A column by CHUCK POLLOCK, Senior Sports Columnist, Wellsville Sun, Olean Star
Let me get this straight.
After two consecutive impressive victories over quality opposition, the Bills wiped all that out with one lousy performance?
To be sure, their 35-10 domination by the Ravens last night at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium was an embarrassment.
But did that woeful performance erase the 31-10 victory at Miami and the 47-10 evisceration of the Jaguars in Orchard Park the previous two weeks?
A tried and true sports cliche goes, “Things are never as good or as bad as they look.”
And while Buffalo (3-1) endured a decisive 25-point defeat as documented in this space on Monday, one bonehead decision kept it from being a game.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be offensive coordinator Joe Brady after the game when coach Sean McDermott grilled him about calling a momentum-destroying trick play that almost — and maybe did — get quarterback Josh Allen hurt.
To review:
The Bills trailed 21-3 at halftime, but held the Ravens to a three-and-out on Baltimore’s first possession of the third quarter. Allen immediately took them 60 yards on four plays, capped by Ty Johnson’s 3-yard touchdown run … 21-10.
Another three-and-out set Buffalo up with second-and-seven at the Ravens’ 44-yard line. That’s when Brady seemingly took leave of his senses, calling a trick play. Wide receiver Curtis Samuel set up in a shotgun formation with Allen flanked left. At the snap Samuel rolled that way and flipped the ball to his QB. The intent was for Allen to throw a deep flea-flicker. But the Ravens weren’t fooled and as the quarterback planted his feet to throw, linebacker Kyle Van Noy hit his right hand, jarring the ball loose with fellow linebacker Kyle Hamilton recovering.
Almost simultaneously, Allen was tagged by Ravens defensive end Travis Jones, injuring his lower back. After the game he said he was fine and never made mention of his right hand though quarterbacks often suffer arm/hand injuries on strip-sacks.
After the fumble recovery, Baltimore motored 59 yards for the touchdown that made it 28-10 and clinched the game.
But you wonder.
As bad as the final score looked, what if Buffalo had stayed with its regular offense, as it did on the opening series of the half? Had that possession resulted in a TD, to make it 21-17, is there a Bills fan who wouldn’t have thought a comeback win was in the offing? I sure did and it’s likely Ravens coach John Harbaugh did too. The fumble occurred with 6½ minutes left in the third quarter and the momentum, before that play had clearly switched to Buffalo.
AFTER the game Allen, who was hit eight times and held without a rushing or passing TD for the first time since 2021, admitted, “I think they had a good plan, a good pressure plan. They made more plays than we did, and it was evident right away. They had more urgency than we did, and that’s something we’ll correct.”
But he added, “Not everything was bad in this game. I don’t want us to come away from this saying ‘We’re the worst, (there’s) lots to learn from.’ I’m glad this happened early in the season so we can correct things.”
Samuel agreed.
“You don’t want to lose, but you learn from losses,” he said. “As crazy as it sounds, you learn some things you can work on, some things you need to get better on. When you’re winning, you kind of overlook things … that’s just natural; that’s for everybody, any profession. You look (past) things, and just keep on going with the flow sometimes, (then) you take a loss and go back to the drawing board.”
FACT IS, Buffalo has six brutal games to open the season and, at best, most felt it could go 4-2 in that stretch. Instead, the Bills got off to that 3-0 start including impressive wins over the Dolphins in Florida and Panthers at Orchard Park and 3-3, at worst, is guaranteed.
On Sunday, Kansas City and Minnesota improved to 4-0 with the Steelers and Bills suffering their first losses and Seattle (3-0) being tested by Detroit last night.
In other words, the loss to Baltimore notwithstanding, Buffalo has one of the NFL’s best records and the real question is how it rebounds with road games against the Texans and Jets the next two weekends.
At Monday’s press conference, McDermott said Allen’s back was “sore” but he was fine and pointed out “we did some good things (against Baltimore) and put ourselves in a position to get back in the game.”
Until one ill-considered play-call undermined the comeback.
(Chuck Pollock, an Olean Star and Wellsville Sun senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
