Lamar Jackson said Josh Allen isn’t his buddy, and Jackson wants to take down the team that some are calling the Super Bowl favorite. But Allen offered fans hope with his analysis of the loss to the Ravens earlier in the season.
In the weekend’s marquee game, Allen will try to guide the Bills past Jackson and the Ravens on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Buffalo is favored, but only by one point. However, the Ravens might not like that because they pounded the Bills 35-10 in a matchup earlier this season. Allen said his team isn’t the same at this point in the season, according to a post on X by Alex Brasky.
“I think we’ve grown quite a bit since that game. Learned a lot from those moments.”
Bills QB Josh Allen hopes to be a difference-maker
If the Bills are going to win, Allen will likely need to bank close to 300 yards and three scores. It doesn’t seem like the kind of matchup where the Bills can keep the Ravens from working the scoreboard.
Allen said watching the film of the first game showed signs of a Bills team that simply didn’t perform.
“Going back and watching, obviously wasn’t our best effort,” Allen said. “Felt like we didn’t play our best football. But again, they’ve got a really good team, too. They’re playing this week for a reason.”
The Ravens’ defense has gotten better, too. That could be bad news for the Bills, who got oly 180b yards passing and 21 rushing from Allen. The only reason it didn’t out to be his worst game of the year is because he stunk it up the next week against the Texans with a 9-of-30 passing performance that could be the deciding point if he loses the MVP race to Jackson.
Allen said the Bills understand the challenge
“Their defense, the last 8-10 weeks, has been superb,” Allen said. “Their offense is fantastic as well. They’ve got a lot of studs over there, led by Lamar, obviously. It’s a tough team to play, regardless.”
Buffalo — “obviously” as Allen says — will need to do much better against Derrick Henry. The Ravens’ running back torched the Bills for 199 yards rushing. How big of a number is that? Well, consider he had an 87 touchdown run in the first quarter and still went over 100 yards for the game AFTER that play.
But it still comes back to Allen if the Bills are going to win, according to espn.com.
“It's fourth-and-short? Allen can deliver with his legs and barrel through a defense for a conversion. Third-and-long? He can unleash an absurd pass like his outrageous touchdown throw to Ty Johnson in the wild-card round (which actually came on fourth-and-1, but you get the idea). And he does all that while being the best in the NFL at limiting mistakes. He had the lowest sack rate (2.6%) and ranked second in turnover rate (1.2%) through the regular season.”