BALTIMORE — The Ravens’ highly anticipated showdown with the Buffalo Bills couldn’t have started much better. They intercepted Bills quarterback Josh Allen on the third play of the game and scored touchdowns on their first two drives.
But for the second straight home game this year, the Ravens saw a sizeable lead vanish, and Bills kicker Tyler Bass hit a 21-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Bills (3-1) to a 23-20 win against the Ravens on Oct. 2 at M&T Bank Stadium.
Bass’ game-winner game after Ravens head coach John Harbaugh opted against kicking a go-ahead field goal with 4:09 remaining and the game tied at 20. Facing fourth-and-goal from the Bills’ 2-yard line, the Ravens instead played for the touchdown, and Lamar Jackson, under pressure, was intercepted in the end zone by Bills safety Jordan Poyer.
That set up the Bills for their game-winning drive, which used all the remainder of the clock. With the Ravens out of timeouts, the Bills patiently ran two kneel-downs from the Ravens’ 1-yard line and kicked the field goal on the game’s final play to make sure the Ravens could not get the ball back.
The Ravens had jumped to a 20-3 lead on the strength of two first-half touchdowns from J.K. Dobbins and two turnovers by the defense, but the Ravens were held scoreless in the second half. This loss comes two weeks after the Ravens blew a 35-14 fourth-quarter lead in a 42-38 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
It also marks the Ravens’ fifth straight home loss dating back to last season.
Frustration on the Ravens’ sideline was palpable throughout the game, with a few questionable penalty calls going against the team. An offensive pass interference call on Mark Andrews wiped out a completion to the 1-yard line, and the Ravens were left to settle for a 42-yard field goal by Justin Tucker for a 17-3 lead.
Later, Rashod Bateman appeared to be hit before the ball arrived, and when no flag was thrown, Andrews stormed 10 yards down the sideline yelling at field judge Alonzo Ramsey.
As the Bills’ final possession wound down, an irate Marcus Peters stormed off the field and got into a shouting match with Harbaugh before slamming his helmet and heading to the locker room.
Harbaugh called it a “heat of the moment” situation and said he and Peters are “on the same page. We got a great relationship. We got an honest relationship. I love him. I hope he still loves me. We’ll see.”
Here are five quick impressions of the loss, which drops the Ravens to 2-2 with a “Sunday Night Football” showdown with Cincinnati looming next week:
1. Skipping the late field goal seemed to show lack of confidence in the defense.
John Harbaugh said he opted to play for a touchdown on fourth down from the Bills’ 2-yard line in a tie game because it “gave us the best chance to win.”
That decision backfired when Lamar Jackson was intercepted in the end zone on a pass intended for Devin Duvernay.
“Tall defensive lineman with his hands up,” Jackson said of what he saw on the play. “I was trying to see around him to see where my guys were, but I saw Duvernay late. If I would have seen him right off the bat, that would have been a touchdown.”
But the decision to play for a touchdown didn’t seem to show much confidence in the Ravens’ defense to get a stop. If so, a three-point lead would loom large. But Harbaugh’s decision seemed to suggest, hey, the Bills were probably going to get seven points, so we better get seven ourselves.
After the game, Harbaugh explained that had the Ravens taken the three-point lead, their defense would have been put “at a disadvantage, because they’ve got four downs to convert all the way down the field, and a chance to score seven, and then you lose the game on a touchdown.”
He also suggested that even if the Ravens were stopped on fourth down, the Bills would be pinned near their own goal line, which is often his argument for going for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line. In this case, the plan backfired further when Jackson’s pass, under duress, was picked off by Jordan Poyer in the end zone, giving the Bills the ball at the 20-yard line.
Sure enough, after the interception, the Bills marched 77 yards in 12 plays, aided in part by a questionable roughing-the-passer penalty on Brandon Stephens that got the Bills into field-goal range.
The Ravens’ sideline erupted after the play, as it appeared to be a late flag that came after Allen complained.
Speaking via a pool reporter, referee Jerome Boger said the penalty was called for forcible contact to the head and neck area.
The Bills probably could have scored a touchdown if they wanted to. In fact, once the Bills reached the Ravens’ 11-yard line, Harbaugh said the Ravens plan was to let the Bills score a touchdown so the Ravens could get the ball back; instead, the Bills got a first down at the 1-yard line and opted to take a knee and set up the winning score.
“Hindsight, you take the points,” Harbaugh said. “You look at it analytically, you understand why we did it.”
2. The Ravens again trusted their offense to get 2 yards when it mattered most. Again, it failed.
Last year, the Ravens tried eight two-point conversions, two of them in game-deciding situations. John Harbaugh put his trust in his offense to get 2 yards when it mattered most. But they went just 2-for-8 in those situations, losing two games by a point when those conversions failed.
The decision to play for the touchdown on fourth down seemed eerily familiar, coming from roughly the same spot on the field, with massive stakes again in the balance. And again, the Ravens’ offense failed to deliver.
Devin Duvernay came wide open in the back right corner of the end zone, so much so that he jumped up and down to try to get Jackson’s attention. But Lamar Jackson, retreating under pressure with the pocket collapsing, apparently didn’t see him early enough. By the time he threw, Bills safety Jordan Poyer was able to break on the ball and intercept the pass.
It also bears mentioning that two plays earlier, the Ravens had second-and-goal from the 1, but J.K. Dobbins tried to run off right tackle and was hammered for a 3-yard loss. It brought to mind the collapse against Miami two weeks ago, when the Ravens also failed to run the ball in from the 1.
Tight end Mark Andrews said he loved the trust Harbaugh showed in the offense in keeping it on the field, and ultimately it comes down to execution.
“I think all of our guys just need to be better and a little bit sharper,” Andrews said. “I have a lot of confidence in this offense, this team, the guys we have to be able to make that play right there. I love that Coach trusts us to do that and hopefully put the game away. Hopefully, we get another opportunity like that and we will be ready to go.”
3. The Ravens’ defense can’t sustain early energy.
The Ravens’ defense came into the game maligned and wounded. They ranked last in the league in passing defense and had given up 28 fourth-quarter points in the stunning loss to Miami two weeks prior. Against Josh Allen and the league’s top-ranked passing offense, though, the Ravens’ defense was physical and inspired throughout the first half en route to a 20-10 halftime lead.
It started immediately. Marcus Peters broke up Allen’s first pass, hitting tight end Dawson Knox just as the ball arrived. Then on the next play, Allen’s pass was tipped by Calais Campbell and intercepted by Marlon Humphrey, who returned the ball 26 yards to the Ravens’ 8-yard line, and a face-mask penalty moved the ball to the 4. Two plays later, the Ravens had the lead.
Later in the first quarter, Odafe Oweh stripped Bills running back Devin Singletary and Marcus Wlliams recovered, giving the Ravens the ball at the Bills’ 36-yard line. That led to a 42-yard field goal by Justin Tucker and a 17-3 lead.
But just as in the Miami debacle, the Ravens failed to finish. The Bills’ offense finally found some rhythm late in the first half, and Allen’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah McKenzie with nine seconds left cut the Ravens halftime lead to 20-10.
That momentum carried over in the second half, especially since the Ravens’ offense stalled in the third quarter.
After compiling a 15-play touchdown drive that lasted more than nine minutes in the first quarter, the Ravens had two quick possessions in the third quarter in which they totaled one first down, putting the defense back on the field against a resurgent Bills offense. The Ravens again failed to get a lot of pressure on Allen, totaling one sack and five quarterback hits.
Allen’s bootleg around the left end from 11 yards tied the game at 20 late in the third quarter, and the Ravens’ defense and Bills’ offense were trending in opposite directions by the time Allen and his team came on the field for their final possession.
For the second straight game, Patrick Queen had a potential interception bounce off his chest, and the Bills scored shortly thereafter.
“When we get those opportunities, we gotta capitalize,” Queen said.
When the offense failed to get the fourth down, Queen said, “We gotta go out there on defense and stop ’em. It’s our job. It’s the end of the game. We gotta dig deeper.”
4. Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen will be must-see TV for a long time.
Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen will always be linked by the 2018 draft, and five years in, they have elevated themselves well above the other first-rounders taken that year: Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen.
This game was billed as a potential AFC playoff preview, between two of the league’s brightest stars, and they did not disappoint. Neither was perfect; Jackson threw a pair of interceptions, including one on fourth down, and Allen also was picked off right away, which set up the Ravens’ first score.
But they also both showed the dual-threat talent that makes them two of the most dynamic quarterbacks in the league. They finished with almost identical rushing numbers — Allen had 11 carries for 70 yards, and Jackson had 11 for 73. And of course, how they got them also showed their potential to excite on every play.
Allen made a big fourth-down conversion as he kept and ran for 4 yards on fourth-and-1, setting up a field goal. That possession had begun with a 20-yard run by Allen. On the Bills’ next possession, Allen kept on a designed bootleg and beat everyone to the corner of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown that tied the game at 20.
Jackson, meanwhile, again came up with more wizardry. He appeared to be swallowed up by the Bills’ pass rush, only to escape and loft a pass toward Mark Andrews that was tipped and caught by Devin Duvernay along the sideline. He also wiggled out of a near-certain sack and turned it into a 20-yard pass to J.K. Dobbins.
Allen finished 19-of-36 through the air for 213 yards, while Jackson was 20-of-29 for 144 yards.
Allen had the ball last, and that proved to be the difference. But these two are a joy to watch. A rematch in the playoffs would be fantastic theater.
“I’m looking forward to our battles for a long time,” Allen told CBS. “He’s a special player.”
5. Another gut check looms for the Ravens as AFC North play begins.
After the Ravens’ meltdown against Miami, defensive end Calais Campbell said that they couldn’t let that game “beat us twice.” To their credit, the team rebounded with a strong win at New England, but now they are staring at another demoralizing loss heading into the AFC North opener at home against Cincinnati on “Sunday Night Football.”
In the loss to Miami, the Ravens chalked much of the problems to miscommunication and young players forced into key roles because of injuries.
This time, though, the loss feels different. Frustration was more palpable, on the sideline toward the officials, and in the case of Marcus Peters, toward John Harbaugh. Was it “heat of the moment” that led Peters to slam his helmet to the turf as he and Harbaugh screamed at each other, or is something more brewing under the surface? Will there be any finger-pointing after another loss in which the Ravens blew a three-score lead, an event that seems completely foreign to the DNA of the Ravens’ defense?
The Ravens don’t have time to sulk, and in fact if they can regroup and knock off the Bengals at what figures to be a packed M&T Bank Stadium on Oct. 9, they will be back in front in an AFC North race in which no team is over .500.
“I think with the brotherhood we have, we’re going to challenge each other, we’re going to communication with passion, because it’s a passionate game,” Calais Campbell said. “At the end of the day, though, everybody here is on the same page. We all want to work together, fight hard, and find a way to win ballgames. And hopefully, at the end of the year, we’re hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.”
The road to get there will become easier as long as these demoralizing losses don’t fester into something larger, and this seems like a critical time for leadership on the team — whether that’s Campbell, or Lamar Jackson, or Mark Andrews, or Marlon Humphrey, or others — to take charge.
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