Ravens Beat Bills: Four Takeaways
The Ravens beat the Bills this past Sunday 13 – 7 in a defensive battle. Here are some of our takeaways from the game.
The first game of the Bills season didn’t go as hoped for the team and their fans. There was a lot to takeaway from the game, but we’ll cover four of the most important topics in the following slides.
Bills defense played much better than last year
The Bills defense looked like the Bills defense of old, giving up just 13 points. The problem was the Bills offense looked like the Bills offense of old which is why the team came up short against the Ravens.
After missing the team bus, Jerry Hughes posted on Instagram about having to take an Uber to the game with teammate Zach Brown. Despite having to figure out his own ride to the stadium, Jerry Hughes was the defense’s best player with two sacks and six tackles. As usual, the overly aggressive Hughes couldn’t resist committing a penalty when he was called for a roughing the passer penalty in third quarter.
To his credit he did say there was no excuse, but just like Rex Ryan, there comes a point where Jerry needs to stop apologizing and start correcting his behavior. His aggressiveness is part of what makes him great, but he needs to dial back his aggressiveness at times in order to avoid committing costly penalties.
Jerry Hughes on roughing the passer penalty: "There's no excuse, I got to be better." Hughes thought QB Joe… https://t.co/0IwNlBXW6f
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) September 11, 2016
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On the day, the Bills defense only gave up 308 yards. They recovered a fumble and should have had a pick-six which bounced off of Ronald Darby’s hands. In total, they had four sacks which would have made up 19 percent of their sack production for all of last year. The Bills didn’t just apply pressure on sacks, they also had six tackles for a loss and nine hits on Flacco.
The defense played very well which is an encouraging sign for a unit that struggled last season. They played a nearly perfect game, except when they got beat deep by Mike Wallace for the Ravens only touchdown of the day. A solid defensive performance is the one big positive takeaway for the Bills.
Now that’s we’ve discussed the one positive takeaway let’s talk about what happened to Sammy Watkins on the next slide.
Sammy Watkins was nonexistent.
Sammy Watkins was only able to gain 43 yards on four catches against the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to the game Adam Schefter spoke on NFL Insiders “He’s going to be on the field,” Schefter said. “He’s going to play. He’s probably going to be targeted an awful lot. But he is not 100 percent after undergoing offseason foot surgery. In fact, about a week or so ago, that foot got tired on him during practice. But he will be out there today despite the fact that he’s not 100 percent.”
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His information appears to be spot on after seeing Watkins play. Sammy was used sparingly. Buffalo seemed reluctant to toss the ball down the field to their star wide receiver like they did so often last year to great success.
Since the game, it has been confirmed by multiple sources that Sammy Watkins is still experiencing pain in his surgically repaired foot. X-rays after the game showed that the foot was not broken and that this is purely a pain management issue. Watkins is in “extreme pain” according to Manish Mehta of The Daily News.
Despite the pain, both Rex Ryan and Sammy Watkins appear confident he will play Thursday night against the Jets, “Not what we’re thinking right now,” Ryan said of the possibility of sidelining Watkins for the Bills’ upcoming games.
Watkins was even more confident than Rex Ryan, if that’s even possible. “Definitely going to be out there playing [against the Jets],” Watkins told ESPN.
The Bills offense just isn’t the same without Watkins. Seeing him compete against Revis is always one of the highlights of the Bills vs. Jets even if Revis isn’t the same guy he used to be. If Watkins does not suit up against the Jets, it will be a major blow to the team.
Speaking of players who might not suit up, let’s talk about Cordy Glenn and his ankle on the next slide.
Cordy Glenn hurt his ankle and was replaced by Cyrus Kouandjio. The offensive line looked shaky against a tough Ravens defense.
Bills starting left tackle Cordy Glenn injured his ankle during the second quarter of the game. He was replaced by Cyrus Kouandjio. Many Bills fans wondered right away if it was the same ankle which Glenn suffered a high ankle sprain in the preseason.
Pro Football Focus cites a tweet from Buffalo Bills insider Chris Brown who confirmed Bills fans worst fears that it was the same ankle that was previously injured when he reported, “Rex Ryan said on Monday that the injury is to the same ankle that Glenn hurt this summer. That high-ankle sprain kept Glenn out of the lineup for the entire preseason slate.”
The Bills offensive line struggled against a Baltimore defense that smothered them. If Glenn is out for a long period of the time, the Bills could be in quite a lot of trouble. They rely very much on Cordy Glenn and Richie Incognito to run the ball to the left side. On top of that, the last thing the Bills want is to have a downgrade at the position that protects Tyrod Taylor’s blind side.
Buffalo was already thin at offensive line depth and having to plug in Kouandjio instead of Cordy Glenn, is less than ideal. The Bills may have rushed Glenn back too soon, which would be a costly mistake if he misses an extended period of time.
Lastly, after a receiving a raise and new contract earlier this year, Tyrod Taylor was a disappointment in his first performance of the year. We’ll examine the details on the next slide for our final takeaway.
Tyrod Taylor looked timid and didn’t push the ball downfield
Tyrod Taylor looked like a rookie quarterback who was given an extremely limited playbook. The Bills offense was reminiscent of the old days under Dick Jauron when scoring double digits seemed like a noble feat.
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Missing, was the long downfield passes we got so used to seeing from Tyrod Taylor last year. Could it have been because Watkins was injured? Could it have been part of the gameplan? It’s hard to tell. One thing that’s not hard to tell is that it didn’t work. The Bills were the least productive offensive unit in the NFL after the first week with an embarrassing 160 total yards.
To emphasize how short the Bills were throwing, at one point in the game Tyrod Taylor was 5 of 6 with only nine yards passing. They need to put pressure on the defense by opening up the playbook and airing out the ball in order to free up the underneath patterns for their receivers and to prevent teams from stacking the box against the Bills running game which was tops in the league last year.
Taylor did have one play that particularly stood out which reminded us all why the Bills signed him. On a 3rd and 13 in the 2nd quarter, Taylor spun out of what should have been a sack and delivered a great 33-yard pass to Charles Clay down to the four-yard line on what would be the team’s only scoring drive of the day.
Ultimately the first game of the season was a huge disappointment for Bills fans. The team has very little room for error this season with their tough schedule. They need to start racking up some wins and doing it fast if they want to have a chance of ending their playoff drought.
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