🌃1. Two of the NFL's best in primetime

Another week, another game under the lights for the Bills.

For the third straight game, the Bills will play in a primetime game and their first Sunday Night Football game of the year.

"Primetime is dope," DE Greg Rousseau said. "Being able to play at night, everybody's watching, it's always a great atmosphere before the game and during the game. So, I know I'm excited for it, and I know the rest of the guys are too."

The Ravens are also preparing for their second primetime game of the year, after opening the season against the Kansas City Chiefs, and their first at home. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson expects an atmosphere unlike any other.

"Just the crowd atmosphere, just hearing the flock," Jackson said. "Just seeing all black throughout the crowd. And it's like, you can't escape. It's hard to escape. It's something, about it I can't really describe, like, the dark side."

Jackson and Bills QB Josh Allen have both come a long way since they made their debuts in week one of the 2018 season when they both played as backups.

Since then, Allen and Jackson have taken the league by storm, as both are the only quarterbacks in the NFL to throw 100 or more passing touchdowns and rush for 25 or more rush touchdowns since 2018 and both stand as No. 1 and No. 2 in highest win percentage in primetime games.

"Yeah, I mean I think (our stories are) similar in their own rights, but they're also different," Allen said. "But the fact is, I don't think anybody thought that — maybe other than the people in our buildings — thought that we'd still be playing right now."

Despite the Ravens 1-2 overall record on the young season, the Bills know Baltimore will prove to be a difficult matchup come Sunday night.

"They play extremely hard," Allen said. "They're extremely well-coached. They do a great job in stopping the run… Hamilton's flying around, making plays. Their DBs are always in good positions, and again, two-time MVP Lamar at quarterback, so we gotta make sure that we're holding onto the ball and scoring when we have our opportunities."

😤 2. Apply Pressure

No, I'm not talking about the Ari Lennox song. I mean rushing the passer.

Both teams currently rank in the top 10 in the NFL in sacks, the Bills with 11.0 and the Ravens with 10.0. Generating pressure has been a specialty so far of the defensive lines and has been important in the early going of the season so far for the Bills.

Ironically, while both defensive lines generate pressure against opposing quarterbacks, both offenses have quarterbacks that do not get sacked much. Allen has only been sacked twice and Jackson has been sacked three times through the first three games of the season.

The Bills offensive line through three games has allowed the fewest number of sacks in a Bills season since 2012 and RT Spencer Brown has not allowed a single pressure this season. Pro Bowl LT Dion Dawkins said Allen's awareness and their ability to keep him clean in the pocket is what has worked for their offense this season.

"When you have a beautiful drift car in your garage that you fix up, tune up, all the pieces are there, the building is feeding into it, and it's just perfect, you don't want to mess that car up," Dawkins said. "So as an o-line, we don't want to mess our car up. So we try our best to take care of him."

Getting to the quarterback is important in any game but will prove important in a situation where both defenses must deal with dynamic quarterbacks that refuse to go down and can run with the best of them.

"You know, they got, obviously, that's a lot of talent in the backfield, but it's all about us staying disciplined, doing our 1/11th and just corralling to the ball," DE A.J. Epenesa said. "It's going to take all of us to bring them down. And so that's our mentality. Just swarm to the ball and make a play together."

🏃 3. Run game comes into focus

Both the Bills and the Ravens have made a commitment to run the football this season, with the Ravens once again near the top of the league in rushing yards behind the duo of Jackson and RB Derrick Henry.

The Ravens are currently second in the NFL with 610 rushing yards this season and as a team, have rushed for at least 100 yards in 36 consecutive games, the longest active streak in the league.

While much of their running has come from Henry and Jackson, Baltimore utilizes RB Justice Hill and FB Patrick Ricard in the running game as well, making them a formidable attack.

"They are a good one-two punch," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said of Henry and Hill. "They play off each other really well. They run the same plays too, but they also run different plays at times. And I just think it's a good change of pace for the defense."

While the Bills have "Let James Cook," they have a host of players that can tote the rock, including Allen and rookie RB Ray Davis, who scored his first NFL touchdown on Monday night.

"They're one of the top rushing teams in football right now," Harbaugh said. "They've committed to the run game. They've committed to all the things that go with that… They've got the read options… quick play action… We're going to have to defend the entire offense, full with the field."

In his weekly appearance on One Bills Live, Dan Orlovsky said that the Bills are "not an easy offense to play against" and attributed it to OC Joe Brady taking the simple, and making it look complicated by personnel packages.

"What they've done offensively under Joe is they've taken the simple and presented it in a complicated manner," Orlovsky said. "Joe didn't make new plays. It's not like reinventing football. He's figured out the things that they're really good at it, and it's not more plays… he's just making them look super complicated by all the different personnel."

Allen parroted what Orlovsky had to say on Wednesday after practice.

"I think we've shown the ability to be in big personnel and run it and throw it," Allen said. "We've shown the ability to be in small personnel and throw it and run it… There's just a lot of opportunities we have to do different things throughout the game. We have different chess pieces that we're using very well and Joe's using very well right now… The ability to at any different time throw it to somebody else and they be our first read, it's very fun."

💨 4. Bills' have motion and it's causing problems

As mentioned before, the Bills offense has been difficult to defend for opposing defenses. Not only are they able to use multiple personnel packages to make things complicated for opposing defenses, but their ability to use motion on the offense has helped them be even more difficult to defend.

The Bills have used pre-snap motion on 78% of their offensive plays and lead the the NFL in touchdowns and yards per play while using motion.

"There's a ton of control of the line of scrimmage with (Josh Allen)," Orlovsky said. "All the handling of all those movements and motions that's a lot. You got to make sure that you get set and this person moves and that person moves, and you're not getting penalties. And I also think the ball placement on some of the throws was remarkable."

On 'The Mina Kimes Show Featuring Lenny,' Mina Kimes said that she believes this offense is working like a "finely tuned machine."

"Watching the whole offense operate, everything feels so coherent to me," Kimes said. "The way they were using motion and manipulating the leverage of defenders and getting guys open and the offense is like a true democracy similar to the Packers."

💪 5. Stick to the plan, not the mood

He's back!

Or if he tells you, he never left.

Von Miller has been on a roll early in the 2024 season, is one of two players in the AFC (TJ Watt) with a sack in each of the first three weeks of the season. He also continues to climb up the all-time sack leaderboard, tying at No. 17 with Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Thomas with 126.5 sacks.

"Last year, I was just trying to, I would go into games talking to God, 'like just let me get a sack, please...'" Miller said. "I was hoping for something to fall into my lap last year… I think with the health and the way I'm feeling, I think it's really just playing into my confidence and to my mindset, and that's a huge part of being a pro."

Miller said he knew his production was back to his standard when he was asking the coaches for more playing time during the games.

"Yeah, I feel better. I feel good. I knew I started to feel good when I'm on the sideline and I'm looking at Marcus (West) like, 'Come on. Let me get in the game. Let me get in the game.' And I'm chomping at the bit to get out there… When I go in the game, I feel really, really comfortable with my game. I feel really, really comfortable my mindset."

The mindset that Miller has helped him come back from injury and the team dealing with the success they have so far is "stick to the plan, not the mood."

"Some days you're gonna feel great, you still gotta stick to the plan," Miller said. "You gotta still remember what got us here… It's working perfectly for us right now. And at some point we're gonna run into some adversity, like all teams do, and we already have run into adversity, but at some point we're gonna run into real adversity, and it's gonna show the type of team that we have. And I'm excited for that, because we have a really good team with a really good mindset, and have got a lot of leaders on this team."