The Ravens must prepare for a very different Bills team in the Divisional Round
It’s the last time The Baltimore Ravens played against the Buffalo Billsit was a pretty easy win.
Of course, no win against the Bills is really that easy, like when Josh Allen is on the field, they are as good as any other team in the NFL, but by their standards, securing a 25-point victory over the top team in the AFC East 35-10 is a pretty easy day at the office, all things considered.
Unfortunately for the Ravens, the 2025 Divisional Round NFL playoffs will be a completely different beast, as the Bills took care of business down the stretch to become the No. 2 seed on the AFC side of the playoffs, as clearly evidenced by their +38 point differential since the bye.
Fortunately, the Ravens know what awaits them in Week 20, having learned a lot about what a challenge Allen is may be introduced in 2024as Kyle Hamilton he explained to reporters during his media session on Wednesday.
“Yes, I’m thinking a little. We’re obviously two very different teams than we were when that game was (Week 4). I think the biggest thing we’re taking away from it is that it can be done, we just have to repeat that success,” Hamilton told reporters. “I know Buffalo has a sour taste in their mouth because of that game, so it’s going to be tough. I think we’re ready for it. Let’s go up there and do what we need to do.”
For Hamilton, this matchup will be an even bigger challenge than it will be for most of his teammates, as he was moved from cornerback to strong safety as the Ravens’ defense really got going down the stretch.
The man likely to pick up much of Hamilton’s slack around the line of scrimmage is Marlon Humphreywho applied approximately 200 more shots inside than outside 2024. For Humphrey, the prospect of facing Allen is always a challenge, as he is one of the best tacklers in the NFL.
“(Josh Allen) is definitely a competitor. Me and some of the guys were talking … We were talking about the quarterbacks we hate playing the most, based on who would be closest to Lamar (Jackson and) how he can run the game. The play is really never over, and then when he runs, he’s a big guy,” Humphrey told reporters. “He can drive you crazy, but he can run you over and keep running really easy, so (he’s) just super tough quarterback vs. That’s the biggest thing, but if I had to put it down to one thing, the show just isn’t done.”
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While the Ravens know as well as anyone that the Bills are much better than they put them in September, Buffalo must also be prepared for a very different version of Baltimore, as they have changed their own defense in a way that can surprise their opponent.
Buffalo also plays the Ravens in the Divisional Round
Turning his attention from how the Bills have improved to the difference his team has experienced under Orr over the past few months, Hamilton told reporters that he thinks Baltimore is a very different defense as well, and that they might not be ready to give Buffalo a challenge. for.
“Both for us and for them, it seems like all of their best numbers came after that game, as far as they were concerned, offensively.” Then, for us, we also moved in defense, and that seems so long ago. “We had to look back and see what we did, what they did, but it’s definitely different on both sides,” Hamilton told reporters. “We didn’t really watch too much – as a team – the tape of that game, because they did a lot of things differently. They added ‘Coop’ (Amari Cooper), got some guys back on the defensive end, so it’s just different… That was a game, defensively, we were actually able to play decently, but some of the changes that we’ve made since then — some of the calls that we have changed – we feel that we ourselves have a different identity. It feels pretty fresh considering it was so long ago, so there’s really not a lot of comparison to that Week 4 game.”
After going through some growing pains early in the 2024 NFL season, from a heartbreaker to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 1 to surrendering an average of 25.5 points per game over the next two contests, first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr has really come around on his own in Week 4 against the Bills, marking his first game surrendering ten points as coordinator. While the Ravens continued to battle their growing pains over the next few weeks, after the bye, they really came into their own, allowing an average of 11.4 points per game down the stretch.
Are the Bills the best team Bill has played with since the bye? Yes, they sure are, no offense to the Houston Texans, but that doesn’t mean the Ravens will suddenly fall to the ground. If anything, they may have the element of surprise on their side, which could prove the difference in upstate New York.
2025-01-16 06:56:00
