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Another fantastic matchup between AFC heavyweights ended in thrilling fashion on Sunday night, as Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the Baltimore Ravens, 41-40, thanks to a walk-off field goal.
The Bills outscored the Ravens, 22-6, in the fourth quarter, and everything started turning the home team’s way at Highmark Stadium when Derrick Henry, who had a stellar night otherwise, fumbled with 3:10 left in the fourth quarter while Baltimore held a 40-32 lead.
After Buffalo’s fumble recovery, Allen found Jackson Hawes to set up the Bills on the goal line, and he leaped over his offensive line to make it a two-point game. The Bills, trying its third two-point conversion of the game, were unsuccessful for the third straight time as Keon Coleman couldn’t haul in the back-shoulder fade.
The Ravens, who couldn’t be stopped on offense in the first three quarters of this game, still controlled their own destiny if Lamar Jackson & Co. could get a first down. But the Bills, riding all their momentum, forced a three-and-out and Allen took advantage.
Allen was dissecting the Ravens’ defense, with the biggest play being a 32-yard strike to new receiver Josh Palmer to get into field goal range. On the very next play, Coleman made up for the drop in the end zone with a 25-yard catch-and-run to Baltimore’s nine-yard line with 46 seconds left to play.
The Bills were able to walk the clock down, and Matt Prater buried the 32-yard attempt to complete a miraculous comeback to begin the new season.
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Allen, the reigning league MVP, racked up 394 passing yards and 30 rushing yards with four total touchdowns – two passing and two rushing – to start his season on the right foot. But this game appeared to be a story for Jackson and Henry after what they did against a Bills defense that didn’t have an answer until the very end.
Henry, who had almost 2,000 rushing yards in his first Ravens season in 2024, leads the NFL thus far in Week 1 after totaling 169 yards on 18 carries with two long touchdown runs. It was clear from the start of this game that Henry was going to pick up where he left off in 2024. The Ravens’ offensive line was making clear lanes at the line of scrimmage, and the bruising back didn’t waste them.
But Jackson was doing it all for the Ravens, too, as he scored once on the ground and was dishing out touchdown passes to Zay Flowers and DeAndre Hopkins, the latter of which being a highlight-reel snag. He finished the game with 210 passing yards with just five incompletions on his 19 attempts, while rushing for 70 yards and a score on six carries.
The Ravens scored on each of its first five possessions in this game, and it began after Allen and the Bills opening their 2025 season with a perfectly executed touchdown drive, where Dalton Kincaid hauled in a strike from Allen to make it 7-0 after the extra point. Baltimore was able to get in field goal range for new kicker Tyler Loop to bury a 52-yard field goal to notch the first of his career.
Once Baltimore forced a three-and-out, Henry ripped off a 30-yard touchdown early in the second quarter to give the Ravens its first lead of the new season. Then, on the team’s next possession, Henry almost took it to the house yet again, this time being stopped after a 49-yard gain on just the second play from scrimmage.
Two plays later, Jackson took the ball on a designed run to the left and was virtually untouched to make it 17-7 in favor of the road team. Buffalo would tally two more field goals in the first half to stay within a score, but Baltimore wasted no time when they got the ball back to start the second half.
This was the Flowers drive, as the leading Ravens receiver with 143 yards got 62 of those on back-to-back plays. First, a 39-yard catch-and-run set the Ravens up in Buffalo territory just outside the red zone. Then, Jackson wasted no time finding him for a 23-yard connection that blew the ball open, 27-13.
Allen, knowing the Bills needed to answer at home, dug deep and managed to go 60 yards on nine plays where James Cook, the league’s leader in rushing touchdowns a season ago, got his first of the new campaign from two yards out. The team’s two-point conversion failed, leaving the score 27-19.
Baltimore would continue putting pressure on the Bills, and perhaps the biggest score of the night was Hopkins, the newest Ravens receiver, showing off catching ability with a one-handed snag for a 29-yard touchdown on his first target with his new team.
Allen and the Bills responded yet again when they needed a touchdown, as the quarterback scampered into the colored paint from two yards out. But Buffalo was unable to convert their two-point try, leaving it a two-score game for Baltimore.
Henry, though, didn’t care for the “Bills Mafia” getting rowdy in the fourth quarter. The running back busted out a 46-yard touchdown run after Jackson’s 19-yard run, where he was about the same distance behind the line of scrimmage before making multiple defenders miss to keep the drive alive on third-and-10 with a first down.
But it was all Buffalo after that Henry score. They put together 16 unanswered points to shock Baltimore and start the 2025 season in grand fashion.
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