What is the story about?
The Buffalo Bills moved to 6-1 with a 36-10 win over a Baltimore Ravens team that lost quarterback Lamar Jackson on its first play from scrimmage and finished the game with its third-string quarterback. A chaotic game for most of the afternoon, the Bills regained focus to turn a tight game into a blowout win versus a short-handed, overmatched Ravens team.
Here are my notes as the game happened, with final game stats in parentheses.
1st Half
- Great 1st drive. Starting at the 40 helps, but good to see the offense in rhythm from the get-go against a talented defense that has played really well in 1st halves. (Khalil Shakir caught three passes for 49 yards on the opening drive.)
- Great to see Josh Allen willing to take the checkdown early. Pass could’ve been better, but I’d like to see James Cook catch that ball. A lot of green in front of him if he does. (Cook dropped a pass on the first play of the game and finished with two catches for 21 yards.)
- Dion Dawkins with a false start with the Bills ready to open the score. Not good. Thankfully the Bills offense is too much for this Ravens defense to deal with inside the red zone. An extra handful of plays and it’s Bills 7-0. (Allen finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.)
- Ouch, this Ravens team is cursed. Lamar Jackson injured his hand on his first pass attempt, hitting Greg Rousseau’s hand hard as he released the ball. Looked like a thumb injury. Straight to the dressing room for X-rays, probably. Questionable to return. Defense quickly leaves the field not allowing points. (Jackson threw one pass all day.)
- Bills O back and starting the drive with a pass to Dalton Kincaid again. I love Joe Brady getting Kincaid involved early in games, should make the passing offense’s job easier going forward.
- Bills go for a 4th and short, Josh completes the pass to DJ Moore (it’s so good to have him back) but an illegal shift penalty denies the conversion. Tyler Bass (barely) stays 100% for FGs this season. Bills 10-0. (Bass’s 56-yarder went in off the left upright.)
- Bills defense starts really strong. No Lamar helps (listed as out now) but we can’t deny the job they have done. Containing the run and getting to Tyler Huntley. Ball will be back with the O. (Baltimore finished with 76 rushing yards on 19 carries.)
- Bills billsying. Jackson Hawes not only drops the ball but taps it up, almost like asking Baltimore’s defense to intercept it. Everything until this point of the game went in favor of Buffalo, and then they put the Ravens in the game again. (Broderick Washington Jr. made the interception, the first of his career.)
- Two Derrick Henry runs later, TD Ravens. Unbelievable. Can’t allow what became an easy game to turn into a tough one because of their own mistakes. (Henry’s 2-yard run was Baltimore’s only touchdown of the game.)
- Bills’ offensive turnover killed the team’s momentum, gave hope to a Ravens team that was clearly shaken by their QB1 injury, and also killed their own defense’s momentum, as they were perfect until that point. Gotta come back on track real quick. (Buffalo finished with two giveaways, this interception and a Moore fumble; Baltimore finished with three.)
- Buffalo’s O in trouble, but DJ Moore draws a holding penalty and a 1st down. He impacts this O beyond his numbers. (Moore finished with four catches for 82 yards and a touchdown.)
- Josh tries Joshua Palmer deep, but he seems hurt midway through his route. Looks like a muscular problem. It’s sad at this point but it’s tough to defend Palmer still ahead of rookie Skyler Bell.
- Awesome scramble by Josh, shakes the defender out of his shoes for another 1st down. (Allen finished with seven carries for 30 yards and a touchdown.)
- Another drop, now Dawson Knox. It’s tough for Josh to trust his guys on those short passes when they keep dropping with a lot of green in front of them. (Knox, Kincaid and Hawes each dropped a pass in the first quarter.)
- Defense back on track, containing the run and forcing obvious passing situations. Safety blitz works with Cole Bishop getting home. Fumble forced and recovered by the Bills, already in the red zone. (Bishop finished with two tackles, a sack and a QB hit; rookie Kaleb Elarms-Orr recovered the fumble.)
- 4th and short, after failing to convert a tush push early in the game, Joe Brady finally calls an option out of the fake tush push. Needed a challenge flag but got the 1st.
- 3rd down, this time at the goal line, another speed option out of the tush push formation. This time Josh keeps it with Knox as the option, but Baltimore’s D is all over it. Loss of yards and FG. 13-7 Bills. (The designed Allen sweep lost four yards before Bass kicked a 22-yard field goal.)
- Those fakes being run to the left is straight dumb, IMO. Josh normally sneaks to the left already, run the fake to the right, give Josh an option to throw, I don’t get it.
- Ravens get a great return, but now Huntley is also out. (Baltimore returned eight kickoffs for 218 yards, with a long of 59.)
- Obviously, their 3rd QB starts shredding our defense in the 1st two passes. (Baltimore’s quarterbacks finished 12-of-26 for 91 yards with one interception, four sacks taken and a 39.1 passer rating.)
- Landon Jackson welcomes Joe Fagnano to the NFL with a sack. Nice stunt game by the DL. (The Bills finished with four sacks and 12 QB hits.)
- Bills D does its job, and Tyler Loop misses from 34 yards. Still Bills 13-7. (Loop made one of two field goals.)
- Three and out by the offense, with Josh missing Keon Coleman wide open, deep, for a touchdown. It’s not a good game by 17 so far, in a day when everything has cooperated toward a Bills W. They’re still allowing the Ravens to hang around.
- Defense is playing well. Stopping the run, doing what they should. Getting to the QB on 3rd downs. Some nice blitzes. Bills will have the ball again with 4 mins left. (Buffalo forced five three-and-outs.)
- A long drive ending in points would be good now to close the half.
- Bills O has struggled, but this Ravens defense has been really good in 1st halves this season. They’ve been ugly on 2nd halves, though. We’ll see today.
- James Cook with his first explosive run of the day, followed by a 6-yard run. 3 mins left in the 1st half. (Cook’s longest carry went for 16 yards; he finished with 21 carries for 80 yards.)
- 3rd and short, Josh had the 1-on-1 versus Roquan Smith and chose to throw. Ball got tipped by the Ravens LB, making Moore drop it. 4th down. (Smith finished with 11 tackles.)
- Bills go for it on their own side of the field. Swing pass to Ty Johnson with blockers ahead, 1st down and more. 2-minute warning.
- Josh completes a dart to DJ Moore, who fumbles it. Refs say he was down by contact but he wasn’t. Great punch by Roquan Smith. Ravens ball. Another mistake by the Bills offense. Baltimore has a chance at a double dip, 1:51 left in the 2nd quarter and they’ll get the ball back to start the 2nd half.
- Greg Rousseau with the sack and, as crazy as it sounds, the defense is saving the day. (Rousseau finished with one sack, one tackle for loss, three QB hits and two passes defensed.)
- Bills D forces a 3rd down and calls a timeout. Brady clearly wants another shot at points before the half.
- The Ravens get the 1st down. Missed tackle by Davison Igbinosun in space.
- A few plays later, IGB makes up for it. Geno Stone drops the INT but the rookie was there to secure it. 1:08 left, ball at the 33-yard line. Huge opportunity for the offense. (Igbinosun’s first career interception went for 17 yards; Stone finished with six tackles, a tackle for loss and a pass breakup.)
- The 1st half is close to an end and Zay Flowers is a no-show. Christian Benford tape will be fun to watch. (Baltimore’s receivers combined for 12 catches and 91 yards on 26 targets, with a long of 22.)
- James Cook with a chop block and the Bills lose 15 yards.
- 3rd and 24, Josh runs to put the Bills in FG range. Bass kicks and makes it from 51 (previous one was from 56). Great season by Bass so far, despite all the questions during the offseason. Bills 16-7. (Bass went 3-for-3 on field goals, from 56, 22 and 51 yards, and 3-for-3 on extra points.)
- Weird 1st half, everything went the Bills’ way, but self-inflicted wounds have kept the game close. Hopefully Baltimore’s defense keeps its trend and implodes in the second half. So far, the Bills’ offense has struggled. Good to see the defense playing better, though.
2nd Half
- D starts the 2nd half well but concedes on 3rd down. Even worse, Ed Oliver with the roughing the passer gives them an extra 15. Way too many penalties, both sides. (The teams combined for 17 penalties: Buffalo had 10 for 87 yards, Baltimore seven for 38.)
- Another penalty and the Ravens are in the red zone already.
- TD Ravens, Derrick Henry runs hard, but a foul by Ronnie Stanley denies it.
- 3rd and 4, nice blitz by Terrel Bernard here, pass incomplete. Tyler Loop hits the short FG here, 16-10 Buffalo. (Bernard finished with six tackles; Loop’s 26-yarder was Baltimore’s only scoring of the second half.)
- The offense gotta start the 2nd half strong. This is still a dangerous game.
- That’s why you have DJ Moore. Awesome route, great throw by Josh. Big play puts the Bills inside the 5. Those types of catches just make me think what if it were Moore instead of Brandin Cooks on that play in Denver… (Moore’s catch went for 49 yards.)
- After a dangerous quick slant attempt by Josh to Moore that almost got intercepted at the goal line, James Cook runs it in for another TD. 23-10 Bills.
- Another good defensive drive by the Bills. Groot is killing Roger Rosengarten. 3-and-out.
- Bills start to establish the run and control the clock. (Buffalo ran 41 times for 146 yards and held the ball for 37:36, against 22:24 for Baltimore.)
- Another foul slows the drive down.
- 3rd and 22, and Josh Allen almost Houdinies himself out of an awful situation looking for a big play, but it doesn’t work. Sack, and the Bills will punt. (Allen was sacked only once all day.)
- Te’Cory Couch with a very good game in the nickel CB role here. Damar Hamlin is also having a good game. Another 3-and-out by the Ravens’ O. (Couch finished with five tackles; Hamlin had four tackles and a pass breakup against Flowers.)
- I miss the red end zones. Hopefully they’re back next year with brand new unis and the red helmets back full time.
- Ugly fall by Cook, but he leaves the field walking, thankfully. Ray Davis has a nice run in his place but another penalty denies his gain.
- Another big play in the passing game. Heavy set, PA and Kincaid is wide open. Bills in the red zone again. (Kincaid’s catch went for 40 yards.)
- Kincaid drops a surefire TD, completely open in the middle of the field. Unbelievable. (Kincaid finished with four catches on six targets for 86 yards.)
- Josh with some arm arrogance, finds Moore in the back of the end zone. What a throw and I can’t stop praising the veteran WR. He seems to be the only truly reliable difference maker Josh has at his disposal in the passing game. (The 11-yard touchdown was Allen’s 259th career TD pass, regular season and playoffs combined, passing Jim Kelly for first in Bills history.)
- Another poor 2-point conversion play by the Bills. It’s incredible how bad this offense is in those situations. 29-10 Bills. (Allen’s attempt to Hawes fell incomplete; Buffalo was 0-for-1 on two-point tries today.)
- Mandatory weekly Deone Walker mention. Sacks and forces a fumble and Groot recovers it. Buffalo ball and a very promising game by Jim Leonhard’s defense coming off the bye.
- They reversed it. How in the world did they reverse it? Well, better deal with those when they don’t make any difference.
- Christian Benford finally appears with an almost INT. He hasn’t allowed anything his way so far.
- DJ Moore is hit as he catches a pass to convert another 4th down. His knee was stuck on the ground as he was hit, and it looked like it kinda hyperextended. No need to bring him back, he’s way too important to risk it.
- Another passing TD, Josh to Kincaid wide open, and the Ravens defense implodes again in the 2nd half. Bills 36-10. Rough for them as they don’t get anything from their offense either. (Kincaid’s 23-yard touchdown was Allen’s 260th career TD pass; the Bills outscored Baltimore 20-3 in the second half, and the Ravens finished with 144 total yards.)
- 5 minutes left and backups on the field on defense.
- Another fumble as Fagnano muffs the snap right onto Dorian Williams’ arms. Kyle Allen leads the Bills backups to the field as Buffalo looks to milk the clock. (It was Baltimore’s second lost fumble of the day.)
- Buffalo moves to 6-1 and stays at the top of the AFC. They also put the Ravens, a potential playoff rival, in a very tough situation. The kind of opportunity they missed against New England weeks ago, but not this time.
Final Thoughts
I honestly believe Baltimore is going through what a lot
of Bills fans feared the Bills would go through with Sean McDermott fired. I’m not even saying Joe Brady and his staff are great, better than McDermott or anything, just saying John Harbaugh and (some of) his staff are former SB champs and proven winners, and way tougher to replace than their fanbase thought. Harbaugh and Todd Monken are succeeding with the NY Giants and the Cleveland Browns, respectively, as Baltimore struggles with their new staff.
On the other hand, despite all the qualities McDermott brought to the table, he never did enough to take his team to a Super Bowl despite historical performances by his QB in playoff games, unlike Harbaugh, who could win it all. It was time to see if somebody else can do it, and Joe Brady has justified his choice so far. The offense has been consistently good enough, and spectacular at times. (Today: 426 total yards, 24 first downs and 5.6 yards per play.) The defense showed nice improvement over the last two games. (Today: 144 yards allowed, four sacks, 12 QB hits.) With the Minnesota Vikings ahead, another nice test for this team. How confident are you that this defense is turning it around? Let me know in the comments!
1-0. Go Bills.
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