### **Stephen A. Smith: 'I Believe in the Baltimore Ravens' Despite Loss to Bills**
The Ravens entered Week 1 as a Super Bowl favorite by both oddsmakers and pundits, and the No. 1 team in multiple sets of power rankings.
They certainly looked the part deep into the fourth quarter Sunday night against the Bills, another Super Bowl favorite. The offense was nearly unstoppable, as Baltimore led by 15 points in Buffalo, where the Bills haven't lost in the regular season since Week 10 of 2023.
Josh Allen then led a highly improbable comeback and the Ravens suffered yet another fourth-quarter meltdown. And just like that, the Ravens went from Super Bowl contenders to pretenders in the eyes of some fans and pundits.
Overreacting to Week 1 results is an annual tradition. Thankfully, there are voices of reason.
One such rational individual is ESPN's Stephen A. Smith. You read that right.
Smith picked the Ravens to win the Super Bowl before the start of the season, and their 41-40 loss to the Bills hasn't changed his mind.
"Absolutely. What I saw them do for basically the first 50-55 minutes of this game justified me saying they're the favorites to win the chip," Smith said on [“First Take.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvkBEAEQOv8) "I believe in the Baltimore Ravens. And it's not just because of Lamar Jackson. I believe in them because of Derrick Henry. When you have to pay that much attention to this bell cow out of the backfield, and he is the preeminent bell cow. … He's defying Father Time. He is a man amongst boys."
Smith admitted that he has "some trepidation" about the Ravens because of what he saw from the defense Sunday night, "but that offense and the fear that the combination of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson strikes in you, and \[DeAndre Hopkins\] with the one-handed catch, and Zay Flowers balling the way that he did. _Man_."