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ExtremeRavens: The Sanctuary

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By the middle of the third quarter of Sunday’s beatdown, the boos had quieted.

Sections of empty purple seats stretched across M&T Bank Stadium, the product of an early exodus from a fan base that had seen enough. The disgruntled crowd made a statement that equaled the product on the field as the Ravens absorbed one of the most humiliating defeats of the John Harbaugh era.

Houston’s 44-10 drubbing of Baltimore marked the most points the Ravens have ever allowed at home under Harbaugh.

The veteran coach walked off to scattered boos from the few who remained. His team’s toughness and physicality, once the franchise’s defining traits, were completely missing.

Rather, the Ravens represented a disappointing, undisciplined team that was all bark with no bite.

Leading up to the Week 5 contest, players and coaches vowed to clean up their mistakes. “Dogs” and “fighters” were buzzwords frequently used to describe the locker room inhabitants. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr spent the week preaching physicality.

“Everybody in that building says they’re a dog,” Orr said Thursday. “It’s time to go show it.”

So much for that.

For a franchise that once defined physical football, this team has gone soft. Charmin soft.

The Texans came in with one of the league’s weakest offenses, ranking 29th in scoring, 25th in yards, and 31st in third-down conversion rate and red-zone scoring. They left with wide smiles after putting Harbaugh’s squad to school and improving on all of those offensive rankings. Houston scored on its first eight drives and made the Ravens’ defense look like it had no idea where to line up, let alone how to tackle and defend.

Texans wide receiver Xavier Hutchinson, playing in his 37th career game, caught his first touchdown pass on the game’s opening drive, then recorded his second touchdown in the second quarter. Rookie Jaylin Noel added his first career touchdown reception.

On a first-half scramble, quarterback C.J. Stroud broke free for a career-high 30-yard run. Stroud carved up the Ravens over and over again to produce his best outing of the season with 27 completions for 245 passing yards and four touchdowns.

Veteran edge rusher Kyle Van Noy was asked about the team’s level of accountability. He paused for a long moment before answering.

“That’s a good question,” he finally said. “We’ll see later in the week.”

It felt like the most honest moment of another disappointing afternoon in Baltimore.

Sure, the injury bug is real, as Derrick Henry recently noted. Between the seven players on Sunday’s inactive list, plus defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike, the Ravens were missing more than 40,000 career snaps. To make up for experience, Baltimore’s rookie class has logged the second-most snaps in the league behind only Cleveland. Not good company.

But youth doesn’t explain how unprepared the Ravens look. And in the unforgiving NFL, injuries never excuse incompetence and lack of preparation.

Harbaugh keeps insisting the effort is there.

“I didn’t feel [a lack of effort],” Harbaugh said. “I didn’t feel that all week. I didn’t feel that in the game. I think the effort was there; I just didn’t think the execution was there. We didn’t do what we needed to do. And it’s going to have to start with us as coaches to figure it out.”

What Baltimore is showing on the field says otherwise.

Ravens vs. Texans, October 5, 2025 | PHOTOS

This defense’s nonexistent backbone is a recurring theme, injuries aside. Even when healthy, Baltimore wasn’t playing quality football (see: Week 1 collapse at Buffalo). Now it’s being completely exposed.

Players look lost before the snap. Communication breakdowns have become a weekly occurrence. Missed tackles — Baltimore was credited with nine, according to Pro Football Focus, tied for the second most in a single game this season — turn routine plays into highlights and chunk gains. In all four of the Ravens’ losses, Baltimore has recorded zero takeaways. The Ravens’ two takeaways all season rank second-fewest in the NFL behind the New York Jets.

Overall, the Ravens look disorganized, disconnected and detached.

It’s not time for heads to roll just yet. But the message clearly needs some tweaking because those confident buzzwords and weeklong practice reps are not translating to game day.

Asked if the coaching staff’s message isn’t getting through to players, Van Noy replied: “That’s probably a question that’s above my pay grade, probably. I think that’s a Harbaugh [or] a [Zach Orr] question, to be honest. … I think their messaging is fine.”

The city’s patience level is thinning. So are the team’s playoff hopes. Only 16 teams in NFL history have made the postseason after starting 1-4.

Teams such as Houston used to fear coming to Baltimore. This season, though, the visitors are met with little resistance, boos for the Ravens and empty seats.

Have a news tip? Contact Josh Tolentino at jtolentino@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/JCTSports and instagram.com/JCTSports.

Many empty seats dot the stadium as the Baltimore Ravens continue to be overpowered by the Houston Texans during the second half of NFL football. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)
Empty seats dot the stadium in the second half of the Ravens' lopsided loss to the Texans on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

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