Fearless New Orleans Saints rally again in second half, defeat Ravens for first win of season

"Our guys didn't stop"

Sep 20, 2026 at 04:29 PM

Senior Writer

Baltimore — Scared money doesn't make money, and if the New Orleans Saints have shown nothing else in the first two weeks of the regular season, it's that they're not scared money in the 2026 season.

A week after going for a two-point conversion and the win in an overtime road loss to Detroit, Saints coach Kellen Moore rolled the dice on fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 92 seconds left in a 17-17 game against the Ravens at M&T Stadium in Baltimore.

"Fortunate for us to get that. Obviously was gonna go for it in that situation — a chance to score a touchdown, (and) if not, we're forcing them to be on the minus one and go the long way," Moore said. "But it felt like we could get it done there."

Quarterback Tyler Shough strained, muscled and was shoved across the goal line plane — a call that withstood the replay official's review — and that score stood as the game winner when safety Julian Blackmon intercepted Lamar Jackson's pass at the Saints' 7-yard line with 13 seconds left.

New Orleans (1-1) offered another riveting performance and this time, all three phases played a significant role as the Saints eliminated the turnovers (from three against the Lions to none Sunday) and shrunk the penalties to five, for 35 yards.

Shough completed 27 of 34 passes for 252 yards and a touchdown, ran for 23 yards and a touchdown and received big-time assistance from his offensive line (which lost left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. to an ankle injury with 2:02 left in the third quarter), receiver Chris Olave (eight catches for 86 yards and a touchdown) and tight end Juwan Johnson (four catches, 66 yards), who made several critical catches in the second half.

Defensively, the Saints sacked the elusive Jackson three times (1.5 by edge rusher Chase Young), held the Ravens to a field goal in the second half and clamped down for four quarters: A week after the Ravens posted 41 points and 500-plus yards, they were limited to 17 and 312.

"I just thought our relentlessness at the defensive line, the edge position, the linebackers blitzing — our guys didn't stop. Lamar is gonna make plays. He's one of the most talented quarterbacks in this league. He's a phenomenal player (and) he makes a lot of plays," Moore said. "You can't get discouraged when he makes a play. You just gotta keep going for it and I thought that's what our guys did."

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On special teams, Daniel Carlson made all three field goal attempts (23, 47 and 51 yards), rookie receiver Barion Brown had a 53-yard kickoff return to set up a field goal that pulled New Orleans to within 14-6 at halftime, and recently-signed long snapper Scott Daly was flawless in his Saints debut.

All in all, it was the kind of performance — on the road, against a quality opponent — that the Saints have believed themselves capable of rendering since they began OTAs.

As was the case in the opener against the Lions, New Orleans trailed by one score at halftime; 14-6 against the Ravens after 7-0 versus the Lions. And, again defensively, New Orleans did what it could to keep an explosive offensive off the scoreboard.

The Ravens' touchdowns came courtesy of a 1-yard run by Derrick Henry and a 23-yard pass from Jackson to Rashod Bateman with 24 seconds left in the half to give Baltimore a 14-3.

But Brown returned the kickoff 53 yards to the Baltimore 44-yard line, Shough ran for 2 yards and completed a 13-yard pass to Devaughn Vele to set up Carlson's 47-yard field goal as time expired in the half.

Both Shough and Jackson were precise in the first half; Shough completed 12 of 15 for 102 yards, and Jackson connected on 13 of 16 for 171 yards and the touchdown. Vele caught three passes for 53 yards in the half.

The Saints helped bottle themselves up with three penalties (for 25 yards), and three plays that were tackled for loss. One of those was a fumbled toss attributed to Shough, but recovered by running back Travis Etienne Jr. for a 7-yard loss.

Those errors mainly disappeared in the second half, when the Saints outscored Baltimore 18-3 and scored on three of four possessions — two touchdowns, a two-point conversion run by Etienne and a field goal from Carlson.