Ravens Insider: Ravens’ defense played ‘lights-out’ in prime-time blowout against the Bills

ExtremeRavens · September 30

In three weeks, no team had quite figured out how to slow down such a tantalizing offense.

The Arizona Cardinals allowed 34 points. The Miami Dolphins weren’t much better, holding the Buffalo Bills to 31. And the Jacksonville Jaguars got lacerated for 47 points — tied for the most scored in an NFL game this season.

In Baltimore’s defense, the Bills met their match.

“You do your work for moments like this; this is something that we will remember,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after a 35-10 prime-time home win Sunday night. “And I hope all the fans will remember. I hope they look back on it and say, ‘I was there that night.’”

In the middle portion of the late-night drubbing that got the Ravens back to an even 2-2 record, their offense had been reeling. Jackson fumbled before going into halftime, then they came out of the break stalling on back-to-back three-and-outs with the lone Bills touchdown tucked neatly in between.

The last three-and-out handed Buffalo the ball back with a chance to do what the previous two Ravens opponents managed: stage a stress-inducing comeback.

“I can’t lie, we came out after half, offense went three-and-out and they scored that touchdown,” safety Kyle Hamilton said, “and everybody’s like, ‘All right, we don’t need to do this again.’”

The Bills lined up for a bit of trickery on second-and-7 near midfield. Josh Allen, who arrived in Baltimore as the early favorite to win the NFL Most Valuable Player Award, was spread out wide left with receiver Curtis Samuel behind center in the Wildcat formation. Kyle Van Noy got his hands on Samuel as he flipped the ball to his quarterback. Allen cut to his left, planted his right foot and cocked the ball back.

Van Noy swiped down, strip-sacking Allen with two hands. Then 338-pound Travis Jones leveled the quarterback. Hamilton scooped up the ball, adding a fumble recovery to his team-best seven tackles. After the play was blown dead, much of the defense streaked up the field to celebrate.

Sunday was Van Noy’s third consecutive game with two sacks, giving him six total on the season. It’s the second time in four games he recorded a trio of quarterback hits. He credited the early-season production to being “on the street last year and finally [getting] an opportunity” when the Ravens signed him before Week 4 of last season.

The 33-year-old veteran of the pass-rushing group was crucial to what fellow linebacker Odafe Oweh aptly called a “very, very, very good win against a good team.”

“Kyle had a fabulous game,” Harbaugh said. He called the turnover a “spark” for the offense. Running back Derrick Henry said it was a perfect example of complementary football. “The defense knew we needed a play,” he said.

Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, right, strips the ball from Bills quarterback Josh Allen for a fumble in the third quarter of Sunday's game at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

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Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy, right, strips the ball from Bills quarterback Josh Allen for a fumble in the third quarter of Sunday's game at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

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The Ravens scored six plays later — a well-timed jolt to put them up 28-10 late in the third quarter.

Jackson capped the scoring drive prancing 9 yards to his right and sneaking into the end zone. He leaped and flung the football high in the air, three drives worth of frustration behind him in what felt like the score that diminished feelings of deja vu.

“We scored every possession until I fumbled, and that kind of stopped our momentum,” Jackson said. “Then, they ended up getting the ball and scoring. I was ticked off about that, because like I said, in the NFL, a lot of games are momentum-type of games, and we go out there, and we scored three times, and then that fumble happened. It slows us down, but our defense was playing lights-out.”

The defensive showing went beyond the one game-tilting turnover.

Odafe Oweh sacked Allen on third down and set up a futile field goal try. He reached 3 1/2 sacks in four games and got his hands on Allen twice. Cornerbacks Nate Wiggins and Brandon Stephens each nearly came up with an interception. The defensive backs were sharp, even if those two “dropped some money today,” Hamilton said with a laugh. And Harbaugh shouted out Jones afterward for “playing at a dominant level.”

Buffalo’s only touchdown required a bit of Allen mastery. He scrambled far to his right — 32.7 yards, according to Next Gen Stats, and within a yard of the sideline, to be precise — then flung the ball down the field to Khalil Shakir for a 52-yard gain that set up a rushing score. The Bills finished with 236 total yards, and much of it required the miraculous.

Beyond the scope of this season, what the Ravens did on Sunday night was uncommon work.

Since Allen became the Bills’ full-time starter in 2019, they’ve only lost by more than 25 points twice (both were 26-point losses). And this prime-time trouncing was the first time in the past three regular seasons that Buffalo dropped a game by more than six points.

This is a Ravens defense grappling to rediscover the magic of last year, when they became the first team to lead the NFL in sacks, takeaways and points allowed in the same season. Such a stalwart performance against the hottest team in football to get back to .500 was — even if players won’t overtly admit it — a statement that they can get back to similar production.

“I think [the win] says a lot,” Hamilton said, “but at the same time, we didn’t win a Super Bowl today.”

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Ravens Insider: Ravens’ defense played ‘lights-out’ in prime-time blowout against the Bills

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