Baltimore Ravens have just suffered one of their most egregious regular-season defeats. The Ravens were able to snatch defeat as the Buffalo Bills kicked in a field-goal to win with the clock ticking down to zero. Let’s discuss what happened, because there are a lot ugly things.

Lamar Jackson

The entire Ravens team made mistakes. Lamar Jackson may be the only Ravens player who is excused. Jackson had a near-perfect performance, with a rating of 144.4, a total of 209 yards through the air and two touchdowns, plus another 70 yards on the ground and a score. Jackson could not have done more to help the Ravens win tonight. It just wasn’t good enough.

The Weapons

Flowers was not present for the Ravens in last year’s playoffs against the Bills. It felt as if the Ravens would have won this game last year, if Flowers had been healthy and present. Flowers had seven catches and 143 yards on nine targets. He looked great and had excellent separation throughout the night.

Derrick Henry, who carried the ball for 169 yard at 9.4 yards per carry with two touchdowns, was probably the MVP of the evening until his fumble. Walter Peyton joined him on the record list. DeAndre Hopkins made one of the most impressive catches in Ravens’ uniforms.

Kyle Hamilton

To say the least, tonight’s defense was not great. Kyle Hamilton was the only star. He made the plays for which he is famous. He ran plays and blew screens at the line. He intercepted passes on the field. He intercepted a two point conversion attempt. Even though he got a small piece of the winning field goal, it wasn’t quite enough. Hamilton was paid as if he were the highest-paid NFL safety and acted like it.

Missed extra point

Tyler Loop had a great start to his NFL career. In his first NFL start, he walked into an hostile playoff environment and was six for six in the opening stages, nailing his field goals of 52 and 49 yard and his first four additional points. He missed the final extra point. It didn’t matter; 40 points would have been enough to win any match. If Loop makes his final extra point, Buffalo’s last field goal will only tie the game. It may not have been a big deal because the Bills could have pushed for a touchdown, if they had wanted to. It still hurts knowing that the Ravens only lost by one point because of a missed extra-point on the spreadsheet.

The Pass Rush

The Ravens pass rush was ineffective for most of the game. The Ravens’ pass rush was ineffective for most of the game. It may have been on purpose, but it seemed like they struggled to get into Allen’s face. It was frustrating to see how much time Allen needed to throw. It was disappointing that the Ravens only managed to get one sack at the end of the match. The Ravens technically did better than this, as Josh Allen had only 14 sacks in the past year. That’s less than one per game. We will have to wait and see if this Ravens pass rush is something we should be concerned about in the future or if it’s just a one-off game plan.

The Defense

The Bills offense got off to a fast start, scoring a touchdown in the first quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Bills scored a total of 22 points to win the game. The two moments were also not pretty. Allen was unable to be tackled by the pass rush, while the secondary had trouble covering him. The linebackers were also ineffective. It was costly to allow the field goal at the last second of the first half.

The only thing they came close to was an interception on a 2-point conversion. This doesn’t count technically. There were also plenty of other opportunities. The Ravens dropped a fair number of interceptions, just like last year. All offseason, the Ravens spoke about their defense becoming a sword instead of a shield. Still, they need to improve.

This defense is too talented to keep going on like this. Last year, the Ravens were able to figure it out with less talent. They will probably be able to figure it out once again this season. They showed flashes. After the Bills’ first touchdown, they forced the Bills to go three-and-out twice. The Bills need to get their feet under them quickly, as a trip to Kansas City is not far away.

Special Teams & Penalties

These two categories are still a problem, just like they were last year. The special teams were off to a bad start, as the kickoff was returned to midfield by Buffalo on their first kickoff. Other mistakes included a punt that was a miss, a kickoff which didn’t reach the touchdown zone, and a punt that almost went wrong. They did improve over the course of the game. Some of it was fluky. This unit must be stronger than last year. They didn’t begin well.

Ravens finished the game with seven penalties totaling 51 yards. These things were important in a close game. Last year, penalties were a major issue; the Ravens ranked among the league’s most penalized teams. It doesn’t seem to be improving.

Blown leads

The Ravens were leading 40-25 at the end of the fourth quarter. The Ravens lost another double-digit fourth quarter lead. Once they were up by 40-25, with about 10 minutes left, both the defense and offense began to be conservative. They lost their identity. The Bills scored 17 points in seven minutes because the defense was soft-covering.

They were the best offensive unit, but they didn’t seal the game. They punted after their last touchdown. Derrick Henry’s fumble on a two play drive allowed the Bills to get back in the game. They got the ball with less than 2 minutes left and a 2-point lead. A first down could have almost sealed the victory. It was instead a Henry 1-yard run, an ineffective Zay Flowers jet sweep, and a three-yard short dig route for DeAndre Hopkins. Instead of handing the ball to Lamar Jackson on fourth and three the Ravens punted. This gave Allen the chance to win against a defense which had not been able stop the opponent in eight minutes.

Since 2021, the Ravens have only lost eight games where they had at least a 90% chance of winning. John Harbaugh’s career has seen 17 double-digit lead blown in the second halves. At this point, they can’t get away from the identity and it will stop Lamar Jackson winning a Super Bowl Ring if they don’t fix it.