A Few Thoughts About the Ravens Game, in no particular order

[Sammy Watkins' Rib]

Truly amazing how one player like Murphy on defense gets called up just for a game like this and plays his role perfectly. Do we need to activate him vs. Mahomes as well? Mahomes broke our back with a couple scrambles in the first game.  But then again, Murphy was probably playing in that game. 

[BaaadThingsMan]

Good write up. What a time to be a Bills fan. This team keeps finding ways to win, that is exciting.

 

Oliver and Phillips were doing work all night. They were noticeable.

 

The Ravens center had no pff score, was he a back up? Really made a difference, his snaps were off all night. 

 

The defense sold out every play, total team effort.

 

The 6700 fans caused not one but two, two false starts in a row!!! Billsmafia shows up and shows out! Always! 

 

Ayyy ayyyyy Lets GO Buffalo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Virgil]

37 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Good stuff.

 

Hughes was the best player on the field last night but he was NOT in on the final Lamar tackle - that was Murphy and Edmunds, FYI.

You’re absolutely right.  I had the notes next to each other.  

[CincyBillsFan]

I'll admit that at first I yelled at Johnson for taking the ball out of the end zone.  I stopped yelling when he got to the 20 and I realized no one was in front of him!  That play was so cool because it lasted so long.  The final 40 yards with White leading the way could have gone on forever. It was that beautiful.

 

 

 

 

[scuba guy]

40 minutes ago, Steve O said:

2 thoughts about the pick six, in a particular order:

1) I agree with Virgil, was hoping TJ would just take a knee to give us the ball at the 20 instead of taking a chance on being backed up against the goal line.

2) Am I the only one that thinks the return was at least 102 yards, which would have given TJ the record outright instead sharing it?

I agree looked like he caught it at the 2 and 1/2 yards deep then he turned and took a step

[loveorhatembillsfan4life]

Thanks you. Everything was really on point and well said!

I too see the fire coming from McD. He needs to keep pushing the most out of them. The balance of humble and hungry. I think early on Mcd changed the narrative of “The bills find a way to lose these games.

 

Now this team is not only gaining the experience of playoff football but  winning Playoff football. These experiences to draw upon will benefit us in future playoff appearances. 

 

For you who watch a more in depth breakdown of the game a couple things I am interested in. 

 

1) How did Beasley look out there? Well covered, or was he hobbling a lot?

 

2) A look at Knox. The reason I ask is while watching one of the highlights from Nbc Knox was clearly in the frame. His route just didn’t look impressive or crisp to me at least.  This was just one play but it would be great to get our tight end to become a fifth threat.  All I can remember really is the one catch where Josh kind of lobbed it over the defenders head to him. 

 

 

[hemma]

"--Harrison Phillips was great against the run and in penetration"

 

Very encouraging for the next game.  Wasn't getting turned on double-teams and for such a round guy, is pretty slippery.

[Kwai San]

49 minutes ago, Steve O said:

2 thoughts about the pick six, in a particular order:

1) I agree with Virgil, was hoping TJ would just take a knee to give us the ball at the 20 instead of taking a chance on being backed up against the goal line.

2) Am I the only one that thinks the return was at least 102 yards, which would have given TJ the record outright instead sharing it?

 

It was caught 1 yard in....thats where they measure from - I rewound that a few times to check that......but yeah I wanted Johnson to have a 102 yd return too!!

[Virgil]

6 minutes ago, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

Thanks you. Everything was really on point and well said!

I too see the fire coming from McD. He needs to keep pushing the most out of them. The balance of humble and hungry. I think early on Mcd changed the narrative of “The bills find a way to lose these games.

 

Now this team is not only gaining the experience of playoff football but  winning Playoff football. These experiences to draw upon will benefit us in future playoff appearances. 

 

For you who watch a more in depth breakdown of the game a couple things I am interested in. 

 

1) How did Beasley look out there? Well covered, or was he hobbling a lot?

 

2) A look at Knox. The reason I ask is while watching one of the highlights from Nbc Knox was clearly in the frame. His route just didn’t look impressive or crisp to me at least.  This was just one play but it would be great to get our tight end to become a fifth threat.  All I can remember really is the one catch where Josh kind of lobbed it over the defenders head to him. 

 

 

I don’t know why, but throws to the flat were off all game, which is where Beasley was living most of the game.  The Ravens had drops that way as well. I wonder if the wind was affecting those passes 

[bobblehead]

I think Phillips was more instrumental to the win than the media is pointing out.  I haven’t seen him play like from him or in the middle  this year until now. 

[CSBill]

Thank you, as always Virgil. Excellent work! .... I had the same feeling you talk about in the first paragraph, the more I thought about it, the more confidence I had in this one. But not in my wildest dreams did I think we'd hold them to 3 points. In many ways, this was a "deja vu all over again" of the 2019 season winning formula--let the D carry you Josh, and don't make any big mistakes.

 

And by the way, as you pointed out, Murphy and Klein, two often maligned players on this board, both had huge games for the Bills last night. They were key factors in containing the Ravens run game.

 

GO BILLS!

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by CSBill

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Great writeup Virgil.  A few thing:

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

If I'm being completely honest, I didn't expect the Bills to win this game for most of the week. 

 

You and Chris Simms with his embarrassingly Fangirl^^ Josh pregame interview followed by picking the Ravens.  You may both say 10 "mea culpas" while lashing yourselves with a wet linguini, then you may be excused for an understandable mistake. 

 

The Bills defense has been playing hot and cold.  Reich understood (and had a QB who could execute a) gameplan to their weakness.  Roman does not, plus, the D had been hearing it all this week and they were PISSED.

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

[Taron]

 

In that split second, before he crossed the goal line, my cowardliness mentally screamed out for him to take the knee so that we could get the ball at the 20 and not be pinned against the end zone.  However, this is a team that plays for each other, so Milano knocks Andrews out of the way, and Tre takes off downfield to block Lamar out of the way.  And just like that, we are up 17-3 on the pick six after Taron Johnson returns the interception 101 yards.  On the replay, TJ played this ball perfectly, sitting in the underneath zone, watching Lamar's eyes, knowing he could take off at any moment, and staying just out of his field of vision.  As Lamar released the pass, TJ broke on the ball immediately and cleanly picked it off.  While he had a lot of great pressures in the backfield and was solid in coverage, this may very well be the defining play of his career.

 

You aren't alone.  In his postgame presser, Josh said when Taron first came out he said "oh no we'll get it on the 5".  And then....

 

Heroes on that play include if I'm not mistaken Zimmer and Poyer; both blocked off defenders who looked as though they had a chance earlier in the play if I'm correct.  And of course Tre.  Johnson did a very good job of slowing just slightly to let Tre block for him.

 

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

All week you kept hearing about how physical the Ravens played and how their defense was going to be the star of the show.  Frazier; he took that personally.

 

Frazier and his entire unit.

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

7 - Tip of the Cap - There's two players I've been incredibly hard on this season and mainly because of the expectations I have of them due to their draft status.  Edmunds and Oliver are guys far enough in their careers where they should be making a consistent impact on the field being top 15 picks.  In this game, both of them made significant contributions and had a strong impact on the game.  Oliver was fast this game and made some great pursuit tackles.  Edmunds was fast with his decision making and wrapped up all of his tackles.  He played his role in the defense exactly how he should have.  Both were fundamentally sound and allowed others to play more aggressive because of it

 

I could be wrong, but I think Edmunds on a couple of the early successful runs by Edwards, was getting sucked in and leaving holes.  But they adjusted.

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

8 - Smoke - After the game against the Colts, I was curious was Brown's role in this offense was going to be.  With Humphries and Peters covering Diggs and Davis (right?!) most of the game, Smoke stepped up in a big way by becoming the safety net Allen needed and used in the first half of the season.  I'm not sure if Beasley was hobbled out there, but Smoke was our clear number two in this game and contributed on numerous first downs.  Brown also gave us our traditional "Allen scramble and finding a toe tapping receiver downfield" play.  If nothing else, any team planning for the Bills have four legitimize receivers they need to plan for.  Good luck with that.

 

I think it's just a matter of who the defense plays to take away.  The Baltimore DL is big and good at batting balls and I think Allen had trouble finding his lanes to Beasley.  Someone thought he took himself out, I'm not sure - we'll see on the snap counts.  But Beasley statistically is our #2 WR and has killed some games where Diggs got taken away, so I think he was #2 on the Ravens take-away priority list and they did.

 

Whereupon Smoke said "Hi fellas!  Remember me?"

 

Gabe had a TD pass go through his hands early.  He was well-defended, but looking at the replay there wasn't a hand in there, he just didn't handle it.

 

55 minutes ago, Virgil said:

**Notable Call-outs:

--Harrison Phillips was great against the run and in penetration

 

Phillips really did look close to the guy we drafted him to be in this game.

 

GO BILLS!!

 

^^ shoutout to @JGMcD2 for the definition of Fangirl

[Bills Fan of St Augustine]

Bring on the Browns!

[billsfan714]

I called out the D line last week and I was right.   This week they showed up and made plays all down the line.   Great job.

[Florida Bills Fanatic]

 

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

If I'm being completely honest, I didn't expect the Bills to win this game for most of the week.  Like many others, I bought into the hype of the surging Ravens who were playing like the 14-2 team they were last season with the MVP at the helm.  With the playoff win monkey off their back, their defense back at full strength, and windy conditions that favored the running game, I expected a close game where the Bills game up just short.  However, when I woke up Saturday morning, all of that went away and for some reason, expected them to win.  I didn't care about their depth at defensive back or Lamar's scrambling ability.  I thought about the entire season from when we were able to contain Kyler Murray and what we've done against top rated defenses, and I found myself incredibly calm for the rest of the day.  Win or lose, I was incredibly proud of the season we've had.

 

1 - The Play - Let me set the scene leading up to the pick six.  The game was tied at 3 going into the half, where most would argue the Bills should have been up by more.  It was the kind of first half where the BBFS reminded you of previous teams that couldn't take advantage of early opportunities and it would come back to bite them.  The Bills did come out of the half and drove downfield for a touchdown, continuing their 3rd quarter resurgence.  However, not to be outdone, the Ravens put together a drive of their own and made it into the Bills red zone.  On the play before, Marquise Brown was wide open on a crossing route and Lamar missed him as Hughes was right in his face.  The next snap occurs, Lamar drops back, and my eyes are all on Mark Andrews.  Lamar slings it in his direction, and I honestly can't see who caught the ball, as Milano and Hyde were also anticipating the throw.  I jumped up and yelled, scaring my unsuspecting daughter, as I saw a blue jersey emerge from the crowd.  In that split second, before he crossed the goal line, my cowardliness mentally screamed out for him to take the knee so that we could get the ball at the 20 and not be pinned against the end zone.  However, this is a team that plays for each other, so Milano knocks Andrews out of the way, and Tre takes off downfield to block Lamar out of the way.  And just like that, we are up 17-3 on the pick six after Taron Johnson returns the interception 101 yards.  On the replay, TJ played this ball perfectly, sitting in the underneath zone, watching Lamar's eyes, knowing he could take off at any moment, and staying just out of his field of vision.  As Lamar released the pass, TJ broke on the ball immediately and cleanly picked it off.  While he had a lot of great pressures in the backfield and was solid in coverage, this may very well be the defining play of his career.

 

2 - Frazier - Besides the broken coverage play against Hurst last year, Frazier had a pretty good game plan against Lamar and the Ravens last season; enough to give you hope against them going into this game.  Even early in the week, the Bills defenders talked about how they had a good game plan and were ready for the Ravens.  But, this was a defense that turned over major components of their defensive line and a Ravens offense that finally got over the playoffs first round hump.  The result?  An absolute masterful performance in one of the most dominating defensive showings we've seen in a very long time.  The Bills defense completely shut down the Ravens high powered college-style (sorry, couldn't help myself) RPO offense in a way that I don't think anyone saw coming.  Frazier bunched 4 at the line to cover the gaps and had them rush from the inside out, taking away a scrambling lanes and creating pressure at the same time.  When he did send an extra rusher, it was a DB from the blindside who usually got home clean.  Outside of the two drives, the first and almost TD drive, the Ravens were only able to make gains on broken plays.  All week you kept hearing about how physical the Ravens played and how their defense was going to be the star of the show.  Frazier; he took that personally.

 

3 - Wind - The 3rd most important factor in this game had to be the wind.  Watching on TV, you could see some of the flags in the stadium not moving at all, while others were completely blowing sideways.  For those who weren't around in the earlier days when they talked about the swirling winds in January, this is what we were talking about.  The wind wreaked havoc on both kickers, leading to a 2 for 6 performance.  Both QB's missed wide open deep shots that are believed to have been lost in the jet stream.  There were even a few shotgun snaps that you could see the wind affect it's path.  The strong legged Bojo punted one into a wall of wind.  It affected both teams, so that advantage was neutralized, but it did make me think about one thing.  If this is going to be the Bills offense for the next 15 years, do I dare say we want a stadium that isn't going to slow us down?  We aren't a Thurman led team that can rely on our rushing attack in these conditions.  If it truly were the wind, wouldn't you rather have a dome and have Allen hit Diggs early on that touchdown bomb?

 

4 - Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to do.

Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free.

Feelin' good was easy Lord, when Bobby sang the blues.

Feelin' good was good enough for me, good enough for me and Bobby McGee.

 

5 - Milano - Pay that man his money.  I have a lot of respect for Mark Andrews and thinks he will command a solid contract this off-season.  He's got the speed, hands, and physicality of an elite tight end and has been a focal point of this Ravens offense.  While all of that is true, Matt Milano beat the absolute ***** out of him.  Milano was a man possessed on the field in both run protection and pass coverage.  He didn't just cover Andrews, he leveled him the moment the ball touched his hands.  He played fast, he played hard, and he was consistent all game.  I've always been a Milano fan and really don't want to lose him in this cap-reduced off-season, and this game was a perfect resume for his extension.

 

6 - Hughes - Against the Chargers, I kept wondering what it would be like to have a Bosa on our team.  A guy that would absolutely dominate an opposing teams offensive line when only sending four.  Against the Ravens, Hughes answered that question.  I don't know if he was drinking a Code Red Mountain Dew while applying his Old Spice before the game, but Hughes was an absolute man on the field.  He was credited with 2 sacks, but was in on another and was chasing Lamar all over the field.   You want your stars to show up in the biggest games and that's exactly what Jerry did, he showed up and he shined bright.

 

7 - Tip of the Cap - There's two players I've been incredibly hard on this season and mainly because of the expectations I have of them due to their draft status.  Edmunds and Oliver are guys far enough in their careers where they should be making a consistent impact on the field being top 15 picks.  In this game, both of them made significant contributions and had a strong impact on the game.  Oliver was fast this game and made some great pursuit tackles.  Edmunds was fast with his decision making and wrapped up all of his tackles.  He played his role in the defense exactly how he should have.  Both were fundamentally sound and allowed others to play more aggressive because of it

 

8 - Smoke - After the game against the Colts, I was curious was Brown's role in this offense was going to be.  With Humphries and Peters covering Diggs and Davis (right?!) most of the game, Smoke stepped up in a big way by becoming the safety net Allen needed and used in the first half of the season.  I'm not sure if Beasley was hobbled out there, but Smoke was our clear number two in this game and contributed on numerous first downs.  Brown also gave us our traditional "Allen scramble and finding a toe tapping receiver downfield" play.  If nothing else, any team planning for the Bills have four legitimize receivers they need to plan for.  Good luck with that.

 

9 - Allen - How would Allen handle the cold, windy conditions against a often-blitzing Ravens defense?  First off, the ice in Allen's veins makes the cold air seem like a warm ocean breeze.  The Blitzing Ravens dropped 4 into coverage on most plays trying to keep Allen underneath only to find Allen taking shot after shot downfield.  When they did blitz, they got to him a few times, but it didn't shake him at all.  Unlike the opposing QB on the other sideline who didn't know what to do when his gimmick was shut down, Allen kept his focus on the game, took what was given to him, and walked off the field a winner.  Allen didn't have a flashy game, but he also didn't make any mistakes.  He made adjustments and worked through his progressions.  Just an overall solid game, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about the flops.  I hate them in the NBA and MLS.

 

10 - McD - Coach has been the butt of many jokes for his sideline clapping, cliche' post-game speeches, and overall vanilla personality to the media.  However, if you haven't been paying attention the past few weeks, we are seeing a very different side of McD lately.  If one thing's been made clear to me, it's that McD had a very specific goal in mind with this team and he wasn't going to celebrate the little victories along the way.  When they won the division, he got emotional in the locker room.  When they won last week, he got loud in his post-game speech. In this game, you could see him bursting on the sidelines.   McD was going to be happy until he had a Super Bowl contending squad, and as that vision has started to become a reality, I think we are finally seeing the real McD.   With a 17-3 win, it's a beautiful thing. 

 

**Notable Call-outs:

--Harrison Phillips was great against the run and in penetration

--Trent Murphy is the Lamar's scrambling kryptonite.  His containment in this game was masterful and worth all the cap space sitting on the bench in recent games

--Knox wasn't flashy in his catches, but also didn't make any mistakes.  He was great in pass protection

--Wallace with some great pressure on DB blitzes

--6700 fans really did sound like 75,000 strong

 

 

With that, we are off to the AFC championship game.  It feels surreal to even type that.  We heard people call us Super Bowl contenders, but now that we are in the final four, it's starting to become real.  No matter what happens going forward, this team has proven everyone wrong this year.  Well, except one man.  In the 90's we had Chris Berman.  This Bills team has Kyle Brandt.  The hype and support this man has put towards the Bills has been absolutely amazing and he's created a fan out of me.

 

This one’s for you @Gugny  Go Bills!!!

 Great summary Virgil !  I always enjoy reading your observations.  In addition, I thought the o-line played a good game and looked prepared for all of the stunts run by Baltimore. It's a lot of fun to be a Bills fan these days.

[Kwai San]

38 minutes ago, BuffaloBillies said:

Nice write up. Same here about thinking for a split second to get down. Even though he had a bit of a convoy I thought Lamar would trip him up before scoring (with his speed), but he really gave a half ass effort trying to get him, probably sulking in his mind that he just threw the pick. He gave up on the play. It was more than just a 14 point swing, it broke Baltimore's spirit. That will go down as a top-5 all time Bills play. I'll never forget it. 

 

Well he WAS going to get leveled by Tre had he entertained any fantasies about trying to intervene.......surely that had to come into his minimal thought process?

18 minutes ago, Virgil said:

I don’t know why, but throws to the flat were off all game, which is where Beasley was living most of the game.  The Ravens had drops that way as well. I wonder if the wind was affecting those passes 

 

Good catch!  Perhaps the zip isn't on those passes so the wind was pushing them???

[Coach Tuesday]

To win a championship you need to be able to win games in all kinds of ways.  The Bills needed their defense to take a turn winning them a game.  This was a critical win in a critical way.

[WhoTom]

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

An absolute masterful performance in one of the most dominating defensive showings we've seen in a very long time.  The Bills defense completely shut down the Ravens high powered college-style (sorry, couldn't help myself) RPO offense in a way that I don't think anyone saw coming.  Frazier bunched 4 at the line to cover the gaps and had them rush from the inside out, taking away a scrambling lanes and creating pressure at the same time.  When he did send an extra rusher, it was a DB from the blindside who usually got home clean.  Outside of the two drives, the first and almost TD drive, the Ravens were only able to make gains on broken plays.  All week you kept hearing about how physical the Ravens played and how their defense was going to be the star of the show.  Frazier; he took that personally.

 

Great post, Virgil. Your comment about Frazier and the defensive game plan was spot on. I'll extend that to the offense, too. We have weaknesses on both sides of the ball (like all teams), and many times those weaknesses play right into an opponent's strengths. But something I've noticed throughout the season is that the game plan somehow manages to hide the weaknesses. Our coaching staff is dictating the way the game will be played. In an age of player parity, that's huge.

[Kwai San]

27 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I could be wrong, but I think Edmunds on a couple of the early successful runs by Edwards, was getting sucked in and leaving holes.  But they adjusted.

 

 

I think maybe one or two but damn if that #42 guy for Balt didn't have some crushing leveling blocks against Edmunds and a few other Bills on that first drive....he was a stud for awhile there......I sat in silence for that first drive but went thru the roof when the kick clanged off the post!!!

 

The D.....just wow.  The D.

 

Go BROWNS!!!!  I wanna watch next week at The Ralph with 7600 leather lunged crazies messing with Bakers HEAD.

 

The Mafia!  Oh man those fans were absolutely incredible!!!!!

 

As always @Virgil - awesome recap!!!!

 

Go BILLS!!!!!

Edited January 17, 2021 by Kwai San

[Haslett_Stomp]

1 hour ago, stevestojan said:

After the pick six, I sat speechless for a solid 5 minutes. 

 

I have a soon-to-be 21 year-old daughter who drops the F-bomb quite often.  I always point out that it makes her sound unintelligent since there are many other words that can be used to express an emotion.  After TJ got to the end zone and I saw that there were no flags thrown on the return I screamed "F#*K YEAH!"  I then looked at her and said "that is an appropriate time to drop the F-bomb."

Edited January 17, 2021 by Haslett_Stomp