Top 3 Things We Learned

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Top 3 things we learned from Bills vs. Ravens | AFC Divisional Round

Jan 20, 2025 at 12:37 AM

Alec White

Content Coordinator

The Buffalo Bills took down the Ravens 27-25 in a dramatic AFC Divisional Round game. Buffalo advanced to play at Kansas City in the AFC Championship game next Sunday.

Here are the top 3 things we learned from Bills-Ravens:

1 — Bills defense punches back after opening TD drive

In a season in which the Bills offense often delivered the knockout punch, it was Buffalo's defense that rose to the occasion in Sunday's Divisional Round win over Baltimore.

The Bills forced three turnovers (one INT, two fumbles) and, for most of the game, neutralized the explosive rushing attack of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.

After allowing a touchdown on the opening drive, Buffalo's defense settled in and got takeaways on back-to-back possessions. Safety Taylor Rapp picked off Jackson on a deep ball down the sideline, the sixth postseason game the Baltimore QB has been picked off in.

The Bills followed it up on the next drive with a forced fumble on Jackson by S Damar Hamlin that was picked up by LB Von Miller and returned 39 yards to the Ravens 24 yard line. Buffalo took the lead on a Josh Allen TD run four plays later.

Sunday marked the first time since Week 12, 2021 that Jackson turned the ball over twice in the first half.

"First half, I had two costly turnovers," Jackson said postgame.

On his fumble, "Tried to squeeze the ball, slid out of my hand, Von Miller picked it up," Jackson said.

The most clutch takeaway came in the second half when LB Terrel Bernard perfectly punched the ball out of the hands of TE Mark Andrews after a completion that would have gone for nearly 20 yards. It was Andrews' second career lost fumble.

Buffalo's offense had stalled on the two previous drives, giving the Ravens a chance to take the lead until Bernard came up with the punch out.

TB IN THE CLUTCH!!!

📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/Q4yPvYIyCx
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 20, 2025

"(Andrews) found a soft spot in the zone and we rallied to the ball. I saw him cut back and, really, all I saw was the ball and tried to get it out. In these conditions, the ball is wet and slippery. Something that we had talked about all week was really trying to attack the ball. I was lucky enough to get it out there," Bernard said.

Prior to Sunday, Ravens RB Derrick Henry had four postseason games with 150+ rushing yards (three with the Titans), including last week's 186-yard, two touchdown game against the Steelers. Henry's team won in each of the four contests.

He also had four playoff games with under 70 rushing yards and his team on the losing end of all four. The Bills kept Henry in check with 84 yards on 16 carries.

Buffalo blitzed Jackson on 15 of 31 drop backs (48.4%), their 5th-highest blitz rate in a game under Sean McDermott and highest in a game since Week 15, 2021, according to Next Gen Stats.

"The defensive staff did a great job of putting a good plan together. We locked ourselves in a room, they locked themselves in a room for hours upon hours, trying to figure a plan out and look, they got a lot of yards, but we were able to make it hard at times and take the ball away when we needed to," McDermott said.

Playoff @JoshAllenQB!

📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/BFXozvs4Vv
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 20, 2025

2 — Trusting the run game

Since Week 11, the Ravens defense ranked first in yards allowed, yards per attempt allowed and passing touchdowns allowed. To combat that, the Bills ran for 147 yards with all three touchdowns coming on the ground. It was the most rushing yards allowed by Baltimore in a game this season.

"I think we're having success in the running game. When your defense forces turnovers like they did tonight, it puts you in favorable position where you don't have to throw that much," Josh Allen said. "We just relied on our backs like we have all year, relied on our O-line, they did a heck of a job."

Allen's 16 completions and 22 attempts were both the fewest of any of his 12 postseason games.

Buffalo's physicality on the offensive side of the ball was noticeable early on as the Bills out-gained the Ravens 87-73 on the ground in the first half. All three first half touchdowns came via the ground attack, the first by rookie Ray Davis and the other two by Allen.

Allen has now posted 31 touchdowns in 12 postseason games – tied for the second-fastest player to reach that mark (Kurt Warner).

"Do whatever it takes to get a win, that's all that matters. But it starts tomorrow, we'll enjoy this one tonight and turn our attention towards (Kansas City) tomorrow," Allen said.

3 — Good, clean football

The Bills benefited most in Sunday's win by playing mistake-free football. Buffalo hasn't turned the ball over through two games this postseason.

Buffalo recorded its 12th game this season without a turnover, which is the most in a season in NFL history (regular & postseason). It's also the Bills' 4th straight playoff game with no turnovers, the longest streak in NFL history.

"It's big. Our guys get a chance to watch some of these playoff games, because we played the last two Sundays, and so you're able to watch some of the games before our games and you're seeing games decided rather quickly when the ball is not taken care of," McDermott said.

The Bills were also the more disciplined team, committing just one penalty which was a holding call against Dion Dawkins in the first half.

Baltimore, which finished the regular season with the second-most penalties in the league, committed five penalties for 42 yards.