The Buffalo Bills will welcome Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens to Highmark Stadium in the Divisional Round of the playoffs and will want retribution.
With the Ravens laying a beatdown on Buffalo back in Week 4 in a 35-10 demolition, the Bills have lost just twice since (not counting Week 18 vs. Patriots) as Josh Allen and Co. have laid waste to the rest of the league.
But now the pair will renew their growing rivalry, and this time it will be the Bills who have home-field advantage in this win-or-go-home matchup.
Given that Week 4 was a long time ago, Allen says his team is a different beast now compared to then, but he highlighted the challenges Baltimore will present his team with.
“I feel like we’ve grown quite a bit since that game,” Allen said. “Obviously learned a lot from those moments, going back and watching it, wasn’t our best effort, felt like we didn’t play our best football. But they got a really good team, too. They’re playing this week for a reason, their defense the last really eight to 10 weeks has been superb, their offense is fantastic as well they got a lot of lot of studs over there led by Lamar [Jackson] and it’s a tough team to play regardless.”
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) rushes along the sideline against the Buffalo Bills in Week 4.
Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
In that 35-10 loss, the Bills gave up 271 rushing yards, the most since Week 18 of 2018 (273), as Jackson and Derrick Henry ran wild.
There’s your 1 key.
That can’t happen again, and in three of their last five games, Buffalo hasn’t allowed over 100 yards on the ground. While it will be tough to do that against Baltimore who have been held under 100 yards once (99 vs. Bengals), and are coming off a monster 299 rushing yard game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, it looms as a deciding factor.
The Bills have their own potent run game with Allen and James Cook, so that will be key in keeping Jackson and Co. off the field.
Buffalo got embarrassed in Week 4. Now its time to return the favor.
