ExtremeRavens Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago There were two kinds of football fans late Sunday night. Some saw the Ravens’ three quarters of dominance build a two-possession lead and figured that was enough, they could guess the ending and chose to go to sleep. The rest stayed up to witness the Bills crawl back and win 41-40 in an instant classic. Here are five stats that help explain the nearly unfathomable loss the Ravens suffered on Sunday night: 99.1% With four minutes, 48 seconds left, the Bills had the ball just inside the red zone. It was third-and-10. They trailed by 15 points. At that point, ESPN analytics gave the Ravens a 99.1% chance to win. A Buffalo comeback was, by that measure, nearly impossible. Josh Allen found wide receiver Joshua Palmer for an 8-yard pickup that gave them a fourth-and-short. Then the reigning Most Valuable Player took off out of the pocket flinging a prayer toward the end zone, answered by Keon Coleman who corralled a tipped ball in the back of the end zone — the starting blocks of what proved to be an improbable ending. According to NextGenStats, it was the 13th-most improbable comeback by any team over the last decade. Buckle your seatbelts for this next one: ESPN’s Alaina Getzenberg pointed out that since the turn of the century teams trailing by 15-plus points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter have won three times of 2,316 games. 277 There have been 277 games in the history of the NFL where a team scored 40-plus points and rushed for at least 235 yards. That couples the regular season and the playoffs. On Sunday night, the Ravens became the first team to eclipse those lofty offensive marks and lose, dropping such teams to 277-1. “The offense put up 40 points,” safety Kyle Hamilton said. “No way that we should be in that position as a defense. I don’t know. We just need to figure out how to win games. We are winning them for 45 minutes, but you have to win for 60 minutes.” 155.8 As anyone inside the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills will tell you, with Lamar Jackson, the Ravens always have a chance to win. The two-time MVP quarterback can famously drum up magic from a broken play, like his 15-plus-yard backward scramble that he turned into a 19-yard gain. NextGenStats clocked him traveling 75.9 yards on that play. Jackson finished with impressive marks in the win: 209 passing yards completing 14 of 19 attempts two scores and no turnovers. According to The 33rd Team, Jackson was blitzed on 10 of his 22 drop backs. He never seemed rattled. Jackson clocked a nearly perfect 155.8 passer rating completing 7 of 9 for 140 yards and a touchdown. ESPN NFL analyst Seth Walder pointed out that Jackson’s 94.0 quarterback rating was the highest QBR in a losing effort since Week 9 of 2022. All that for naught in an instant classic. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is pressured by Bills defensive end Javon Solomon in Sunday's loss to the Bills. Jackson performed well in the Week 1 game, but the Ravens' defense faltered in the fourth quarter. (Gene J. Puskar/AP) 251 Allen put on a fourth-quarter masterclass, aided by a gassed Ravens defense. He ripped through the secondary without much resistance. Allen’s 251 yards in the fourth quarter were the fourth most of any quarterback this century, according to ESPN’s Ben Solak. The final frame showing landed behind Drew Brees with 294, in 2008; Ben Roethlisberger with 264, in 2010; and Dan Prescott with 254, in 2020. Of the top-five finishers on that ridiculous list of performances, Allen was the only one to win the game. To add insult to improbable Baltimore injury, Allen became the first player to have 250-plus passing yards and a pair of rushing scores in any single quarter in NFL history. 41 The Bills kicker who sank the game winner was 41-year-old Matt Prater, a veteran picked up off the street three days before the game. Prater had been staying game ready kicking field goals in an empty high school stadium. Buffalo called him when Tyler Bass, an organizational mainstay, landed on the injured reserve. Prater barely knew his teammates’ names. Allen admitted that he met Prater in the locker room on Friday. The quarterback found the kicker after a 32-yard try split the uprights sealing the comeback win and shouted, “”Hey! Welcome to Buffalo baby!” Sure, it was Allen and running back James Cook who did most of the damage out of the backfield. Wide receiver Keon Coleman figured to play an important role in this game. No one could have anticipated Prater – who was drafted in 2007, when the two quarterbacks were starting middle school – would be the one to decide a victor. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn. View the full article Quote
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