Game recap week 14 – Ravens beat Bills, clinch playoff berth
The Baltimore Ravens beat the Buffalo Bills 24 to 17 in Buffalo. After a hard fought game, the Ravens once again took care of business and now have clinched a playoff berth. Although they have clinched there is much more to fight for and the push for playoffs is far from over. With a good win in Buffalo let's take a look at three things to think about for the Ravens.
- Defense continues to play at a high level
This game was a well rounded effort from the whole 53 man roster, but the true hero today? The Defense! All day our guys were in the backfield hitting Allen and making great plays. The defense finished the day holding Allen to 146 yds on 39 pass attempts. The pass rush was exceptionally well notching 6 sacks and 8 tackles for loss adding a forced fumble and recovery on one of those sacks. Josh Allen had a 62.6 Rtg for the day and was hit 12 times, because of the great job by Matthew Judon and company today. It seems that the Ravens defense (which was the weakness of this team in the beginning of the season) has emerged as one of the leagues best. Going into this game the Ravens were 9th on overall defense and currently sit at 5th as of 6:30 PM today. Defense is vital to success but its even more so come playoff time. With the defense playing like it is we are in good shape to make a solid run this postseason. But lets not get ahead of ourselves and take this one game at a time. I give the Defense an A- today, the only thing that keeps them below A + is the lack of discipline and the ridiculous amount of personal fouls today. Most of which occurred when the Bills were on their last drive allowing them to walk down the field with 2 personal fouls (30 yds) and a Pass interference that moved them all the way to the Ravens' 18 yd line (26 yds). If the Ravens can play disciplined ball like they have for the most part this season we should be fine.
2. Offense finds success against another top tier defense
With today's win over the Bills, our Ravens offense has stood strong through the gauntlet of the top 3 Defenses in the league. We have now beaten SF(1) NE(2) Buffalo(3) with our top Rated offense and Number one rushing attack. This proves that our offense is resilient and powerful. The Ravens have had great success on the ground and despite the Bills playing great defensively, we have once again rushed for over 100 yds. The depth at TE was tested today. With our number one Mark Andrews down with a knee injury for the most of the game, Nick Boyle and Hayden Hurst both found the end zone today, with Hurst totaling 73 yds receiving. There was some lack of efficiency tho, scoring 4 times on 13 drives, which has not been a norm this year. The ravens punted 7 times and had a rare interception thrown in the second quarter. The Ravens will look to get the offensive efficiency back on track come Thursday against the Jets. I give the Offense a B. We could've taken better advantage of the great field position that was given most of the day. With that being said the offense scored touchdowns in the red zone 2/3 trips and red zone efficiency is very important. With Jackson on the verge of breaking Mike Vick's rushing record, and a lot of offensive records being broken this year we should look to assert our dominance offensively to finish out the regular season and push strong into the playoffs.
3. The Ravens extend winning streak to 9 and have clinched a playoff berth
Now that the Ravens have defeated the Bills and improve to a franchise-best 11-2 record, they have clinched a playoff berth and look to lock down not only the AFC north but the Conference as a whole at the number one seed. With three weeks left in the regular season and a tight AFC playoff picture the Ravens have to keep fighting to solidify their spot at the top. Nothing beats playoff all your post season games at home, and that's why its important for the Ravens to finish this season strong. The beauty of it is that with the number one seed currently we control our destiny and need no outside help to finish the regular season at the top. This team has the personnel, coaches, and players to make a run, but it all starts with making adjustments and prepping for the next one against the Jets. Its a short week for celebrating as the Ravens play at home Game against the New York Jets on Thursday. So lets celebrate for tonight Ravensnation!!!! We are in the playoffs, now lets finish this thing strong, win the North and keep the number one seed. Look for my game preview of Thursday's game soon.
