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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Ravens’ season went from bad to worse Sunday.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson and three defensive starters were lost to injuries in a 37-20 loss to the rival Kansas City Chiefs, threatening to further derail a season that started with Super Bowl aspirations.
The Ravens’ loss at Arrowhead Stadium, which dropped them to 1-3, was their worst margin of defeat since a 41-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in October 2021. The team is 1-6 against the Chiefs (2-2), including 0-4 in Kansas City, since Patrick Mahomes took over as starting quarterback in 2018.
Jackson’s injury looms largest as the team approaches its Week 7 bye. He left the game late in the third quarter with a hamstring injury, after being sacked on his final play from scrimmage. He finished 14-for-20 for 147 yards and a touchdown, along with six carries for 48 yards. He was responsible for two turnovers.
The Ravens’ struggling defense entered Week 4 with a handful of key injuries — defensive lineman Travis Jones and outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy were made inactive two days after defensive linemen Nnamdi Madubuike and Broderick Washington were placed on inured reserve — and left in far worse shape.
Cornerback Marlon Humphrey (calf) and inside linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring) left in the second quarter. Cornerback Nate Wiggins (elbow) was carted off in the fourth. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley (ankle) also didn’t play after the Ravens’ second drive.
With issues on offense, defense and special teams, the Ravens were overmatched and outcoached after the first quarter. Mahomes went 25-for-37 for 270 yards and four touchdowns, while Kansas City’s defense held the Ravens to 3-for-10 on third down and 1-for-4 on fourth.
Kansas City led 20-10 at halftime, 30-13 after three quarters and 37-13 after Mahomes was pulled midway through the fourth quarter to make room for backup Gardner Minshew.
The Ravens started the game in command, taking a 7-0 lead on a nine-play, 70-yard touchdown drive. Then things started to fall apart.
Kansas City, one of the NFL’s lowest-scoring first-half offenses this season, put up 20 straight points, taking advantage of a sloppy Ravens offense and injury-depleted Ravens defense.
The Chiefs opened the game with back-to-back field goals before Mahomes found wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and running back Isiah Pacheco for red-zone touchdowns just over two minutes apart in the first half.
Kansas City was happy to take advantage of short fields — and a defense now missing Smith and Humphrey. The Chiefs started at their own 44-yard line, the Ravens’ 40 and the Ravens’ 47 on consecutive second-quarter drives, capitalizing on a poor Jordan Stout punt, a failed fourth-and-1 and a Jackson fumble. Jackson also threw an interception in the first quarter, his first of the season.
How low can they go?
Week 4 was a springboard for the Ravens last year. They were 1-2 after a disappointing start and a mildly encouraging win over the Dallas Cowboys. Heading into a prime-time showdown against the Buffalo Bills, they needed to prove their bona fides, and they did, convincingly. It wasn’t long before they looked like a playoff team, then a division champion, then a potential Super Bowl champion.
How will history remember this Week 4 for the Ravens? The week that broke them? Or the week when things started to change because they had to change? With injuries adding up, the Ravens have only so much flexibility. But this team is headed in a bad direction, fast. Inaction can’t be an option.
— Jonas Shaffer, Ravens reporter
Make it stop already
We all knew this wasn’t going to be pretty when the Ravens placed two starting defensive linemen on injured reserve and then made a third, plus a starting outside linebacker, inactive. And, yes, the defense didn’t look good — and got worse as the injuries mounted. But the offense — oh my, the offense. The only players it was missing were fullback Patrick Ricard and left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who left early. Both are important, but those losses shouldn’t be backbreaking. Yet the Ravens seemed to have zero answers. It was the most embarrassing showing by the Ravens since I started covering them in 2023. Although I’d like to call it uncharacteristic based on who I knew them to be last season, their last two performances have made a case that maybe this is who the 2025 Ravens are — despite how similar the roster is. John Harbaugh apparently told the defense it wasn’t mature enough after Week 1. But maybe this offense isn’t either, even though it is not the unit playing five rookies.
— Giana Han, Ravens reporter
The worst worst-case scenario
Once again, the scoreboard in a Ravens road game led the stands to empty with nine minutes in the fourth quarter — but this time because the Kansas City Chiefs had walloped Baltimore so thoroughly. Even early, it was clear the Ravens were outclassed, especially on offense, as they struggled to sustain drives outside of their scripted half openers.
But of course that won’t be the lasting legacy of this drubbing. We’ll have to spend all week monitoring the injury report to see if Lamar Jackson can recover from his hamstring injury, if Ronnie Stanley’s ankle improves, if Nate Wiggins and Marlon Humphrey miss time, if Roquan Smith can get back on the field. It’s beyond imagining how the injury situation got this bad in just one day, but of course it would against the Chiefs — the Ravens’ karmic nightmare opponent.
— Kyle Goon, columnist
Not great, Bob!
Stating the obvious: Nothing matters more to the 1-3 Ravens than the health of their two-time MVP. If Lamar Jackson’s hamstring strain keeps him out for multiple weeks, Baltimore will be lucky to enter the Week 7 bye with more than one win. Even if Jackson returns soon, the Ravens have massive issues on defense and multiple injured stars to work through. It’s too early to say the Ravens’ Super Bowl dreams have faded. But they seem awfully hazy.
— Paul Mancano, Banner Ravens podcast co-host
Gulp
Count me among the many people who thought the Ravens were preordained to make the playoffs. But sports have a way of humbling those who believe anything that strongly. So here we are. Injuries can level even the best of teams, and they have. The only question now is whether the Ravens can get healthy enough to pull out of the spin. I lean toward yes but with much less certainty than I once had.
— Chris Korman, sports editor
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