Ravens 17, Saints 24 · Week 2 · September 20, 2026
Baltimore led 17–9 at home with a quarter to play on Sunday and lost 24–17. Fifteen unanswered points. The defense surrendered two 68-yard touchdown drives, failed to record a fourth-quarter sack and allowed Tyler Shough to pick apart the secondary. On the decisive drive, New Orleans started at its own 32 with 8:06 left and converted two third downs and two fourth downs. Methodical. Unbothered. At M&T Bank Stadium.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Last week, I wrote that John Harbaugh's teams blew 46 fourth-quarter leads from 2008 onward, tied for the second-most in football over that span, according to NFL Research. To me, that number explains far more about his dismissal than the missed 44-yarder in Pittsburgh that ended his final season. You don't dismiss the most successful coach in franchise history after 18 years and a 180–113 regular-season record over one kick. You do it because the miss becomes one more ending you have seen too often.
That is the uncomfortable part, and the reason this loss matters more than a Week 2 result should.
Baltimore beat Indianapolis 41–23 in Jesse Minter's debut. A week later, the Ravens repeated the failures that had come to define the frustration with Harbaugh's staff: a fourth-quarter collapse and another home loss. Different head coach. Three new coordinators. Same fourth quarter. Same building where Baltimore went 3–6 last season, the worst home record in franchise history.
Which raises a question nobody in Baltimore wants asked in September: what if it was never just Harbaugh?
You can fire a head coach. You cannot fix the habit of turning away from Derrick Henry on third-and-one simply by changing the name on the office door. With the game tied at 17 and just over eight minutes left, Declan Doyle's offense passed in the exact situation Henry exists for. Lamar Jackson threw deep for Chris Moore. Kool-Aid McKinstry broke it up. Three-and-out. The Saints took over and drove for the winning touchdown. Baltimore got one last possession, but it ended with an interception.
Nor does a new staff automatically cure seven penalties for 34 yards, including two that handed New Orleans first downs. Or the defensive hold that erased a failed two-point attempt, moved the retry to the one-yard line and let Travis Etienne run it in to tie the game. Or a blocked field goal. Those are the Ravens' oldest, least glamorous problems, and they arrived on schedule with a new man in the headset.
There is a defense of the defense, and the numbers support it. Baltimore held New Orleans to nine points through 45 minutes and recorded all three of its sacks before the fourth quarter. Over the full game, the Ravens allowed just 65 rushing yards on 27 carries and made seven tackles for loss. Minter's unit did not get beaten for four quarters. It got beaten when the game had to be closed, which somehow makes this an even more familiar Baltimore outcome.
The caveats are real. This was game two. Zay Flowers didn't play, and Ronnie Stanley left in the second half with a toe injury. Minter and his staff are still establishing themselves, with young coaches taking on new responsibilities. He is 1–1, with a 41-point road win already banked. Nobody sane writes an obituary in September.
But fixing these endings was central to the case for a change. In Minter's home debut, the same problem resurfaced in front of the people who had watched it for years.
What matters now is the response. My frustration with Harbaugh, over 18 years, was that these losses so often seemed to reveal the same weaknesses: soft late-game coverage, undisciplined penalties and a reluctance to feed the obvious answer at the obvious moment.
Every team blows leads. What made Baltimore's losses so maddening was how often they looked alike, with so little visible evidence that the lessons had stuck.
Minter has a week before facing Dallas in Rio de Janeiro on September 27. That is his next chance to show a different response. Does the fourth-quarter pass-rush plan change? Do the penalties come down? Does Henry get the ball on third-and-one?
We'll see. That is the honest position in Week 2.
What isn't in question is that this was a bad look. Period. New coach, new staff, new standard, old ending.
