OTL: A Convincing Victory Monday

The Baltimore Ravens gave their home crowd a treat with a convincing 35-10 victory over the Buffalo Bills. The Ravens are now 2-2 and have made quite the statement. Things are looking up to say the least and the reactions are glowingly positive. Robert Griffin III dubbed the Ravens blackout uniforms to be the “Black Air Forces” and shared a picture of a high energy Lamar Jackson looking like the MVP he is.

These are the Black Air Forces Baltimore Ravens pic.twitter.com/1fAbdJiXyS

— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) September 30, 2024

Rex Ryan believes the Baltimore Ravens are the best team in the NFL pic.twitter.com/pQurV57ISb

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 30, 2024

On ESPN’s Get Up, Rex Ryan gave glowing praise. He sees the Ravens as a Super Bowl caliber team and said “This is the one team you don’t want to play. Ever. Ever.” It’s hard to argue with Ryan. Ryan, the day before, mentioned on NFL Sunday Countdown that Zach Orr and the Ravens defense was going to get better and the Ravens could be the best team in the NFL. It was a bold claim Sunday morning. Monday morning has given us new perspective and that game was evidence of his claim. If the Ravens play the way they did on Sunday Night, they aren’t getting beaten. The Ravens must work on consistently coming into games in this fashion.

Derrick Henry reached 21.29 mph on his 87-yard TD run, tied for the 4th-fastest speed by a ball carrier this season, and Henry’s 8th-fastest speed since 2018.

Henry has reached 20+ mph 27 times as a ball carrier since 2018, trailing only Tyreek Hill (73).#BUFvsBAL | @Ravens pic.twitter.com/9ZFOUb0vhk

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 30, 2024

The biggest moment of the game was Derrick Henry’s opening touchdown run for 87 yards. Next Gen Stats from AWS puts in perspective how incredible the sprint was. Henry topped out at 21.29 miles per hour. The run was one of the most electric moments in Ravens history and was reminiscent of Jamal Lewis’s opening 80-yard touchdown against the Browns in 2003. The Ravens blocking deserves a shoutout. The triad of Roger Rosengarten, Mark Andrews and Pat Ricard made a perfect lane for Henry to burst through. When he hits a full head of steam he’s almost invincible.

A lot of times Josh Allen feels invincible on the field. Coming into the Week 4 game Allen was pace for the best season of his career and had orchestrated two blowout wins. Allen came back down to earth in a very painful way against a physical Ravens defense.

My goodness, Ravens punished poor Josh Allen pic.twitter.com/ennna8BDBf

— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) September 30, 2024

This is the most Ravens-y the Ravens defense has looked so far this year. Dudes flying around, hitting, sims + blitzes working. Lotta ballgame left tho.

— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) September 30, 2024

ESPN’s Mina Kimes pointed out that the Ravens looked like the Ravens team you’d expect to see. The Ravens certainly found themselves offensively, but Kimes makes a good point here. This was the Ravens defense of last season saying hello for the first time in the 2024 campaign. Zach Orr had his best performance as the defensive coordinator.

JOSH ALLEN ARE YOU SERIOUS

WHAT. A. PLAY. pic.twitter.com/el0TO4227l

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 30, 2024

While the day was humbling for Allen, he did have one of the greatest plays in recent memory. He ran out of real estate and jumped up and threw a rocket downfield for the most improbable completion of his season. Allen showed he’s got something special even on a rough day. The Ravens can look at the film all they want, but what can anyone do against a throw as impossible as this?

Mike Preston gave strong marks to the Ravens at every position. What he said about the offensive line stands out amongst the other grades. In his Baltimore Sun Report Card he praised the offensive line.

The Ravens had to make a few adjustments before the game, starting rookie Roger Rosengarten at right tackle and moving Patrick Mekari to left guard in place of starter Andrew Vorhees, who was out with an ankle injury. Except for the opening minutes of the third quarter, the Ravens dominated. Rosengarten more than held his own and had a good block on Henry’s 87-yard touchdown run to open the game. Both guards, Mekari and right guard Daniel Faalele, did a good job with angle blocking or blocking down, and center Tyler Linderbaum made some nice blocks into the second and even the third levels. The Ravens finished with 271 rushing yards. Enough said. Grade: A

If you would have told any Ravens writer that Vorhees would miss the game and the Ravens offensive line had a nearly perfect game I don’t think anyone would have believed you. The fact of the matter is that the Ravens had a strong showing up front. The run game has unlocked everything for this team. The pass protection was easier to carry out because the threat of the run was so great. Lamar Jackson only got pressured when the Bills came after him with an all out blitz. The Ravens offensive line was as surprising as the score, both in a good way for Baltimore. Losses by the Steelers and Browns helped make the day even more positive.

Here’s some classic Joe Flacco for us to go out on.

“[Anthony Richardson's] mom is 8 days older than I am, so there’s no chance in the world he thinks I’m cool.”

– Joe Flacco with an ALL-TIME interview with @AKinkhabwala pic.twitter.com/773ilbNIDz

— NFL on CBS (@NFLonCBS) September 29, 2024

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