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The Ravens enter Week 12 with one of the NFL’s worst red-zone offenses. On Monday, coach John Harbaugh was asked how they can improve it. He kept his answer short.

“We can execute better,” Harbaugh said. “We can call better plays. We can make plays.”

A day earlier, the Ravens had escaped Cleveland with a 23-16 win over the Browns in spite of their red-zone offense. In four trips, they finished with as many touchdowns as turnovers (one). A year after leading the NFL in red-zone touchdown rate (74%), the Ravens have reached the end zone on just 47.2% of their drives inside the opponent’s 20-yard line this season, the league’s fifth-worst rate.

The Ravens’ struggles there are indeed complex. They need better execution. They need better play calls. They need to make more plays.

But their trouble starts up front, with a disappointing offensive line. Harbaugh defended the unit Monday, acknowledging the Ravens’ room for improvement but saying the starting five is “playing pretty darn good.” In the red zone, however, their limitations have become magnified. Running back Derrick Henry has found little room to maneuver. Quarterback Lamar Jackson’s sack rate has skyrocketed. Would-be touchdown drives have ended with field goals.

The Ravens’ offensive issues haven’t proven prohibitive: Over a four-game winning streak, the team has emerged as the favorite to win the AFC North. The Ravens (5-5) are widely expected to win their next two as well, favored by 13.5 points over the New York Jets, whom they host on Sunday, and by 11.5 points over the Cincinnati Bengals, who will play in Baltimore on Thanksgiving night.

But as the opposition improves and the Ravens’ margin for error shrinks, they will need more from their red-zone offense.

Red-zone rushing

Offensive coordinator Todd Monken has hit a lot of run game buttons inside the 20. The Ravens have called pitch plays, inside-zone runs, outside-zone runs, stretch runs, power runs (pulling a back-side guard and using a fullback), designed quarterback runs (excluding sneaks) and read-option plays at least five times apiece this season, according to Sports Info Solutions. Nothing has reliably moved the chains.

On Sunday, the Ravens had seven designed runs in the red zone. Their longest carry went for 3 yards. The struggles were widespread:

• On a 1-yard pitch play to running back Keaton Mitchell, the Ravens had a numerical disadvantage out wide.
• On a 1-yard run by Henry, right guard Daniel Faalele and right tackle Roger Rosengarten struggled to displace defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. on a double team.
• On a 3-yard loss by Henry, Jackson appeared to make the incorrect read on a read option.
• On a 3-yard run by Henry, defensive end Isaiah McGuire got his hands into Rosengarten’s chest, jolting him back, before hammering Henry as he crossed the line of scrimmage, while Faalele was late to engage linebacker Devin Bush.
• On a 1-yard run by Henry, left guard Andrew Vorhees lost quickly to defensive tackle Shelby Harris, who wrangled Henry from behind.

Over 10 games, Vorhees has a team-high three blown blocks on red-zone run plays this season, according to SIS, tied for the sixth most in the NFL. Overall, Rosengarten leads the Ravens with 11 total blown run blocks this season — also tied for the sixth-most in the league — followed by Faalele (eight), Vorhees (seven), Stanley (three) and Linderbaum (two).

The Ravens’ inconsistent run blocking has been especially costly in the red zone. Since 2019, Jackson’s first year as starting quarterback, the offense’s success rate — the share of plays generating positive expected points added — on designed runs (excluding kneel-downs) has finished at 45.9% or better every year, according to SIS. In four of those seasons, the Ravens’ success rate inside the 20 was over 49%, a very healthy figure.

This year, however, they’re down to 40.4%, 23rd in the NFL. On designed runs inside the 10, the success rate falls even further, to 37.9%, third-worst in the league. The Ravens have 29 carries for 42 yards and six touchdowns on those carries, and they’ve been hit at or behind the line of scrimmage on over two-thirds of those attempts (20).

Harbaugh’s reluctance to experiment with the starting offensive line — “We’re putting the best five players out there,” he said Monday — has frustrated fans. But it’s unclear whether a challenger could realistically emerge over the regular season’s final seven weeks. Interior linemen Ben Cleveland and Corey Bullock have played only sparingly this season, third-round pick Emery Jones Jr.’s lengthy rehabilitation from offseason shoulder surgery has stunted his development, and Ravens coaches value continuity along the offensive line.

And if the Ravens are wary of risking Jackson’s health, Monken’s play-calling options could be even more limited. Over Monken’s first two years in Baltimore, the Ravens ran read-option plays in the red zone 20 and 28 times, respectively, with a success rate of at least 50% in each season. This year, despite a 50% success rate, the Ravens have called just 10 such option plays, with only six involving Jackson, who missed three games because of a hamstring injury.

Red-zone passing

Jackson’s getting hit plenty on drop-backs. He’s been sacked 23 times this season, matching his total from last year, and his sack rate (11.8%) is on pace for a career high.

Jackson’s been especially vulnerable in the red zone, previously an area of strength. Here’s how he’s fared there in his seven seasons as a starter:

• 2019: 4.2% sack rate, three sacks
• 2020: 5.5%, four sacks
• 2021: 7.3%, four sacks
• 2022: 3.2%, two sacks
• 2023: 5.2%, four sacks
• 2024: 6.3%, five sacks
• 2025: 21.9%, seven sacks

Jackson’s been pressured on a career-high 50% of his red-zone drop-backs this season — under Monken, his previous high was 40.5% — but it’s almost unimaginable for a quarterback to be sacked on more than one of every five passing plays. Since 2019, the highest single-season red-zone sack rate for a qualifying quarterback is Bryce Young’s 14.5% in 2023, his rookie season with the Carolina Panthers, according to SIS.

Jackson’s struggles continued Sunday. On third-and-goal from the Browns’ 3 in the first quarter, he ran to his right on a designed rollout, seemingly looking for wide receiver Zay Flowers to settle into a soft spot in Cleveland’s defense. But Flowers was covered tightly, and when Jackson moved his focus to wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Hopkins broke off his left-to-right crossing route to run to the opposite pylon. Jackson had only a moment of calm in the pocket before defensive end Myles Garrett collected his first of four sacks.

“This type of defense is going to create chaos,” Jackson said Sunday. “They want to hit receivers, knock them off their routes and stuff like that. And then they [use] zone coverage with a guy like Myles Garrett pressuring, so you don’t want to just throw it up and cause a turnover.”

If the Ravens’ rushing struggles persist in the red zone, Jackson and his offensive line will take on an even greater burden in pass protection. Sometimes Jackson has been taken down quickly. Other times, he’s scrambled into sacks, or the pocket has collapsed slowly as Jackson has waited for receivers to uncover.

On Sunday, during a short-lived red-zone drive, Jackson felt the heat coming from Cleveland’s Hall, who’d beaten Rosengarten on a play-action drop-back. Jackson got rid of the ball, only to watch it knock off Rosengarten’s helmet and flutter into the grasp of linebacker Carson Schwesinger. An interception by cornerback Nate Wiggins had given the Ravens possession at the Browns’ 16, and they’d come away with nothing.

“Some plays could have been executed better,” Harbaugh said Monday of the Ravens’ red-zone woes. “Some plays, [Cleveland] did a great job of defending. We tried to run it a couple of times, maybe didn’t get it in. But bigger picture, that’s an important part of the field for us. We want to score touchdowns down there, and you at least want to protect the three as well. We didn’t do that one time. We had kind of a fluky play, but we need to score touchdowns down there. So, it’s going to definitely continue to be a point of emphasis. It has been, and we want to be more successful down in the red zone for sure.”