Sunday night’s matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Buffalo Bills promised to be a spectacle, with the last two NFL MVPs lining up under center on opposite sides. It delivered. In fact, it more than delivered, nearly resulting in overtime as Josh Allen and Co. stormed back from down 15 points in the fourth quarter to edge Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry’s squad, 41-40.
Matt Prater, who just joined the Bills three days earlier as an emergency replacement for the injured Tyler Bass, kicked the game-winning 32-yard field goal for Buffalo. That was after a tizzy of fourth-quarter action between the AFC heavyweights, including a forced fumble of Henry and a laser of a throw from Allen to Keon Coleman to help set up the walk-off kick.
Henry and Lamar Jackson repeatedly sliced through the Bills’ defense earlier in the game, with Henry gashing them up the middle and Jackson doing so to the outside. Henry ripped off an especially impressive touchdown run featuring a trademark stiff-arm and another one-cut run later on that resulted in a 49-yard gain. At the break, he was already up to 123 yards and a score, ultimately finishing with 169 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground.
Here are our top takeaways from Sunday’s fireworks, which have the Bills at a hard-earned 1-0 to start the 2025 season:
Play of the game
Take your pick from maybe a dozen highlights, but this fourth-down fourth-quarter lob from Allen to the end zone, where a tipped ball ended up in the arms of a diving Keon Coleman, epitomized the magic of Buffalo’s comeback:
These two deserve a January rematch
Everyone loves a good Week 1 circus, but this game could’ve just as easily been an AFC Championship. No, the defenses weren’t exactly championship-caliber, but boy did the MVP quarterbacks live up to the hype. Both Allen and Jackson were otherworldly in their dynamism throughout the contest, with Jackson excelling on the move and Allen coming up big with clutch throws down the stretch. Baltimore will feel the sting of this for a while, squandering a two-touchdown lead, but you can bet Jackson and Co. would welcome a rematch. If this first round is any indication of what might be on the horizon, a postseason encore might register as the top must-see matchup of the winter. The Ravens, however, might really want to tighten their late-game screws. More on that:
Jim Harbaugh continues to have problems late
The Ravens have a knack for losing late leads under Harbaugh’s watch, and Sunday was an emphatic reminder. We know Baltimore is generally well-coached. Harbaugh’s track record displays that pretty clearly. But his squads have blown more double-digit fourth-quarter leads than anyone since the early 1990s, as the Associated Press reported last season, and this one was fairly egregious. Yes, Allen and the Bills are a powerhouse when operating at full speed. But the Ravens’ late-game decision-making helped Buffalo steal the win to close Week 1’s Sunday slate, including some curiously designed burn-the-clock calls on Baltimore’s final offensive series and a tackle of Keon Coleman that prevented them from getting an additional possession.
Both sides still have MVP favorites … and iffy defenses
Allen was a monster when it mattered, approaching 400 yards through the air and spreading the ball with precision as the Bills chipped away at the Ravens’ lead before overtaking it altogether. Jackson was equally electric to help Baltimore take such a sizable late lead, showcasing both crisp aerial efficiency (14 of 19 with two touchdowns) and his typically effortless rushing juice (70 yards and a touchdown). Both supporting casts also deserve credit for aiding their quarterbacks, with Derrick Henry looking like an absolute freak at age 31, James Cook unleashing some long bursts of his own, and young wideouts like Keon Coleman and Zay Flowers showing up with splash plays. And yet both the Bills and Ravens could use some real work on “D,” as they combined to surrender 929 yards and 81 points on the night. That won’t cut it every week, just as Baltimore learned.
