Ravens 5 Key Takeaways From Beatdown Of Colts Week 1

Ravens rookie head coach Jesse Minter and 30-year-old offensive coordinator Declan Doyle had much to celebrate Sunday night, a victory in their first game in a new era of Baltimore football and an emphatic road win at that.

The new-look philosophies and tendencies that were the source of so much study this offseason manifested themselves right away, on both sides of the ball, and it resulted in a 41-23 victory over the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Minter stuck to his core beliefs and lived in nickel and dime coverages, despite suffering against them in a loss to Indy last year, and he thrived for the most part. And Doyle, who had players hyped all spring and summer about this “explosive” offense, delivered immediately.

Yes, there are things to clean up – especially on a make-shift offensive line – and potentially key injuries to receivers Zay Flowers and Ja’Kobi Lane – but plenty of foundational building blocks as well. Embattled kicker Tyler Loop drilled a 57-yard kick to end the first half, and a 45-yard kick late, keeping his job into Week 2, and special teams avoided major miscues.

Here are five key takeaways on offense and defense.:

Doyle Delivers

The Ravens gutted the Colts on the opening drive and kept doing it despite an OL that was penalty-happy and iffy in some pass protection. Lamar Jackson threw for over 320 yards and had an early TD run and a 19-yard scamper that let you know the legs were still legit. And Derrick Henry, who we think could run 300 times despite being age 32, became even more of a factor in the second half as the Ravens were running out of receivers.

Henry scored three times and ran the ball 24 times for 144 yards.

Zay All Day (But Only Half A Day)

Flowers caught five of his first six targets – every reception was for a first down – and Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo had no answers for him. But he has been dealing with a hamstring issue through the summer, he is far and away the best option in this pass game and a vital player, and he was a big of why the Ravens took a 31-13 lead at the half.

Flowers was lined out wide and in the slot and in the backfield as a running back and he was put in motion and used as a decoy. You name it. He caught five balls in the first half, and they all went for the first down. When the Colts mixed their coverages and moved top corner Sauce Gardner to a more Zay-centric assignment, not much changed.

Flowers had an electric 49-yard gain to bring the Doyle era to life on the first drive, setting up a touchdown. He found holes in coverages for gains of 17 yards and 18 and saved his best for a ridiculous scamper that gave the Ravens a 21-6 lead. Jackson dropped the ball off to him underneath and Flowers hit three gears and avoided the entire Colts secondary to end up in the endzone 54 yards later.

There wasn't a need to use him in the second half and hopefully the hamstring doesn't become a major issue.

Dime Defense

Minter went with lighter personnel in giving up 38 points to the Colts last year. He didn’t flinch here. In 30 first half snaps, before this game got out of hand, Minter ran 17 snaps of nickel (five defensive backs) and 12 of dime (six DBs) and he won. The Colts has 39 total yards on those 12 plays of dime, quarterback Daniel Jones averaged 2.9 net yards per pass.

The Ravens experienced none of the YAC issues Minter’s Chargers defense did, and, as we thought he would, Minter moved hybrid defender Kyle Hamilton all over the place and moved him around. He was in the middle of the field with Roquan Smith (beautiful interception early in the game and looking better than 2025). Hamilton showed up in two linebacker looks in the middle of the field and blitzed on consecutive snaps with the Colts pinned deep early in the game. Hamilton had two pressures and Tavius Robinson was a standout up front for Baltimore.

Wide Receiver Already An Issue

Life comes at you fast in the NFL. Devontez Walker is always hurt and was inactive (groin) and rookie WR Elijah Sarratt has a learning curve and was a healthy scratch and with Flowers already off the field, rookie Ja’Kobi Lane – one of the stories of the summer – couldn’t get through the first half of his first game without needing medical attention.

He was quickly ruled out with a wrist injury. Lane was used in the slot quite a bit as we thought and Doyle leaned heavily into 11 personnel, as we thought (60% in the first half), but that became impossible when the injuries hit.

On the bright side, veteran Chris Moore, who can block his backside off and is a special teams ace, provided energy in the return game and was valuable with the Ravens trying to milk this lead and bleed the clock with Derrick Henry in the second half. And Moore caught a big pass to set up Henry’s third TD run early in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

OL Problems

There were the procedural issues we feared. Many of them.

Center Jovaughn Gwynn had rough spots and rookie guard Vega Ioane picked up penalties and through the first three quarters there were eight penalties that essentially occurred before the snap (false starts) or at the line of scrimmage.

Everything is new with this offense. The five-man unit up front never really played together before. Being able to play almost the entire game with the lead and lean into the run game was huge, but there is a lot of work to be done here and things that must be cleaned up.

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