The Baltimore Ravens keep running into the same wall in short yardage, and by Week 7 the pattern was impossible to ignore. Third-and-short.
Fourth-and-short. A stalled drive.
Another missed chance. Whatever has been in the playbook so far hasn’t produced a steady answer, and now the simplest solution might be the right one: put Mark Andrews under center and try the Tush Push.
Declan Doyle has already mixed and matched plenty of options. He’s called inside runs with Derrick Henry, fullback dives with Justice Hill, outside runs and pass plays.
Some of it has worked in spots, but nothing has stuck as a reliable fix. Baltimore even tried to have Tyler Huntley sneak it late in the game, and that came up short.
Andrews, at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, looks like the cleaner fit for the job.
The Ravens’ issues were on display again in their loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Entering Sunday, Doyle’s offense ranked 30th on 3rd- and 4th-and-1 conversion rate, going 5-for-10.
In Week 7, the problem lingered. On third and fourth downs with three or fewer yards to go, Baltimore went 3-for-8, and one of those failures came on a third down inside the opposing 20-yard line.
That’s where the Tush Push comes back into the conversation. It’s not a pretty play, and plenty of people hate it.
But it works. The Miami Dolphins used it Sunday to lock up their first win of the 2026 campaign, and since the Philadelphia Eagles made it a league-wide talking point in 2022, teams have kept turning to it when they need a yard.
The numbers are hard to ignore:
2022: 34 conversions on 38 attempts, 89%
2023: 64 on 74, 86%
2024: 74 on 90, 82%
2025: 93 on 114, 82%
2026: 29 on 36, 81%
That kind of success rate is exactly why analytics types keep pointing back to it. Baltimore’s short-yardage problems make the case even stronger.
There’s also reason to believe the Ravens already have pieces for it. In 2025, they went 4-for-6 running the Tush Push, with Andrews as the main option.
He even turned one into a 35-yard touchdown on a fake design. On top of that, Baltimore brought in Cam Jurgens, who made his first start at center in Week 7 and knows the play well from his time in Philadelphia.
There’s a caution flag there, too. Jurgens has injury history, so Baltimore doesn’t need to live in that formation.
But it doesn’t have to. The point is to use it when the yard is everything.
The Ravens haven’t found a dependable short-yardage blueprint, and the drive-killing frustration keeps piling up. Andrews and Jurgens give Doyle a version of the Tush Push that makes sense. At this point, it looks like the last solution worth trying - and maybe the best one.
In Other News...
Ravens Collapse In Cincinnati Sparked A Bigger Problem Than One Loss
Zay Flowers gave Baltimore something to build around in Cincinnati, turning in another strong showing with 8 catches for 137 yards and a touchdown, but the rest of the afternoon unraveled around him. The Ravens second straight loss came with the defense looking overwhelmed in the second half under Jesse Minter, and the overall performance carried a far more troubling tone than a simple division setback.
Derrick Henry never found a rhythm on the ground, and the frustration around the team seemed to bleed into everything as the game slipped away. For a Ravens group that entered the week trying to steady itself, the concern now is less about one bad result and more about whether the mood and execution behind it point to something deeper. [Read more 🡒]
Trey Hendrickson Sends Ravens A Blunt Message After Another Collapse
The Ravens 35-13 loss to the Bengals was the kind of second-half unraveling that leaves a team searching for answers, especially after Baltimore had controlled the game early. Trey Hendrickson, who recently arrived in Baltimore from Cincinnati, did not hide his frustration with the way the Ravens let another lead slip away, making it clear the standard in the building has to be better than what showed up down the stretch.
Roquan Smith has already pointed to the need for more consistency, and Hendricksons own production has become part of the backdrop here as well. In his first five games with Baltimore, the pass rusher has not piled up the disruptive numbers the Ravens expected, which only adds more attention to how this group responds after a collapse like this and whether the edge rush can start matching the urgency of the message. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Second Half Collapse Exposed A Bigger Problem Than One Loss
For much of the afternoon, the Ravens were forced to keep adjusting on the fly up front, and the offense never really found its footing. Baltimore ran 67 offensive snaps with injuries reshaping the starting line, while Derrick Henry and Justice Hill split the workload in a running game that never looked comfortable. Even so, Zay Flowers kept giving the offense a lift as the passing game became the most reliable part of the attack.
The deeper concern is how quickly one injury can ripple through everything Baltimore wants to do. Vega Ioanes exit with a knee injury forced Emery Jones Jr. into the lineup for the final stretch, and that kind of change can expose a unit already under pressure. On defense, the Ravens leaned on familiar core pieces such as Nnamdi Madubuike, Mike Green and Roquan Smith, but the edge rush group and safety rotation were also hit by injuries, leaving Baltimore with more questions than the loss itself suggested. [Read more 🡒]