Overreactions in the NFL Week 1
Sports Seriously Mackenzie Salmon overreacts to some of the best games of NFL Week 1.
Seriously sports
- The Buffalo bill overcomes a 15-point deficit with less than five minutes left, beating the Baltimore Ravens 41-40.
- A key fumble by the Ravens, who ran through Derrick Henry in the fourth quarter, helped set up the Bills’ comeback.
- Bills quarterback Joshu Allen passed 394 yards and two touchdowns to lead the game-winning drive.
Orchard Park, New York – Instant Classic.
That’s what happened at Highmark Stadium on a Sunday night. It’s one of those games and if you didn’t see it, you wouldn’t believe it.
Buffalo’s bill played under 5 minutes with under 15 points. And the boy has made them ever.
Buffalo needed some crazy things to arch with the Baltimore Ravens outfit heading to hell for revenge as a playoff setback in the AFC division on these grounds in January.
And it just happened to define the first 41-40 score in the 106-year history of the NFL.
Either crazy or divine intervention.
“Glory to God,” spiritual man Coach Sean McDermott speculated in a post-match revival, er and press conference. When it was finished, McDermott was able to see him heading through the night sky towards the heavens.
Is Big Guy a member of the Bills Mafia? Who knew?
Then again, we all wonder how it all went down.
Derrick Henry bulldozed the Bills’ defense with 169 yards and two touchdowns, but fumbled – taking Ed Oliver with his bow and punching football – setting a Buffalo touchdown that became a two-point game at crunch time.
It’s no wonder Henry apologized to his teammates after the match.
“I feel like I’ve lost to me,” explained Henry in the gloomy visitor’s locker room.
Yes, classic games always feature heroes and clutch performers, and normal safe bets are a disaster in the worst case scenario. And they often bring serious luck.
Before Henry’s fumble, Keon Coleman caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from the fourth building that deflected tight end Dawson Knox, who reached for a pass while running the route in front of Coleman.
That was such a drama.
“It ranks there,” Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy pondered the wildest game he’d participated in during his 12-year NFL career. “But it’s the one on the other side sucks.”
The misery of one man is the glory of another man.
“We have to play the game for 60 minutes,” Buffalo MVP quarterback Joshu Allen passed 394 yards and two touchdowns, nailing the 32-yard completion on the final drive, setting Matt Plater’s 32-yard field goal over time.
60 minutes. It’s easy for Allen to say.
Of course, the NFL loves it. The first Sunday night showcase game was full of fireworks, highlights and suspense.
If you didn’t buy a 60 minute theme and turned off the TV when the game got deep into the night, you certainly missed it. But you cannot be blamed. The Ravens seemed to have a game in their bag. After all, they didn’t punt until 6:25 left in the third quarter.
And Lamar Jackson was a special kind of zone himself. Jackson passed 210 yards, ran for 70 yards and created three TDs. Jackson and Henry demonstrated the fatality of a 1-2 punch during two remarkable sequences. Earlier in the second quarter, they paired 48 yards and TDs in a row to make a back-to-back long-distance jet. They then put it on top early in the fourth quarter, combining 64 yards with alternating runs as Jackson scrambled for 19 yards and set up a 46-yard TD blast from Henry.
Classic thing. A new Bills excavation is then under construction across the street with a classic comeback to begin a farewell season at Highmark Stadium.
We shame them for the fans who left in the fourth quarter. This place could have been in the middle of the third quarter. You know that it will happen. The home team appears to be doomed to a big L, so fans want to jump early into traffic.
Those fans left without getting the value of the money. TSK. TSK.
Games go down as one of their ages. No, Frank Reich, who submitted to an injured Jim Kelly, led the Bills to a 32-point comeback in January 1993 to win the AFC Wildcard Playoffs, the biggest postseason comeback in NFL history, wasn’t as high as when Frank Reich won the NFL wildcard playoffs.
But that playoff magic came to the same place, then known as Rich Stadium. And I speculate that for Bills fans who have experienced it, they had to feel something similar to what fell on Sunday night.
In other words, it was very special. It’s very classic.
Signed late last week as an emergency replacement for injured kicker Tyler Bass, Plater kicked three field goals in his Bills debut. At his 19th During the NFL season, he has a share of the kicks he won in a game-winning game over the clock.
But now there is this fresh classic that welcomes him to Buffalo.
After that was over, it didn’t matter that he was a veteran veteran whom he had barely ever met in a mob celebration on the field.
Plater said, “I’m still on Cloud Nine.”
This was one way to summarise classics.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow us on social media: X:@jarrettbell
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