Buffalo Bills take a beating in Baltimore, lose 35-10 on ‘SNF’

The Buffalo Bills lost the coin toss to the Baltimore Ravens as they met for a much-anticipated Sunday Night Football date, and that was just the start of the beating they would take.

Buffalo starting a game on offense is usually a good thing as quarterback Josh Allen is good at leading drives that will set the tone for the game and get the Bills on the board early. Well, the tone was set – and no points were scored. In an awkward first drive, Josh Allen slid inches short of the first down marker on a third down, but head coach Sean McDermott didn't hesitate for the fourth and inches in his own territory just to punt on a fourth and two at midfield minutes later.

If it was field advantage McDermott was worried about giving up, it was pointless. On the Ravens' first play from scrimmage – a play that started at their own 13 – running back Derrick Henry went untouched into the secondary and then got in a foot race with Damar Hamlin and there was no way Hamlin was ever going to win. Eighty-seven yards for six and the Ravens never looked back.

Buffalo tried to settle things down when they got the ball back, but after controversy about whether center Conner McGovern had been cleared of a head injury and a trip to the sideline by Khalil Shakir who needed his ankle re-wrapped, the Bills had to settle for a 50-yard field goal from kicker Tyler Bass.

That was the last positive the Bills would experience. The second quarter started with Henry catching a swing pass and taking it in five yards to put the Ravens up 14 –3. Baltimore would add another score, a 19-yard pass to Justice Hill, with seven and a half minutes left in the half.

A small win for the Bills came the next time Baltimore had the ball. Linebacker Baylon Spector, playing for Terrel Bernard who is still recovering from a pectoral injury suffered in week 2, recovered a Lamar Jackson fumble. However, the Bills offense – as was the case all night – was unable to do anything with the gift.

The first half ended 21-3 in what felt like an even-more lopsided game than that. Buffalo had a total 90 yards of offense compared to Baltimore's 281 yards. The Ravens were averaging 10 yards per play compared to the Bills 3. Yet, somehow, the time of possession was close to even with Buffalo actually being on offense for a minute more than Baltimore.

It was obvious that the Bills' holes on defense – being forced to start three second string players in the middle along with losing two All Pro safeties during the offseason – was being exposed by the Ravens' game plan. And Buffalo had no answer to stop the bleeding.

The second half started with it appearing as if maybe the Bills had quickly regrouped, and both the offensive and defensive coordinators had dug into their bags and found new gameplans.

After forcing the Ravens to punt for the first time, the Bills offense came alive with Josh Allen doing Josh Allen things. Specifically launching a 52-yard pass to Shakir releasing the ball just .9 yards from the sideline. A play later and Ty Johnson was in the endzone.

Another forced 3-and-out by the Bills defense and Allen and crew were back to work and it looked like the momentum had swung. But then, they tried to get cute and disaster struck. Allen lined up out wide while Curtis Samuel took the snap. Baltimore wasn't buying any of it and after Samuel tossed the ball to Allen, the quarterback fumbled, but more importantly was shaken up – as was tight end Dalton Kincaid who was hit by Marlon Humphrey drawing an unnecessary roughing penalty.

The Ravens, who recovered the fumble, scored on a 9-yard Lamar Jackson scramble. And, suddenly, any type of momentum that had started to swing toward Buffalo was back with the Ravens who couldn't do anything wrong the rest of the night. Even a Derrick Henry fumble at the two-yard line bounces around and ends up with the Ravens for another score.

On a night that the Bills couldn't get anything right, they even sent a beat-up Josh Allen back into the game down 35-10 with just over 11 minutes left in the game. The fact that the Bills went three-and-out seemed more like a relief than anything else as Allen was chased all over the field.

Apparently the near-missed disaster got the attention of McDermott and when Buffalo's offense headed back out with just over seven minutes left in the game, it was Mitch Trubisky who was at the helm as Allen and the majority of the starting offensive line – Dion Dawkins, Conner McGovern, David Edwards – along with James Cook sat.

We can say that the Bills defense is depleted. They are missing three starters. They have inexperienced safeties. On offense they don't have a true WR 1. But this game was lost in the trenches. Where the offensive line couldn't buy Allen any time and the defensive line wasn't plugging holes. The Ravens came with a gameplan that exposed the Bills' weaknesses but more importantly, the Bills didn't have an answer – on either side of the ball – for what Baltimore brought to the field. And they were handed their worst beating in 43 games.

Final Bills 10, Ravens 35.