1/19/25 Division Round Playoff Post Game Thread Bills vs. Ravens

[folz]

So, we keep hearing the better team lost. Baltimore was/is a better team than the Bills, but:

 

-Head-to-Head: 1-1

-Record: Buffalo 13-4, Balt 12-5 (plus we purposefully pooched the last game of the year vs. the Pats---could have had two wins on Balt)

-AFC seeding: Buffalo #2; Baltimore #3 

-We scored more points than Baltimore this year (only by 7, but still)

-Conversely, their defense only allowed 7 points fewer than the Bills defense on the year

-So, the teams are tied in point differential on the year

-The two teams scored the same number of TDs on the year

 

That's about as evenly matched as two teams could get (with a slight edge to the Bills based on record and seeding), but then there is this too :

 

-We had a +24 turnover ratio, the Ravens had a +6 turnover ratio (not surprising this was the difference in the game as it's the only stat with a major advantage to either team).

 

-Josh Allen > Lamar Jackson

 

Buffalo: Two best wins: KC (15-2), Detroit (15-2)

              Two worst losses (not counting week 17): Hoston (10-7, div winner, lost div round playoffs); Rams (10-7, div winner, lost division round of playoffs)

 

Baltimore: Two best wins: Buffalo (13-4), Washington (12-5)

                  Two worst losses: Las Vegas (4-13), Cleveland (3-14)

 

The only place the Ravens had it over the Bills this year was total yards. They had 1,119 yards more than us on the year (or 65.8 yards per game). But all of those extra yards did not equate to more points or more wins than the Bills (again, the Bills turnover prowess is probably the reason for that---giving our offense more short fields). And more yards than the Bills in the playoff game didn't help them advance either.

 

So, how is Baltimore the better team again? What metric are people using? Just total yards without looking at any other stat? Or is it just the popularity contest known as Pro Bowl voting?

Edited 3 hours ago by folz

[Warcodered]

4 hours ago, Big Turk said:

 

When the NFL rolls out its red-carpet event and hands Jackson his third MVP award, highlights from his 4,172-yard, 41-TD season will play. He is the most exhilarating player to watch in today’s game. Yet, the event will ring hollow again because it’s also true that in the most important game of the season, the opposition dared Jackson to beat them. The opposition actively chose for Lamar Jackson to decide the outcome. Which is not normal. Usually, a defense would want to schematically entice anybody but the MVP of the league to make plays on the field.

 

Inside the winners’ locker room — their ticket to the AFC Championship Game punched — Bills players were frank: They wanted to put the ball in Lamar’s hands.

 

Head coach Sean McDermott instructed the defense to sell out on Derrick Henry and the Ravens rushing attack to win first down and make Baltimore one-dimensional.

 

“When he starts throwing it, obviously he’s capable of doing it,” defensive end A.J. Epenesa said. “He can extend plays, do all that good stuff. But that’s the mode we really wanted to get him in. Make him win the game by himself. Throw it to his targets. And I think our guys on the back end, they make it hard, too.”

 

https://www.golongtd.com/p/on-to-arrowhead-buffalo-bills-prove

 

 

Yeah it makes a lot of sense, Lamar has become a better thrower of the football than he was in the past. But it's still extremely obvious that if you have to choose between Lamar and the Ravens running and Lamar as a passer, you pick the latter.

 

 

 

[WideNine]

6 hours ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

 

Our RB room has grown from  middling to elite over the course of this season.

 

I really hope Ty Johnson is signed.  Love that guy 

 

The other thing about Ty is he is the best of the bunch picking up any unblocked rushers and keeping Allen upright.

 

Pretty unselfish dude who has wheels and can catch.

 

Davis just plants and goes and he is a juggernaut between the tackles with just the right amount of wiggle to make guys miss.

 

Cook made really elite guys look silly when he reversed the field and on one play beat the defender to the edge and on another play where he went the opposite direction of the outside zone run that the Ravens had well defended he stopped on a dime and let the defender lay a streak of tire rubber on the Highmark turf and cut it inside...the kid is the definition of shifty.

 

We have a very good RB group and the right O-line to spring them especially when they get a bit nasty up front.

 

 

[YoloinOhio]