The Bills wasted no time in giving us the game of the season. Their comeback on Sunday Night Football was so pronounced and iconic that we won’t just be thinking about it for the rest of the 2025 season, but it’s going to make “best of” lists for years to come. More importantly as it pertains to this season we saw the biggest key difference between these powerhouse AFC teams, and a factor that could rear its head in the playoffs.
It’s no secret that football is inherently a sport where a team is greater than the sum of its parts. NFL history is littered with brilliant, talented teams who appear to have everything — and too often they’re beaten by less-talented, but more cohesive squads. It’s for this reason we so often hedge with phrases like “on paper,” which denotes how position-by-position one team might be better, but there’s always an edge for the intangibles.
On Sunday night we saw those intangibles unfold in real time, and it really underscored the edge the Bills have over the Ravens: Teamwork.
It’s ridiculous to say Baltimore doesn’t have any teamwork, or the Bills don’t have any talent — but that’s why we’re discussing this as an “edge.” It’s a small margin, a minor advantage that has the ability to transform a game with razor thin margins. On paper the Ravens are the more talented team. Quarterbacking between these teams is a wash, with both Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen being incredible, but at almost every other key position the Ravens are fundamentally better. Derrick Henry > James Cook, Zay Flowers > Khalil Shakir — the list goes on. However, Baltimore’s worst trait is a fundamental nature that tends to turn this team into a conglomeration of individuals when the pressure is on. It’s for this reason that more often than not the Ravens have felt like “Lamar Jackson vs. the world” in the playoffs, with NFL fans wondering when the hell the team would find players that can help him when the pressure was on.
Sunday night we saw those players shine for three quarters, then vanish when everything mattered. Conversely, the Bills had three quarters of struggles — but an unwavering belief in themselves, and more importantly each other, carried them through in the end.
Blaming the loss on Derrick Henry’s fumble is shortsighted and reductive. Jackson put it best in his post-game comments.
“I told [Henry], ‘Let that go, man,’ He’s [already] did enough for us,” Jackson said. “Things happen. Unfortunately, it just happened at the wrong time. I’m not going to knock him for that. Shoot, I fumbled in the playoffs. It is what it is.”
This take is absolutely correct. Henry did do enough for the Ravens, and things do happen — it’s simply a question of how you respond. The same bad breaks happened for the Bills as well, but they showed a level of fortitude that Baltimore couldn’t match. A perfect example of this is how both teams performed down the stretch following that fumble.
Henry fumbled with 3:10 left on the clock, with the Ravens up 40-32. It’s not a great position to be in, but Baltimore is still in the driver’s seat. There’s essentially a flowchart of things they need to achieve this drive, listed from most important to least:
- Force a turnover in response
- Hold the Bills to a field goal
- Make Buffalo burn as much clock as possible
Even a touchdown should be relatively okay, because needing a two-point conversion to tie is tricky — and at worse the offense should get the ball back with around 1:30 or less on the clock, putting your team in position to execute a short drive and have a chance to win on the field goal. Instead, the Ravens defense gave up a massive chunk play AND allowed the Bills to have an efficient drive.
Immediately Allen completes to Jackson Hawes on a 29-yard pass that puts the Bills at the one yard line. The worst possible place to be against a team that can tush push with Allen at the goal line, and have James Cook as an alternate goal line rusher. The Bills punch it in, and there’s still 1:58 left on the clock. The Ravens defense failed at everything on their goal list, and it magnified the damage of Henry’s fumble as a result.
At least they stopped the two point conversion though. The score is now 40-38, and things are terrifying.
Now we flip over the offense. They have their own list of goals to complete.
- Don’t turn the ball over
- Run out the clock
- Get a first down
These aren’t lofty goals. They should be achievable by an offense which has been been excellent for the majority of the night.
1st and 10: Henry tries to run up the gut, which was the obvious play. He’s stopped for 1 yard
2nd and 9: Ravens call a jet sweep to Zay Flowers, for some unknown reason. He’s stopped for 0 yards
3rd and 9: Protection breaks down, but Lamar finds DeAndre Hopkins over the middle. He’s stopped for 6 yards
4th and 3: Punt
That 2nd down call is indefensible. Sure, it has the surprise element — but you have to think more could have been achieved by running something off the RPO and putting the ball in the hand of either of your top two rushers, than relying on Flowers to create some rushing magic when that’s not really his game. If you’re spooked by the Henry fumble then that’s on you as a coordinator, because it shows an inherent lack of faith in the guy who helped get you to the point where you’re leading late in the 4th.
When it’s 3rd and 9 you can’t do much. It’s no-man’s land for an offense, especially in a crucial moment. The defense knows you have to get a completion to keep the clock running — so it’s always going to be an intermediate pass to try and pick up the first. They made the best of a bad situation.
Deciding to punt on 4th was a decision. Not a good one, but I don’t know if there is a good decision in that situation. 4th and 3 is too far to be a confident rushing play, and punting from your own 38 allows the field to be flipped too easily.
Now the Bills are back on the field. 1:33 is left on the clock, which is the amount of time the Ravens should have had when they started their drive. No timeouts, so Buffalo is going to be looking towards the sidelines. In the span of two plays everything crumbles. Josh Allen does deep left to Joshua Palmer for 35 yards, then up the middle to Keon Coleman for 25 yards. For the second straight drive the Ravens’ defense gives up massive chunk plays.
You know the rest of the story from here.
When everything mattered the most the Bills rallied to support each other and step up. From coaching to execution, there was faith in the team. The Ravens played scared, they called scared plays, and left each other on an island when everything was on the line. It was indicative of the biggest difference between these two organizations, and at least on Sunday night the Bills proved that they can become more than a sum of their parts.
