Team liked Allen in ’18 draft
As the Ravens eyed quarterbacks in the lead-up to the 2018 draft, the scouting department took a particular liking to a player in the mold of then-Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.
Coach John Harbaugh said Monday that he studied Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, whomtheRavenswill play onthe road in Saturday night’s divisional-round playoff game, and that the team “really liked him.”
“I watched him a lot, actually. He’s a guy that most of us here really really liked,” Harbaugh said on his weekly conference call. “Just the arm talent and the athleticism and the strength; he’s a big, strong guy. Then you heard about his story, I really liked his story, what he overcame to get to where he was at; kind of came up the hard road and underestimated road. Wealways kind of like those kinds of guys, for sure.
“I had a chance to talk to him a few times outside football, at least one time outside of football since he’s been with the Bills. I just think he’s a great guy, great young man. Tough competitor, this guy’s a real competitor. We did look at him and we really liked him.”
Allen, who played at Mountain West Conference memberWyoming, was a polarizing prospect entering the draft. Some analysts questioned Allen’s accuracy and the level of competition he played against at Wyoming, while others overlooked it and were drawn to his big arm and mobility. Buffalo ultimately selected Allen with the No. 7 overall pick after trading up from No. 12, the third of five quarterbacks taken in the first round, while the Ravens selected Lamar Jackson at No. 32 after executing a trade to slip back into the first round.
The selections have proved transformative for both franchises. Jackson, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, has led the Ravens to three consecutive playoff appearances. And in Sunday’s 20-13 win over the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round, the Ravens captured their first postseason victory since 2014, along with the first of Jackson’s career.
Allen, who broke the Bills’ single-season passing yards record, led Buffalo to a 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, the franchise’s first playoff win since 1995. Sunday’s meeting will be just the second meeting between the two young stars as starters. Jackson bested Allen in Buffalo in Week 14 of the 2019 season, a 24-17 Ravens win.
Defensive holding on mind
In 2019, the Ravens set the NFL’s single-season rushing record. They ran for over 150 yards in 13 games. Two players finished with over 1,000 yards. But success didn’t always come easily.
In Week14last season, the Ravens escaped Buffalo with a 24-17 win — and just 118 rushing yards, the fewest they would finish with all year. Inconsistent execution in the Ravens’ ground game didn’t help matters. Neither did an athletic and well-schooled Bills front.
But there was another factor that Ravens offensive linemen pointed to just two days after the win: the officiating. Buffalo was called for one defensive-holding penalty, and it was perhaps fortunate the tally stopped there. A review of the game film revealed several plays in which Bills defensive linemengrabbed Ravens linemen as they either tried to pull or complete a second-level run block.
Maybenoexample was more glaring than a fourth-quarter run by running back Mark Ingram II. After a shotgun snap to quarterback Lamar Jackson, center Patrick Mekari pulled right, only to have Buffalo defensive tackle Corey Liuget, who’d lined upbetween him and right guard Marshal Yanda, grab Mekari by the shoulder pads. Liuget didn’t let go, and he ended up dragging Mekari to the ground. Ingram finished with just 3 yards. No flag was thrown.
“He was trying to pull. [Liuget] grabbed him and literally slung him to the ground,” left guard Bradley Bozeman told The Baltimore Sun not long after the game. “Like, it’s crap. But it’s part of the game we’re playing.”
“It’s a penalty,” Mekari said. “They can’t hold us, and the refs sometimes see it. Sometimes they don’t. But there’s nothing really you can muchdoaboutit. You’re not going to complain too much about it. You let the refs know, and if they see it, great. If they don’t see it, then moveontothe next play and hope they see it next time.”
The Ravens said the Bills weren’t the first team to adopt the tactic; Bozeman said a player on an another team had “tackled” him at the goal line in a recent game. “As the weeks go on, as teams have a, I guess, harder time stopping us,” Mekari said, “they hold us.
With the AFC East champion Bills set to host the Ravens again Saturday night in the AFCdivisional round, the game’s officiating could take on outsize importance. Thethree main transgressors from the teams’ 2019 meeting are no longer in Buffalo — Liuget is a free agent, Jordan Phillips is with the Arizona Cardinals, and Star Lotulelei opted out of the 2020 season — and Eric Washington replaced Bill Teerlinck as defensive line coach after last year.
But the Ravens remain a run-dominant offense, with schemes that often call on linemen to pull and climb to the second level. Asked Monday whether he’d addressed the officiating with the NFL, coach John Harbaugh said it was “probably just better that I stay out of it right now publicly.”
“There’s a lot of little things like that are really week-to-week things that we may or maynot talk to the league about,” Harbaugh said. “Different teams have different ways of doing things. I’ll probably just want to stay out of it.”
Ravens should be healthy vs. Bills; Buffalo RB out
Cornerback Jimmy Smith, wide receiver Willie Snead IV, center Patrick Mekari and outside linebacker Yannick Ngakoue all returned to the lineup for the Ravens’ wildcard-round game and Harbaugh expects the team should have a similar clean bill of health against the Bills.
“We got out of it well. There was nothing out of it there that looks like it’s major and everything looks like we should have everybody for next week,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh said Smith, who missed three straight games with injuries to his ribs and shoulder, was dealing with a “very painful injury” and “fought through some pain out there.”
Wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown briefly left Sunday’s game but later said he was just dealing with cramps.
Bills rookie running back Zack Moss, who injured his ankle against the Colts, will miss the remainder of the postseason, according to multiple reports. Moss rushed for 481 yards and four touchdowns in the regular season. Buffalo will likely turn moreto Devin Singletary, who rushed for a team-high 687 yards in the regular season.
Snow in Buffalo?
With a win Sunday afternoon in Tennessee, the Ravens are headed for Buffalo, New York to face the Bills, and forecasters say Mother Nature is likely to play a role.
“It looks like we’re gonna have widely scattered snow showers around the area, as far as the Orchard Park area is concerned — where the game is going to be played,” said Aaron”Reynolds, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Buffalo.
Acold front will moveinto the area during the day on Friday and could bring with it a few inches of snow, Reynolds said. After that, the lake effect could bring more snowfall to Buffalo, Reynolds said.
It’s still too early to say what the weather could look like at game time — 8:15 p.m. Saturday night.
“It just depends on the wind flow — whether that would impact Orchard Park,” Reynolds said.
According to the NWS forecast, the chance of precipitation is 30% on Saturday, and there’s a high of 35 degrees. Saturday night, there’s a 40% chance of snow, and the low is 27.