Thirty-Five Points Against a Backup Quarterback. That's a Defense Problem, Not a Quarterback Problem.

The conversation after Cincinnati dropped 35 on Baltimore immediately turned to Lamar Jackson's ankle, to Tyler Huntley's limitations, to what this offense looks like without its engine. That framing is wrong, or at least incomplete. The Ravens lost that game because their defense gave up 35 points. You can't pin that on the quarterback who wasn't there.

Here is the number that should be driving this conversation: K'Von Wallace, the starting safety, is producing at a fraction of what a functional starting defensive back should. Behind him, there is nobody — Anthony Levine and Jordan Richards have logged essentially no meaningful snaps. That is not a depth chart, it is a name list. At defensive end, Calais Campbell at 40 years old is still carrying the primary load, and the drop to Trey Hendrickson behind him is severe. Now Tavius Robinson is done for the season with a pectoral injury, which strips whatever young edge-rushing flexibility the Ravens thought they had. John Jenkins at 37 is the starting defensive tackle, producing at roughly half of what a starter at that position should. Roquan Smith is the only linebacker who has played meaningful snaps — there is no rotation behind him, just names on a roster. This is a defense operating with structural holes at nearly every level simultaneously.

The instinct to frame everything through Lamar Jackson is understandable. He is one of the most transformative players in the league, and when healthy — 967 passing yards, 6 touchdowns, 1 interception across four games this season — he makes bad teams functional and functional teams dangerous. His absence is real. But consider what his presence actually masked. The Ravens went 4-2 with him, which sounds like a team in control until you note that their point differential over the season is barely a quarter-point per game. They were not blowing people out. They were winning close games, which is exactly what a defense this thin cannot sustain once the offense stops covering for it.

The Bengals game stripped the camouflage off. Without Jackson forcing defenses into containment mode, without that threat compressing the field and manufacturing short windows, Tyler Huntley had to operate a passing game with Chris Moore as the lead receiver — a 33-year-old producing at less than a third of what a starting wide receiver should — and Mark Andrews as the only reliable target. Huntley has 568 passing yards and 3 touchdowns across five games this season; he is a functional backup, not a solution. But 13 points against Cincinnati was always going to lose, regardless of who was under center, because the defense had no answer for 35.

My read is this: the Ravens built their offseason around protecting Lamar Jackson and getting him an extension. The offensive line investments, the Zay Flowers money, the Derrick Henry retention — all of it was designed to build a team that could function around one player. What they did not do is fix a defense that was already breaking in 2025, when they finished 8-9 and watched a five-game winning streak in November evaporate into December inconsistency. Nnamdi Madubuike's return from a career-threatening neck injury was supposed to address the interior, but he has remained limited. The edge situation was thin before Robinson went down; it is skeletal now. And the secondary behind Wallace is, functionally, nonexistent.

There are 10 games left and Baltimore is half a game from the wild card. Jackson will presumably return at some point, and when he does, the wins may start coming again. But the defense will still be what it is — aging at the line, absent at linebacker depth, hollow in the secondary. Lamar's ankle heals. A 37-year-old defensive tackle and a secondary with no viable backup do not.