Ravens stick to familiar script in collapse vs. Saints: ‘You cannot let games like this slip away’

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After a while, perhaps all the Ravens losses start to blend together. A disappearing late-game offense mixes with a soft late-game defense and dubious fourth-quarter game management, turning a streak into an amorphous shroud.

“I can’t remember the last time we got a win at home,” right tackle Roger Rosengarten said Sunday after a 24-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints (1-1) that extended the Ravens’ ignominious skid to four games across two seasons, the team’s longest in four years. Three hundred and one days in all. And counting.

Far easier to remember, of course, is how the Ravens (1-1) lose these games. They have done it so often in recent years, and with such consistency in their execution, that coach Jesse Minter’s home opener felt like a karaoke performance of predecessor John Harbaugh’s greatest hits in Baltimore.

Start with a late lead. The Ravens were up 17-9 late in the third quarter and, even after squandering a drive that started near midfield, had an 86.1% win probability early in the fourth quarter, according to ESPN.

Add in a suddenly stagnant offense. The Ravens went three-and-out on their third-to-last drive, wasting a golden opportunity to turn a short field into a two-possession advantage. They went three-and-out on their penultimate drive, turning a third-and-1 into a failed shot play and deciding against a fourth-down carry for running back Derrick Henry. And they went slower than required on their last drive, getting only as far as New Orleans’ 37-yard line with 20 seconds remaining before quarterback Lamar Jackson threw a game-ending interception, a rare mistake on an otherwise impressive afternoon.

Then finish it off with a quick-to-fold defense. Saints quarterback Tyler Shough went 12-for-14 for 119 yards and a touchdown against the Ravens’ much-hyped secondary over the game’s final 15 minutes — almost as many passing yards as he had over the first three quarters combined (133). He wasn’t sacked in that period despite losing starting left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr., and he did just enough to convince the officials he’d broken the plane on a controversial, go-ahead, goal-line sneak with 88 seconds remaining.

“Look, losses are all disappointing, especially at home,” said Minter, whose unsuccessful challenge in the fourth quarter on a short Saints completion cost the Ravens a timeout they needed late. “Everybody is going to just say the same old thing of having a lead and things like that. So we will own this. We’ll look in the mirror. We’ll figure out what we can do to improve. That is the main thing. It’s early in the season, we were missing a few key guys, but that is a game we need to find a way to win, especially when we have a lead like that.”

In a team meeting Wednesday, he’d underscored the Ravens’ need to give their fans something to cheer for. The team went 3-6 last year at M&T Bank Stadium, its worst mark in franchise history and its first home losing season in a decade.

The good vibes lasted only so long. The Ravens led by just eight points at halftime despite a dominant opening 30 minutes. They led 17-9 entering the fourth quarter. But fans ultimately left with a stinker of a souvenir: a 15th loss in a game in which they’d led by double digits since 2019, the most of any team in that span, according to ESPN.

This latest collapse evoked the classics in the Harbaugh canon. There were hints of the 2023 Indianapolis Colts, when special teams struggles — the Ravens had a field goal blocked and allowed another big kickoff return Sunday — proved costly.

There was an homage to the 2024 Las Vegas Raiders, another huge underdog who arrived in Baltimore with few backers and left with a fourth-quarter stunner.

And there was a callback to the 2025 New England Patriots, who scored 15 unanswered points in a comeback win as the Ravens all but ignored Henry in their late-game offense. (He had just five second-half carries Sunday against a Saints run defense the Detroit Lions battered in Week 1.)

“I know what kind of guys we’ve got,” said defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who blamed himself for a few of the missed tackles that seemed to become contagious on the Ravens’ defense late in the loss. “That is why I am so disappointed right now. You cannot let games like this slip away. We have too many of the right pieces. We will not make any excuses.”

The Ravens’ late-game follies have reached almost tragicomic depths. How many other teams with this much talent, this much promise, have steadied themselves amid turbulence over the first three quarters of a game, only to suffer one spectacular pratfall after another in the fourth quarter?

On Sunday, the Ravens didn’t have Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers, sidelined by a hamstring injury. So Rashod Bateman stepped in, finishing with seven catches for 88 yards and a touchdown. Outside linebacker Trey Hendrickson was playing through a reported broken finger; he still finished with his first Ravens sack. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley (toe) and left guard John Simpson (groin) were questionable, but both started and held up well in pass protection for three quarters.

Then the Ravens’ late-game demons came stirring back to life. “Things just don’t go our way sometimes,” said Jackson, who finished 21-for-31 for 235 yards and a touchdown but went just 3-for-7 for 28 yards in the fourth quarter. He’d put his hands to his helmet and shaken his head in disbelief after his decisive interception floated into the hands of Colts safety Julian Blackmon.

Fans streamed for the exits, another afternoon in Baltimore ruined. New season. New coach. Same ol’ Ravens.

“Everyone is kind of tired of doing what we just did,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “Hopefully, we will make this a hiccup and not [let] this be a bridge that is final and cannot be repaired. So there will definitely be some things getting right, and we just cannot let this linger too long.”