This couldn’t have ended any other way, right? In becoming the oldest person to play a game for the Buffalo Bills, it was the newly signed Matt Prater who gave Bills Mafia the win they had no idea was possible.
I’ll be honest, I was ready to write about why losing Week 1 wasn’t the end of the world; that championships aren’t decided in the first game. I was prepared to say that losing this game was actually the better outcome for the Bills. Why? Quite simply because the alternative was that by winning,
the team might not feel the same urgency to address the defensive gorillas in the room.
Everyone paying attention understands there are demons hiding in that defense of Buffalo’s, to be clear. But there’s time to discuss that in another space. Well most of it, anyway. We’ll get to the two-point decisions below.
Buffalo is now 1-0, with 16 single-game regular season scenarios left to play into January. The Bills won a game they had zero business winning. But someone forgot to tell Josh Allen. I’d been asking the team about Allen’s biggest comeback win, wondering why we hadn’t often discussed the subject before that point. The reason is because the Bills haven’t often found themselves in dire straights since Allen took over.
Never, ever… ever count out Josh Allen. That was his message to the fans during the postgame interview with Melissa Stark, imploring those who left Highmark Stadium early while Buffalo was down 40-25 to “Have some faith next time.”
The Ravens just lost their first game when scoring 40 points, now sporting a 25-1 record. Baltimore’s certain Hall of Fame running back, sir Derrick Henry, did everything he could to remind the Bills that they weren’t going to stop him. Yet when it mattered most, Henry forgot to take the football along for the full ride. He allowed Ed Oliver to give the ball back to Josh Allen.
Where the Bills couldn’t stop anything the Ravens did offensively through almost 55 minutes of play, and offensive coordinator Joe Brady looked like he was hiding the playbook for another week — suddenly everyone woke up. Or perhaps more likely, Josh Allen just decided to turn off his comm unit, and used the fans’ leaving as fuel to power a win.
Remember, Allen knows well what it means to be doubted, to be the underdog. Allen also understands all he’s capable of doing on a football field; that nothing is impossible with time on the clock.
The truth is that winning this game was massively important for both teams. To the winner goes the spoils, and also a potentially different trajectory leading to home-field advantage in the playoffs. Yes, it’s far too early to talk about the playoffs, but it’s happening.
Sure, the Ravens could rebound and go on to finish 16-1, claim first place in the AFC, and look forward to hosting the 15-2 Bills later on during winter. Should the Bills have lost, there’d be endless calls for change at the top, for someone to come in and properly fix the defense. By losing, the Ravens now find themselves forced to look over at Buffalo all season long, pained by a defeat that could end up costing them home-field advantage in the playoffs.
The Bills and Ravens won’t meet again this season. That is, unless they’re paired up in the playoffs. Will Baltimore find itself favored on the road, as they were heading into Week 1 in the same stadium? Have some faith, people.
As promised, let’s reflect on the two-point tries for a moment. Those who swim in numbers and analytics will tell you that every two-point attempt was the right decision by head coach Sean McDermott. I contend that’s wrong, simply because had the Bills kicked three extra points, they’d have found themselves ahead instead of chasing a game-winning kick opportunity. Of course, we can’t expect that changing just those kick decisions guarantees a successful try, nor that other things in the game don’t play out differently. None of that changes how terrible Buffalo’s short-yardage play calling has become. Thankfully, a turnover allowed gave them a kicking mulligan, and a chance to right the wrong that was taking that first extra point off the board following a Ravens penalty early in action.
I know what you’re thinking: “They won, so it doesn’t matter, and it was obviously the right decision.” At face value that’s all true. But to make that happen, the improbable was necessary — a turnover by King Henry. Hopefully the Bills leverage a bit more of their gut feeling in future two-point tries. In games like this, taking the more assured points is often the better move. Were this a playoff game, the last thing Buffalo needs to count on is a turnover by a struggling defense just so they can reclaim lost points… and a win.
One things for sure: People will be talking about this game for months to come. I’d venture to say that Bills Mafia will talk about the win for generations, the same as so many do Frank Reich’s incredible performance during The Comeback. Fans will claim they never left, and millions of others will claim that, “no, I was actually there!”
I’ll leave you with this nugget shared by Scott Van Pelt during ESPN “SportsCenter”: Since 2000, entering Sunday, teams were 3-2,312 when trailing by 15-plus points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter.
