The Bills came off the bye, beat Baltimore 36-10 at home, and are 6-1. A 26-point win over the Ravens should feel bigger than this one does, and the reason it doesn’t is who was playing quarterback for Baltimore for most of the afternoon.
Lamar Jackson was coming back from a three-game absence and threw exactly one pass. He hurt his throwing thumb on it and didn’t return, and the Ravens have since said he needs surgery and is headed to injured reserve. I don’t root for that, even against a team that has given Buffalo as much trouble as Baltimore has. Tyler Huntley took over, then left in the second quarter with a toe injury. That left Joe Fagnano, an undrafted rookie who had never taken an NFL snap, to play the rest of the game.
From there it went about how you’d expect. Fagnano was 10-of-21 for 91 yards with an interception, and late in the fourth quarter he fumbled an aborted snap that Buffalo recovered. Baltimore finished with 144 total yards and 91 passing yards. The Bills sacked Ravens quarterbacks four times and forced three turnovers, including a Cole Bishop strip-sack of Huntley early in the second quarter that set up a field goal.
So here’s the context check. The Ravens came in averaging about 24 points and 366 yards a game, which sounds like a tough offense, and Lamar was a big part of that. In the three games Huntley started before this one, they scored 30, 10 and 13. Ten points against Buffalo with a third-stringer under center is right in line with that. Meanwhile, the Bills defense had been giving up 28.5 points a game before the bye. One afternoon against a rookie making his debut doesn’t tell me that problem is fixed.
Allen was good without needing to be great. He went 21-of-34 for 289 yards, threw touchdowns to DJ Moore and Dalton Kincaid, and ran one in from a yard out on the opening drive. Kincaid had 86 receiving yards and looked like the most dangerous guy on the field for stretches. James Cook ground out 80 yards on 21 carries and scored from 5 yards out in the third quarter.
The part that bugged me was the first half. Buffalo led only 16-7 at halftime against a team that couldn’t throw the ball, and a lot of that was self-inflicted. Allen threw an interception at his own 17 that handed the Ravens their only touchdown. Moore fumbled at the Baltimore 18 a couple of minutes before the half. Tyler Bass kicked three field goals, which is great for Bass (he hit from 56 and 51) and less great for an offense that kept stalling. The Bills also had ten penalties for 87 yards. Against Baltimore with Lamar, those mistakes probably lose you the game.
Once Cook’s touchdown made it 23-10 midway through the third quarter, it was over. Allen added the two touchdown passes in the fourth, and the defense kept a rookie with no help in check the rest of the way.
This is a win the Bills were supposed to get, and they got it comfortably once the second half started. It just doesn’t tell me much. Next Monday night is the one that will: a trip to Minnesota to face a 6-1 Vikings team whose defense had been allowing about 12 points a game before the Lions put 19 on them Sunday. If the offense stalls in the red zone up there the way it did in the first half here, field goals won’t be enough. After that it’s the Jets on the road. Speaking as a Lions fan too, I already enjoyed watching the Vikings lose once this week, and I’d happily do it again.
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