ExtremeRavens Posted October 2 Posted October 2 We asked readers what’s most to blame for the Ravens’ 1-3 start to the season. Here are the results from our online poll: Coach John Harbaugh — 41% (326 votes) Defensive coordinator Zach Orr — 26% (203 votes) Injuries — 20% (161 votes) Other — 7% (56 votes) Challenging schedule — 6% (46 votes) Here’s what some fans have told us about the Ravens’ sluggish start to the 2025 season (answers have been edited for clarity and grammar): Listen, for the last five years this team has had the best talent of any team in all of football. They have made offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, special team coaches and receivers coaches all scapegoats for not winning championships. The only common denominator through all of this — that escapes scrutiny — has been John Harbaugh. The owner of this team would rather have continuity than win Super Bowls. Fair or unfair it’s way passed time for Harbaugh to be fired. His voice has become stale after 18 years and no longer has this locker room. It’s totally unacceptable for a team with this much talent to have nothing to show for it. — Bob lancione Blaming Harbaugh is ridiculous. Poor offensive line play and injuries are the problem. Losing Nnamdi Madubuike was larger than we realize. It just goes to show that Madubuike not being included in the NFL top 100 is ridiculous. It’s not too late to win it all. Harbaugh is the coach to pull them through this. We need a big trade for defensive linemen. We’ll be fine. We have to win the next two games. We can’t pay any attention to the fickle fans. — Kenny Anderson The offensive line is not protecting quarterback Lamar Jackson hardly at all. The defensive line is missing tackles and committing way too many penalties. That’s costing us yardage, field position and ultimately games. Running back Derrick Henry hasn’t really produced much. Receivers have been mediocre. All in all we just aren’t playing, sad to say, like a high-caliber pro football team, despite the mounting injuries. I’m just not sure where we go from here? — Kim Berk This year’s debacle is a perfect storm. Between the injuries (especially Madubuike), poor football fundamentals (especially tackling), over-evaluation of talent and poor coaching (or overthinking) in big games. This is why getting the opportunity to play for a championship should have a sense of urgency and not be taken for granted. Each year, the team dynamic changes with respect to salary cap, coaching personnel and being prone to injuries. I am sure that Coach Harbaugh and general manager Eric DeCosta are aware of the closing window of opportunity. They deserve the opportunity to complete the season and evaluate the success (or shortcomings) in totality — not just in a four-game snippet. — Dan Handley It’s a combination of issues, not a single one! Initially the defense was not ready against Buffalo, same as last year’s start with too many miscommunications and lack of aggressive play calling. At this point in his career and experience Zach Orr is not creative nor confident enough to compete with the play calling of the more experienced and aggressive coaches like Steve Spagnuolo. Now they have the injury excuse, but that was not case against Buffalo. You can’t blame the coaches for Lamar’s turnovers in the previous playoff losses and against Kansas City on Sunday. He is a great athlete, but not a great quarterback. Great quarterbacks find a way to win and do not turn the ball over! Maybe someday he will achieve that ability! And now of course, injuries have plagued the team and it’s a ready-made excuse for their dismal record. Changing any coaches at this time would be of little benefit. But it’s still possible to salvage the season! — Jon Swanson We have prioritized skill players over the trenches. Our guard play has continued to decline. We have allowed top-notch edge rushers and linebackers to go and it shows. We fail to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks and opponents regularly get pressure on ours. Linderbaum is a good center but centers are a dime a dozen. Meanwhile we have too much money invested in Humphrey and other cornerbacks, including our star signing this offseason whose yet to see the field to no one’s surprise. — Peter Levy Mike Preston got it right — Lamar, as good as he can be at times, choked in another big game. Yes, injuries, but every NFL team these days deals with multiple injuries. — Lowell In 2018, it was written that Harbaugh was on a very hot seat. Along comes Jackson and basically saves his job. For the past couple years, the Ravens have had one of the best rosters in the NFL, but no Super Bowl appearances to show for it. Yes, injuries are a problem but every team has injuries. Harbaugh hand-picked his defensive coordinator over many other more qualified candidates since Harbaugh likes to be in control. He wants “yes men.” But owner Steve Biscotti will not make any head coaching changes until the offseason, if at all. However, if the Ravens lose their next two games you can be sure that a coordinator will be removed during the bye week. The Ravens have had just too much talent over the past decade or more to not even appear in a Super Bowl. Harbaugh is the common denominator for the Ravens’ failures. And as much as he has been criticized, Mike Tomlin always seems to have the Steelers competitive. — Robert The first string offensive linemen do not get enough playing time together in preseason. They should be playing at least one quarter together in each preseason game. Practice doesn’t make perfect, PERFECT practice makes perfect. If you want a great running game, which will keep our “average” defense from being exposed, we need to control the clock and control the ball. A solid running game, with our big lineman should expose the teams that have so many small linebackers. — Rocco Ferretti Unimaginative play-calling and the under-utilization of Henry. Only eight carries against Kansas City? — Phil Biedronski It’s a combination of everything plus a year-in, year-out problem with building and keeping a championship quality offensive line plus offseason and preseason strength and conditioning and a front office that seems to be disconnected from the issues on the field. — Jim Rudolph Between sports announcers telling everyone how good Jackson is and our defense in a two-year hole, it should’t surprise anyone we start off bad but until they go back to working hard this team will stink. — Tom Brown Derrick Henry’s fumbles and bad defense. Hopefully assistant Chuck Pagano takes over the defense completely and works his magic. — Gary Holtman Jr. Most to blame would be the lack of defense. They’re trying to bump runners and receivers instead of tackling them! — Vince Lioi Our team is soft serve. Vanilla coaching for sure! — Rich Hunt The Baltimore Sun reader poll is an unscientific survey in which website users volunteer their opinions on the subject of the poll. To see results from previous sports polls, go to baltimoresun.com/sportspoll View the full article Quote
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