The Ravens drop another heartbreaker at home to the Buffalo Bills by the score of 23-20. Here are the RSR Staff Knee Jerk Reactions.
Chad Racine
Should have let them score and I realized that early. This Bills game wasn’t much different than the Miami game. There is a problem playing four quarters of football right now in Baltimore. That is currently a problem on both sides of the ball.
John Harbaugh on going for TD instead of go-ahead FG: “I felt like it gave us the best chance to win the game.”
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) October 2, 2022
Rob Shields
Another game where the Ravens snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The refs were completely awful today and really screwed the Ravens on multiple huge calls at huge moments of the game. There is no doubt about that.
Now, with that said, the Ravens screwed themselves in all aspects of the game today. Between drops, poor throws by Lamar, dropped INTs, bad tackling and the horrific decision by Harbaugh to not take the points near the end of the game and not allowing them to score at the end, they really did everything they could to not win.
I give the defense credit in limiting the big plays and keeping the score down but in the 4th Q, your offense goes on 9+ min drive and you just let them go right down the field. Yes the RTP was bulls*** but plenty of other plays happened that needed to be stopped.
The offensive line held up well (Miller was quiet vs Faalele) and Dobbins is looking better but we have potential injuries to Bateman and Hill to worry about.
You have now lost 5 straight home games (remember when playing at home used to mean wins?) and have Cincy coming in next week, who will be well rested and has been playing better.
Marcus Peters is screaming in frustration as he leaves the field. . Peters is trying to get in Harbaugh's face and they just got separated. Peters threw his helmet.
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) October 2, 2022
Coach Harbaugh on the decision to not kick a FG: pic.twitter.com/Rkapy4Ve5H
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 2, 2022
Ronald Toothe
Well…that sucked. It’s starting to feel like these types of games are becoming the norm, incomplete performances in which at least one facet of the approach (coaching, offense, defense) hinders the rest. The Ravens were lucky to escape New England last week after blowing a lead to Miami, and once again their deficiencies were on full display in the second half against the Bills. Right now they’re just not a complete team. It’s a long season, and things can surely change, but right now it just isn’t good enough for a team with Super Bowl aspirations.
Also is it safe to say we’re seeing before our eyes that no matter how good your secondary is, ultimately it always comes down to the pass rush? Josh Allen had enough time in the second half to where it didn’t matter who the Ravens had back there, and even when guys would get home they didn’t finish plays. Allen is one of the best of course, but elite quarterbacks like him are always going to be in the way of Baltimore’s championship hopes. I’ll have more positive things to say in tomorrow’s “Good, Bad, and Ugly”, but right now this is a team in need of some soul searching.
Marcus Peters and HC John Harbaugh exchanged some words on the sideline before Buffalo's game-winning FG. CBS showed a small part of it.pic.twitter.com/FgDLvvPSk3
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 2, 2022
Darin McCann
This loss wasn’t as kick-to-the-gut disgusting as the loss to Miami, but it’s not far off, either.
Looking for some sunshine out of this, it’s probably safe to assume that, barring another catastrophic run of injuries, the Ravens are a playoff contender who can play with anybody. On the darker side, they simply are not championship contenders in any way, shape or form until they learn to close out these games.
There were two handfuls of times the Ravens could have iced this game, or at least put it more firmly under their control, but didn’t. There were some questionable decisions — by the quarterback, the coaches and the men in stripes.
This was a gross loss to the Bills. Make no mistake about it. But there’s a path for this team to get better and become an actual contender as opposed to a paper tiger. They need to learn to win, sooner than later.
The Bills had lost 39 straight games when trailing by 17+ points. The #Bills win over the Ravens is the largest comeback victory (17 points) in Josh Allen’s career. @BuffaloBills #BillsMafia https://t.co/XOsh1pVJNQ
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) October 2, 2022
Kevin McNelis
Something’s gotta give. When a team has a ten point lead at home and it still feels like an inevitability going into the second half that the lead is going to be blown, something is seriously wrong. The fact that this staff can’t seem to make in-game adjustments to hold leads shows that something is wrong and desperately needs fixing. I’m not ready to see this team become the Falcons.
This team has blown double-digit leads in both of their losses when they could easily be 4-0. They squandered what should’ve been a triumphant moment for JK Dobbins. These kinds of shortcomings are inexcusable, and can cost you a season. I can’t say I’m jazzed to be on even footing with the Bengals as they come to town.
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Jared Pinder
What a disgusting loss. There is so much to be said but this can’t continue for this team. The defense looked unbelievable in the first half and crumbled in the second, but they did do enough to win this game. Patrick Queen at this point is a lost cause and honestly my patience is wearing out with him. The pass rush is nonexistent again today which is the biggest issue with this team. If the Ravens even had a good pass rush this team would be 3-1 right now.
The offense was bad today and the players once again failing Lamar didn’t help at all. Bateman had a horrible game today with three drops, (no I don’t care about the rain), Dobbins looked good at points today but was highly inconsistent. The only pieces that looked great was Duvernay and Andrews.
As for Lamar, he looked fine, but that second half was bad. If Lamar isn’t playing like an MVP, this offense stinks.
Don’t think this coaching staff is safe either. Harbs decision to go for it was beyond egregious. If you kick the field goal you put all the pressure on the Bills. At this point the Ravens are what they are, a talented yet top heavy roster that can’t finish games with a locker room that the head coach may be losing.
If the solution to this issue is simply getting healthy, then I don’t know how much this situation changes.
Big changes need to happen because this team is not doing anything against the top AFC teams. We were promised change in 2022 and nothing feels any different from 2021. Beyond pathetic.
13 Responses
It’s getting monotonous to repeat, but Harbaugh is the worst game day coach in the league! He cost his team another loss with yet another very questionable decision, but he has a very long history of such decisions! To make matters worse, Marcus Peters confronted him after the game and he cannot afford to lose the team, which could happen!
The one thing I will have to say about Coach H. is that, historically, his teams (99%+ of the time) come to play. Having said that – he is notorious for having his dog house. Sometimes players end up there and no one knows why. In terms of the Peters comment – 1) either Peter’s will be traded as John seems to love ‘yes men’ on the team, or 2) the players will put John in their version on the dog-house and make the same ‘business decision’ that Stanley seems to have made – why play at all when I get paid the same to sit on the bench and watch. Or, why play hard and risk getting hurt (reduce future paydays )
when coach will only screw it up in the 4th quarter anyway. On the other had – at some point – the O line needs to get 48-60 inches on a 4th down.
Harbaugh has some good attributes, but game day coaching and his propensity to hire cronies and stick with underachievers and his infamous “doghouse” are glaring weaknesses! And, I question whether or not he has a
“feel” for the game! If he had taken the sure FG, it would have put pressure on the Bills to come from behind! Instead, they were able to control the clock and the ultimate outcome by only needing a FG to win……
I repeat: John Harbaugh is the worst game day coach in the league and today’s insipid decision cost his team yet another game! To make matters worse, Marcus Peters confronted Harbaugh after the game and he could lose the team!
The Ravens are 1-2 this year when they have a 17 , or more, point lead. Time for John, and Greg, the Harbaugh family friend from Michigan to go.
Fire Roman! What is he good for? You continuously build these leads only to blow them in the 2nd half and today it was bc they didn’t score. You get 20 in the 1st 30 by end of the game with our offense you better have 30-35. No adjustments or nothing. And Jerome Boger was trash.
I don’t know enough about football to put a finger on what is wrong with the raves; and, apparently, neither do the coaches!
Am I the only one who noticed the O-line was out-physicaled for parts of the 1st half and the whole 2nd half? Therefore, let’s run the “high-diddle-diddle-RB up the middle on crucial downs”?!!?!
BTW, even SEMI-elite QBs have befuddled the pass rush!!!
Was CoachJohn’s 4th down decision actually a plea to be relieved of his duties? Of course, who would replace him – GRo? Yikes!
Good coaching makes a difference, but it’s a rare commodity in the NFL, which is notorious for re-cycling them on an annual basis!
Harbaugh made the right call. He knew his D would cough up a TD if he took the 3 points. And what did Buffalo do? Drove down the field and would have easily scored a TD if they needed it. They took the 3 and the win. Proved Harbaugh’s fears. And Peters is angry at him??! LOL
Harbaugh cost them the game! Peters knew it, which is why he confronted Harbaugh, who is and has always been a bad game day coach! Taking the sure 3 points would have changed the dynamics by putting pressure on the Bills! Instead, they were able to control the clock and only needed 3 points to win!
23-20 might have been the score the Ravens won by had they kicked the FG!
i`m not even going to bring up the decisions made in the playoff run last year that cost us at least one game(4 games decided by a total of 5 points where we missed on every gambled,analytics driven decision)…
lamar has played well but he made some bid mistakes today…he completely missed andrews on a double move for an easy td …andrews beat one on one coverage and lamar overthrew him by 5 feet(threw it out of the endzone)…..he missed a wide open duvernay standing in the back of the endzone on the last int(he was looking in that direction…i don`t know how he missed him)…
theres plenty of blame to spread around…but people are getting healthy..we had a few injuries today but we are in an underperforning division so next week`s bengals game is probably more important…we aren`t as good as we looked in the 1st half…nor as bad as we looked in the second….the bengal game will show what kind of gumption this team has…
The raves are actually suffering from Pre-season hangover, similar to SuperBowl hangover.