The Buffalo Bills were left for dead with about five minutes to go in their Week 1 Sunday Night Football clash against the Baltimore Ravens, but nobody told Josh Allen and company that. Allen led a furious rally in the final minutes, marching the Bills on three consecutive scoring drives to give his team an improbable 41-40 win.
Allen was the star, but new addition Matt Prater was the hero in the end for the Bills. The veteran kicker capped off a perfect Buffalo debut with a game-winning 32-yard field goal to send Bills Mafia home happy after a Week 1 classic.
Prater signed with the Bills on Thursday after their regular kicker, Tyler Bass, was placed on injured reserve due to a hip injury. Prater was still getting to know his new teammates in Buffalo when he won them the first game of the season. After the game against the Ravens, Allen revealed a confident message that Prater gave him just before Week 1 kicked off.
"Honestly, I met him in the locker room two days ago… before we even take the field, he just said, 'Hey, I promise you I'm going to give you everything I got tonight.'"
Bills QB Josh Allen on 41-year-old kicker Matt Prater 🤝
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/m5b6SLTOz0 https://t.co/F621cxqkVw
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) September 8, 2025
“Honestly, I met him in the locker room two days ago, he showed me a video of his son playing quarterback. That's how we met,” Allen said. “And today before the game he comes up to me, before we even take the field, he just said, ‘Hey, I promise you I'm going to give you everything I got tonight.'”
Prater did just that, drilling all three of his field goal attempts and both of his extra points (the Bills failed all three of their 2-point conversion attempts). One of the forgotten moments from the crazy comeback was Prater's clutch 43-yard kick at the end of the first half, which was set up by an incredible throw from Allen against an 11-man coverage from Baltimore.
That field goal sent the Bills into halftime down by just a touchdown instead of by 10 points, and that extra three made a huge difference in the end.
Prater will have to be at the top of his game for at least a few more weeks until Bass gets back on the field, but he may have a chance to learn himself the job for even longer than that. The young kicker missed five extra points last season and also came up empty on five field goals, all of which came inside of 50 yards.
If Prater can keep kicking like he did on Sunday night, the Bills may decide that he is the more reliable option moving forward.