A few Random Thoughts After the Ravens Game

[PoundingDog]

1. This game has the feel of how the Chiefs winning their regular season games the past few years. Other teams view beating you as a measuring stick; they prepare and make you look bad in the process. But you have enough floor to hang around, then somewhere and somehow, someone makes a big play (or the opponent make a big mistake) and your superstar QB takes over and gets you to the finishing line.
2. A lot of media types said the Ravens beat themselves. I disagree. The Bills made plays to win the game themselves. THE critical turning point, the Henry fumble, was not something Henry was careless, or someone did not blocking for him. Oliver beat his man quick and punched the ball out. Of course, Allen was converting every opportunity at that point.
3. I still maintain Allen today is not the Allen we saw 2 years ago. There is a reason he didn't win MVP until last year. Mentally he's probably at the best of his career. In one of the post game interview, he said Ravens would be looking to stop big plays down field at both half time and the end of the game, so he would take shorter completions. In the past, he probably would say I'm still going to complete down field passes on you (and he did from time to time).
4. A big step forward for our outside receivers. Towards the end, Coleman and Palmer came up big when they were one-on-one and they got open for Allen. Good signs.
5. The tipped catch by Coleman is luck. However, Coleman played basketball at collegiate level. So he is used to the going after the rebound concept. Speaking of Coleman, there is report Coleman went to California catching passes from Allen off-season. It reminded me the story of Julian Edelman moved to Los Angeles specifically to be near Tom Brady, as in "whenever Brady wants to throw the ball, I'm there." 
6. Oliver, I'm surprised there is no interviews what-so-ever after the game for him. I rank him as co-stars of the game along with Allen.
7. McDermott said it's a coach's dream to have this come-back-from-behind game. I know why. First, you win. Second, team bonding from the get-go. Third, you evaluate players under stress situations against a tough opponent. There is a lot to be worked on, and a lot of roster decisions with a number of guy of IR, suspended guys in the next 4-6 weeks. You have several games to see who is taking the coaching and improve. Even in good plays, like the last field goal that has a clear blocking execution mistake but did not cost them. 

Edited 14 minutes ago by PoundingDog
Correction

[Coach Tuesday]

Agree with these but Henry WAS careless.  He should've been cradling the ball with two hands at that point in the game.  He was still looking to stiff-arm.  Bad situational football.

[ScotSHO]

13 minutes ago, PoundingDog said:

1.  
2. A big step forward for our outside receivers. Towards the end, Coleman and Palmer came up big when they were one-on-one and they got open for Allen. Good signs.

Palmer was not open by the traditional NFL sense.  Very short list of all time QBs can make that throw.

[Draconator]

Coleman was interviewed on Sportscenter by SVP after the game. 

[Nuncha]

10 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Agree with these but Henry WAS careless.  He should've been cradling the ball with two hands at that point in the game.  He was still looking to stiff-arm.  Bad situational football.

Henry stiff-arming at that point was pure greed.  He probably wanted to hit 200 yards rushing for the game. He was thinking of himself and didn't do what was right for his team in that situation.  Protect the football.

Edited 4 hours ago by Nuncha

[newcam2012]

29 minutes ago, ScotSHO said:

Palmer was not open by the traditional NFL sense.  Very short list of all time QBs can make that throw.

Josh make a great throw under the circumstances. Palmer was open too. 

[billsfan89]

My random thoughts are 

 

1. The offensive line still looks good, the Ravens are a tough physical team up front and the O-line gave Josh a lot of time and got a semi-consistent push in the ground game.
2. Josh is picking up right where he left off, a couple of "off" throws that could have been picks but nothing drastic that can't be written off as rust. 
3. The defense looked bad but also seems to still play with confidence towards the end when they needed to make big plays. 
4. Safety play was not the only issue with the defense. It was a terrible day for Rapp and Bishop, but you don't give up 40 points on just bad safety play. The LB's were not having a great day, the corners were mediocre and got burnt, and the defensive line was not good at times either. It was a total defensive failure for the most part. 
5. The Ravens are a super dynamic offense. The Bills may not play a more dynamic offense in the league the rest of the regular season. The Eagles and Bengals on paper are the only offense that could come close. 
6. Special Teams looked better. Outside of that last bad punt which wasn't tragic the ST unit was solid. I think Special Teams starts out the season sloppy now so I think some of the mistakes they did make (the Walker near catastrophic missed block and the one longer return) will get ironed out. 
7. Palmer looks to be a nice addition. He's a solid all around competent WR. I think he's gonna be a nice fit if he stays healthy. 
8. Kincaid and Keon had a nice opener. That combo is going to have to be big for this offense if they want to go far. Shakir is a very good slot WR, Palmer a competent outside WR, and we know the complementary pieces like Knox, Ty Johnson, and the rest will serve as good role players but this offense will need Kincaid to be a consistent target over the middle and Keon to be a good outside presence. Good first game but it has to be kept up. 
9. Strong didn't look bad at corner. For a rookie thrust into a big moment he had a nice game. I wouldn't say he had a good game overall but he held up a lot better than he should. 
10. Curious to see how Sanders performed at DT. Seemed a bit inconsistent but to be expected for a rookie. 
11. Prater looks good, no rush to get Bass back, but Prater is older and coming off an injury so no guarantee he holds up longer term...

[Success]

Most of the narrative I heard yesterday was more about the idea that the Ravens choked the game away vs. giving the Bills much credit. There was a lot of "wow" reaction for Allen himself, but the general feeling seemed to be that the Ravens gave it away more than the Bills took it.

 

I know I'm biased - but I really think that's a bogus narrative.  Every team in the league would have played it conservative w/ the lead the Ravens had later in the game, and with the way they were dominating.  The Henry fumble was uncharacteristic for him - but turnovers are a part of any game.  And the 4th & 3 was a 50/50 call. In real time, I was sure they would punt it.  It's only in hindsight  because they lost that many are 2nd guessing that decision (imo).

 

The Ravens didn't play "bad" at the end.  The Bills took advantage of the one mistake - which Ed Oliver caused - and otherwise made big play after big play in that 4th quarter to steal that win.  We won that game. The Ravens didn't lose it.

 

[Gregg]

I feel sorry for the Browns this week. They have to go play a pissed off Ravens team in Baltimore's home opener. I could easily see a 34-17 type of game. I still think the Ravens win 13 or 14 games this year.

[PoundingDog]

27 minutes ago, Success said:

And the 4th & 3 was a 50/50 call

That's a whole discussion by itself. If Harbaugh was going for it, what do you think the best play they have to convert it? I bet both the Ravens and the Bills know it will be on the ground. I know Jackson hobbled a bit on the Oliver hit right before the play. But even it does not bother him, you can bet the Bills will stack up to the front, blitz with run awareness, double Flowers, one-on-one with everyone else. It is less than 50-50 chance to convert at that time if Harbaugh was not comfortable with putting the ball in the air. And the consequence of a failed conversion is high chance of loss: inside 2 minutes, one first down to running out of the clock and a field goal.

 

Conversely, if the Bills were in Ravens position, going for it would be the right play, just like Andy Reid would do for the Chiefs. You have reliable target for short area quickness targets, capable running back going to the edge, and a mobile QB.

Edited 3 hours ago by PoundingDog

[RochesterLifer]

1 hour ago, PoundingDog said:

4.  Our outside receivers. Towards the end, Coleman and Palmer came up big when they were one-on-one and they got open for Allen. Good signs.

Nicely done, all good observations. I was especially excited to see Coleman and Palmer's 4th quarter performances. This was one of our biggest concerns coming into the season. While only one game, they are giving us cause for great optimism.

[zow2]

26 minutes ago, Gregg said:

I feel sorry for the Browns this week. They have to go play a pissed off Ravens team in Baltimore's home opener. I could easily see a 34-17 type of game. I still think the Ravens win 13 or 14 games this year.

 

I used to think that way... Kinda like how Detroit will pummel Chicago this weekend because they looked horrible vs GB.  That's been debunked a bit over the past few years.

 

I feel like the Browns will hang in there for some reason.  They will contain Henry better than the Bills did.   

 

I also feel like both the Ravens and Bills may have a bit of a SNF "epic game" hangover, at least for the first half this Sunday.  I hope not for our sake.

[GunnerBill]

53 minutes ago, billsfan89 said:

Safety play was not the only issue with the defense. It was a terrible day for Rapp and Bishop, but you don't give up 40 points on just bad safety play. The LB's were not having a great day, the corners were mediocre and got burnt, and the defensive line was not good at times either. It was a total defensive failure for the most part.

 

Not the only issue, sure. But it is a major issue however u frame it. Right now I think it is the 32nd best safety combo in the NFL.

[LABILLBACKER]

Favorite play was that :01 pass from JA to Dalton. And Sean having the stones to go for it. We needed every pt.

[Gregg]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/josh-allen-can-t-save-the-bills-from-themselves-forever/ar-AA1M8oiT?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=68c068be39f3427f8d852a6f45fd2617&ei=12

[GoBills808]

1 hour ago, newcam2012 said:

Josh make a great throw under the circumstances. Palmer was open too. 

he wasn't open in the traditional sense tbh

 

 

more impressive than the throw is the presnap process here imo...motions knox over to confirm man and understands that the safety who rotates underneath is held by johnson's route out of the backfield. then he locks onto palmer because alexander is playing off and hamilton playing deep is shaded to the weak side so once palmer hits the top of his route he's going to have his db stacked no matter what

[wjag]

My last thoughts before I mentally move on to the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!!

 

1. Pretty sure the tipped pass to Coleman was heading to Shakir when Knox jumped up and tipped it wide of Shakir.

2. Taron Johnson, Milano and Bernard were invisible in that game unless being shown getting beat by the RB1 or WR1.

3. Dehop pulled that ball in with Benford holding his other arm hostage.  Just an incredible pitch and catch.

4. While I never, ever give up that 2 play sequence where LJ8 was almost sacked 15-yards, escapes and rushes for a first down, followed by Henry running down the sideline on the next play really deflated me.  Things certainly seemed bleak and inevitable.

5. The problem Baltimore had in that game is they scored too fast.  Buffalo ran 85 offensive plays versus 52 for the Ravens and 35 TOP minutes Buffalo versus 25 minutes for Baltimore.  Baltimore defense was gassed at the end of the game.  Baltimore D was on the field 10 more minutes and 33!! more plays..

6.  I was not a fan of taking the XP off the board.  I never, ever like to take points off the board.  That missed point was consequential throughout the game.  So too of course was the one missed by Loop.

7. I loved the fact that Flowers did his pageant/Queen wave to the crowd and then lost the game.  That will certainly be a meme.

8. The video of Oliver blasting LJ8 on their final 3rd down play was amazing.  Very rarely anymore do you see a QB taking that kind of hit.

9. Allen threw 3 unbelievable passes in that game.  First TD pass to Kincaid, the pass to TJ that he didn't catch at the pylon and the dime to Palmer.

10. Even 2 days later, I am still stunned at that last 4 minutes of the game.  It was very Chief-esque...  How damn lucky are we to have JA17 as our QB?

Edited 1 hour ago by wjag

[Brand J]

You know what was encouraging? The Bills sacked Lamar twice and had another sack nullified by a bogus holding penalty. They also nearly had a 4th sack if Bosa finished the play without diving and taking himself out of it. All on a limited number of passing attempts. This DL is good at rushing the passer, just have to get off run blocks. 

[billsfan89]

11 minutes ago, Brand J said:

You know what was encouraging? The Bills sacked Lamar twice and had another sack nullified by a bogus holding penalty. They also nearly had a 4th sack if Bosa finished the play without diving and taking himself out of it. All on a limited number of passing attempts. This DL is good at rushing the passer, just have to get off run blocks. 

Lamar doesn’t take a lot of sacks due to his mobility and decision making. So 2 sacks isn’t terrible and the fact that they should have had 3-4 is encouraging 

[SoonerBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Gregg said:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/josh-allen-can-t-save-the-bills-from-themselves-forever/ar-AA1M8oiT?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=68c068be39f3427f8d852a6f45fd2617&ei=12

We have been saying this for years. At some point the damn defense needs to play a hell of a lot better and do so Consistently.