The Ravens’ offense manipulated — then crushed — the Bills
It took just four plays Sunday night. Four plays for Buffalo to decide it'd had enough. Four plays for the Bills to realize their defense had to change.
Perhaps that was always the plan. Perhaps a concession inside M&T Bank Stadium was inevitable. Or perhaps the Ravens had provided evidence so compelling — an 87-yard touchdown sprint by running back Derrick Henry on the Ravens' first play from scrimmage , plus 20 easy yards that followed over their next three plays — that Buffalo was left with no choice but to play the way the Ravens wanted, not the other way around.
It was a staring contest that lasted just minutes of game clock, less than a quarter in all. The Ravens had figured it might take longer. They want to bully defenses with their heavy personnel, want to have their offensive line and fullback Patrick Ricard and tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar clear a path for quarterback Lamar Jackson and running backs Justice Hill and Henry. The Bills want to do the opposite, want to live in light personnel — preferring to lean on quickness to swarm both the run and the pass. They entered Week 4 not having played a single snap in their "base" defense (four defensive backs) all season, operating more comfortably in "nickel" (five DBs) and "dime" (six DBs) looks instead, according to TruMedia.
But it was the Ravens (2-2) who got what they wanted Sunday night, again and again, over and over. They forced the Bills (3-1) into heavier personnel groupings, then punished them there, too. After Buffalo finally conceded on its fifth defensive play, matching the Ravens' heavy grouping with base personnel, Jackson found Hill for a 9-yard completion. On the next play against base, Henry ran for 5 yards, and Bills defensive end Dawuane Smoot was left so heated that he was flagged for unnecessary roughness. On the Bills' third snap in base, Jackson found Henry for a 5-yard touchdown pass. On Buffalo's fourth snap in base, Jackson hit Likely for a 26-yard completion.
By the end of the Ravens' 35-10 smackdown , Buffalo was beaten and broken, all but seeing stars. The Ravens finished with 427 total yards, the most the Bills have allowed in nearly a year, and 7.9 yards per play, tied for the NFL's single-game high this season.
"We have to come out and be ready to play earlier," Buffalo linebacker Baylon Spector said. "They had our numbers tonight, and they came out and out-physical-ed us and dominated on the line of scrimmage. And that is one of our goals each and every week, to come out and be physical, and they came out and got on us."
The Ravens announced their intentions early: Buffalo's penetrating, gap-shooting front would have to pay for its aggressiveness. Ricard said the "crunch" concept that Henry opened the Ravens' first drive with was near the top of offensive coordinator Todd Monken early-game script all week.
"They gave us the right look," said Ricard, who helped wall off defensive lineman Ed Oliver as center Tyler Linderbaum and tight end Mark Andrews got to the second level, "and we just executed it."
Rarely does a 271-yard rushing performance look this easy. The Ravens averaged 5.18 yards contact per carry, according to TruMedia, the most by any offense since the start of the 2023 season.
With almost unprecedented runways, Henry and Jackson took flight. Henry, the NFL's leading rusher (480 yards), finished with 24 carries for 199 yards and one rushing touchdown; a second score ended in the hands of Ricard after a goal-line fumble. According to the NFL's Next Gen Stats, Henry forced seven missed tackles and gained 119 rushing yards over expected, the third-most RYOE in a game since 2018.
The Bills were not stout enough to stuff Henry, nor were they fast enough to contain Jackson. That, more than anything, is the biggest dilemma the Ravens' personnel manipulation creates. Jackson had six carries for 54 yards, highlighted by a 9-yard score late in the third quarter on which Andrews, Likely and wide receiver Rashod Bateman all but valeted Jackson to the corner of the end zone.
"Obviously, they know the identity of us, setting the tone running the ball," Linderbaum said. "Teams are going to try and stop that. Just being able to try and be efficient with it and setting us up for other things is important."
In previous meetings, Buffalo's nickel-heavy defensive schemes had flustered Jackson and the Ravens' offense, even some of former coordinator Greg Roman's best rushing attacks. But on Sunday, the Bills came to Baltimore compromised — All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano, starting linebacker Terrel Bernard and slot cornerback Taron Johnson, all key run defenders, were sidelined by injury — and left confounded.
Against Buffalo's base personnel, the Ravens rolled up 7.1 yards per play and recorded a stellar 53.3% success rate. Against nickel and dime personnel, they averaged a stellar 8.4 yards per play and posted a still-impressive 44.2% success rate. The Ravens gave Buffalo's defense nowhere to hide and, after taking and building an early lead, few paths of escape.
"Their defense has had leads in all of their games so far, so they're able to play a certain way," Ricard said. "So for us, it was important to start the game with a lead, so that they had to play to us and they couldn't be more comfortable and do what they like to do. We knew that their base was more like a nickel defense. They didn't have three linebackers. ... So we kind of knew it was kind of a disadvantage. It would be interesting to see how they play it. But I think we executed the plays the right way, and we had a great night."
"It's one of those things with how they play," said Linderbaum, referring to Buffalo's lighter personnel and two-high-safety looks. "It's tough to stop the run. They have to bring in more people to the box. Just block the looks, block the guys and make the running backs do their thing."
That was well within the Ravens' comfort zone Sunday, which meant it was far out of Buffalo's. Sometimes the game can be that simple. The Ravens were happy to go big. The Bills, after three hours of discomfort, seemed relieved to be going home.
