It’s nice to be on the other end of a “Game of the Year” candidate. The Buffalo Bills completed a stunning 15-point comeback in the final four minutes of their Week 1 regular season game against fellow AFC contender Baltimore Ravens.
And while being on the winning side of the most talked about game of the week is certainly a welcome change, it brings with it an ironic opportunity to see the opposing team’s situation through the lens historically centered on our own team. Baltimore head coach John
Harbaugh has been one of the main characters of the first week of real NFL football, with the spotlight shown on the Ravens’ perceived penchant for late game-collapses against good teams.
ESPN’s Benjamin Solak added a conversation piece to the discussion with his notation on social media that the Ravens have had eight losses since 2021 when they had a win probability of 90% or more during that game as some point.
Ravens fans who are tired of their team not being able to get over the top and reach a Super Bowl with a two-time MVP quarterback, a Hall of Fame-destined running back, and Pro Bowlers at multiple positions have been active in their displeasure on social media this week. There’s even a graphic going around showing television score bugs of Ravens late-game leads that the team would eventually relinquish.
Does this sound vaguely familiar to anyone else? A talented team with a star quarterback can’t get over the hump in the playoffs and seems to have a particular issue with one conference rival has a head coach who is polarizing in his approval rating?
When the grievances of the Ravens fans get examined more closely, it can help us view our own opinions in a different light. Baltimore had the ball with a 4th & 3 on their own 38-yard line. They had 40 points on the board from offensive success over the course of the game. Their own defense had struggled to contain Josh Allen and the Bills’ passing attack.
And yet they chose to punt.
John Harbaugh seemingly forgot that he had two of the most dynamic players in the league in the backfield, one of whom is a two-time NFL MVP. He looked at the situation and decided that his best bet was to instead put the game in the hands of the defense. Essentially every “punt vs. go” win probability differential model recommended that the Ravens go for it in that situation, and it’s completely understandable as to why.
This is a similar situation to a common criticism lobbed at Bills head coach Sean McDermott: that he doesn’t always coach tailored to one of the best football players on the planet in MVP quarterback Josh Allen. When faced with similar situations, Sean McDermott has sometimes reacted in a similar fashion to Harbaugh, leaning into his defense to close out a game instead of his all-star QB. While some may view a defensive-minded head coach as being a complement to a high-powered offense led by a stud quarterback, others have questioned whether the natural inclination of a former defensive coordinator as head coach in the biggest moments is inevitably to lean into the thing he knows best: the defense.
While McDermott is not a conservative coach (gauged through fourth-down decision making, timeout usage, etc), the question has been whether he’s consistently aggressive using the right weapon and whether that is a key factor is not allowing his team to get over the hump in high leverage games against great teams. And now that exact same question is being asked of Ravens head coach John Harbaugh.
Does examining this situation from the opposing team’s angle make you feel differently about the Bills head coach? Sound off in the comments below.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!
