Ravens Begin Their 2025 Season With A Loss At Buffalo; Quick Hits

The Baltimore Ravens 2024 season ended with a loss at Buffalo, and their 2025 season has begun with a loss at Buffalo.

No shame in losing to the Bills at Orchard Park.
Buffalo also has Super Bowl aspirations, and the Bills are very difficult to beat at home.
But being outscored 22-6 in the 4th Quarter to lose 41-40 on a last second FG was certainly a tough watch for all of us who stayed up to witness that collapse.

Give the Bills credit for finding ways to stay in the game, and correctly ding the Ravens for not delivering a KO when they had Buffalo on the ropes.

NBC Sports’ commentators kept speaking about last night being a ‘revenge’ game for the Ravens.
To be fair to NBC, apparently the Ravens themselves had spoken about that in their interviews.

Calling it a revenge game just seemed silly to me.
There has been roster turnover from both sides since last January.
If the Ravens hold on and win last night, a regular season win wasn’t going to erase that playoff loss.

I think it’s important for the Ravens to quickly grasp that.
You don’t get to replay games or seasons.
As soon as Matt Prater’s game winner went through the uprights last night, that game is over.

That said, while there are no mulligans, it’s equally important to learn from your experiences.
I don’t have the exact stat in-front of me, but I know it’s a double-digit amount of games the Ravens have wound-up losing with a 4th Quarter lead of over a TD during the last four years.
Seeing another such loss last night in Week 1 of this ’25 season is disheartening.

Last Friday, I wrote:

Sometimes in life, things don’t go your way.
And then you have a choice.

You can sit and wallow, and lament what could have been.
Or you can pick yourself up, and continue progressing to what can be.

So, as the Ravens wake up this Monday morning, they have to continuously look forward.
Anything they want to accomplish this year is certainly still available to them.
Each week this regular season is about earning another opportunity to play meaningful games in January.
There are no do overs. Not of past seasons, or Week 1 collapses.
There is only what comes next.
Failure is an opportunity to grow.
They will, or they won’t.

Quick Hits

• Said it above, if you don’t knock out teams when you have the chance, you play with fire. That FG for the Bills to end the half was important. That only happened because the Ravens allowed the Bills to go 48 yards over 31 seconds. A lot of that was play calling from the coaching staff.
• NFL Kickoffs are again going to take sometime to get used to. Seems like the Ravens were adjusting as well, as the coverage was not great.  Was that Ravens specific, or a new league wide reality? Definitely changes the game, with teams regularly getting good starting field position.
• The FG to end the half, Ravens Rookie K Tyler Loop missing an XP, and Derrick Henry’s fumble were all big moments.  But the Ravens had the ball with 1:58 left, and were still leading 40-38. You can’t go 3 and out there. Collective blame to go around, but I didn’t like the 2nd down run to Zay Flowers.  Should also be noted that leading 40-25, the Ravens also went 3 and out.
• The fumble happened, and it was detrimental; but Henry’s greatness can not be overstated. 18 carries, 169 yards, 2 TD’s.  He’s a special kind of special. Not just a Hall of Famer, but an inner-circle talent.
• Flowers had a career high 143 yards receiving on 7 grabs, including a TD.  The Bills didn’t have any great answers for him.
• Josh Allen finished with 394 yards, and 2 TD’s.  He’s great, and he’s going to make plays. You knew going in, that it was unlikely for the Ravens to bottle him up as much as they did in the playoff game. Against a good, but not great set of Bills WR’s, I would have liked to have seen the Ravens Secondary win more of those battles… but to be fair to the Secondary, there wasn’t enough pressure from the Ravens up-front.  Five different Bills players had at-least 4 receptions.
• The Ravens D-Line (particularly Travis Jones, and Nnamdi Madubuike) had good games against the Bills rush offense.  James Cook was held in check (13 carries, 44 yards), and Allen wasn’t running wild either. Madubuike also had the Ravens lone sack.
• Daniel Faalele is huge at 6’8, 380 lbs, and he’s pretty solid in the running game with his power.  But his pass blocking leaves a lot to be desired.
• Fantastic catch from DeAndre Hopkins for his TD. Exactly as you would picture him being used.  Go make a contested grab.
• I lamented the Ravens KR defense above, but Rasheen Ali had the same 27.8 yard return average that the Bills Brandon Codrington had. So, either also a strong showing from Ali, or return coverage is an issue multiple teams will be dealing with.
• Loop’s missed XP hurt, but he did look good otherwise. Definitely has a strong leg.  Nailed his two FG attempts, including a long of 52. I know 52 is seemingly the new 35 here in ’25, but was still good to see the Ravens didn’t have any hesitancy giving him that opportunity. Shows they are confident in him.
• Mark Andrews and Rashod Bateman had a combined 3 catches for 15 yards.  I guess the positive spin there is that the Ravens gained basically zero production from that duo, and still put up 40 points.
• The Ravens beat the Bills last year in Week 4 at home, and still had to face the Bills again in January.  The regular season win didn’t guarantee a win when they saw each other again in the playoffs. The Bills came out on top last night, but these teams could see each other again. If they do face off again in January, this Bills win in September won’t mean the Bills are destined to win again in the playoffs. What the win last night does though is increase the odds if they see each other again, that the Ravens are likely to have to head back to Buffalo.

Up-Next

Joe Flacco and the Browns will arrive in Baltimore as sacrificial lambs. The Ravens are 12.5 point favorites, and given a 80.5% chance of winning according to ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor.
Cleveland lost 17-16 to the Bengals at home yesterday, in a game they had an opportunity to win.
Flacco had two picks, though I saw the second one he wasn’t helped out by his receiver.
Flacco did throw for 290 yards, and a score. Four different Browns had at-least 5 receptions, and they each had at-least 52 yards.
The Browns defense held Joe Burrow to 113 yards on 23 attempts, so they get credit there.
Cleveland had 3 sacks, 2 coming from Myles Garrett.
The Browns also held Cincinnati RB Chase Brown to 43 yards on 21 attempts.
I liked Cleveland Rookie RB Dylan Sampson at Tennessee. He had a tough showing in his pro debut yesterday, as he was limited to 29 yards on 12 carries.

Usually I’d expect a decently competitive game against their AFC North rival, but right now I’d be surprised if the Ravens don’t roll.
The Ravens figure to be ticked off, and it’s the home opener.
Flacco still has a strong arm, but the Ravens defense will probably get him to the ground multiple times.

Of course Joe isn’t going to be overwhelmed by the moment, and he might be excited for one last game at M&T.
In that sense, it’s the same as we discussed above.
The Browns are waking up this morning thinking they missed a chance to get a divisional win.
They might be thinking that’s a game they should have had.
If the Browns carry that mentality to Baltimore, and the Ravens allow Cleveland to hang around; that could be dangerous.
You want to see the Ravens come out and control the game from start to finish.
With games against Detroit and KC the following two weeks; the Ravens can absolutely not afford to start 0-2 for the second straight season.

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