Russell Street Report staff predict what we’ll see when the Buffalo Bills come to town for Week 1.
Tony Lombardi
— Joe Flacco throws for 2 scores and 247 yards leading to a passer rating of 91.1. He’ll be picked once by Micah Hyde.
— Alex Collins will rush for 100 yards on just 18 carries. Buck Allen will add another rugged 35 yards in crunch time, called upon in part because Collins will lose a first half fumble setting up the Bills only score, a 25-yard scamper by Shady McCoy.
— Michael Crabtree will finish the Ravens first offensive drive of the season with a 15-yard TD catch. ·
—James Hurst will be the primary culprit when Flacco is sacked twice for combined losses of 17 yards.
— The Ravens will register 5 sacks: Matt Judon (2); Terrell Suggs, Tim Williams, C.J. Mosley with 1 each. They will also have three picks courtesy of Messrs. Weddle, Young and Mosley, the last off a tipped pass by Brent Urban.
Ravens win, 23-7
Todd Karpovich
— The Ravens will keep constant pressure on on Bills quarterback Nathan Peterman and the secondary will finish with three turnovers. Peterman will also be sacked three times.
— The Bills secondary were solid in preventing big plays downfield last season. However, there are some questions at cornerback with Vontae Davis and Phillip Gaines still fighting for the starting spot. Flacco takes advantage and connects with John Brown for several big shots. Willie Snead also had a big day catches passes underneath.
— The Bills are not adept at getting to the quarterback, so this game should be a confidence builder for the Ravens offensive line. Flacco avoid being sacked.
— Lamar Jackson takes a couple of snaps in the red zone and scores.
— There is no pregame controversy with the National Anthem.
— Final score. Ravens 27, Bills 10.
Ken McKusick
The Ravens avoid the early mistakes that can lead to a quicksand game against a team like Buffalo. They jump out to a 2-score lead and are able to leverage that into a comfortable game-management win without any offensive players you wish you drafted for fantasy purposes.
The defense feasts on a young QB with weaknesses on the offensive interior with a savory combination of schemed pressure and 7-man drops that leads to sacks + turnovers of at least 6. The Ravens contain Lesean McCoy to no more than 75 yards on the ground and 50 in the air, but his performance accelerates the move to Kenny Young as the starting WLB. Michael Pierce will be in the backfield disrupting for much of the day.
On offense, the Ravens start an OL of Stanley, Lewis, Skura, Yanda, Brown from left to right. Joe Flacco plays like he did in the 2nd half of 2017 and avoids unforced errors involving the Bills greatest strength, their secondary. Rookie ILB Tremaine Edmunds (drafted #16 with the pick the Ravens traded) is also frustrated by play action and misdirection from the Ravens run game and gets caught in the wash and otherwise out of position. Lamar Jackson will be active as the 2nd QB (there is no controversy in my mind) and makes a play from some alignment which serves to keep opposing DCs up nights for the next few weeks.
Ryan Jones
The Ravens get a pretty cupcake game to start the 2018 season. Sure, the Bills made the playoffs last year but they shouldn’t have. We’ve all had to witness the love affair that then ensued between Andy Dalton and the city of Buffalo as a result of that Ravens meltdown. Here’s a bold prediction for you…at some point in the next three years the Bengals cut Dalton and he becomes the starting quarterback for the Bills. Andy Dalton and the Bills are two of the lamest things in the NFL. It’s just too perfect for it not to happen. By the way I’m not still bitter.
Anyway, this game is at home, it’s against Nathan Peterman and the Bills and the Ravens are as healthy entering the regular season as they have been in quite some time.
Flacco jumpstarts his career year throwing for over 300 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Two go to John Brown and one goes to Patrick Ricard.
Matthew Judon introduces himself to everyone outside of Baltimore notching three sacks. Ravens win a game to start the season in comfortable fashion. 27-10
Chad Racine
Remember the shutout opener last year against the Bengals? This game is going to look a lot like that. The defense still has a sour taste in their mouth from how the season ended. They also don’t forget the team and fans that celebrated after that heartbreaking loss. If that wasn’t enough the video of Andy Dalton getting a standing ovation in Buffalo in preseason was a fresh reminder of that sting. It kind of reminds me of how the 2011 season ended and we know how the 2012 season turned out.
By all accounts Buffalo’s offensive line may be the very worst in the league. The defensive line may not be much better. As a matter of fact there are concerns at nearly every position group on the team. The Bills were expected to be awful last year but they played hard for their coach Sean McDermott and even squeaked into the playoffs.
Shutouts are hard to come by in the NFL and the Ravens had 3 last year. They start the year off with just missing a shutout only allowing 3 points.
There will be 5 sacks with many quarterback hurries causing interceptions. Tim Williams will come away with 2 of the sacks.
Five turnovers in total with at least 3 interceptions. Peterman threw 5 last year in his first start and the Ravens defense will remind him of his first start last year as they will keep him flustered all game.
Flacco also gets off to a hot start throwing 3 touchdowns. He is a man on a mission if you haven’t figured that out by now. He’s best when the pressure is on and his hot preseason will carry over into the season.
Michael Crabtree and John Brown will become fan favorites right out of the gate with hot starts. If both of them don’t get into the end zone they will still make their marks in the game.
Ravens win 27-3
Brian McFarland
This is a game the Ravens must win. Buffalo has a weaker team than last year (why trade Tyrod?) and the Ravens are a better team than last year. Flacco and the offense get the season started off on a high note, getting out to an early lead and the running game closes out the game in fashion with 2 late rushing TDs. Flacco throw for 225 and 2 scores. The defense gives up one big play, but otherwise manhandles Buffalo’s offensive line.
The game is close through 3 quarters, but the outcome is never in doubt – Ravens 31, Buffalo 10.
Carey Stevenson
The interior trio of Vlad Ducasse, Ryan Groy and John Miller isn’t keeping anyone up at night…except maybe Sean McDermott. Even likely without Willie Henry the Ravens will throw some pretty imposing interior lineman at the Bills comes sunday. Expect the pocket to collapse a good bit with Za’Darius Smith being the biggest beneficiary. My first bold prediction is Za’Darius Smith notches 3 sacks in the season opener.
Piggy backing off prediction one, i expect a very motivated Ravens front spearheaded by the returns on Brandon Williams and Brent Urban. Last season the Ravens finished the season giving up 4.1 yards per carry…not an alarming number for most teams but for a team with the history this team has defense, it felt more like 5.0. My second bold prediction is the Ravens will hold the Bills under 3 yards per carry on sunday.
I haven’t forgot about the offense. We aren’t quite sure what to expect as far as Lamar Jackson’s involvement this season. I think there has been enough talk that we can safely assume he’ll have a role. An easy scenario for me to envision is he’s inserted at QB in the redzone to give the defense something else to think about. I’d also imagine a couple snaps where he and Flacco share the field. While i don’t expect his role to surpass 6 or snaps i think he cashes in on his opportunities. My third bold prediction for the season opener is Lamar Jackson accounts for 2 touchdowns. One passing, one rushing.
Cole Jackson
On paper this game looks like a cake walk. The Ravens have the edge at just about every positional group and we know how the defense fed on below average quarterbacks last year. Nathan Peterman deserves some credit for improving during the preseason, but until he does it in a regular season game it’s hard to put too much into it.
That regular season ‘prove it’ game for Peterman isn’t coming in Week 1. Expect the Ravens to have a few sacks and 2 INT (Eric Weddle and Tavon Young are my predictions).
On offense, we’ll get to see the refreshed receiving corp, minus the injured Hayden Hurst, playing with a healthy Flacco. I expect to see Flacco throw for 2 scores and with Breshad Perriman officially cut I don’t expect any INT off the hands of our own receivers! Hooray for progress!
27-6 for the good guys.
Adam Bonaccorsi
Let me preface here… 90% CHANCE OF RAIN AT KICKOFF SUNDAY.
This is why we’re going to see a sloppy, low scoring affair in Baltimore. Well, that, and 2 subpar offensive lines.
The Bills OL is hands down the worst in the NFL, and would probably be like 50th ranked in D1 NCAAF ball right now. The Ravens defense will dismantle them at every level, and we’ll end up seeing Nathan Peterman pulled at halftime (performance and injury-based move) for rookie QB Josh Allen. I’m giving the D (5) sacks, (4) turnovers, (3) points allowed, (2) QBs faced, and (1) win.
The Ravens offense however, isn’t going to fare as well as many hope. At least not this week, behind this version of the OL if you’re to believe the depth chart. James Hurst shouldn’t be starting at RT, Matt Skura shouldn’t be starting at C, and Joe shouldn’t be focused on checking down with no time in the pocket… but that’s what we’ll see a ton of, accompanied by the usual boo birds. 200 yards, 2 TD and a pick for Joe.
Ultimately, the Ravens O wears down the Bills in Q4, and Wink doesn’t Pees away a lead.
Player of the Game: Matt Judon with a strip sack, and a fumble recovery for a TD (2 separate plays).
BAL 23 BUF 10
Derek Arnold
Whole lotta purple kool-aid sippin’ going on here. I love that, as a rule (I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve picked the Ravens to lose a game going in since I started blogging back in 2007).
However, we need some balance here to round this thing out. So, here goes…
Peterman had a solid preseason. Unlike Daunte Culpepper before him, he continues it, shell shocking the Ravens a bit with two first-half touchdown strikes. James Hurst reminds everyone (his coaches, for some reason, need this reminder) that he is a decent guard, but an awful tackle – he gives up two sacks and allows a handful of run plays to be blown up before being replaced by Zeus Jr. to start the second half. (FILMSTUDY promises us that James isn’t REALLY starting at RT, so fingers crossed, but for now I’m trusting the depth chart).
Baltimore trails 14-10 at the half, and John Harbaugh’s seat is suddenly hotter than the Baltimore weather this week.
The Ravens rally in the second half to take a 24-21 lead with under five minutes to play. Peterman leads the Bills as far as midfield before Wink shows us that he isn’t Dean Pees, bringing the house on a 4th-and-7 to effectively end the game just after the two-minute warning.
Ravens 24 Bills 21
(that’s as pessimistic as I get!)
