Just as the Buffalo Bills were lining up for the winning 32-yard field goal, Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton looked up at the scoreboard, which showed they had given up 394 yards passing to Josh Allen.
“I’m about to throw up on the field,” Hamilton said.
This sickening feeling came at the end of Sunday night’s 41-40 season-opening loss, which shouldn’t be lumped together with past late-game collapses for Baltimore. This was a historic meltdown that led to the Ravens giving up 16 unanswered points because of struggles on pass defense, a debatable coaching decision and a turnover by one of the game’s best running backs of all time.
To put Baltimore’s disastrous fourth quarter in perspective, teams had a record of 2,312-3 (.998) when holding a lead of 15 or more points in the final four minutes of a game since 2000, according to ESPN Research. When the Ravens were up 40-25 with 4:48 remaining, their chances of winning were at 99.1%.
The Ravens entered the regular season as the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl and started with one of the most mind-blowing defeats in franchise history.
“This one is definitely going to sting for a while,” said Ravens running back Derrick Henry, whose fumble in the fourth quarter swung the momentum. “We feel that we should have won, but it’s over now.”
Since Lamar Jackson became their starting quarterback in 2018, the Ravens have been known for their explosive playmaking offense. They’ve also built a reputation for not closing out games.
This marked the Ravens’ fifth loss after leading by 10 or more points in the fourth quarter over the past seven seasons. That’s tied with the Chicago Bears for the most double-digit fourth-quarter collapses in the NFL over that time.
All offseason, the Ravens talked repeatedly about eliminating self-inflicted mistakes after turning the ball over three times in last season’s divisional playoff loss in Buffalo. They emphasized in practice about focusing on the plays that win or lose close games after tight end Mark Andrews‘ dropped pass on a 2-point conversion. Then, they fell into the same bad habits in Week 1.
“It’s never over until it’s 0:00 on the clock,” Jackson said. “We found that out tonight.”
ON PAPER, THE Ravens put together one of the best secondaries in the league. Baltimore has five first-round picks in the defensive backfield in Hamilton, safety Malaki Starks and cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins and Jaire Alexander.
“We really have no excuses to not go out there and do what we need to do,” Hamilton said in June after Baltimore signed Alexander.
In Buffalo, the Ravens’ defense allowed 264 yards in the fourth quarter, their most in any quarter in franchise history. It’s also the most yards given up in the fourth quarter by a team over the past five seasons.
This was reminiscent of the breakdowns in the secondary from the other games in which Baltimore failed to hold double-digit leads in the fourth quarter: a 42-38 loss to the Miami Dolphins in 2022; a 24-20 loss to the New York Giants in 2022; a 33-31 loss to the Cleveland Browns in 2023; and a 26-23 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024.
Hamilton wished he knew why this keeps happening to the Ravens.
“[We are] banging our heads on the wall about it at this point,” Hamilton said. “First and foremost, the offense put up 40 points. [There is] no way that we should be in that position as a defense. We just need to figure out how to win games. We are winning them for 45 minutes, but you have to win for 60 minutes.”
On Sunday, Allen looked like the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player when he became the first player with at least 250 passing yards and three total touchdowns in the fourth quarter since Ben Roethlisberger in 2010.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh believes the biggest problem was not containing Allen.
“We had a plan and we just didn’t get it done,” Harbaugh said. “We weren’t able to execute. That was a big part of the plan would be to keep him in the pocket. We weren’t able to do that. That’s probably the No. 1 disappointment for me.”
ONE OF THE debated decisions of the game came with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter, when the Ravens faced a fourth down-and-3 at their own 38-yard line while holding a 40-38 lead.
Baltimore’s win probability was 81.4% if the Ravens went for it on that play, according to ESPN Analytics. Instead, the Ravens punted, which dropped their win probability to 73.2%.
The Bills drove 66 yards on nine plays to set up the winning kick as time expired.
“You got to make the decision very quickly and you got to say, ‘Hey, do we have a call that we really like?,'” Harbaugh said. And Lamar was coming off the field at that point; I could see something wasn’t quite right and you say you got to get your punt team out there.”
Jackson was cramping while jogging off the field, which affected his thoughts on the decision.
“If I wasn’t [cramping], everybody in here knows I would’ve been trying to go for a fourth-and-3,” Jackson said.
At that point in the game, the Ravens had given up touchdowns on four of their last six drives, including the last two. But Harbaugh said he chose to punt because of his belief in the defense to stop Buffalo.
“I’m not shying away from putting our defense out there,” Harbaugh said. “I trust our defense and I’m going to trust our defense this year In a lot of big situations. Our defense is going to be really, really good. And I know there’s doubt about that right now probably, but I guarantee you our defense is going to play really good football this year.”
IN THE DIVISIONAL playoff loss in January, Andrews dropped a 2-point conversion that would have tied the game at the Bills late in the fourth quarter. Eight months later, another star player for the Ravens made the costly mistake.
With the Ravens up 40-32, Henry fumbled at the Baltimore 38-yard line with 3:10 left in the game. Four plays later, Allen’s 1-yard touchdown run closed Buffalo to within 40-38.
“I have to take care of the ball,” Henry said. “I told my teammates after the game that the loss is on me. I own it like a man.”
Henry had been dominant until the turnover. His 169 yards rushing were the most in a season opener in Ravens history.
“I told [Derrick Henry], ‘Let that go, man,'” Jackson said. “He’s [already] did enough for us. He scored like an 80-yard or 50-yard [touchdown] one time. [He] popped another one. He was just going off, but things happen. Unfortunately, it just happened at the wrong time. I’m not going to knock him for that. Shoot, I fumbled in the playoffs. It is what it is.”
The question that the Ravens have to figure out is how to stop letting these sizable leads continually slip through their grasp.
Harbaugh explained that one of the reasons the Ravens have blown so many two-score leads is because they’ve had so many games where they’ve had sizable margins. But he also understands Baltimore needs to do a better job of protecting the leads.
“I do believe that we need to be really thoughtful of how we decide that we’re going to approach those situations going forward,” Harbaugh said. “Let’s give some thought to our play calling. Let’s give some thought to our mindset like how we’re going to talk to one another on the sideline. We need to be really intentional about going forward.”
