Sunday night’s miraculous 41-40 comeback victory over the Baltimore Ravens at Highmark Stadium was something Bills Mafia and other fans from around the league won’t soon forget.
Bills defenders, however, are hoping to wipe away the memory of most of the outing as quickly as possible.
On an unseasonably cool evening that saw Josh Allen put the team on his back en route to an improbable victory, Buffalo’s defense spent the majority of the game with its back against the wall.
Led by quarterback Lamar Jackson, running back Derrick Henry, and wide receiver Zay Flowers, the Ravens consistently knifed through the opposing defense with ease on the way to amassing 432 total yards, 19 first downs, and 40 points – the most scored by any team in week 1 of the NFL until kicker Matt Prater’s game-winning field goal lifted Buffalo’s output to 41.
Needless to say, it was a mostly dreadful performance from defensive coordinator Bobby Babich’s unit.
Babich knows it, too.
“We are very firm with the things that need to be corrected. Certainly, we had enough of those,” Babich said during his media availability on Monday following the game. “There was a lot of good (Sunday night), but the in between wasn’t good, and we need to get that corrected quickly.”
Headlining the list of issues was the team’s putrid run defense.
Despite having moderate success against Henry and company in last season’s postseason matchup in Orchard Park, the future Hall-of-Fame runner was once again back to torching Buffalo’s defense at all levels of the field in the season opener.
Excluding his 84-yard rushing outing in the playoffs against the Bills in January, Henry has faced the Bills seven other times in his career – averaging 103.9 yards/game, 5.8 yards/carry, and 1.4 touchdowns/game according to StatMuse.
He exceeded each of those averages on Sunday.
Carrying the ball just 19 times, Henry consistently broke through the line of scrimmage and managed to put the Bills in a bind with a full head of steam at the second and third level, which led to several big runs and two touchdowns in a 169-yard rushing performance.
Averaging an astonishing 9.4 yards per carry, it appeared as if Buffalo had no answer for the bulldozing back for most of the evening.
Eventually, as evidenced by the final three drives (punt, forced fumble, punt), the Bills managed to right the ship and help hold off the Ravens while Allen and company did the rest.
Still, though, surrendering that amount of yardage on the ground won’t be something that can happen in the weeks to come if Buffalo is going to reach its lofty goals by season’s end.
“The most important stat is a W. The most important stat is a letter,” Babich added.
“No one in the defensive room thinks anything of that nature was acceptable (against Baltimore) … Our players know that. They know that. We just talked today about doing your 1/11th and how important that is – the mixture of young guys with the old guys – we’ve got to be connected on our styles of play.”
With veteran defensive end Joey Bosa and rookie defensive tackles T.J. Sanders and Deone Walker headlining the list of names on Buffalo’s newly revamped defensive line in 2025, many in the media and the fanbase expected the team to be much more stout against the run than it’s been in recent seasons.
Henry may have seemingly dashed those hopes in one night – at least in the minds of a select few in the fanbase, surely.
Photo of DE Joey Bosa by © Mark Konezny-Imagn.com, LLC.
Veterans like Bosa, however, aren’t so easily discouraged, especially after escaping with a victory.
“There’s a lot to work on. A lot to get fixed. Can’t be letting up 40 points,” Bosa said in the locker room on Sunday.
“But, that (Ravens) offense is special that we just played against, and ours was one point more special today. So, it’s – go back to work tomorrow, get things fixed, and it makes things a lot sweeter when you’re 1-0.”
The 30-year-old former Charger wasn’t able to record a sack on the night, but he and fellow defensive lineman Ed Oliver were one of the few bright spots on their respective side of the ball.
Oliver, in particular, was a menace as he caused the game-altering forced fumble late in the fourth quarter and tallied six total tackles, a sack, a quarterback hit, and three tackles for losses along the way.
It was an encouraging sign for the former Houston Cougar, who has had a somewhat inconsistent career since being selected in the first round by Buffalo in 2019.
In a night where the team was desperately searching for someone to make a stand on defense, Oliver delivered in the biggest of moments.
In the end, however, it will take more than just a few stellar individual performances to make Coach Babich’s unit a championship-caliber defense.
“I think 3rd-and-6 plus we were 6-for-8, which is a good thing. They were 1 of 3 in the red zone – that’s a good thing. But, all the stuff in between … that’s unacceptable,” Babich said.
“It’s very important that we get those corrected and that we’re very intentional this week about getting those things corrected. It’s a lot easier to make those corrections after a win. Naturally, as a human, there’s a better vibe after you win, right? So, we need to get those things corrected and we will. We will be very intentional this week.”
Whether or not that intentionality in practice will produce positive results remains to be seen.
The task won’t be much easier, either.
If last week’s results were any indication of what’s to come in week 2, Buffalo will be faced with a similarly-styled offense as they did in Sunday’s opener when it travels to New Jersey to take on the Justin Fields led Jets.
Despite losing their home opener in heartbreaking fashion to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Fields helped orchestrate a Jets attack that scored 32 points while tallying 23 first downs and 394 total yards, 182 of which came on the ground.
It’s a week-to-week league, as they say, and it will be put up or shut up time when kickoff rolls around at 1 p.m. Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J..
“Every week is going to be a little bit different. It’s going to present a little bit different, but certainly AG (Aaron Glenn) has done a great job in New York so far,” Babich said. “Their offense did a really nice job (Sunday), so we’ve got our hands full again. It’s the NFL, and the most important thing is taking care of us.”
Editor’s babble: We are proud to welcome John Green as a contributing author to our blog. You can also find John on Xwitter @JGreen_PRsports.
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