Ravens LB Roquan Smith And CB Marlon Humphrey Shake Off 2025 Slumps To Shine In Week 1 Win

As debuts go, the first series on defense of Jesse Minter’s head coaching career was a dud. The rest of the afternoon, however, was far more indicative of what the master tactician did with the Chargers and at the University of Michigan.

The Ravens nickel packages were picked apart as the Colts took a quick 6-0 lead, but Minter stuck to his core principles, leaned heavily into dime looks (six defensive backs), moved hybrid defender Kyle Hamilton all over the place, and won his first NFL game comfortably, 41-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium, watching his defense, led by older players in need of a rebound year, contribute in big ways.

After a stretch of a half-dozen years where the Ravens have been blowing leads, spanning multiple coordinators, starting this new regime without a close call was a necessary positive step. Getting turnovers from middle linebacker Roquan Smith (interception), and cornerback Marlon Humphrey (forced fumble/fumble recovery), two of his highest paid starters in the final year of their deals, was huge, too.

“I didn’t do a great job on the first drive,” Minter said after running a sideline as a head coach and calling plays on defense for the first time. “I had us on our heels … Then we settled in.”

Smith spoke about the situation similarly. “Mistakes on our end, communication,” the linebacker said, striking a tone he took sizing up his rough 2025 campaign this offseason. “It starts with me, first and foremost.” Smith said he took a deep breath on the sideline and the message was simple: “This is not us.”

Well, it certainly was the 2024 and 2025 editions of this defense, but there are many reasons to believe that is changing. Kyle Hamilton gave the defense a C+ grade and no one was satisfied with this win on that side of the ball.

New Beginnings

Playing defense and calling defenses gets a little easier when the offense rolls up 500 yards and 40 points, but when this game was in the balance (first half), Minter used six defensive backs on 12 of 30 snaps and allowed just 3.0 yards per play and 2.7 net yards per pass attempt. And he ran 17 plays of nickel defense and took advantage of Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, who did not look explosive or comfortable as the game played out, back from a season-ending Achilles tear.

The Colts averaged just 4.7 yards per play Sunday, and while the 5.0 yards per carry might seem high, a lot of that was in the second half with a big lead when Minter was probably okay with a heavy dose of Jonthan Taylor. They held the Colts to 150 yards passing on a paltry 4.8 net yards per attempt. Minter played only two snaps in a 3-4 look. The Ravens did not give up a play over 25 yards and star tight end Tyler Warren had just three catches for 13 yards.

Minter got to keep his defensive tackles fresh even with All Pro Nnamdi Madubuike not yet back from neck surgery, with none playing more than 30 snaps, and new pass rusher Trey Hendrickson not having to play 40 snaps in his debut.

Smith looked as spry and active and nimble as we’ve seen in years. Jones came after him and Trenton Simpson in the first drive and Smith and Minter seemed to anticipate more short passes in the middle of the field. Things got better from there.

Smith dropped back and read the play on the next possession, tipping the ball and making an expert play on it to hand the offense the ball at the Colts 31 to key another scoring drive.

“I think I got off the ground an inch or two,” Smith joked.

This defense is desperate for takeaways and big plays, and it swung the game for good late in the first half. Baltimore held the Colts to 12 net yards on two drives after the Smith interception, then Humphrey tore the ball from Taylor’s hands and kept it for a takeaway, coming on the heels of Zay Flowers’s 50 yard touchdown.

“The way we call it,” said Campbell, who played 29 snaps at age 40, “there are going to be opportunities to get turnovers. I think that is something that we try to expect.”

Humphrey’s fumble then set up Derrick Henry’s 32-yard TD run, and at 28-6, this was basically over.

“Roquan sort of flipped the momentum for us on that second drive getting that interception and setting up a short field,” Minter said. “Then Marlon, man, what a play … Those two guys as veterans, for them to make tone-setting plays for us, it's really what I expected out of those guys, and they delivered."

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