The Buffalo Bills Win Against The Baltimore Ravens 23-20

So many twists and turns, but in the end, it was the Buffalo Bills that came out on top, beating the Baltimore Ravens 23-20. It was a game that saw Joe Flacco throw 5 interceptions, a Bills rushing game that put up 213yds on the ground on a defense that allowed only 224yds in its first 3 games and a Ravens offense that only put up 18% of their 3^rd down conversion all day. So how did the Ravens keep this one close? Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh gives his thoughts on his team:

“I’m proud of the fact that our guys keep playing. I believe we have a quarterback that can keep you in any game at any time. We all felt that way at the end, and that’s the most important thing going forward. I believe our guys played their hearts out from the beginning until the end through the difficulties. “We’re two months into this thing. The team we’re going to be two months from now is not the team we are right now.”

He’s right. Flacco play through most of the game was horrendous; yet when it was time to make plays—he did. Flacco went 25/50 for 342yds and 2 touchdowns. “A lot of that falls on me today and just throwing the ball to the wrong team,” said Flacco. “If we don’t do that, then this game probably looks a little different.”

Baltimore’s run game wasn’t even in existence to assist the offense. Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce rushed for a combined 24yds on 9 attempts. “We got behind, Rice commented during press conferences. “ When you get behind you can’t pound the rock, you just can’t do it.  We needed to try to find a way to score quickly.  There are times in there where you could try to line up, dink and dunk, trying to run the ball.  When you get behind, it’s just hard to run the ball.  The run game is effective when you have something going and when you have a lead ahead, like they were able to do.  They were able to run the ball some to eat up some clock.  We would’ve liked to be in that position, going forward, and obviously we saw that last week versus Houston, that’s what we were able to do- run the ball, manage it a little bit.  Still would like to get there with the average-per-carry and all that stuff that we have to work on.  It’s hard to run the ball when you get behind, so I just played my role today, and tried to protect Joe and keep him upright.  In terms of their blitz schemes they were very much like us, they mix and move, move around a lot.  That team, everybody looks at them, that’s a good football team over there.  Hats off to them.”

The Buffalo Bills walked into this game1-2 after a couple disappointing losses versus the NY Jets and the home opener versus New England. QB EJ Manuel looked much more comfortable in this scheme, but still only managed 10/22 for 167yds with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. His thoughts on the game are here: “Huge win for our team. We’re 2-2 now moving forward to a quick turnaround here with Cleveland coming up Thursday. We beat a great team today; great offense, great defense. I thought we played well today. There are always things you can do better, but none the less we won the game today and that’s the biggest thing. We want to be excited about that and look forward to Cleveland now.”

The duo of Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller were a big part of the Bills putting up 213yds. “I thought the running game went really well today, said CJ. “I went back to taking whatever was given to me. I just have to find that consistent basis now and take whatever they give us. They started bringing up the safeties. We just went up to the receivers and told them that it was time for them to make a big play. If they’re going to cheat them up, the outside has to win. That’s what happened today.” Fred Jackson had this to say on the Bills run game: We did. It was something that we had an emphasis on all week. We knew that if we could establish that running game, it could allow us some plays down field. We came out and we got it started. It was going to be tough sledding because that’s a tremendous defense. It was a challenge we all took to heart. The offensive line took it to heart. Receivers did a great job blocking down field. C.J. (Spiller), I and even TC (Tashard Choice) got in the mix and we got that running game going.

The big story in Buffalo was the defense, which gave Baltimore’s offense all they could handle yesterday. They were led by Rookie LB Kiko Alonso and Aaron Williams; both men grabbing two of Flacco’s 5 interceptions. When we asked Kiko what type of adjustments their defense made to accommodate for Baltimore’s offense, he had this to say: “Our biggest goal was 3^rd down, we’re giving up way too many 3^rd down conversions and we just wanted to stop giving them up.” It worked real well Kiko! We asked him about the upcoming schedule which includes Kansas City, New Orleans and Cincinnati. Does beating the Super Bowl Champs give the team momentum going into these tough games? “Every win gives us momentum, it’s always great to win these games, and it’s what we are out here to do.  We have a short week going to Cleveland, and that’s our focus right now.”

Overall, the Bills won the game, but you have to wonder how much of a challenge they are going to present for themselves going into probably their toughest part of the schedule before the bye week.

Baltimore proved that even though they made a ton of mistakes, they are never out of a game.

Buffalo gets a short week when they travel to Cleveland on Thursday night, while the Ravens travel to Miami to face a tough Dolphins team.