ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — During the first half Sunday night, as the Ravens racked up points on the Bills, new Buffalo receiver Joshua Palmer walked over to teammate Khalil Shakir.
“OK, so when do we normally start to pick it up?” Palmer asked Shakir. “You know, like the Bills I’ve been watching.”
Palmer joined the Bills this offseason as a free agent. His former team, the Los Angeles Chargers, lost in dramatic fashion in a one-and-done playoff appearance last season. Meanwhile, Buffalo went punch-for-punch with the Kansas City Chiefs into the final moments of the AFC title game.
When does that team show up?
“Usually towards the end of the second half,” Shakir told Palmer. “We’ve got 17.”
You know who 17 is. It’s a bird. It’s a plane.
Josh Allen celebrates with Bills kicker Matt Prater after Buffalo stunned the Ravens on Sunday night. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Josh Allen and the Bills scored 18 points in the last 3:56 of this game. He finished with 394 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and 30 rushing yards with two more touchdowns on the ground. The Bills beat the Ravens 41-40 at Highmark Stadium.
Maybe Bills fans needed a pep talk from Shakir, because even they began to head for the exits in the fourth quarter when the Ravens widened their gap. And to the defense of Bills Mafia, there were times when the Buffalo defense didn’t appear capable of even getting their hands on the Ravens’ ball carriers — let alone tackle them. It seemed hopeless when Derrick Henry — then Lamar Jackson, then Zay Flowers — was running untouched into the deep third of the Buffalo defense.
But the Bills never let doubt creep in.
“No one on the sideline blinked. Fans leaving the stadium,” Allen said, smirking, during his postgame press conference. “You’ve gotta play 60 minutes.”
The Bills won? It still doesn’t really even make sense.
“Ya’ll could’ve warned me that it was gonna be like that!” Palmer told me after the game.
He’d been waiting for that team to show up. And when it did, he didn’t realize what it would be like be a part of that team.
There were too many huge plays to count, especially when you figure in the incredible display of offense from Jackson and the Ravens. That final drive, however, was nothing short of magic. To get into an easy chip-shot field goal, Allen found Shakir, Palmer and Keon Coleman for big plays. The drive before that, it was rookie tight end Jackson Hawes who had a huge play. Before that, it was running back James Cook who had a huge play.
Joshua Palmer reacts after completing a catch against the Ravens at Highmark Stadium on Sunday. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
There wasn’t one star who stole the show with Allen, which was why Shakir was quick to remind reporters that “Everyone Eats” motto that the Bills lived by in 2024 will apparently extend into 2025.
“It was chaotic,” tackle Dion Dawkins said. “It was the craziest game I’ve ever been a part of. Nope, can’t say that. Thirteen-second game [when the Chiefs won in stunning fashion against the Bills in the playoffs]. This one is quantity two.”
The Ravens didn’t roll over. Henry had a 46-yard landing run within the fourth quarter. Jackson linked with DeAndre Hopkins, who made a one-handed, 29-yard landing seize regardless of double protection. For essentially the most half, Baltimore was going backwards and forwards with the Payments — till these final three drives, which went punt, fumble and punt. Jackson had 209 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 70 dashing yards and a landing. Henry rushed for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Baltimore rushed for 238 yards.
These defensive stops introduced life again into the Payments’ probabilities — which, by the way in which, crept again from 99.1% on ESPN’s mannequin.
“If there’s time on the clock, we have now an opportunity,” Coleman stated. “Now we have an important chief, nice quarterback, and an important individual again there making these performs. … Whether or not you get him within the first quarter otherwise you get him for one drive, he’s going to determine you out. And when he does, good luck stopping him.”
Simply to present a deeper sense of the improbability of all of it, let’s have a look at the comeback within the context of historical past. The final time the Payments received a sport when trailing by 15-plus factors within the fourth quarter was in 1967, per FOX Sports activities Analysis. And the way about this one: Groups with 40-plus factors and 235-plus dashing yards in a sport have been 277-0, together with the playoffs. They have been. Till Sunday.
Make that 277-1.
“It’s insane. One thing particular is going on right here at One Payments Drive,” Dawkins stated. “You may inform. You may really feel it, as a result of stuff do not occur like that — not like that.”
He’s proper, traditionally talking. Dawkins made clear the Payments are “the correct group,” and that the comeback was thanks largely to his quarterback — however not solely because of Allen. However once I requested Dawkins whether or not Allen is likely to be one of many NFL’s most improved gamers, traditionally talking, he didn’t agree. He appears like Allen has all the time had it in him.
“It is nearly like seeing Allen Iverson for the primary time — skinny — after which watching that develop. ‘Oh he’s too small.’ Growth,” Dawkins stated. “Michael Jordan couldn’t get accepted into his [top] school [choice]. … After which growth: greatest participant of all time. That is what is going on on.”
There may be yet another dialog between gamers value sharing from this sport. As a result of it wasn’t really Allen who ended the sport. It was Matt Prater. For all of the speak about how particular this group is, Prater wasn’t a member of the group till three days in the past. The Payments signed the 41-year-old kicker as a result of Tyler Bass needed to go on injured reserve with a hip/groin damage.
Allen recalled Prater pulling him apart earlier than the sport.
“‘Hey, I promise you I’m going to present you all the pieces I’ve received tonight,'” the kicker instructed Allen.
Allen returned the favor.
Earlier than becoming a member of FOX Sports activities as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years overlaying the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports activities Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Comply with him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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