RAVENS BEAT BILLS 35-10 ON SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, DERRICK HENRY RUNS FOR 199 YARDS
The Baltimore Ravens handed the Buffalo Bills their first loss of the 2024 season as they emerged as 35-10 victors at M&T Bank Stadium on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
Baltimore entered the game desperate to atone for their near collapse in Dallas last week when they gave up 19 unanswered points to the Cowboys in the fourth quarter. They had a dream start when their defence forced a punt on the Bills’ first drive followed by running back Derrick Henry running the ball 87 yards for a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage. The Bills would proceed to give up 271 total rushing yards to the Ravens, with Henry accounting for 199 rushing yards and a score.
The four-time Pro Bowler also added another touchdown through the air and nearly ran in for his third score of the night before he fumbled the ball on the one-yard line. Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard recovered the ball in the end zone for his first touchdown of the year and the Ravens’ fifth of the night.
“The Baltimore Ravens came out and they beat us, they outplayed us, they outcoached us,” said Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott after the game. “And we’ve got to identify the problems and get them fixed. Winning the line of scrimmage was a challenge for us tonight, consistently. If you don’t win the line of scrimmage, that’s a whole team thing, not just the O-line and D-line but overall we’ve got to do a better job up front.”
Buffalo gave up three sacks compared to Baltimore’s one as defending MVP Lamar Jackson cruised to a 135.4 passer rating on the night. Jackson completed 13 of 18 passes for 156 passing yards and 2 touchdowns while also adding 54 rushing yards and a score on the ground.
The Bills tried to get into the game with some Allen magic when a 52-yard completion to Khalil Shakir off a scramble drill set up a 3-yard touchdown run from former Maryland Terrapin Ty Johnson but their momentum was short-lived. Buffalo’s offence turned the ball over during their next possession when a trick play call by Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady resulted in a strip sack by veteran edge rusher Kyle Van Noy.
A key turning point in the game, the sack fumble was recovered by Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, and brought the Bills promising drive to a screeching halt, ending any momentum they may have been building.
“[One] hour plane ride home, I wish it was a five-hour plane ride because I’d have enough time to find all the things that we need to work on,” said McDermott. “It just wasn’t up to our standard tonight and I say that in the way of, we have to do things better fundamentally, execution-wise and it’s just not one position. It’s we, collectively as a team have to fundamentally do a better job, and physically do a better job.”
Bills quarterback Josh Allen gave the Ravens credit for how they executed but was careful to make sure the team didn’t dwell on the loss and let it snowball into their upcoming matchup. Allen also mentioned that he was glad the loss, which was their first by double digits in the regular season in over three years snapping a 43-game stretch, happened earlier in the season so they could correct things going forward.
“They had a good plan, a good pressure plan,” said Allen after the game. “They made more plays than we did and it was evident right away. They had more urgency than we did and it’s something we’ll correct. Not everything was bad in this game, I don’t want us to come away from this saying we’re the worst. [A] lot to learn from, I’m glad this happened earlier in the season so we can correct things.”
“Make no mistake, that’s a good team that we just played. When they’re playing that well, especially on the offensive side of the ball, we as an offense have to figure it out and we have to find a way to match scores. Again, we just didn’t do a good enough job tonight… Like I said, a lot to learn from, and we’ll watch this tape, learn from it, flush it and look to the next.”
“I think the guys that make up this locker room understand who we are and what we are,” said Allen about not letting the defeat on Sunday night linger. “And we’re not going to let this avalanche. The guys that we have in this building, they’re smart. They’re guys that have played a lot of football in their career, they understand the ebbs and flows of an NFL season.”
“This is going to happen time to time. Sometimes you walk into a building and they were bus haul tonight, they kicked our butt, you know. And that what it comes down to.”
Ravens S Kyle Hamilton, who has taken on a new leadership role on the team following his All-Pro season last year, didn’t seem to be getting carried away by the win on Sunday. “I think it says a lot [beating a team like Buffalo] but at the same time, we didn’t win a Super Bowl today,” said Hamilton. “We’ve got to come out Bengals next week, a division game, going on the road. [It’s a] big win for us today but we’ve got to move forward to next week.”
“It’s only Week 4, and we’re trying to get to where we need to get to, [where] we didn’t get to last year. So, we’ve got a long road ahead of us but I think we’re on a good path.”
With the win, Baltimore improved to 2-2 after dropping their first two contests as last year’s no.1 seed in the AFC seem to have rediscovered their offensive and defensive identity despite being a very different roster. Up next, the Ravens make the trip to Cincinnati to play their division rivals the Bengals, who are coming off of their first win of the season in a 34-24 shootout against the Carolina Panthers.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: Maryland GovPics. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.