Tyler Shough’s fourth-quarter poise carries Saints past Ravens 24-17 in Baltimore

Baltimore had the sharper start, but New Orleans stayed attached

Baltimore put the first shape on the afternoon at 2:52 of the opening quarter, when Derrick Henry finished a drive with a 1-yard touchdown run for a 7-0 lead. That early edge fit the Ravens’ more efficient rushing numbers; they finished with 108 yards on 22 carries, a healthy 4.9 per attempt, and Henry himself produced 68 yards and the game’s first touchdown.

The Saints, though, never let the score stretch into something more damaging. Daniel Carlson’s 23-yard field goal at 3:46 of the second quarter put New Orleans on the board, and even after Lamar Jackson found Rashod Bateman for a 22-yard touchdown with 24 seconds left in the half, the Saints answered again. Carlson drilled a 47-yarder at 0:00, trimming the deficit to 14-6 instead of sending New Orleans to the break down two full scores.

That sequence mattered because the rest of the box score already hinted this would be a game of margins rather than volume. The teams finished even at 19 first downs apiece, but New Orleans was quietly building a sturdier offensive day. The Saints converted 8 of 15 third downs, possessed the ball for 32:45 and ran 64 plays. Baltimore, for all its explosiveness, had only 56 plays and converted 4 of 9 third downs. The Ravens had the better per-play figure, yet the Saints were the side better able to keep the game in their preferred range.

Shough turned field-goal pressure into a fourth-quarter finish

New Orleans still had to prove it could turn that control into touchdowns. Carlson’s 51-yard field goal with 11:00 left in the third quarter cut the Ravens’ lead to 14-9, but Tyler Loop answered with a 49-yarder at 3:23, restoring Baltimore’s cushion at 17-9. At that point, the Saints had points on the board but not yet a decisive offensive breakthrough.

It arrived at 9:42 of the fourth quarter. Shough hit Chris Olave for a 21-yard touchdown, and New Orleans went further by converting the two-point try through Travis Etienne Jr. to tie the game 17-17. That was the moment the Saints’ passing game finally translated its efficiency into a swing on the scoreboard. Shough finished 27 of 34 for 252 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and a 107.4 passer rating, and he spread the work around rather than forcing it to one target. Olave led with eight catches for 86 yards, Juwan Johnson added 66 yards on four receptions, and Devaughn Vele chipped in five catches for 64.

The winning score came with 1:28 left, when Shough kept it himself from 1 yard out and Carlson’s extra point made it 24-17. It was a fitting ending for a quarterback who had been the Saints’ most reliable answer all day. New Orleans managed only 65 rushing yards as a team and just 2.4 yards per carry, so the offense needed Shough’s accuracy and decision-making to carry the heavier load. He did that, and the Saints’ perfect turnover line — zero giveaways — gave Baltimore no easy way back into the game.

Our take: the Saints won the game’s texture, and that decided the result

The easiest way to misread this score is to assume New Orleans overpowered Baltimore. The numbers say something more interesting. The Ravens actually gained more total yards, 312 to 298, and were better on a per-play basis, 5.6 yards to 4.7. But the Saints controlled the game’s texture: more time of possession, more plays, more third-down conversions, two successful fourth-down tries and no turnovers. That kind of profile does not always look glamorous, but it often travels well, and it was enough here.

For Baltimore, the lesson is not that everything failed. Jackson threw for 235 yards, Bateman had 88 receiving yards and a touchdown, and the ground game was productive enough to average 4.9 per carry. The problem is that the efficient moments were not extended often enough. The Ravens had only eight drives, scored no fourth-quarter points and gave away the game’s only turnover on Julian Blackmon’s interception. Add in three sacks for 31 lost yards, with Chase Young leading the Saints’ pressure group at 1.5 sacks, and Baltimore’s offensive day starts to look less sturdy than its raw yardage suggests. A reasonable adjustment would be finding more ways to preserve that rushing efficiency over the full game, because the production was there even if the late control was not.

For New Orleans, the win should feel encouraging without hiding the work still to do. A team that gets only 42 rushing yards from its non-quarterbacks on 18 carries is still searching for a cleaner conventional run game, and the Saints were just 1-for-2 in the red zone. Those are not small issues. But if there is a larger takeaway, it is that New Orleans handled the pressure points with real maturity. Carlson was 3-for-3 on field goals, the offense never handed Baltimore a short field, and the defense closed the afternoon by blanking the Ravens in the fourth quarter. In a 24-17 road win, that combination is more than enough to respect.

Scoring moments

1. Period 1 · 2:52

   Derrick Henry 1 Yd Rush (Tyler Loop Kick)

2. Period 2 · 3:46

   Daniel Carlson 23 Yd Field Goal

3. Period 2 · 0:24

   Rashod Bateman 22 Yd pass from Lamar Jackson (Tyler Loop Kick)

4. Period 2 · 0:00

   Daniel Carlson 47 Yd Field Goal

5. Period 3 · 11:00

   Daniel Carlson 51 Yd Field Goal

6. Period 3 · 3:23

   Tyler Loop 49 Yd Field Goal

7. Period 4 · 9:42

   Chris Olave 21 Yd pass from Tyler Shough (Travis Etienne Jr. Run for Two-Point Conversion)

8. Period 4 · 1:28

   Tyler Shough 1 Yd Rush (Daniel Carlson Kick)