Reaction to Ravens-Bills Matchup; Film Analysis From Win vs. Steelers

Published Jan 13, 2025, 4:58 PM
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing share their initial thoughts on the Ravens heading to Buffalo, including the MVP matchup, how the game could compare to their regular-season meeting, and more. Plus, they look back on the film from the Ravens' dominant 28-14 win over the Steelers.

Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings. I'm Ryan Mink here with Garrett Downing to take an early look ahead at the Ravens divisional playoff game against the Buffalo Bills. It's gonna be Sunday evening, six thirty pm up in Orchard Park. It's a big, big, big divisional game, Garrett, between two just awesome teams, two really great teams. This is this is the best of the best right here. This is when you talk about, Hey, to be the best, you gotta beat the best. This is this is it. And the Ravens, you know, they they kind of my fingers were crossed for home another home playoff game. I wanted the Broncos to beat the Bills. I won't lie in the wildcard round just because I wanted another atmosphere like we had Saturday night against the Steelers. The Bills took care of business, throttled the Broncos thirty one to seven. Now we're heading up to Orchard Park, and yeah, this is just the matchup of best known best.

Yeah, I think this was all roads were kind of pointing to Buffalo in this divisional round. And of course you have that sliver of hope, like, hey, maybe the Broncos could pull off the upset, you can get a second straight home game. You're thinking through those possibilities, and it was fun to think about that for twenty four hours. But I always felt like when the playoff bracket was set and you're looking at this field, if the Ravens are gonna go on a run, you felt like there was gonna be a second round matchup in Buffalo, like that was just destined to be. And you have these two teams who are similar have been similar teams over the course of this season and beyond really, and then you have the two favorites for MVP, and that's where the dialogue around this game is going to start. You have two of the best players in the game who are gonna be one and two in the MVP voting. Not sure who's gonna be one, who's gonna be two, And there's lots of debate about that, but that is for that game to be center stage. On Divisional Weekend Takes that Sunday night on CBS, Tony Rome was talking about how we can't wait to do this game because he's so excited to have these two quarterbacks, like this is gonna be kind of a all week long. I would say, love affair slash debate about Lamar and Josh Allen, and that's gonna be part of the conversation leading into this game.

Oh it's it's not gonna be part of the conversation. It's gonna be it's gonna be the of the main part of the conversation. I think I think we're gonna be tired about talking. If you're not already tired of talking about who should be the MVP and that whole debate, which my goodness, people on social media it is they get adamy, they get into it on both sides, arguing for their guy. Hey, I love the passion from sports fans, but I'm just saying, by the end of this week, I mean, hey, Lamar Jackson doesn't even like talking about the MVP thing. It's just about winning. And I can I can give you his answer today if you'd like it, if you'd like to interview me, Garrett, and I'll be Lamar you me, Garrett, I can tell you what his answer will be. And that's all I care about is a win. Yeah, But by the end of this week, just if you're watching the sports talk show and whatnot. You're gonna have gotten your fill of MVP Lamar Jackson versus Josh Allen talk.

Yeah, it just so fans are aware. The MVP race is not going to be decided in this game. That's a regular season award, So the voting has already happened for that as far as I know, I mean, I think that's already done. So this game is gonna have no bearing on the MVP. But it's all part of the conversation of these two players who have been great, and they've had somewhat similar trajectories in their careers, and they're both chasing that elusive first Super Bowl ring. And so that's part of the storyline for both of these quarterbacks and both of these teams. But this game, while in the debate of public opinion, may sway the MVP vote, it's not going to actually sway the MVP vote.

Right, And my last point on the whole MVP thing is, you know, Lamar Jackson was named a first team All Pro Josh Allen was named the second team All Pro by the fifty voters that vote on that. Those are the same voters that vote on MVP. So unless those voters, and history suggests if your first team All Pro quarterback that you're probably gonna get the MVP. You have a much better chance. And so unless voters see suddenly they determined that the MVP award is a different kind of award than just being the best player, you know, as they voted it as first team All Pro. Unless that's the case, than Lamar Jackson will probably be your MVP no matter what happens in this game.

Yeah yeah, And that won't be announced until the Thursday before NFL Honors and New Orleans for the Super Bowl Sopefully the Ravens are already down there, you know, getting ready for that game on Sunday, of course, but that's when the MVP is announced. But just in terms of this game, like I like I said, like I felt that All Rows sort of led to Buffalo, and you're gonna have this game between two teams who of course played earlier this year. The Ravens won that one in dominant fashion at the end of the game. You know, Josh Allen spent the final minutes of that game on the sideline. It's because it was a blow out. And so yeah, of course I'd sign up for that. Yeah, I mean that was a and the Ravens ran away with that one from the very start. Derek Henry kicked it off with a huge run long touchdown to open that game, eighty six yard touchdown run, and they were often rolling and never looked back. So my question to you is how much do you look at that game as an indication of what this game could be and what the Ravens will want to do.

I think a lot. I think the Ravens would love to just double down on that. To me, that game felt like.

The model of how they attacked that game.

Yes, yeah, I don't think the Ravens change a whole lot from that game to this game, to be honest. I mean, of course you have to have some new wrinkles and whatnot. And the Ravens, as Todd Munkin showed against the Steelers, are very capable of throwing some new wrinkles at their opponent. But that's the model is run, run, run, run, run all day on them, right, And it's going to be very cold in Buffalo. The early forecasts are what is it? I think thirteen feels like thirteen degrees, Yeah, that's the early look. Sorry, feels like fifteen degrees. Who just got a lot warmer?

Yeah? Nice? You know.

So this is this is running the football weather and we just saw it against the Steelers, now is it? You know, Zay Flowers returns. I think there's a chance it could be not quite as one sided as we saw with fifty runs against the Steelers. But I expect a heavy rushing attack by the Ravens. I think Derrick Henry, you know, he put up one hundred and ninety nine yards and a touchdown in that game earlier this year against the Buffalo Bills, He's gonna get a heavy workload once again. That's the weakness of this Bill's defense. When you look at yards per carried aloud this season, four and a half is in the bottom half of the league four point five yards allowed per carry. They love to play in nickel defense with Tarren Johnson. They just sit in nickel defense. That's how they want their That's basically that is their base defense is a nickel defense with Taron Johnson on the field. And so if they're gonna go small and the Ravens are gonna run at them with their bigs, and that's I think in large part what this game is gonna come down to.

Yeah, I think that there's a chance that this game, honestly on both sides of the ball, is both teams trying to establish the run. Buffalo is coming off a game against the Broncos where they were really effective running the football. They put up two hundred and ten yards on the ground, not quite as effective as the Ravens who had two hundred and ninety nine yards on Saturday, but still both teams going over two hundred yards on the ground in a playoff game shows that they can do that. And they also have quarterbacks obviously who can run the ball. By the way, a little if you needed any subplots of this game, which you don't, but Josh Allen currently has the most playoff rushing yards in NFL history by a quarterback. Lamar actually broke the record on Saturday, then Allen broke it on Sunday, and so those two guys are one and two in the most playoff rushing yards in a career for quarterbacks. And so I think that both of them are going to look for opportunities to carry the ball in this game. I think that's going to be an important piece of both offenses. As we saw for the Ravens on Saturday, and I think that will continue in this game. And I think the like, of course, you want Zay Flowers on the field, obviously, he's one of the Ravens' best players, and hopefully he's able to get back. But like the silver lining of the game against Pittsburgh and going into this game from an approach standpoint, is that the Ravens have proven that the even if Day's not on the field, they can go big and they can go to tight end and just run it down your throat. That's what they did against the Steelers, who have a really good run defense. So why would that not work again this week? I don't know. I think that like it absolutely could. I'm having a hard time seeing a scenario right now where the Ravens won't be able to run the ball, Like I just based on the effectiveness of the Ravens, the unique elements of the scheme, the new wrinkles that they continue to add to the equation, I don't know a scenario where the Ravens won't be able to have success on the ground.

Yeah. I think it's really really tough to imagine, and certainly I think you run the ball until they stop you, right you You're definitely going to test that out early and if they don't stop you, then you just keep running on them like the Ravens did against Pittsburgh. You know, now, the Bills run defense was pretty darn good against the Broncos. You know, I mean, bo Nicks led the Broncos with forty three rushing yards. But the Broncos don't have nearly the rushing attack that the Ravens do, so very different story. But you know, I obviously the Bills are going to come into this game thinking the Ravens are going to run the rock at us. They did it the first time. We just saw what they did to the Steelers. Priority number one, two, and three for Buffalo's defense is going to be stopping the run. So can they commit enough resources to do that? We'll see. You know, the Ravens have to have the counter punch. If they just say, I don't care what it takes, everything will be committed to stopping or trying to slow down this running game. The Ravens have to have the means to CounterPunch, and they've shown that over the course of the season that they do. But first and foremost, the Bills think the Ravens are gonna run the ball because the Ravens should run the ball, and you established that first and see if they can stop it.

Yeah, I think also, of course, the weather report will be something that we watch closely over the course of the week. But the one thing I think we know for sure is that it's gonna be cold. Like it's gonna be cold. It's Buffalo in January for a night game. It's gonna be cold. You just know that's gonna be the case. And so but one thing like Lamar Jackson, I know he's very he doesn't hide the fact that he doesn't like the cold. He said that on a million different occasions. He's a Florida guy. He doesn't love the cold. But he's played well in the cold and he did that. He played well on Saturday. Go back to the game against Houston last year in Baltimore. That was an incredibly cold game. So like he's i think answered the question of can he play in these cold weather games at a high level, and it's been resounding yes. So I'm not as worried about the cold. I think that as I'm looking at that weather report, I'm zoning in on what the win looks like. You go back to twenty twenty when the Ravens played up in Buffalo. It was cold, but really that game was it went haywire in part because of the crazy wind on that night. It was so windy in that game, and that was a big factor in the Ravens not really being able to look like themselves offensively. Now, if you're running the ball, you can doesn't really matter how windy it is necessarily, But I think that that is an element of this weather report that I think is going to be something to monitor and if it was an impact in twenty twenty, and I think there's it could be an impact on both teams if it turns out to be windy like it was four years ago.

My early weather forecast is not including win. I apologize, Yeah, I mean, you gotta give me a full If you're giving me the weather report, you gotta clue win.

No snow, right, no precipitation.

Minky weather is not dialed in quite yet. Okay, Okay, we'll get there. Don't worry later in the week. Forecast. That's right, that's right. So, you know, I think what's difficult to your question about you know, Ken, Is there anything that can stop the Ravens from running the ball? I think what's unique about the Ravens, or certainly what they went back to a little bit in this Steelers game was was that threat of Lamar Jackson with the run option, you know, with with him like it it reminded me of twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen Lamar with that heavy dose of like it's not just you know, okay, can we stop Derrick Henry and we got to watch out for Lamar on these scrambles like that was a throwback and so now yeah, when you're you're just putting them in a blender on the edges and there's inside linebackers with how who do you defend here, Lamar or Derrick Henry? That that is going to be a really tough assignment for this Buffalo Bill's defense. But you know, we talk about how tough Lamar is with his legs. Josh Allen is a dynamic runner too, Like I think this Ravens defense is gonna have its hands full trying to stop him as a runner. And quite honestly, the thing that could keep it from being a high scoring game is just the matter of running the ball. So much you're gonna run clock that limits possessions. But I think that this could be a back and forth. You know, both offenses running the ball down each other's throat and you got to maximize possessions. It's one in the red zone. Who's gonna punch in for touchdowns and who's gonna settle for field goals kind of game.

Yeah, that's the thing that's interesting about it. It's like when you talk about, oh, this is gonna be a throwback, this is gonna be run, run, run. Both teams are coming off two hundred plus yard rushing games, like those types of games you think in your head are like fourteen thirteen. But on the flip side, you have two of the best offenses and two of the best quarterbacks, and you think, okay, this is gonna be a shootout. Who has the ball last, that's who that's gonna be who wins the game. And like you have these these two areos that are just at some level at odds with each other. And I'm not totally sure like which way, Eileen, in the early going here of how this game will play out, because I think that yes, both teams are going to look to run the ball. I think that's going to be incredibly important in this game, considering all the all the factors. But I also think that both of these players had this ability to put on a cape and pull plays out of a pull a rabbit out of a hat that nobody expects. And we've seen it with Lamar throughout his career. If you watch the game between Buffalo and Denver, you saw it on that crazy pass that touchdown passes Josh Allen threw of that game like kind of game.

That was a pretty close game for most of it, and and the Bills were kind of you know, they they weren't scoring touchdowns in the red zone, they weren't getting that final punch. And then that Josh Allen with a Houdini kind of play wait wait wait wait wait wait wait and finds a what was it a number three running back something like that?

Right, yeah, well, film and three running back for like a thirty yard touchdown on fourth down, Like those are those are plays that are backbreakers, and it was the backbreaker in that game. And and so that's where it's like, in some way, you think it's going to be this running, low scoring game. But I also think that these quarterbacks are so good that they're going to have some of those plays in this game as well, and it is really going to be I think this is, like going back to what I said at the outset, like, I just think that this is this game has the potential to be like football at its best. Two of the best players, two of the best teams. I just think it has the potential to be like this is. If you're explaining football to somebody who doesn't know what it is, show me what football. The best of the best from a football standpoint, I think that's what this game could be.

Yeah, I think it's going to be an epic game to remember. And you know, for the Ravens, they're going into a place the Bills have not lost at home this year. They have not lost their eight to no at home this year, and that just adds the narrative to me, you know, I mean, this reminds me a little bit of the run in twenty twelve that the Ravens had to go through that gauntlet. Start at home. You're against the rookie quarterback and Andrew Luck who was you know, all the rage raised last dance, all that stuff. Beat the Colts at home, all right, now you got to go up against the big bad Broncos and Peyton Manning and all that, and that's kind of you know, on the road right in a freezing place in Denver. It was so cold that game. All right, you got to you gotta go up and face the big old Buffalo Bills who haven't lost at home in a freezing cold place. You got to go beat the best. And then they had to slay the dragon. You know, after that with with New England, the Ravens may have to slay the dragon with Kansas City if they make it to the AFC Championship. Like this reminds me of that twenty twelve kind of gauntlet where you got to beat the best, and I think that beating your rival who had had you know, your number in the regular season, at least starting it out that way, that's the right way to start. And hey, bring on the best next in the next round two. It's kind of the John Harball shirt, right, we got the Bills, good, let's go, let's go.

Yeah, just on the path part, because there's always when you're looking at playoff seating and all this stuff, you're thinking about, Okay, hey, what's the path that you want. What's the scenario And even we talked about it off the top, it's like, oh, you're hoping that the Broncos upset the Bills so you can get the second home game. And that's natural. Of course, everybody has those rooting interests. But one thing I think is really true is that if you're good enough, the path doesn't matter. I really believe that. And you look at the honestly, look at the Chiefs last year. The Chiefs had a gauntlet to go through. They had to go to Buffalo, then they had to come here really difficult, really difficult environments and difficult games, and they got it done. You go and you look at the Ravens as you mentioned with twenty twelve, and you have to go on the road in games where they weren't favored and they got it done. And so like, do you want the easiest path, Sure of course anybody would, but you have to play good teams in the playoffs. And I think when you're good enough, the path itself is not what's going to define you and just be too much for a team that's good enough to win the Super Bowl. That's I've really come to believe that.

And I still think that the Ravens, if they play their best game, that nobody's beating them.

M hm, yes, I agree with that, And the question is do you play your best game? Because I'm with you, I agree. I think when the Ravens are at their best, their ceilings higher than anybody else. And I really did, Like we talked about this in the postgame podcast, I love the mentality of the team. It was very much like it felt like one of those almost like a regular season win where you got like the big game coming up next, We're like, okay, I took care of business this game, turning the page quickly got whoever we're going to face next week? And Lamar was asked on podium like who do you want to see? Are you rooting for anybody? And he's like, I don't care, I'm not rooting for anybody. We're gonna be ready. And that's the mentality of this team. And I think that no one that I guarantee you that the Ravens weren't sitting at home watching these games on Sunday with like rooting interests and say like, man, I really I don't want to go to Buffalo scare like that No, they're a confident team. So yeah, it's kind of like the like you said, the John Harbaugh shirt. Good, you gotta go to Buffalo. Good. And it'll be fun to see how this thing plays out.

Absolutely all right, let's take a break and when we come back, we'll talk about some of the film breakdown from the Ravens win against the Steelers.

You're listening to the Launche podcast. We're coming to you from the Sea Geek Studio. We also want to mention our partners at Draft Kings Sportsbook. They are an official sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens Draft Kings Sportsbook. The Crown is yours. So as you look through the film of this game, I'm curious to get your perspective on this because we spend all this time talking about run, run, Run. The Raves are gonna look to run the ball. That's going to be part of their identity. But like Todd, Mounkin has evolved this running game consistently over the course of the year and sprinkles in new wrinkles like the Wildcat player that we saw with Derek Hennery on Saturday. So how do you think like the new elements the continue evolution of this running game will show up in this game against Buffalo.

Well, I think the difference, especially early on in this game, was just how much Lamar Jackson was running the ball, and I think that changed everything about this game from a defensive perspective for the Steelers. After Lamar opened this game running as much as he did, the Lamar Jackson effect was just in full force, you know. I mean it was all eyes on Lamar and Patrick Queen was in a blender. I mean he didn't know which way to go and he's barking out signals and doing all this and that the Steelers didn't. They had no clue where what to defend and where to go. And it's quite evident on tape. And so you know, the Wildcat is a perfect example. A yes, credit Todd Mounkin for adding that wrinkle. And what's funny is that was put in on Thursday. That was a late ad to the Ravens game plan against the Steelers, and boy, that hit and just kind of set the tone early in this game. I mean, stiff arms Mika Fitzpatrick to the turf, long long run. I mean that was a tone setting moment in this game. And even in that Within that play, you see the effect that Lamar Jackson has on the Steelers defense. I mean earlier on that drive he had run five straight times. Then Todd Mounkin, Oh, we don't have Zay Flowers as our motion guy to really kind of draw those guys. How about we just use Lamar Jackson as our emotion guy. Right, So you said Lamar in motion and he took out both inside linebackers.

You know.

The funny thing is like peak You before that play. You know, the Steelers see Derek Henry and Wildcat, they see Lamar out there, and peak You's kind of like putting out his hands like it's okay, everybody calmed down. We're good. We're good. Everybody calmed down. And you can see t. J. Watt looking at him both outside lobby, They're all looking at peak You to be like, all right, what are we doing here? What's the check? And he's kind of like, we're good, we're good. Stay in this defense. We're good. And then you were very not good.

You know.

As soon as Lamar goes in motion, Peak and the fellow inside linebacker nex him both follow Lamar and and here's the lane for Derrick Henry. And you know, you saw that on just a number of those big running plays by Derrick Henry was Lamar jack you know, the long touchdown run for Henry again, it was a it was a late handoff kind of from Lamar. He had gave it to Henry and Lamar kind of took the bootleg out to the left defenders followed him, cut back the laying for Derrick Henry and boom off you go, you know, and uh, Tyler Linderbaum immediately climbed to the second level and got to Patrick Queen and he was toast. And so, you know, I think that this kind of if Lamar is gonna be the threat with his legs that he was against the Steelers, if you established that threat, especially early on, oh my gosh, you know. And now now seeing what Derrick Henry did did, did the Bills have to say, all right, we're we're gonna take the dive. You know, like, what do you do? Do you take the dive with Derrick Henry or do you stick with Lamar early in this game? If you're the Bills, I don't know, you know. And so it's it's just kind of back to what we saw a lot of in twenty nineteen of like teams, just which one are you picking? You got to take one the dive or Lamar? Which one you take in? And Lamar is so good at knowing when to hand it off first keep it that it's almost impossible to stop.

Yeah, we got a question to the lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net is from Todd Wasserman and he asks the question, do you think teams call games differently in the playoffs? How do you think the Ravens' offensive game plan changes in the playoffs? And I think that it's what you just spell it out. And the biggest factor for me is that the Ravens are clearly willing to run the ball with Lamar. Lamar is clearly willing to run the ball. This game against the Steelers was his second highest rushing total of the season, only behind Kansas City. And you can run these rpo plays where he has an option, and he's so good at deciding which way to go and reading that thing, and then once he decides to run, obviously, there's don't need any explanation for how good he is once he has the ball in his hands in space. And so I think that there's more of a willingness there, and that like has an impact on the way that teams play you. And then so then you then you start thinking of it a couple layers down the road. Okay, so if the Ravens are going to really commit to this running game, or they're gonna say it's gonna be Lamar or Derek, and the Bills are gonna have to choose. Maybe they're just going to commit all sorts of resources to crowding the box and committing to stopping the run whoever has the ball. Okay, well, then you have some matchup challenges because you have a bigger personnel package. You would think from the Bills defense, Well, now Isaiah likely's on a linebacker who's nowhere near as fast as him. There's a matchup advantage you can exploit. Like, those are the types of things that can happen when you start thinking out how to how to like evolve the second level of this. And I think the starting point is basically establishing that run and you're gonna I think you would see a lot of this RPO stuff with Lamar and Derek and just make the Bills decide.

Well, I don't it's to me, it's not as much RPO, right, that's re pass option. This is just QB Reid right, this is yeah, this is him reading reading that outside linebacker. Am I keeping or am I handing off?

Yeah?

You know? And so that I think is the difference, Like, yeah, the RPO stuff is nasty too, right, And that's to your point, like where you can establish some of those mismatches and take advantage of them with Isaiah Likelee and your tight ends and all those things. When it's run or pass, this is run or run, but who's running it, you know, And that's that's what the problem was for the Steelers. And I think that the certainly the Bills are going to get a dose of that too.

And you saw early in that game, like the Steelers committed to stopping Henry like that's where they were generally going, and then all of a sudden, Lamar starts breaking off and carrying keeping in, showing like no, I'm willing to keep it. I'm willing to keep it. I'll run four straight times. And then the Steelers starts shifting in that direction, and you look at the long Handry runs and the linebackers are all running with Lamar Jackson and then there's a wide open space for Derrick Henry, so even when he's not carrying the ball, he attracts so much attention, and then that can open the lane and you get Derek Kenner to the second level and it's and it slides out.

Yep. Absolutely, so I think the Ravens will continue to lean on that against the Bills. And another huge thing for this game was just the pure execution, you know. I mean you look at the touchdown throw to Rashat Bateman on the Ravens first touchdown the game opening drive. I mean, I thought that that play was really well schemed by Todd Munkin. You had some underneath crossers to kind of draw the eyes of those Steelers safeties, and then you have Rasha Bateman kind of running over the top in the back of the end zone and Lamar just with a canyon shot, not a big window, a great throw by Lamar. And I think that in the passing game too. It's not just the running game, but in the passing game, the Ravens were highly efficient and and just really good execution. I mean, you know, when Lamar Jackson has only a handful of incompletions, in the game and a quarterback rating that's pretty close to perfect. That's a good night.

M hm m m. I totally agree with you, I think with Bateman, so he steps into that larger role with save Flowers out. But it was not like it was the Rasade Bateman show. Obviously, the Ravens ran the ball so effectively. Bateman actually only played about half the snaps in this game offensively, and they worked in some other guys into the equation, Tylan Wallace and Steve Simms and Anthony Miller and so of course Nelson Aguilor so they worked in different guys into the rotation, and Bateman in this passing game like they did exactly what you needed him to do, exactly what you needed him to do some big catches and key situations. Lamar threw that third down pass on the money and it was a well it was a well drawn up route. Bateman ran into perfection and then Lamar put it on the money. And that's what I think this offense has been. Honestly for most of the year. Run run, run, super efficient in the passing game, and lamar Ca can dice you up when he needs to, and that's the recipe for me, of this with this offense in this game, and if the Ravens keep winning, it's established the running game. Make him commit resources to that and then exploit mismatches in the passing game and allow Lamar to be dazzling and these receivers and pass catchers who are really good and talented do out there and make plays in a lot of one on one situations because there's so many resources committed to the running game. Like, that's the recipe. We saw it, and we've seen it all year. And I think that these receivers and Lamar is playing at such a level from a passing standpoint that they're so efficient and effective, and if they can continue to do that, I just don't see a way that this offense slows down.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool and notable against the Steelers that you know, the Ravens motion a lot on offense, and especially against the Steelers, they were having issues with motion and they're checks and getting aligned correctly. Even with Zay Flowers out who was a huge part of the Ravens motion operation right, he often is moving all over the formation and allowing the Ravens to determine what the defense is gonna do and providing that speed threat from a horizontal stretch the field perspective, the Ravens still ran motion almost nearly as much as they did in any other game even without Zay. And I thought that was pretty cool from Todd munkin, you know, even using Steven Sims on a jet sweep right, and you plug in Anthony Miller and he makes three catches and some I mean they went to him in some clutch situations like turned down tight tight window throws like needs to make a play, caught three balls for twelve yards. Like, I think that's pretty pretty remarkable. You know, you have here's Anthony Miller, who caught one one pass all year, Here's Steven Simms. You claimed off waivers in week seventeen before the Christmas game, and and they're playing some key roles in a big playoff game. And uh, tip of the cap to them, and the tip of the cap to Todd Monkin. And I think that it shows you too just how essential that motion is for this Ravens offense. That it wasn't like, all right, we just we're just not going to do that without Zay. Hell use Lamar Jackson put in motion.

Yeah, they use Lamar in motion. Anybody, anybody was open to it.

Speak speaking of the Lamar motion thing. Isn't it funny? I was thinking about this last night just watching the film. Isn't it funny? The difference between Lamar Jackson lined up out wide and Joe Flacco. I mean, all the all the memes and stuff from Joe just standing there, Limp. You know you got Lamar Jackson taking three defenders with him.

He judge, did your little more attention?

Yeah? I don't think.

Much different, much different impact there. So yeah, the last the last question I have for you is going rolling forward to Buffalo in terms of this Ravens defense. We spent so much time talking about the offense, which has been great, So this's Ravens defense. The Ravens defense is the best ranked team in the league gets stopping the run during the regular season. And so now you have this Buffalo team that's coming in off of a big running game. They have the quarterback run like if the Bills. If the Bills are doing a podcast this morning, they're talking about how great their offense is and how great Josh Allen is and how their running game is rolling and how James Cook is really effective. And so like that's the conversation over there. So like in your mind, what is it going to take for the Ravens to, I guess, stop the run and limit what the Bills were able to offensively.

Yeah, I think that's that's the big thing for the Ravens defense is if you can stop the run and put Josh Allen in those third and longs and whatnot, and you know, your chances obviously go way up. And in the earlier season matchup between these two teams in the regular season, they held James Cook to nine carries for thirty nine yards. Josh Allen had five for twenty one. So Josh Allen didn't get loose and James Cook didn't get loose. And so that is the recipe for the Ravens. You know, they hit Josh Allen a bunch of times in this game, well only three, not as many as oh no, I'm sorry. That was their quarterback hits. That was their quarterback eight for the Ravens. They hit Josh Allen eight times in that game, right, So they were putting him in a lot of third and long situations and then taking advantage. So I think that's where it starts for the Ravens, stopping the Buffalo Bills running attacks, stopping Josh Allen. Josh Allen's legs are really I mean, he's a problem anywhere with his legs, but you don't want him in third and four situations that he's tough to stop. And so if the Ravens can duplicate what they did in the regular season in slowing down James Cook, who looked awesome against Denver, you know, Denver's defense is like they are attack, attack, attack, they are downhill, blitz, gonna, We're gonna, We're gonna get after you downhill. The Ravens aren't really built that way. I think the Ravens are certainly built. I mean, they've been the best run defense in league this year and it's not even particularly close. So I think that they present a different challenge than that certainly Denver does in terms of stopping them run. And if the Ravens can continue that success against Buffalo, it's gonna be a tough assignment for Josh Josh Allen in that case, and he's gonna Josh is gonna feel a little more pressure, especially if this Ravens offense is cooking and running the balls as well as they did or close to it as they did against the Steelers. He's gonna feel the pressure to make more plays of his arm, you know. I mean, I think he watching that Broncos game, there were a lot of checkdown passes. They were shorter passes, they were not hitting up a lot of big chunks. And certainly how they're built offensively from a wide receiver perspective, it's a lot of Khalil Shakir, you know, he's a yak guy, kind of underneath yack guy, Kean Coleman, dalton Ate like they have not necessarily been a real, big, big, explosive team. And so I think that Josh Allen, if this turns into a high scoring game where the Ravens offense is rolling, he's gonna feel that pressure, especially Vias the third and lungs, and that's when you can maybe get him to make some mistakes.

Yeah. So it's gonna be fun. Like we've said many times here, I think it's gonna be one of the epic games in the NFL this year. And I like the Ravens odds and the early going. We're gonna be talking about it all week long. So as always. You can email us at the Lounge at Ravens dot NFL dot net and make sure you send us those emails. If you send us an email, we read it on the air. You'll get a T shirt headed your way. Thank you so much for listening, and we will talk with you more over the course of this week.

The Ravens Lounge

All year round, Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing discuss all things Ravens. They hang out with players, 
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