Ravens Insider: Josh Tolentino: Ravens show vs. Bills that some things never change | COMMENTARY

ExtremeRavens · 2025-09-08T06:20:23Z

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Ravens had Buffalo buried. Up big, 40-25, in the fourth quarter with the once-deafening home crowd silenced and thousands of Bills fans already filing for the exits. All Baltimore had to do was close.

Instead, the Ravens collapsed. Again.

Jaire Alexander’s defensive pass interference cracked the door. Tyler Loop’s missed extra-point attempt pushed it slightly. Derrick Henry’s fumble busted everything open.

It was Alexander who played a key role in allowing Josh Allen to march the Bills back from the dead. What should have been a statement win to open the season turned into another nightmare, a 41-40 unraveling that looked far too familiar.

This wasn’t just a bad loss. It was a flashing red warning sign for a franchise that’s been incapable of closing big games in critical moments.

The Ravens have now lost eight games since 2021 in which they, at one point, had a win probability of at least 90%, according to ESPN research. That’s three more than the next closest team. Eight times Baltimore has been in total control in just the past four seasons, only to hand it away.

On Sunday night, the Ravens’ latest collapse didn’t feel like an anomaly.

That’s because the signs were there before the eventual collapse. Alexander’s penalty in the second quarter put the Bills in a prime position to trim Baltimore’s lead. At the end of the first half, the defense allowed a last-second sideline completion that gave Buffalo exactly one second for a field goal to bring them back within one possession.

Throughout, though, the Ravens still looked like the better, more talented team. But their mistakes kept them from burying the Bills time and time again.

By the fourth quarter, Henry, who dominated to the tune of 169 rushing yards and two touchdowns, coughed up the ball in a crucial spot. The Bills scored a few plays later, although Allen was unable to find Keon Coleman on a 2-point conversion attempt, temporarily preserving Baltimore’s 40-38 lead at the two-minute warning.

Henry’s magic disappeared on the ensuing drive, when he was stopped for a 1-yard gain. The Ravens went three-and-out during the contest’s most critical point.

By the time Allen was carving up Alexander and the secondary moments later on the game-winning drive, the disastrous outcome felt inevitable.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Henry’s first half was dominant, a stark contrast to the downhill running that Baltimore lacked here in January. Quarterback and two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson played “great,” in coach John Harbaugh’s eyes, spreading the ball, managing tempo and moving the chains with his right arm and legs. For three-plus quarters, the Ravens looked like bullies to a Bills team that went 8-0 at home last season.

And yet, with the game in its hands, Baltimore let it slip away.

Super Bowl contenders don’t lose games like this.

Not when they’re up 15 with less than four minutes left. Certainly not when the opponent’s fans are streaming toward the parking lot.

The best teams slam the door shut. They bury this bugaboo in a season in which many in the football world predicts them to host the Lombardi Trophy.

The Ravens didn’t.

Buffalo Bill head coach Sean McDermott, left, and Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, right, greet at midfield following their NFL football game in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) — Ravens coach John Harbaugh, right, and Bills coach Sean McDermott shake hands after Sunday night's game. “We're disappointed, but we’ll be fine,” Harbaugh said after the stunning defeat. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

A collapse like this couldn’t have come at a worse time, either. Buffalo marked the first test of a six-week gantlet with the Ravens now staring down the Browns, Lions, Chiefs, Texans and Rams before the bye. Five playoff teams from a year ago by mid-October.

“We’re disappointed, but we’ll be fine,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll get back to work. This is how the NFL works. It’s a tough league. You play tough games in tough environments. Hopefully we learn from it and keep getting better. You get better over the course of the season and become the team you’re going to be. It’s a long journey.”

The Ravens wanted to open strong. Instead, they’ll carry a crushing loss and the same old questions into the rest of the six-week storm. Jackson and Alexander insisted the Ravens will use the next 24 hours to reflect on the loss before turning their attention toward their Week 2 opponent, a Cleveland squad led by Joe Flacco.

Those feelings weren’t in unison across the visitors’ locker room.

“This one stings,” Henry said. “It’s going to sting for a while.”

Last season’s 0-2 start dug Baltimore a hole it eventually climbed out of. But in reality, the team’s biggest issues, such as not finishing in critical spots, lingered. Their latest defeat in prime time marked another entry in that uneasy category.

Buffalo’s game-winning chip-shot field goal came from Matt Prater, a veteran signed off the street days before kickoff, representing another indignity in a collapse already full of them.

The Ravens had Buffalo beaten. The scoreboard suggested it, the fans in the aisles nearly confirmed it. But Sunday night’s final scene with red fireworks shooting into the air and shocked white jerseys retreating indoors with their head bows said otherwise.

Until the Ravens prove they can finish consistently, it really won’t matter what the calendar says. September or January, Baltimore’s ending still looks the same.

Have a news tip? Contact Josh Tolentino at jtolentino@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/JCTSports and instagram.com/JCTSports.

Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) warms up before an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

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Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) warms up before an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

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Ravens Insider: Josh Tolentino: Ravens show vs. Bills that some things never change | COMMENTARY

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