The Baltimore Ravens notched their first win of the 2026 regular season under head coach Jesse Minter on Sunday afternoon with an awe-inspiring 41-23 triumph over the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It marked the first time that the starters took the field in live action against another team since joint practices and continued a theme of dominance on both sides of the ball that their reserves established during an undefeated preseason.
Here are several Ravens players who showed out in their 1-0 start and a few who either made some costly mistakes or were adversely affected in some other way.
Winners
QB Lamar Jackson
The Ravens franchise signal caller had a sensational debut in his first live-action game in the third new offense of his career with 364 yards of total offense and a pair of touchdowns. It could’ve been even better had some of his chunk plays and what would’ve been a second passing touchdown not been negated by penalties. He completed 17-of-25 passes for 324 passing yards and a touchdown and ran four times for 43 yards and a touchdown before taking three knees in victory formation at the end of the game.
OC Declan Doyle
The first-time play-caller vowed that his unit’s identity and mission would be centered around being physical and generating explosive plays, and he proved to be a man of his word. Baltimore carved up the Colts through the air and gashed them on the ground from start to finish, racking up 506 yards of total offense, more than doubling their opponent’s 251. They averaged 7.9 yards per play, 5.5 yards per rush and totaled 202 yards on the ground.
HC Jesse Minter
As far as first career regular-season wins go, this was one to remember for the first-time head coach, who also called the defensive plays. After as rough a start as he could’ve imagined, in which the Colts’ offense marched down the field on nine plays and finished in the end zone, his unit responded by forcing either a turnover or a punt on each of their next five drives and held them to just 251 yards of total offense in the game. They harassed Daniel Jones for most of the afternoon, hitting him nine times, sacking him twice and holding him to 149 net passing yards with a QBR of 28.7. Indianapolis barely eclipsed 100 rushing yards as a team and didn’t have a pass-catcher record more than 61 receiving yards.
RB Derrick Henry
The future first-ballot Hall of Famer didn’t waste any time adding to his already illustrious resume by further climbing up some all-time leading boards with his outstanding 2026 debut. Henry carried the ball 24 times for 144 yards and three touchdowns, surpassing Marcus Allen for the third-most rushing scores in NFL history. It marked his 26th career game of over 100 yards and multiple touchdowns, setting a new NFL record and breaking what was a three-way tie with a pair of all-time greats in LaDainian Tomlinson and the late Jim Brown.
WR Zay Flowers
The two-time Pro Bowler didn’t even need two full quarters to set a new single-game career-best in receiving yards. Before the hamstring injury that he had been nursing a few weeks ago flared up and caused him to miss the entire second half, the Colts couldn’t stop the connection between Flowers and Jackson as the two linked up 5-of-6 targets for a game-high 150 receiving yards, including a 54-yard catch-and-run touchdown.
ILB Roquan Smith
Coming off a down year, according to his elite standards, in which he didn’t make many splash plays, including not recording an interception for the first time in his career, the four-time Pro Bowl didn’t waste any time doing both in this game. He picked off a pass on the second play of the Colts’ second drive, where he tipped it to himself, then went on to finish with a game-high 11 total tackles, a pass breakup and a quarterback hit.
WR Chris Moore
Even before Flowers left the game, the veteran practice squad elevation was making his presence felt as a kick returner, setting up the Ravens’ first touchdown drive with a 42-yard runback. He recorded 121 yards on four returns, finishing with a career-high 174 all-purpose yards after hauling in a 53-yard reception in the second half and making a key downfield block on Henry’s 32-yard scoring jaunt.
EDGE Tavius Robinson
The fourth-year pro was unblockable in this game and spent most of the game breathing down Jones’ neck. He recorded nearly half of the Ravens’ quarterback hits with four, the first of their two sacks and three total tackles, including a solo and one for a loss.
K Tyler Loop
There was perhaps no player under more pressure heading into the season opener than the second-year specialist who was so inconsistent in the preseason that the team brought in competition for him via the practice squad. Loop responded with a confidence-boosting and inspiring performance against the Colts by making both of his field goal attempts, including drilling a new career-high 57-yarder on his first, and making all five of his extra points as well.
DT Travis Jones
The fifth-year veteran nose tackle quietly had a very impactful 2026 debut, especially as a run defender. He led all Ravens interior defensive linemen with four total tackles, including three solos and two for a loss.
P Ryan Eckley
The sixth-round rookie specialist picked up where he left off after an impressive preseason and was a field-flipping weapon against the Colts. All three of Eckley’s punts were downed inside the opposing 20-yard line as he finished with 140 punt yards, an average of 46.7 and a long of 53.
CB Marlon Humphrey
Similar to Smith, the four-time Pro Bowler had a down year in 2025 and opened 2026 with a bang, flying all over the field and generating drive-ending plays on the ball. Humphrey forced the Ravens’ second turnover of the game when he ripped the ball out of the grasp of Colts running back Jonathan Taylor in the second quarter and recovered it. He ended Indianapolis’ next offensive possession by breaking up a deep pass down the middle of the field intended for Alec Pierce.
ILB Trenton Simpson
The fourth-year heading into a contract year had a strong first game out as a starter with four total tackles, including three solos and a pair of key stops behind the line of scrimmage on Taylor.
DB Malaki Starks
The second-year pro was more active and impactful playing in the box than he did as a rookie, when he primarily played free safety, and it paid major dividends. Starks finished with the second-most total tackles on the team with seven, including two solos and one for a loss. As a blitzer, he tallied the second-most quarterback hits on the team with a pair and ended the Colts’ last drive of the game on his first career sack.
Losers
WR Ja’Kobi Lane
The third-round rookie actually had a solid overall regular-season debut as both a pass catcher and a downfield blocker as he helped spring Flowers for the last few yards of his touchdown. Unfortunately, not only did he have his first-career touchdown overturned by a penalty, but he suffered a wrist injury that caused him to miss most of the second half. While Minter didn’t have an update on his status immediately after the game, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported that the initial diagnosis is believed to be a fractured wrist, which would sideline the training camp star for several weeks if confirmed.
Discipline on offense
As mentioned several times above in the blurbs about winners and losers alike, penalties were a huge issue for the Ravens in this game on offense and kept them from having an even more prolific season-opening outing on that side of the ball. Baltimore was penalized a whopping 10 times for 86 yards, with the starting offensive line being the main culprits, as each member of the unit was flagged at least once for a pre or post-snap infraction.
There were also several procedural penalties called for mistakes like illegal shifts and false starts. Some growing pains are to be expected for a team unveiling a brand new offense that harps on and requires the finer details to be executed but they can’t average double-digit penalties moving forward and still expect to stack wins against the better teams on their schedule in the middle and second half.
K Jake Moody
The fourth-year pro wasn’t one of the two practice squad elevations by the Ravens for this game, so he didn’t even suit up for it. However, he finds himself in this section of the list nonetheless for the mere fact that Loop’s bounce-back could mean his days in Baltimore are numbered if he keeps it up.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
