Ravens Rookie Coach Jesse Minter Must Rally His Team And Fix His Secondary Vs. Cowboys In Brazil

Ravens rookie head coach Jesse Minter is facing real adversity for the first time in his nascent career, having to rally his players after a brutal loss Week 2 and steward them to South America to face one of the better offenses in the NFL.

Minter, who runs the defense while coaching the team, has fires he must try to put out along his offensive line and in his secondary, he has difficult medical situations to juggle given how extreme this travel is and the challenges presented by a questionable playing surface more geared to soccer than football. The honeymoon is over, and the rate of penalties is causing concern, too.

“We can go through the hard stuff,” Minter explained after practice on Wednesday, “and we can tell the truth … Sometimes you have to go through something hard. When your new everything is kind of like the honeymoon phase until you hit adversity.”

Blowing a 14-3 lead at home to a Saints team who were 10-point underdogs constitutes adversity and when it’s the franchise ’s 15th loss blowing a double-digit lead since 2019 it leaves quite an impression. All three phases had plenty to do with the collapse, but Minter’s defense is going to face the biggest test this weekend, with the field conditions working heavily in favor of the offense and the Ravens preparing to face the most potent and dynamic pass attack they have seen to this point.

And he’s got a 10-hour flight, departing after practice Thursday, to think about it. And a game plan he used against the Cowboys – that was stellar against the run last season but not quite as pristine stopping the arial attack – to refine and hone before facing them in a very different environment

A Familiar Opponent

Like the Colts in Week 1, Minter just saw this opponent a year ago when he was running the Chargers defense. They beat the Cowboys, 34-17, in Week 16 at Dallas, on a day when Cowboys coach and play caller Brian Schottenheimer took an approach quite different from what we’re likely to see Sunday.

The Cowboys ran the ball 23 times, getting absolutely nowhere, and that was a dire aspect of play for them in 2025 and it’s not all that much better now. Dak Prescott attempting only 33 passes is something I’m sure Schottenheimer wants to change in this rematch, because Dallas was highly efficient when targeting their three most explosive elements – receivers George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb and tight end Jake Ferguson.

Prescott was nearly perfect throwing to them, going 16-for-20 for 200 yards and a touchdown. Gulp. He averaged over 10 air yards per attempt and this was a downfield attack; of those 200 yards only 35 came on YAC. Minter played almost no man overage, he blitzed just 9% of the time – an incredibly low figure even for him – and did not play as much dime coverage as he has through two weeks in Baltimore.

“Dak is great quarterback and they’re got a really good just field-general sense of how they operate,” Minter said. “I have a lot of respect for Coach Schottenheimer calling plays and being a head coach. It’s a great challenge.”

As to how it went last time: “At least I kind of have an idea of how I thought about scheming them up,” Minter said, “and how I might change things going forward.”

Minter will absolutely be harping on his safeties, Jaylinn Hawkins and Malaki Starks, about getting much more sound in their coverage. They have been one of the worst couplings in the NFL thus far, and anything close to a repeat of that Sunday would be damning. Already questions are being asked about whether hybrid defender Kyle Hamilton will end up more on the back end if this continues.

“They can put me wherever they see fit,” Hamilton said Wednesday. “That’s a week-to-week thing.”

Subscribe To "The Daily Flock" For Elite Ravens Convos And Content:

Add us as a preferred source on Google