For the first time since Week 8 of the 2020 season, the Buffalo Bills pulled out a win in a one-score game.
Prior to Sunday’s 23-20 win over the Baltimore Ravens, the Bills had gone 0-7 in their previous seven such outings.
But the Bills (3-1) didn’t make the drought ending victory an easy one, going down by three scores before mounting an impressive second half comeback.
“I think it was just, we needed a win,” Bills center Mitch Morse told reporters in the locker room after the game. “We needed to find a way to win and I’m really proud of the guys for being able to do that even if it wasn’t the prettiest win. It’s a win against a really good football team at home.”
Morse was asked if the team was aware of their previous one-score game struggles and if it added any additional pressure to this comeback.
“Yeah, I’d say it’s mostly outside the room,” Morse continued. “For us it’s just taking it one play at a time, in the flow of the moment. Understanding what we can do on that drive to put us in the position to score or even if we don’t, you know, give our defense a long field to work with. Ya, it did seem like last year we’d end up in those games with the short end of the stick. Very proud of this one.”
Bills defensive end Shaq Lawson added that team stayed calm despite going down three scores early.
“It’s a four-quarter game and we got a great drive coming out before the half time and that just gave us momentum,” Lawson told the media in the locker room. “We know it’s a four-quarter game and we just gotta finish the game, work in all three phases and the second half we started off hot and then all three phases worked together. It was a great win.”
When asked what he wanted to tell all the people who thought the Bills weren’t cut out to win close games, Lawson was direct with his answer.
“Keep doubting us, man. We know what we do Monday through Saturday throughout the week as a team. So those guys… all of us as a team believe, so we can believe when we’re in the game,” Lawson said.
Like most games, the Bills live and die by their quarterback. Josh Allen knew the Bills offense struggled early with tipped passes, dropped balls, turnovers and sloppy play.
“The message was, ‘let’s just be us. Let’s stop hurting ourselves and stop shooting ourselves in the foot,'” Allen said during his postgame press conference. “And that’s what we tried to do in the second half and like I said, we won a game because of it.”
While it would be easy for some teams to throw in the towel after going down 20-3 in a game where almost everything is going against you, Allen was clear in that giving up was never an option for this team.
“Well I’ll tell you what, it would be very difficult if we didn’t have the guys in the locker room that we did,” Allen continued. “Guys that just love each other, wanna play for each other. Aren’t gonna stress in frantic situations. Guys that got each others back. You know, this locker room has got a lot of love in it. When you have the love and you have that respect for one another, I don’t really think you ever feel that way.”
While most of the Bills players admitted this win was impactful in the sense that they pulled together in a tough situation, Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins hinted at the win meaning even a little bit more.
“You know, I think it’s big in a way simply just because of how it started and how it ended,” Dawkins said. “You know, we could have gave up, it was 20-3 before the half time and we put all the other stuff behind us and we told ourself that, ‘we did this. We’re out here beating ourself. Interception, fumble, three and out, three and out, three and out. We did that to ourself,’ so when we put it all to the side, we put it on us, we capitalized. But every win in this league is big. So a big win is a big win so I think anytime you get a W it’s a big win.”
“It means everything that the locker room knows they can depend on the guy next to them,” Dawkins continued. “Even if they’re not next to them and watching the defense play we can depend on our guys that are on the field getting the job done the right way. And the defense did a heck of a job and they leaned on us as we leaned on them, so complimentary football and that’s Buffalo Bills ball.”
While there was certainly not a lot to like in the first half, the team made changes necessary to get the win. Not always an easy task, especially on the road in the NFL.
“Good team effort. Obviously we got down in the first half,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott. “I thought the guys and the coaches both stayed with it and made the adjustments that we needed to make. Players executed and made the plays we needed to make… and put together a winning drive at the end.”
“If you look at the complexion of the game overall, it wasn’t going our way early due to multiple variables, right?,” McDermott continued. “But again, I thought the coaches adjusted. In some ways we stuck with the plan, in other ways they adjusted. And the players executed and that’s just I think the poise to be able to do that, in a hard environment like this, against a good football team that’s well coached also. We have a lot of respect for them, so that’s a really good sign right there.”
With the win vs. Baltimore, the Bills improved to 3-1 and are now tied with the Miami Dolphins back atop the division.
While blowout wins, like Buffalo saw in the first two weeks of the season, are enjoyable and less stressful than last second victories, a win is a win. They all count the same at the end of the day.
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