It didn’t end the season this time, but the Ravens staggered out of Buffalo feeling just as numb as they did last winter.
Bills fill-in kicker Matt Prater kicked a 32-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Bills over the visiting Ravens 41-40, in the 2025 season opener on Sept. 7, as the Ravens squandered a 15-point fourth-quarter lead.
Returning to the site of their heartbreaking divisional round loss last season, the Ravens had taken command behind quarterback Lamar Jackson and running back Derrick Henry, building a 40-25 lead in the fourth quarter when Henry rambled 46 yards for a touchdown with 11:42 left.
The Ravens left a huge point out there, though, when rookie kicker Tyler Loop, who had hit a pair of first-half field goals, missed the extra-point kick.
But led by reigning Most Valuable Player Josh Allen, the Bills scored on their final three possessions, and a critical fumble by Henry played a part.
Allen threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Keon Coleman that cut the Ravens’ lead to 40-32, and two plays later, Henry had the ball stripped by Bills defensive lineman Ed Oliver, and Buffalo took over at the Ravens’ 30-yard line.
That led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Allen, but Nate Wiggins broke up the ensuing two-point conversion, leaving the Ravens clinging to a 40-38 lead with 1:58 left. But after gashing the Bills defense much of the night, the Ravens failed to register a first down, the Bills, after exhausting their timeouts, got the ball back at their own 20 with 1:26 left.
Allen found Joshua Palmer for a gain of 32 down the left sideline and then connected with Coleman down the middle, setting up the game-winning field goal by Prater, the veteran who was so new to the team that he wasn’t even in the game notes issued by the team earlier in the week.
The Bills’ regular kicker, Tyler Bass, was placed on injured reserve, and Buffalo signed the veteran Prater just a few days ago.
The Bills had jumped to a 7-0 lead with a touchdown on their opening possession, but the Ravens answered with 17 straight points and took a 20-13 halftime lead on the strength of its running game. The Ravens ran for 160 yards in the first half alone and both Henry and Jackson ran for touchdowns in the second quarter.
Touchdown catches by Zay Flowers and DeAndre Hopkins — whose first catch as a Raven was a superb one-handed snag for the touchdown — allowed the Ravens to open a 34-19 lead in the third quarter, but the Ravens were outscored 22-6 in the fourth quarter.
Here are five quick impressions of the loss, which drops the Ravens’ record to 12-6 in season openers under John Harbaugh:
1. This defense was billed as much better than this.
The Ravens returned nearly every defensive starter, they added a former first-round cornerback in Jaire Alexander and they drafted another first-rounder in safety Malakai Starks. At all three levels, the Ravens were expected to be complete and formidable.
And then Josh Allen gashed them.
Allen finished 33-for-46 for 394 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions and a passer rating of 112.0. Most notably, when he needed to make big throws on the Bills’ final possession, he found Joshua Palmer open down the left sideline for a gain of 32, and he hit Keon Coleman for 25 to get the Bills in field-goal range.
Also significantly, just before the first half ended, Allen surveyed the field and connected with tight end Dalton Kincaid for 22 yards that put the Bills in field-goal range with one second left in the half. Prater’s 43-yarder cut the Ravens’ lead to 20-13.
The Ravens and defensive coordinator Zach Orr are going to have some uncomfortable moments watching this one in the film room.
2. Lamar Jackson is must-see TV. Always.
Pretty much ever since Lamar Jackson became the Ravens’ starter, TV executives have been falling over one another to try to get the Ravens on their network. And why not? He’s capable of the spectacular and ridiculous on every snap, and he and Allen put on a duel for the ages before a national television audience.
Jackson finished 14-for-19 for 209 yards and two touchdowns passing, and he also ran six times for 70 yards and a touchdown. No play was more dazzling than his third-quarter scramble, when he retreated 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage under pressure on third-and-10, then somehow escaped a pair of pass rushers and slalomed his way through defenders for an improbable gain of 19.
It’s a safe bet that there’s not another player in the game who could have found himself in that predicament — running backwards, away from the line of scrimmage, flanked by two defenders within a yard of him on both sides — and somehow turned it into a positive play.
On the next play, Derrick Henry blasted through a stunned Bills defense for a 46-yard touchdown and a 40-25 Ravens lead.
3. A disastrous fumble aside, Derrick Henry is still that guy.
It looks as if the people expecting Henry to slow down at age 31 will continue to be disappointed. Age 30 is supposed to be a fault line for NFL backs, when the wear and tear and age catches up. Henry scoffed at that idea when the Ravens signed him last year, and he proceeded to pile up 1,921 yards last season, by far the most for an age-30 back.
In the first half of this game, Henry raced to a 20-yard touchdown, sending Bills safety Cole Bishop to the turf with the patented Henry stiff-arm. Then Henry raced for a 46-yard touchdown in the second half.
Henry finished with 18 carries for 169 yards, averaging more than 9 yards a carry. It can be debated why Henry didn’t get the ball more than once on the Ravens final possession; he ran for 1 yard on first down.
Henry and Jackson together represent a maddening combination for defenses. Key on Henry, and Jackson can win to the edge. Spread the field against Jackson, and Henry might just run through an inside line, and as he showed on a 49-yard run off right guard to set up Jackson’s touchdown run, he doesn’t need much room. And once he gets up to speed, good luck stopping that freight train in the open field.
The Ravens’ offense again is going to run through this 250-pound, age-defying marvel.
4. John Harbaugh hates “narratives,” but blown leads are one he can’t avoid.
Head coach John Harbaugh at times will scoff at “narratives” that direct criticism at his players, and he’s within his right to stick up for his guys. But another narrative that he can’t really avoid is that the Ravens have become far too charitable in giving away leads.
According to Pro Football Reference, the Ravens since the start of the 2022 season have lost eight games in which they led by at least 10 points. There was the debacle of a 21-point blown lead in the second half against Miami in 2022, when the Dolphins scored 28 points in the fourth quarter, and a 14-point blown lead the next year at home against Cleveland when the Browns scored the final 16 points.
Last year, the lowly Las Vegas Raiders scored the final 13 points to erase a 10-point Ravens fourth-quarter lead.
This one might be the most gut-wrenching of all. The Ravens seemingly were in complete control after Nnamdi Madubuike sacked Allen and forced a punt with 9:27 left and the Ravens up by 15 at 40-25.
Over the rest of the game, the Ravens ran eight offensive plays, got one first down, lost one fumble and essentially let the Bills right back in it.
Was it passive offense? Passive defense? Poor execution all around? Whatever the answer, it’s become, yes, a narrative.
5. The Ravens’ challenge now is to turn the page quickly.
The Ravens vowed that the heartbreaking playoff loss to Buffalo was behind them, and that this game hearkened a new season. But trips to Buffalo continue to vex the Ravens, who have now won just once in six games in Buffalo and lost the past two in utterly agonizing fashion.
Disappointment aside, the challenge for the Ravens now is to turn the page and refocus as quickly as possible. Last year, after a tough season-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in which Isaiah Likely came within a toenail of a potential game-tying touchdown on the final play, the Ravens returned home and stumbled through a 26-23 loss — yes, another blown lead — to a Las Vegas Raiders team that ultimately finished 4-13.
With the Detroit Lions and Chiefs on deck, the Ravens can ill afford a similar misstep next week against Joe Flacco and the Cleveland Browns.
The overreactors will say this team was exposed. A little perspective: For the second straight year, the Ravens took one of the AFC’s best teams to the brink on the road. This one hurts especially because it wasn’t just in the Ravens’ grasp, it was pretty much in their pocket, but they let it slip away.
They need to make sure that the emotion of this loss doesn’t cost them again next week.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox