Bills find a way to win despite early mistakes

It was not a pretty game this past weekend. It was a sloppy game in the wind and rain and the Bills came out and looked very bad early on in the first quarter. They spotted Baltimore a 7-0 lead in the first minute of the game after Allen’s pass was tipped and picked off.

Two drives later, a Singeltary fumble led to another score for the Ravens. We all thought that it just wasn’t the Bills’ day and that they were in for a tough loss on the road.

Allen finished 19/36 with at least six of those passes dropped. Everyone had drops in the game. Singeltary, Cook, Crowder, Davis, and even Diggs had a ball go right through his hands around the end zone. Yes it was a wet day and the ball was slippery, but these are plays that absolutely need to be made, and a lot of the Bills early struggles came because Josh Allen’s receivers were not able to secure the ball.

Despite the first-half frustrations, the Bills defense kept them in the game. Aside from one long touchdown drive, they were able to hold their ground and force the Ravens to field goals. It didn’t help early in the game when the Bills offense allowed the Ravens such a short field, but the game remained in reach largely due to the defense.

Allen led them down for a TD right before the end of the half and gave the Bills some momentum and optimism going into the rest of the game. Only down 10 going into the half, the offense was picking it up and beginning to compete.

How the Bills won

The Bills found a way to win this game because they played terrific team football in the second half of the game. The defense came out and started the second half by forcing the Ravens into a three and out, and then the Bills proceeded to march down the field and tack on a field goal.

The defense was once again able to force the Ravens to punt after another short drive, and this time the Bills took the ball down the field and scored a TD thanks to some nifty moves from Josh Allen.

The Bills then forced Jackson into two interceptions, one being a huge interception on fourth and goal from the two yard line by Jordan Poyer, which set the Bills up with just about four minutes left to go and starting from their own 20 yard line.

I want to give a big shout out to Shaq Lawson and Greg Rousseau as well on that fourth down play. If they don’t provide that pressure and get Jackson to throw the ball off his back foot, then he most likely finds his receiver in the back of the end zone for a wide open touchdown. Because of the pressure, it forced Jackson to retreat and allowed Poyer time to get over and make the game-saving interception.

Allen then, as we all know, made the plays he needed to make to set up for a chip shot game winning field goal.

Some excellent play calling and time management by McDermott and Dorsey was also very crucial to that game winning drive.

What we saw out of this team on Sunday was their ability to find ways to win when they’re not operating at 100%.

The offense started clicking, and on a damp day when Allen wasn’t at his best passing the ball, he made plays with his legs. 70 yards and a TD and a huge fourth down conversion as well on a play that looked like it was doomed from the start.

Diggs had a great catch. Knox had a big catch on a crucial third down. Shakir stepped up and made some great plays when Crowder and Mackenzie went down. Singletary accounted for over 80 yards once again. Bass made the big kicks when they mattered most.

It was truly a great team performance all around in all phases. 3-1 sounds a lot better than 2-2.