The Baltimore Ravens dropped their home opener to the New Orleans Saints in dramatic fashion, giving up a late goal-line touchdown followed by a Lamar Jackson interception to seal the loss. Here are Baltimore Beatdown’s reactions to the game:
This felt like a trap game all week, and boy, did it deliver. Quarterback Tyler Shough had a lights-out game under pressure, and a number of calls went against the Ravens throughout the game. Baltimore established a foothold early in the game, but sputtered into
the half with the ground starting to give way beneath their feed. After halftime, the offense was held to just three points, and the defense could not get off the field on third down. New Orleans churned yards on the ground and in the underneath game, and Baltimore’s offense simply had no answer. This is a tough, tough loss for Jesse Minter’s squad in their home opener after emphasizing the need to re-establish dominance at M&T Bank Stadium. Unfortunately, it felt like a time-travel trip back to disappointing early-season losses of past Ravens teams. – Nikhil Mehta
It’s an embarrassing loss. There’s simply no excuse. The referee show was awful but there are problems beyond that.The defense was far too soft for most of the day and let Tyler Shough and the receivers bully them. Lamar Jackson and the offense weren’t good enough, even if they were missing Zay Flowers. The run game wasn’t utilized nearly enough against a team that couldn’t stop the run at all last week. Falling short of 20 carries when you are missing your top wide receiver is criminal. Special teams is the real deciding factor here. The blocked field goal and the massive return that allowed the Saints to score three before halftime are the real difference in score.
It’s a bad coaching loss in my opinion and you have to hope it’s only a speed bump for a new coaching staff that they take responsibility for. – Zach Canter
Not much to say here but unfortunately, these first two weeks of the year have looked very similar to the old regime: dominant win followed up by home stinker vs an inferior opponent. The Ravens led the Saints 14-3 at one point, but let the Saints slowly climb back into it and took the Ravens down in their home opener. This felt a lot like their week two loss at home vs the Raiders in 2024 where the Ravens also led in that game but just couldn’t seal the deal against an inferior team. The Ravens defense looked good out of the gates but simply couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down. The pressure was good, but Tyler Shough was able to push all the right buttons down the stretch. As is usually the case, there are multiple things to point to – penalties, controversial calls, and a poor challenge. If there is a silver lining, the Ravens were missing Zay Flowers, Nmandi Madubuike, and others but this still feels like a game they should have won. – Stephen Bopst
The euphoric high of the new coaching staff lasted just one game for the Ravens as the team squandered yet another fourth-quarter lead against a team they had no business losing to. Baltimore’s offense went stagnant in the second half while the defense failed to get to Tyler Shough and contain Chris Olave in the passing game. There is plenty of blame to go around in this loss, from poor special teams play, third-down defense, penalties, and a failure to get anything going offensively in the second half. The season is long and losses like these are bound to happen, even to the best teams, but this is still a disappointment for a team looking to exorcise demons from failing to close these types of games in years past. Getting Zay Flowers back will be a massive boost to the offense and Nnamdi Madubuike will hopefully do the same for the defense. – Dustin Cox
The Ravens entered this game as 8.5 favorites, opening their home slate against an NFC opponent quarterbacked by a player that had never faced them. There were plenty of reasons that this game shouldn’t have been close, but here we are.
It’s early in the year to be concerned, but depending on how the division shakes out, they’re going to really want this one back. The coaching staff veered away from Derrick Henry after a few non-starter plays, and in doing so, lost all control of a two-pronged offensive flow to the game. The defense, meanwhile, gave up several third and longs, giving the Saints life and keeping their tired defensive legs on the field to get worn down on long scoring drives.
I think I’m most surprised by Declan Doyle seemingly playing things tentatively. That’s absolutely not what I expected from him in a tight game. I know one thing, I’d hate to be in that locker room right now or in the facility on Tuesday, because there are going to be a lot of uncomfortable conversations. – Kevin McNelis
