was elevated from the practice squad only last month. Wallace is a four-year vet who memorably returned a game-winning touchdown off a punt last season, but his position group got a little more crowded this week with the addition of wide receiver Diontae Johnson — who incidentally can play returner.

The pressure to make a positive impact on the game can also be influenced by how few reps players get in the game. Offensive and defensive players might find more of a rhythm as the game goes on. Special teamers are on the field only for a few snaps — and they all have to be perfect. It’s harder than it might seem, special teams vet Charlie Kolar said.

“Special teams is especially difficult because you only get one shot at it,” he said. “I think the key is focusing on just what you can control. We’re watching film. We have not been up to our standard on KOR [kickoff returns]. So we ask ourselves, ‘OK, how can we get better at that?’”

The return team this week has been talking about better communication, such as the off-ball returner signaling to the ball catcher where he is on the field. Kolar said the unit is focused on blocking better, especially after accruing a penalty on a return against the Browns. The Broncos, who visit Baltimore on Sunday, are one of the stingiest kickoff coverage units in the league, so it will be a challenge.

The Ravens know they can be better. They’re working on it. They hope it shows up this Sunday.

“It’s definitely on the priority list, and I think everyone in that special teams room feels the same way,” Wallace said. “There’s a standard here, and we need to take that next step forward and take that Ravens standard of special teams.”

Jonas Shaffer contributed to this story.