Whole Team Effort Was Key To Bills Week Five Victory
It was not a pretty game this past weekend for the Buffalo Bills. At least in the first half, it wasn’t. It was a sloppy game in the rain and man, this team came out and looked very bad early on in the first quarter. However, they were able to quickly turn it around in the second half and came back to win in a thrilling game over the Ravens.
Buffalo Bills Showed Resiliency Despite Early Miscues
They spotted Baltimore to a seven-to-nothing lead in the first minute of the game after Allen’s pass was tipped and picked off.
Singeltary then fumbled two drives later which again set the Ravens up in great field position, and the Ravens tacked on three more on that drive. The defense did a great job of holding the Ravens to only three points on a drive that started with such good field position.
We knew that the Bills were going to come back in this game right? We had to know they were going to claw their way back into it. This offense is too good to be held back all game. We saw this offense come back to life when they got a touchdown right before the half ended to cut down the Ravens’ lead to 20-10.
Going into the locker room the Buffalo Bills had all the momentum and we knew this team had heart and was special. So we were expecting the Bills to come out fighting in the second half and that’s exactly what they did. So what was the key to a Bills victory?
Keys To The Bills Victory
The Buffalo Bills found a way to win this game because they played terrific team football in the second half of the game. The defense came out to start the second half with a three-and-out by the Ravens, and then the Bills proceeded to march down the field and tack on a field goal.
All phases of the game and the team had to be in sync and they all had to do their job properly. The defense needed to hold the ravens and ensure they didn’t score any more points, or at least any more touchdowns in the second half.
The offense had to go down the field and do their job. They had seven dropped passes in this game. Everyone had a bad drop at one point in the game, but they just had to move on and look ahead to the next play. In a game where the football was wet and it was difficult to get a grip on it, everyone started to come together and played sound football in that second half.
Diggs and Mackenzie in particular both made great catches to keep the chains moving. Knox came up big on that game-winning drive with a huge third-down conversion catch. The team fed off each other and they won this game as a team.
The defense stepped up big as well. Von Miller and Rousseau once again remained dominant and both had great games. They put pressure on Jackson and didn’t let him get too comfortable back there.
Kair Elam was once again a complete shutdown corner. I barely heard his name mentioned at all, and that’s a great thing. Teams are not throwing his way right now because he is blanketing his opponents. If Elam continues to play at this high of a level moving forward, this is going to be a very difficult defense to move the ball on once White comes back. This secondary is very good and only going to get better.
I also want to give a big shout-out to Shaq Lawson and Greg Rousseau as well on that fourth down play for the Ravens. If they don’t provide that pressure and get Jackson to throw the ball off his back foot, then he most likely finds his receiver in the back of the end zone for a wide-open touchdown. Because of the pressure it forced Jackson to retreat and allowed Poyer time to get over and make the game-saving interception.
Allen had the ball with just about four minutes left to go and we knew he was going to do what he does best. And that is to lead his team right down the field for a game-winning score.
Knox came up big, Diggs came up big, Shakir came up big, and Singeltary moved the chains as well. Everyone on offense contributed. The play calling and time management by Mcdermott and Dorsey was excellent and also very crucial to that game-winning drive.
What we saw out of this team on Sunday was their ability to find ways to win when they’re not operating at 100%. They had a couple of bad turnovers early on in the game, they got down early, and had some bad drops and plays. But when they could’ve just put their head down and looked ahead to next weekend back at home against the Steelers. They never gave up.
The defense stepped up and made plays and stops when they needed to. The offense started clicking, and on a damp day when Allen wasn’t at his best passing the ball, he made plays with his legs. 70 yards and a touchdown along with a huge fourth down conversion as well on a play that looked like it was doomed from the start.
This team is special. They play for each other and they play for their fans and it’s very exciting to watch.
It was truly a great team performance all around on all phases of the ball. Three and one sounds a lot better than being two and two. We go home this weekend to face a struggling Steelers team with a rookie quarterback making his first career start. I already know this defensive unit is licking their chops on this one. Let’s pick up another win and keep this train rolling!
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