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Alaina Getzenberg, ESPN
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Buffalo Bills were well aware of the outside noise.
There were question marks and discussions being held online and on TV leading up to the Bills’ divisional round game against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday concerning how this defense would perform against quarterback Lamar Jackson, running back Derrick Henry and the rest of the Ravens’ offense.
The Bills’ defensive players used that to help fuel their performance. While the Ravens’ offense was able to get in a second-half groove, the Bills, helped by some Ravens miscues, were able to do enough to secure a 27-25 win to advance to the AFC Championship Game against the Kansas City Chiefs. This will be the team’s second AFC championship appearance in the past 30 seasons.
“Our guys heard it all — they heard it all week long. We’re not big enough, we’re not strong enough. Not talented enough. Whatever it is, they heard it,” coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t do the social media things, but I think most of those guys do. And look, we did, I think, in the first half a pretty darn good job. Second half, [Henry] got rolling a little bit. And he’s going to pop some runs, I mean, when he gets that momentum, he’s hard to stop. So, but even there, we could have done some things better, and I think fundamentally, so when we just look at this game, it came down to fundamentalism in football. And we talked a lot about that.”
The Bills held Henry to 84 rushing yards compared to 199 yards in the Ravens’ 35-10 Week 4 win, with the availability of linebackers Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano and nickel cornerback Taron Johnson important for this unit after all three missed the first meeting. The Ravens’ offense rushed for 176 yards on 20 carries, and the Ravens did have nine runs of 10-plus yards.
The Bills were aided by multiple drops and miscues by the Baltimore offense, most notably on tight end Mark Andrews‘ dropped 2-point conversion attempt, but the defense also took advantage, coming away with three takeaways against a team that had 11 turnovers all regular season. The Bills’ offense was then able to get in position to score touchdowns on three of four first-half possessions, in addition to the unit not turning the ball over.
The Bills have gone 21 straight games including playoffs without losing the turnover battle, tying the longest such streak in NFL history (the Rams also did it from 1952 to ’53).
“We don’t listen to the outside noise, but everyone was saying this and that about us and that we didn’t have enough talent, weren’t good enough to be in these positions and, our guys just continue to work hard and we’re internally driven,” quarterback Josh Allen said. “We love each other, and I think you saw how much we played for each other there.”
In the first half, the Bills held Baltimore to only 10 points despite the Ravens outgaining the Bills in a variety of areas. Turnovers were key for the unit, including safety Taylor Rapp (who left the game with a hip injury) intercepting Jackson, and safety Damar Hamlin sacking Jackson and defensive end Von Miller picking up the ensuing fumble.
The Bills’ defense found success blitzing Jackson on 13 of 31 dropbacks (42%) and pressuring him on eight of those dropbacks (pressure percentage of 62% when the Bills sent the blitz).
“We have a lot of pride in ourselves, what we do here as a defense,” defensive end AJ Epenesa said. “Just speaking as a defense, we were told all week how they were going to do this, how they going to do that, and that just, I’d like to say, fueled us a little bit. We started this game a little hotter than we have in the past, and that’s something we’ve been emphasizing, and now we need to do that in the second half, start the second half hot and do those kind of things. But to come in with that fire and to kind of start the way we did, I think is good.”
The Ravens were able to score on three of four possessions in the second half — with Bernard, who said the team was motivated all week, forcing a key fumble on the other drive by punching the ball out — and come back within two from an 11-point halftime deficit. But the Bills’ defense, which had the third-most takeaways in the regular season (32), ended up having just enough.
Some of that motivation came from a video shown during the week of what was being said in the media, as defensive tackle Jordan Phillips said, although some players didn’t quite acknowledge it.
“No, y’all don’t know that. That’s confident,” defensive tackle Ed Oliver said. “So, they said we weren’t big enough, we weren’t physical enough, we couldn’t stop the run, da, da, da, da, da. But we won. So, what we talking about?”
Next up for the Bills: getting past the most familiar of foes. They will have a chance to revenge past losses yet again, this time at Arrowhead Stadium against the No. 1 seed Chiefs, a team that has beaten Buffalo in the postseason in all three meetings with Allen and Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, including the 2020 AFC Championship Game. Allen and Mahomes are now tied for the second-most meetings between any two starting quarterbacks in NFL postseason history (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning lead the list at five meetings).
The Bills defeated the Chiefs 30-21 earlier this season in Orchard Park.
“Yeah, man, it’s super exciting,” Hamlin said. “To be playing for an AFC championship is like, crazy to think about, and I feel like it’s only right going up there and playing them. They’ve been what, two-time reigning Super Bowl champions. Back-to-back. No. 1 seed this year. Best record in the NFL. So, it’s only right that you got to go through Arrowhead. One of my favorite places to play.”
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