Bills pull off miraculous fourth-quarter comeback, stun Ravens with walk-off FG in classic shootout

What a win for the Bills in the opening game of their final season in Highmark Stadium. Down by 15 points in the fourth quarter and they come all the way back with consecutive touchdowns and then a field goal surrounding a Derrick Henry fumble and a three-and-out. Matt Prater gets the winning kick after just arriving in Buffalo after Tyler Bass went on injured reserve. What an incredible game. Wow.

Josh Allen just ripping completions again and again and again to get the Bills down the field. A mistake from Jaire Alexander may have just secured the win for Buffalo, which will now have a chip-shot field goal attempt pretty soon. Alexander should have let his man score the touchdown there rather than diving for a tackle.

I cannot believe what is happening in this game. This is so crazy. The Bills are about to get the ball back with a chance to win the game after the Ravens went run-run-pass and three-and-out. 1:26 and no timeouts for Josh Allen from the 20-yard line.

Buffalo got right down to the goal line and then quickly into the end zone on a Josh Allen QB leap. But Nate Wiggins broke up the two-point pass intended for Keon Coleman. Bills still down by 2 points. They have all three timeouts left, so the Ravens will have to get at least one first down in order to run out the clock.

For the third time in the game the Bills corralled Henry behind the line of scrimmage. This time, they stripped him of the ball, too. And now they have a chance to tie the game with just a short touchdown drive. What a play by Ed Oliver, who had one of the other tackles for loss as well.

Just when you thought they were out.... the Bills pull you back in! Josh Allen scrambling around with nobody to whom to throw, puts it up for grabs, it gets deflected, and it somehow lands in the arms of Keon Coleman. Now the Bills need to get another stop and another score so they can try to go for the tie. (Why they kicked the XP this time instead of going for two again, who knows.)

Baltimore finally went another drive without scoring. It's not a coincidence that the two Ravens drives to end without points were those where the Bills actually tackled Derrick Henry for a loss, by the way. But now Buffalo needs to hurry up and score. 

As they explained several times on the broadcast, the officials missed the spot of the ball on a Josh Allen scramble and slide that should have been a first down. After a holding penalty and a sack, the Bills had to punt it away instead. Against an opponent that has scored on all but one drive, that's ... dangerous. This one might be over soon.

I feel like I should just copy/paste the previous section. What do you even say about a guy like Derrick Henry? How does a man his age, his size, keep doing things like this? Ravens up by 15 again.

How many yards do you think Lamar Jackson actually ran on this play for a 19-yard gain? How on earth was this not a sack? What do you even say about something like this? 

Remember earlier, when the Bills kicked a PAT but there was a penalty, so they went for two? And remember how they converted with a pass to Keon Coleman, but he had run out of bounds, so the conversion was erased? Well, that sequence was why they needed to go for two again just now. But they missed on the two again, so now they're down by 9. Unfortunate sequence of events.

(Yes, going for two early is the right move because you want as much information as possible about how many possessions you need. Going for two later only prolongs the feeling that you're still in it. You have much less time to course-correct if you miss on the two-point conversion later on, which is why you want to go as early as possible. The point is to try to win the game, not tie it.) 

The Bills set up an absolutely perfect screen pass to James Cook, and he simply ran through and away from the entire Ravens defense on his way to a 51-yard gain. He came across the formation for the screen, then broke a couple tackles and took off into the secondary. Bills are in business at the goal line. Great play by Nate Wiggins to prevent the TD, but it was only temporary. Josh Allen ran it in on a bootleg two plays later.

Kyle Hamilton didn't miss much time due to the hand injury. He's back in there for Buffalo's next drive.

Baltimore has moved the ball pretty much at will in this game. There's only been one drive where the Ravens didn't score. They're averaging a ridiculous 9.1 yards per play. Yes, really. And yet the Bills can make this a one-score game if they can manage to move down the field on this next drive. They still have a ways to go and would then have to get a stop, but it's within reach heading into the fourth quarter.

After yet another big catch and run by Zay Flowers, DeAndre Hopkins just turned back the clock with an absolutely outrageous contested catch for a touchdown up the right sideline. One-handed, between two defenders... W-O-W. 84th touchdown grab of his career.

🚨 🚨 🚨 KYLE HAMILTON WENT TO THE LOCKER ROOM 🚨 🚨 🚨

It's a hand injury for Hamilton, who is QUESTIONABLE to return. Huge loss for the Ravens if he can't come back. Best safety in the NFL.

A little trickeration! Allen was pinned between several defenders in the end zone but managed to escape from the crowd and then flip the ball like a shovel pass as he was escaping the pocket, for a big gain to Khalil Shakir. Man, is it fun to watch these two guys play quarterback.

The Bills went for two after a penalty on the extra point, and they converted... but Keon Coleman ran out of bounds and then was the first player to touch the ball, so the try was no good. That could be quite important later!

The Bills converted a fourth down thanks to pass interference on new Ravens CB Jaire Alexander. He had a handful of Josh Palmer's arms as Palmer tried to come back to the ball on a floated pass from Allen down the field. (That fourth-down play design looked A LOT like the play the Bills ran against the Chiefs on fourth down in the playoffs, but it was unsuccessful that time.) 

Two plays later, it's James Cook plowing into the end zone to get the Bills back to within one score. 9 plays, 60 yards in just about 5 minutes. Much-needed scoring drive for Buffalo. 

Coverage bust on the back end leaves Zay Flowers as wide open as he's ever been in his life to get the Ravens just outside the red zone. Then it's a fake jet sweep into a wide receiver screen for Flowers, who gets great blocking out in front and takes it to the end zone. All Flowers, all the time, and the Ravens are back up by two scores. They've scored on every drive of the game.

What a couple of plays from Josh Allen, my god. Rolling to his left and throwing back across his body to find Shakir for the big gain to get just across midfield. And then firing an absolute laser to Kincaid on the sideline to set up Matt Prater's field goal to end the half. You cannot do an end-of-half drive without timeouts any better than that. Wow.

The Ravens looked like they were about to add another touchdown to their lead but Joey Bosa made a huge play, stripping Justice Hill of the ball on a zone read run and forcing a 15-yard loss. That set the Ravens back to second-and-25 and they basically just tried to run clock from there, leaving the Bills as little time as possible for a final drive. Tyler Loop knocked in another long field goal, this time from 49 yards out to make it 20-10.

Another third-down conversion later in the drive got the Bills just outside the Baltimore 10-yard line, but they stalled out from there. Khalil Shakir caught a crossing route on third down but he was tackled well short of the first-down marker so Buffalo settled for a field goal from new kicker Matt Prater to cut the lead down to 10-7.

Worth noting that they kicked a field goal from deep in the red zone. Remember that if they are chasing a few additional points later in the game. When you have Josh Allen, it's always preferable to put the game in his hands, rather than on your kicker's leg.

What a throw on the run from Josh Allen to pick up a third-and-long. He zipped that ball right in behind Roquan Smith to a sliding Keon Coleman, while moving to his left. Bills desperately needed that after falling behind by two scores.

Even with Henry on the sideline, Lamar Jackson was able to scamper right into the end zone off a zone read. It's the third time he's read the left side of the defensive line on one of those zone reads with Justice Hill, the third time he's kept it and the third time he's picked up a first down or (this time) touchdown. Easy work. Ravens up 17-7, running the ball at will.

Going with a light box against this Ravens team is not advisable. Henry easily got to the second level and then nobody was able to touch or break him down for quite some time. What a run. Already 101 yards and a touchdown on seven carries.

After another third-and-short conversion (on another Lamar zone read), Henry made the Bills pay in the way he has made so many teams pay before. He broke in the second level, broke a tackle and sped away from the rest of the defense to give the Ravens their first lead of the night.

LOOK AT THE STIFF ARM. Poor Cole Bishop.

Just when it looked like the Bills were going to have a chance to open up a two-score lead, the Ravens stopped them in their tracks. A first-down run got Buffalo near midfield, but James Cook was stuffed on back-to-back runs up the middle and the Bills had to punt. (There was an adventure on the punt as well where it looked like the Bills might be set up deep in Ravens territory, but a Bills player touched the ball before it bounced off a Ravens gunner, not the other way around.)

Right after I mentioned how the Ravens converted their first two third-down opportunities, they did about as poorly with the next one as you possibly can. They had a false start to turn third-and-short into third-and-long, then Lamar lost 15 yards on a sack. Rookie kicker Tyler Loop bailed them out with a 52-yard field goal to make this a 7-3 game.

Baltimore has gotten into third-and-3 on each of its first two series. Justice Hill came onto the field for both in place of Derrick Henry. Lamar hit him with a quick pass into the flat to convert the first try, then faked him the ball on a zone read before running in the opposite direction to convert the second. Baltimore moving into Buffalo territory now.