ORCHARD PARK – At exactly 11:37 p.m. Sunday night, I tweeted out the following: “I cannot believe what I just saw.”
More than half a day has passed and I’m still finding it hard to believe that the Buffalo Bills came back to beat the Baltimore Ravens 41-40 in a game that might hold up as the best one we’ll see in the NFL this season. And why not, given that it’s one of the best games anyone has ever seen in more than a century of NFL football.
“That was the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of,” said Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins. “I can’t even lie … football Gods are real.”
Believe me, that was a redundant quote in both locker rooms because this was beyond crazy.
To get to that improbable final score, so much insanity had to take place, twists and turns and good breaks (Bills) and bad breaks (Ravens) and now, with the benefit of actually having time to go back and watch the replay and decipher how the Bills pulled off one of the most thrilling and incomprehensible victories in their history, let’s go through a chronology of events that decided the outcome.
Baltimore takes early control: 2nd quarter, Ravens 17, Bills 7
It was a dream start for the Bills as Brandon Codrington returned the opening kickoff 46 yards to midfield, and Josh Allen needed just 3:41 before he hit Dalton Kincaid with a 15-yard TD pass. But things began to turn immediately thereafter.
The Ravens took control by scoring on their first three possessions which covered about 13 minutes. In this stretch, the trouble for Buffalo started with back-to-back terrible three-and-out possessions and Baltimore scoring a touchdown following each punt.
On the first series, James Cook made a nine-yard run on first down and offensive coordinator Joe Brady called two more Cook runs that got stuffed and necessitated a punt and three minutes later, Derrick Henry trucked 30 yards to the end zone, running over Cole Bishop along the way.
On the second series, Keon Coleman dropped a pass and the Bills never recovered, and Henry ripped off a 49-yard run to set up Lamar Jackson’s 10-yard TD run that made it 17-7.
The importance of one second: Halftime, Ravens 20, Bills 13
The teams exchanged field goals, Buffalo’s coming after a nice drive to a first down at the Ravens 12 stalled thanks in part to a dumb second-and-10 run call for Cook which got stuffed. Baltimore’s ensuing field goal left 31 seconds on the clock, just enough time for the Bills to steal three points.
Allen completed a 26-yard pass to Khalil Shakir, and after a spike, he had just seven seconds to work with. The Ravens somehow allowed Kincaid to get open down the left sideline, Allen threw a dart and Kincaid stepped out of bounds as the clock was at one second and about to go to zero.
The Ravens thought the half was over and started running to the locker room, but replay confirmed that the Bills had one second and Matt Prater kicked a 43-yard field goal. Think about how important that one second and those three points were at the end.
Penalty takes points off the board: 3rd quarter, Ravens 27, Bills 19
Buffalo’s defense made it five Baltimore possessions, five scores when Jackson completed back-to-back passes of 39 and 23 yards to Zay Flowers, the second for a TD and at this point, it felt like the Ravens were going to score every time they had the ball.
The Bills answered with a sharp drive that was kept alive by a 27-yard pass interference penalty on a fourth-and-5 against Ravens CB Zaire Alexander, a play where it looked like Allen was chucking one up to Joshua Palmer who was not open, hoping to draw a flag, and the flag came.
Cook slammed in from the 2 for the TD, but then a critical Sean McDermott decision went awry. Prater made the PAT but the Ravens were flagged for a penalty so McDermott took the point off the board and decided to go for two. It backfired when Coleman was nudged out of bounds while running across the back of the end zone, and when he caught Allen’s pass, it was illegal touching so the conversion was nullified and now the Bills had to chase that point.
Buffalo can’t stop Baltimore’s offense: 3rd quarter, Ravens 34, Bills 19
This was the height of awful for the Bills defense. They had just gotten their first stop right after the Cook TD, but the Bills offense did nothing and punted back. It took the Ravens four plays to score as Flowers caught a 36-yard pass and Jackson dropped a dime down the right sideline to DeAndre Hopkins who made a spectacular one-handed catch with Christian Benford in tight coverage for a 29-yard TD. That one felt like a crusher.
The remarkable quarter begins: 4th quarter, Ravens 34, Bills 25
Instead, all that TD did was kickstart one of the greatest quarters any QB has ever played. Allen directed an 84-yard drive with a major assist from Cook who turned a short pass into a dazzling 51-yard gain, and Allen eventually scored on a two-yard keeper.
Chasing that earlier lost point, the Bills went for two again and Kyle Hamilton intercepted Allen because no one was able to get open, so with two lost points, the Bills were down nine.
Baltimore appears to put the game out of reach: 4th quarter, Ravens 40, Bills 25
Soon, they were down 15 because Jackson converted a third-and-10 with a Houdini-like escape to gain 19, though he actually covered 75 yards according to NextGenStats to get those 19. And on the next play, Henry broke a 46-yard TD run. It was Baltimore’s fourth TD drive of four plays or less, and Henry’s third run of at least 30 yards in the game.
However, rookie kicker Tyler Loop hit the right upright on the PAT. It seemed insignificant at the time, but how important was that one point to the Ravens in the end?
A pass redirected results in TD: 4th quarter, Ravens 40, Bills 32
If the game didn’t feel over after the Henry TD, it sure did when it appeared Allen was intercepted by Chidobe Awuzie with 10:48 left, but replay confirmed the ball hit the ground. A game of inches, indeed.
Buffalo did not take advantage of that break and wound up punting, but here’s where the game truly turned. After allowing scores on seven of eight possessions, the Bills’ defense finally forced a three-and-out punt so only two minutes came off the clock, and Allen promptly led an 80-yard drive.
It was helped by a third-down pass interference penalty on Nate Wiggins, and then lady luck shone down on Buffalo because on fourth-and-2 from the 10, Allen threw a terrible pass over Dawson Knox’s head, but he managed to touch it and that change of direction sent it fluttering into the arms of Coleman in the end zone and Prater’s PAT made it a one-score game. Can’t make it up, folks.
The fumble: 4th quarter, Ravens 40, Bills 38
Two plays after the kickoff, the biggest play of the night occurred. Ed Oliver stuffed Henry on a run to the left and as he was tackling him he managed to jar the ball loose. Benford made the mistake of trying to scoop it up, but Terrel Bernard had the presence of mind to fall on the fumble at the Ravens 30 with 3:06 remaining.
On the next play, rookie tight end Jackson Hawes got open down the seam and his first NFL reception was a 29-yarder to the 1. That’s right, Jackson Hawes. From there Allen scored and now the Bills were a two-pointer away from tying, but Brady made a bad play call and Allen tried to hit Coleman who was one-on-one with Nate Wiggins and could not get any separation so it was an easy breakup.
The ending that was hard to believe: 4th quarter, Bills 41, Ravens 40
The Ravens took possession with 1:58 to go and Buffalo had all three of its timeouts so Baltimore needed a first down if it was going to run out the clock. And here, Ravens fans are going to be questioning John Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Todd Moncken for their decisions.
A Henry run was stuffed by Greg Rousseau, so they tried a jet sweep to Flowers and Matt Milano busted that up for no gain. On third-and-9, Jackson threw a pass to Hopkins and Benford did a great job tackling him two yards shy, bringing up fourth-and-2 at the 38 with 1:33 to go.
The Bills hadn’t stopped Jackson once on his six rushing attempts, the bulk of those coming on scrambles. Why they didn’t put the ball in Jackson’s hands with a run-pass option on any of those three plays is bizarre. And on fourth down, would it have been crazy to go for it and let Jackson do what Jackson does, as opposed to punting and giving the ball back to Allen who was in the midst of a 251-yard passing yards fourth quarter against your exhausted defense?
Baltimore punted, and you know what happened as Allen delivered mega strikes to Joshua Palmer (32 yards) and Coleman (25) on back-to-back plays to set up the game-winning field goal. And another fortunate thing happened because Coleman looked like he was going to score a TD, but he was tripped at the last second by Alexander at the 9.
If that hadn’t happened and Coleman had gone to the end zone, Jackson would have had about 38 seconds with three timeouts and on a night like this one, would the Bills have been able to stop them? Thankfully, they didn’t have to find out.
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Breaking down ‘the craziest game’: How the Bills staged a comeback win against all odds
Reporting by Sal Maiorana, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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