The Buffalo Bills pulled off the wildest win of Week 1, coming back from 15 points down late in the fourth quarter.
Josh Allen was masterful in the final quarter of the game, carving up the Baltimore Ravens’ defense, but he wasn’t alone in sealing the win. Joshua Palmer, Keon Coleman, Jackson Hawes and James Cook all stepped up with big plays on offense. Ed Oliver, the star of the defense on Sunday Night Football, forced a fumble on a Derrick Henry run late and new kicker Matt Prater proved to be clutch in his debut.
After stealing the Week 1 victory away from the Ravens, the national media shared their thoughts on the Bills in various power rankings. Here’s what they had to say about the team and their 41-40 win.
ESPN: No. 1 (Up 2)
Best newcomer performance: K Matt Prater
Prater, 41, arrived in Buffalo on a red-eye flight Thursday. He kicked with the team on Friday, then proceeded to hit the 32-yard winner as time expired Sunday. The 19-year veteran is playing because Tyler Bass went on injured reserve (left hip/groin), and he made every kick (3-3 in FG attempts and 2-2 in PATs). “The oldest guy in the world, ain’t he? Shoot, I’m thankful for him,” left tackle Dion Dawkins joked. “Keep your old ass with the Bills. ... I’m glad that somebody could come in on Thursday and help us big.”
Sports Illustrated: No. 1 (Up 1)
While the NFL rarely conforms to the narratives we all conjure in our heads, how is the final home opener of that beloved old stadium housing an absolute epic not the precursor to a starlit season that ends with a curse-erasing Super Bowl? Josh Allen throwing for almost 300 yards in the fourth quarter—more than all but eight of the week’s starting quarterbacks threw through four quarters—is so incredibly hard to fathom in the modern NFL.
USA Today: No. 2 (Up 3)
QB Josh Allen won Sunday night’s battle of MVPs with Lamar Jackson. Buffalo won’t face another team that made the postseason in 2024 or a former MVP until the Chiefs come to Western New York in Week 9 … which means an apparently smooth road to building equity into a No. 1 playoff seed for the Bills.
Pro Football Talk: No. 2 (Up 1)
The road to Northern California may go through Western New York.
Yahoo: No. 2 (Up 3)
The comeback was incredible. The win over the Ravens will be huge in the AFC playoff picture. But the Bills’ defense didn’t have a good day, allowing 40 points and 8.6 yards per play. Presumably, that won’t be an issue going forward, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Bleacher Report: No. 2 (Up 2)
The matchup between the Bills and Ravens felt like a pair of heavyweight prize-fighters going punch for punch.
The Ravens did have the Bills on the ropes, but the latter came out swinging in the latter rounds and landed the knockout blow.
Buffalo trailed by 15 points with 7:27 left to play. During its final three possessions, Josh Allen and Co. scored a pair of touchdowns, plus the game-winning field goal.
In doing so, the Bills won their first game when trailing by 15 or more points in the fourth quarter since 1967, per the NBC telecast. To understand how long ago that really was, Joe Namath was in his third season with the losing team, the New York Jets.
It would be easy to point toward things the Bills could have done better after surrendering 432 yards. The Ravens are that good, though. Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are a deadly combination. Any type of win over an elite opponent should be viewed as something special.
Buffalo’s roster isn’t perfect, particularly in the secondary, but all things are possible when the reigning MVP is leading the way.
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