The Ravens are 1-1 after losing 24-17 to the New Orleans Saints in the home opener.

Baltimore had a 14-6 lead at halftime, and a 17-9 lead entering the 4th Quarter, but were not able to make it hold up.

A Week 2 loss doesn’t change the expected trajectory of the season, but it’s disappointing all the same.

The Fourth Quarter

Baltimore was outscored 15-0 in the fourth.

The Ravens led 14-6 at halftime and 17-9 with just under four minutes left in the third. From there: a punt, a punt, and an interception on the final snap. New Orleans scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie it, then went 16 plays and 68 yards over 6:38 to win it.

The closing drive is the game. Sixteen plays, and Baltimore had four chances to end it. New Orleans converted two third downs and two fourth downs – Shough sneaking for a yard at the Baltimore 44 with 5:41 left, and then going for it on fourth-and-goal from inside the one rather than taking the chip shot that would have given them the lead. Tyler Shough scored on a keeper. The play was reviewed and the ruling on the field stood; the CBS broadcast crew said on air they believed he was short.

Third Downs

New Orleans converted 8 of 15.

The distances are what make that number bad. Baltimore stopped almost nothing in the 8-to-13 range. Shough converted a third-and-7 to Devaughn Vele in the first quarter, a third-and-13 by stepping up through interior pressure for 29 more to Vele, a third-and-8 to Chris Olave for 11 with Kyle Hamilton showing at the line and Roquan Smith actually rushing, a third-and-13 to Juwan Johnson for 25 in the third quarter, and a third-and-16 to Johnson for 10 that still left New Orleans short.

In our season preview we wrote that this scheme gives a quarterback a clean look, rushes four, concedes the underneath throw and dares an offense to be patient. New Orleans was patient for sixty minutes. Shough finished 27-of-34 for 252 yards. That is a 79 percent completion rate against a defense that was not, by design, trying to stop those throws.

Hamilton was the exception everywhere. He is in on tackles from one end of the play-by-play to the other, and on the 16-play drive that decided the game he is credited on seven of them — Etienne twice, Olave, Vele, Kamara, and both Shough runs inside the 5, including the third-and-goal stop that forced New Orleans into going for it on fourth down.

The Interior Rush

Baltimore had three sacks – Hendrickson, Tavius Robinson and Mike Green. All three came off the edge.

Nothing came from inside. Jonas Shaffer put it plainly afterward: the Ravens need Nnamdi Madubuike back, and there was not much from their interior rush today. That is two straight games without him. Travis Jones generated push early – he beat his man on a second-and-15 that held New Orleans to two yards — and the pocket was clean enough the rest of the afternoon that Shough completed 27 passes.

Hendrickson and Green are both on the board, which is what we asked for last week. Michael Fast predicted Hendrickson’s first sack as a Raven would come Sunday, and it did. His other call — Malaki Starks’ first home interception – did not, though Starks did make the tackle that kept Juwan Johnson out of the end zone on the final drive and forced New Orleans into fourth-and-goal.

Hendrickson did it with a cast on his hand; Ian Rapoport reported Sunday morning that he broke a finger into several pieces this week and was expected to play. Rod Woodson’s explanation for the Week 1 zero — that Indianapolis slid protection to him, brought tight ends over and bumped him off the line — held up as far as it went, and the finger was a second reason we did not know about when we published.

The pass rush question we posed last week was whether pressure was enough or Baltimore needed sacks. The answer was sacks. Baltimore generated pressure on Shough repeatedly and he stepped through it for conversions, and the drives that actually ended were the ones where the rush finished — Robinson on New Orleans’ first possession, and Hendrickson and Green on the same third-quarter series.

New Orleans punted three times. Baltimore’s three sacks came on two of those drives.

Bateman And Andrews

Both of them answered.

Rashod Bateman caught 7 of 9 targets for 88 yards and a 22-yard touchdown at the end of the first half. He had zero catches in Week 1. He converted on the first drive of the second quarter, caught the touchdown in a two-minute drill, and dug Baltimore out of a first-and-21 with an 18-yard deep out that required timing and protection at the same moment.

Mark Andrews caught 6 of 7 for 49 yards. The incompletion was a third-and-6 on Baltimore’s opening three-and-out. After that he converted third-and-5, third-and-4 and third-and-3, opened the third-quarter field goal drive with an 8-yard catch, and picked up 14 on third-and-3 on the final possession. He was the third-down offense.

In the season preview we said Andrews and Bateman both needed to get back toward their 2024 production. They did it in the same game, on the afternoon Zay Flowers was inactive.

Matt Jergensen wrote last week that with Flowers out, Bateman should be in line for a much bigger role and that the time for him to step up was now. He got nine targets and delivered. Jergensen also said Andrews needed more than the four catches for 49 yards he had in Indianapolis; Andrews got six for 49, which is more work at the same yardage, in higher-leverage spots.

The one question Jergensen asked that has an uncomfortable answer is whether Chris Moore was really a player who could and should get an expanded role. Baltimore started him. He caught the deep ball that wasn’t there on third-and-1, held on a play that erased a first down, and nearly lost a kick return. None of that is an indictment of Moore. It is what happens when a team asks its fifth receiver to be its second.

Devontez Walker, who has 7 career catches, caught one for 47 on his second target. Ja’Kobi Lane is on injured reserve with a fractured wrist and is out at least four games — our Week 2 piece treated him as week-to-week, and that was wrong. LaJohntay Wester caught a 15-yard screen. Chris Moore started opposite Bateman nine days after being elevated off the practice squad.

The Offensive Line

Baltimore gained 312 yards a week after gaining 506.

Ronnie Stanley left the game and Carson Vinson replaced him at left tackle. Jeff Zrebiec reported before kickoff that Stanley was dealing with a toe injury, and that Emery Jones Jr. was active over Andrew Vorhees in part because Jones can play tackle. When Stanley went out, it was Vinson. There has been no further word.

Chase Young got him for 11 on a second-and-10 at the New Orleans 28, a play on which Andrews was chipping and the CBS broadcast called a scheme error. Young and Nathan Shepherd split another for 12 on third-and-10 at the New Orleans 19, which turned a red zone trip into a 49-yard field goal. He went down again after Vinson came in.

Roger Rosengarten was flagged for being illegally downfield on a shovel pass to Andrews that had gained 11.

Derrick Henry

Sixteen carries, 68 yards, one touchdown. Five of those carries came in the second half.

New Orleans did not stop him. He averaged 4.3 a carry, moved the chains on third-and-2 and third-and-1 on the touchdown drive, and ripped off an 8-yard run to the 1 to set up the score. The touchdown itself was the best play of the day schematically – second-and-goal from the 1, Carson Vinson reported eligible, direct snap to Henry, in the same red zone where Week 1 produced a holding penalty that erased a touchdown and a failed fourth-and-goal from the three.

The issue was volume. After Loop’s 49-yarder made it 17-9 with 3:23 left in the third, Baltimore ran six offensive plays before its final possession. Two three-and-outs, both of which ended with Jackson on the ground. You cannot hand it to Henry when you are not on the field.

That matters more with him than with most backs. Henry’s afternoons are built on accumulation. Carry after carry, defenders getting tired of putting a shoulder into him, arm tackles starting to appear in the second half, and the runs getting longer as the game goes on. Sixteen carries does not get a defense to that point. Neither does five in a half.

Jonas Shaffer noted that Jahmyr Gibbs had a run of explosive carries against this same New Orleans defense last week behind a banged-up Detroit line. Detroit also ran it 33 times and held the ball for nearly 37 minutes. That is the difference, and it isn’t about the back.

The premise was everywhere this week, including here. Michael Fast wrote that the best thing Baltimore could do was look at what Gibbs and the Lions did to the New Orleans run defense, and predicted 150-plus yards and two touchdowns for Henry. We wrote that New Orleans would not be able to slow Henry and Jackson. Neither of us was wrong about the matchup. We were both assuming the Ravens would have the ball.

Third And One

Tied at 17, 8:14 left, third-and-1 at the Baltimore 37. The Ravens threw deep to Chris Moore. Incomplete, and they punted.

Punting on fourth-and-1 from your own 37 in a tie game is defensible. You are backed up, and you want your defense to come up with a stop and improve your field position. I can also understand those that would have preferred to see the Ravens aggressively go for it there. I’m not focused on the 4th down decision.

The third-down call is the one that annoys me.

One yard, with the game tied, in the fourth quarter. Make New Orleans stop Henry. Put a front that had been on the field for most of the afternoon in a position where it has to hold up against Henry with a yard to gain. If they do, fine — you punt from the same spot you were always going to punt from, and you have learned something about this offense. If they don’t, the drive continues and the clock keeps moving.

Instead the down came off the board on a low-percentage throw, and the punt team came on anyway.

There is a second coaching decision to log. Minter challenged a three-yard completion in the second half and lost, costing a timeout. Zrebiec flagged it while the Saints were driving. Baltimore spent its remaining two timeouts on the goal-line sequence and took over with 1:21 and none, which forced a spike at the New Orleans 37 and left them two plays from the 37 with 20 seconds instead of three.

Tyler Shough

What we published about him held up: the league’s worst pressure-to-sack ratio last season, 56 attempts in Week 1 that led the NFL by 14, 410 yards against Detroit. What we never mentioned was that he runs. Shough carried nine times for 23 yards today — more carries than Travis Etienne — scrambled 11 yards on third-and-14 in the second quarter to set up a field goal, and scored the winning touchdown on a keeper from inside the one. Both fourth-down conversions on the final drive were his legs.

He also took hits and kept throwing, which Bill Barnwell and others noted after the Detroit game. Baltimore got pressure on him all afternoon and he completed 79 percent of his throws.

Two of his receivers beat Baltimore’s best coverage players. Olave caught 8 of 10 for 86 and the touchdown, converting three times on the drive that tied it, including a catch behind the line of scrimmage on third-and-2 with Marlon Humphrey in coverage that he turned into a first down. We called Nate Wiggins against Olave the best individual matchup on the field. Olave won it. Vele added 5 for 64, Johnson 4 for 66 on four targets.

Alvin Kamara was not on a pitch count. He touched it ten times in the first half and finished with nine carries for 15 yards. We wrote that if he played, he was probably on a snap limit; instead New Orleans made him the lead back and got 1.7 yards a touch, while Etienne — the one who was actually productive in Detroit — carried eight times. New Orleans kicked field goals on three straight possessions in the middle of the game rather than finishing them, and the run game is a reasonable place to look for why. Etienne scored the two-point conversion that tied the game.

Special Teams

This was the strength a week ago and it was a problem today.

Carl Granderson blocked a 49-yard Tyler Loop attempt in the second quarter, on a drive that had reached the New Orleans 28 before Young’s sack. Loop later hit from 49. The kickoff after Bateman’s touchdown was returned to the Baltimore 44 with 15 seconds left in the half, and New Orleans turned it into a 47-yard field goal. Moore fumbled a kick return in the third quarter; replay ruled him down by contact.

Moore started at receiver, returned kicks, drew the drive-killing holding penalty and was the target on the third-and-1 deep ball. That is a lot to ask of a man who was on the practice squad nine days ago, and it is a depth problem rather than a Moore problem.

The Penalties

Seven for 34 yards. New Orleans had five for 35.

The count is not the story. Four of the seven arrived on plays that changed the game: Moore’s hold erasing a Jackson first down, Rosengarten illegally downfield wiping out 11 yards, a defensive holding call on Jaylinn Hawkins that gave New Orleans a second attempt at the tying two-point conversion after Trenton Simpson had brought Shough down on the first, and the roughing call on Hendrickson during the final drive.

Pete Gilbert had it in real time — penalties and third downs. He is right about both, and the penalty version needs the qualifier that the volume actually improved.

Thoughts Two Weeks In

Total yardage was 312 to 298. This was not a game where Baltimore got run off the field. It was a game where New Orleans held the ball for 32:45 and converted third downs at long distances – 8 of 15, at an average distance around eight yards.

New Orleans had eight possessions: punt, punt, field goal, field goal, field goal, punt, touchdown, touchdown. Baltimore’s three sacks account for two of the three punts – Robinson ending New Orleans’ first possession, Hendrickson and Green on the same third-quarter series.

Over the course of this season, the Ravens are going to need consistent production from Bateman and Andrews. Their performance today was encouraging; the next step is getting that with regularity.

It was also good to see Walker stretch the field with his 47 yard grab.

Not having Flowers and Lane available today changes the offense.

What really impacted the offense was the defense allowing several long possessions, and not giving Jackson more attempts. Further aided by the Ravens offense not converting that 4th Quarter 3rd and 1.

Hard for Henry to rack up carries, when the Ravens offense doesn’t have the ball.

Madubuike has now missed the first two games. The obvious hope is that he gives the Ravens an interior pass rush when he becomes active.

We noted last week that the first seven opponents all missed the playoffs last season, and that everyone expected a quick start. Baltimore is 1-1 with a home loss to one of them.

Look at the rest of the conference while that sits there.

Buffalo is 2-0 and has looked strong.

Cincinnati is 2-0 and now owns a head-to-head win over Houston, another expected AFC threat, in Houston.

Kansas City looked a bit better in Week 1 than many people anticipated.

The Ravens have post-season aspirations. You have to reach the post-season first, and dropping games you should win is how you end up not winning divisions or having your seeding impacted.

The Ravens were extremely difficult to beat at home for years, but weren’t able to defend M&T last year and have now started the ’26 campaign with another loss at the Bank.

The Ravens’ struggles with leads in the 4th Quarter over the last 5 years is well documented. For there to be a Coaching change, and to see that same storyline continue with Minter in his Ravens home-debut, is a bit deflating.

Our Call, Scored

We said Ravens 31, Saints 20. Baltimore wins and covers. Take the over on 46.5.

Wrong three times. Baltimore lost outright as a home favorite — the line had moved from -7.5 at publication to -8.5 by kickoff. The game finished at 41 combined points, under the total. Not a near miss on any leg.

The reasoning was that New Orleans would not be able to slow Henry and Jackson, and that if the Saints loaded the box it would create one-on-one chances outside. Baltimore did win that part — Bateman got his one-on-ones and won them. What we did not account for was Baltimore’s inability to get off the field on third down, or that Henry would finish with 68 yards.

Box score

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Week 3: Ravens at Cowboys, in Rio de Janeiro

Sunday, September 27th, 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS, Maracanã Stadium, Rio de Janeiro. Ravens -3, total 52.5.
ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor gives Baltimore a 60.2% chance to win.

Dallas is the designated home team. Baltimore is the visitor. The Ravens are not giving up a home date, and this is a normal Sunday afternoon kickoff rather than the Friday or Saturday that international games sometimes get, 5:25 p.m. local time in Rio.

The Field

There is a real chance this game is not played in Brazil.

Mike Florio reported Saturday that the grass at the Maracanã is in poor condition, citing Mauricio Rodriguez of AtoZSports. The complaints are coming from the soccer players who play on it. Flamengo goalkeeper Agustín Rossi said both penalty areas are in bad shape and there are bumps everywhere, and noted that an NFL game was coming. Midfielder Giorgian De Arrascaeta said the field keeps getting worse and it is getting harder to control the ball. Fluminense’s Guga said on September 5 that he could not recall playing on a field as bad anywhere in Brazil.

Tony Lombardi at Russell Street Report laid out the stadium’s side. Maracanã’s management attributes the wear to heavy rainfall, high temperatures and a heavy run of matches. Stadium CEO Fred Nantes acknowledged the field is not at the quality the stadium wants while saying the venue has not been negligent. Crews are working overnight, and the administration contacted the people who run the São Paulo venue to learn what was done there after the NFL games in 2024 and 2025. Maracanã is studying a full replacement of the field after the NFL game.

The precedent is real. In 2018 the NFL moved a Chiefs-Rams game from Mexico City to the Los Angeles Coliseum over field conditions, six days before kickoff. If this one moves, it moves to Arlington, because Dallas is the home team. As of Saturday afternoon the NFL had not announced any change.

The precedent that matters more is what happened in São Paulo. Players slipped repeatedly during the 2024 game at Arena Corinthians, and afterward multiple players told theScore it was among the worst surfaces they had played on. The NFL spent a reported $1 million on that field to prepare it.

We are publishing this without knowing where the game will be played. Flamengo hosted Bragantino at the Maracanã on Sunday, and the league’s read on the field after that match is the thing to watch.

Dallas

Dallas beat Washington 37-20 at home on Sunday and is 1-1.

Dak Prescott went 26 of 31 for 279 yards and four touchdowns, and passed Tony Romo for the franchise record in touchdown passes. Romo’s mark was 248; Prescott tied it on his second scoring throw to Jake Ferguson and broke it with a fourth-quarter strike to CeeDee Lamb. Lamb finished with 8 catches for 153 and two scores, 19.1 a catch. Ferguson had 4 for 43 and two touchdowns. George Pickens caught 6 for 40. Javonte Williams ran 12 times for 30.

Jayden Daniels dislocated his left elbow on the final play of the first half and was carted off. Everything after that was Dallas playing Marcus Mariota. Washington actually outgained Dallas 389 to 332 and ran for 182 yards. Mariota wasn’t bad, but the game changed when Daniels went out.

Dallas lost 28-20 at the Giants in Week 1. Dak Prescott went 22-of-34 for 175 yards with two touchdowns – to CeeDee Lamb and Javonte Williams – and an interception just before halftime. Williams ran for a score. George Pickens had drops. Brandon Aubrey missed an extra point after a taunting penalty moved it back. Safety Malik Hooker left with a forearm injury and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown left in the fourth with a hamstring.

The Matchup

In Week 1 the Cowboys allowed 9 of 11 third-down conversions, missed seven tackles per Next Gen Stats, gave up 165 combined rushing yards and let the Giants hold the ball for nearly 37 minutes. Jaxson Dart finished 23-of-29 with three touchdowns and ran for 54 himself. In a Blogging The Boys roundtable, four Dallas linebackers – Winters, Overshown, Houston and Lawrence – were noted as grading between 34 and 42 at PFF.

Christian Parker was calling his first NFL game as defensive coordinator. Dallas allowed the most points in the NFL last season at 30.1 a game, and Quinnen Williams pointed at the third downs afterward, saying they had a lot of them and didn’t get off the field.

Two weeks in, the pattern holds. Washington went 6 of 8 on third down in the first half before Daniels got hurt. Add the 9 of 11 the Giants managed and Dallas has allowed 15 of 19 third-down conversions against starting quarterbacks – 79 percent.

The quarterback runs are the specific problem. Jaxson Dart ran for 54 on 11 carries in Week 1. Daniels had 69 on seven before the injury. That is 123 yards on 18 attempts over six quarters, 6.8 a carry, which is Joe Hoyt’s number and the most relevant statistic in this preview. Marcus Mosher’s read is that Dallas is playing light boxes against heavy personnel and getting run on, which makes it a stated choice rather than a personnel failure. Nick Harris described the third-quarter forced fumble as the Dallas defense’s first big play of the season, in Week 2.

Now the counterweight, and it is the pivot of this game rather than a footnote.

Dak Prescott is a better quarterback than any Baltimore has faced, and on Sunday he did to Washington what Shough did to the Ravens – efficient, unhurried, converting. Twenty-six of 31. Baltimore has gone two weeks without an interior pass rush.

The Giants ran for 165 on the Cowboys while holding the ball nearly 37 minutes. Baltimore had the ball 27:15 on Sunday and handed Henry sixteen carries. A defense that cannot tackle is only a matchup if you are on the field long enough to make it one.

Availability

Madubuike has missed two games with the neck. He was described as “really, really close” before Week 2 and did not dress.

Teddye Buchanan has also missed two with the knee.

Zay Flowers sat Sunday with the hamstring to try to avoid this becoming a lingering or more serious issue.  If this game moves to Dallas, it’s fun to picture his speed on the turf.

Ronnie Stanley left with what Zrebiec reported as a toe injury. No update yet.

Ja’Kobi Lane is on IR with a fractured wrist obviously, and will miss a few more weeks.

Hendrickson is playing with a cast on a broken finger.

For Dallas: Safety Malik Hooker and LB DeMarvion Overshown both left the Giants game early and were confirmed inactive against Washington, along with linebacker James Houston, cornerback Caelen Carson, running back Tyler Goodson, guard Ajani Cornelius and receiver Camden Brown. Overshown and Houston are two of the four linebackers whose Week 1 grades drew attention, and Overshown is the player you would want spying Jackson. Whether any of them are back for Rio is a question for Dallas’ Wednesday report.

The linebacker room is reshuffled rather than empty. Rookie Jaishawn Barham – Michigan, and Maryland before that – forced the fumble that Dee Winters recovered at the Washington 13 to set up a Ferguson touchdown. Winters is himself one of the four who graded poorly in Week 1.

Olave had a strong game today vs. the Ravens. Have to imagine Lamb, and Pickens are excited about their chances to do the same.

Things To Watch

Does Madubuike play, and does it change the interior rush? Three sacks against New Orleans, all from the edge, and a quarterback completing 79 percent.

Can Baltimore get off the field on third down? Eight of 15 allowed, at an average distance around eight yards.

Does Baltimore run it? Sixteen carries for Henry, five after halftime, against a defense that gave up 165 on the ground in Week 1. Dallas has been showing a lot of light boxes. You have to make them pay for that.

Is Stanley available? .If he’s available, how effective is he?

Does Jackson run? Daniels ran for 69 yards in the 1st half today.

Does Bateman build off his outing vs. NO? Seven catches for 88 and a touchdown, with a week for Dallas to plan for it. If Flowers is back, the room looks entirely different.

Where is the game being played?

Our Call

The Ravens have a better roster than New Orleans (even with those inactive today), but the Saints left Baltimore with the win.
Baltimore is supposed to have a better roster than the Cowboys, but Dallas has darkhorse Super Bowl aspirations.

The defense has given up long, patient drives in both games. Dak Prescott is a different problem than Daniel Jones or Tyler Shough.

Dallas allowed the most points in the NFL last season, its defensive coordinator is calling his third NFL game, it has given up 15 of 19 third downs to starting quarterbacks, and it is playing light boxes against heavy personnel.

The case against against Baltimore is that Prescott is not Shough. Four penalties at the worst moments, a special teams unit that gave away points, a line that could not keep Jackson upright in the fourth quarter, and no interior pass rush to bother the best quarterback on the schedule so far.

If the game is played in Rio: Ravens 24, Cowboys 21. Neither team has a home crowd (maybe more Dallas fans with their name recognition?), and a questionable surface tends to shorten games and punish precision more than power, which favors Henry and a defense that can win rushing four. The problem is everything around the game. This is a nine-hour trip to an unfamiliar facility, in the middle of a week of league events, on a field nobody has practiced on. Dallas makes the same trip, but the Cowboys have been building their week around this since April as the home team. Baltimore is a guest at someone else’s event.

If the game is moved to Arlington: Ravens 24, Cowboys 23. A relocation hands Dallas a genuine home game it was not supposed to have, on a fast indoor surface that suits Prescott, Lamb and Pickens, against a defense that has not gotten off the field on third down in two weeks. The counterweight is that for Baltimore, Arlington is a normal road game. Short flight, familiar building, ordinary routine, home that night. Whatever the Ravens lose to the crowd they get back in not having to do anything unusual.

Which is why the two numbers end up in the same place. The version of this game I would least want as a Baltimore fan is the one where they fly to Brazil on a short turnaround after a loss, play on a field the professionals who use it say is unsafe, and try to fix a third-down defense in a hotel ballroom.

Either way I have Baltimore at 2-1.