Tag: Khalil Shakir

The Buffalo Bills completed a perfect 10-0 run of home games this season including the playoffs and Sunday’s ice-cold 27-25 win over the Baltimore Ravens.

While the Bills offense usually grabs headlines, their defense shined in the win.

And they used the doubt and questioning heard in the outside noise of the media to motivate them.

“What were they all saying?” defensive tackle Ed Oliver asked postgame, via The Athletic. “I know you know. So what were they all saying?”

During the week leading into the matchup, the media scrutinized the Bills for not having enough size on defense to stop Ravens running back Derrick Henry or the ability to stop mobile quarterback Lamar Jackson.

“I didn’t hear nothing!” He replied to his own question with a smile. “I’m trying to get it right now. So they said we weren’t big enough, weren’t physical enough?”

The Buffalo defense held Henry to 84 yards while preventing any big breakout plays, and defended and limited Jackson.

The highest-graded Bill in the divisional round by Pro Football Focus (PFF) against the Ravens, defensive end A.J. Epenesa (82.6), commented on the motivation factor as well.

“We have a lot of pride in ourselves, what we do here as a defense,” Epenesa said. “Just speaking as a defense, we were told all week how they were going to do this, how they going to do that, and that just, I’d like to say, fueled us a little bit.”

While the Bills struggled to defend on third down, they forced three turnovers on the day including two on Jackson, and had 10 points off those takeaways.

And a motivational video helped fuel that effort as well.

“Our highlight video this week was all the media people, talking,” fellow defensive tackle Jordan Phillips shared. “They can’t do this. They can’t do that.’ Our coaches suck. We’re too small.

Well, now what?”

In the regular season, Buffalo finished with the third-most takeaways in the NFL in 2024 (32) and was facing the Ravens who were among the top clubs in the NFL at protecting the football. The question was which team would prevail.

“That was our motto all week: Let’s see who’s better,” Phillips added.

Buffalo’s offense seized those opportunities to add 10 points off the turnovers, and the team is now tied for the NFL record for consecutive games with an even or positive turnover margin (21).

All three takeaway plays were made by Buffalo starters who did not play the first meeting between the two teams in NFL Week 4 in Baltimore when the Ravens beat the Bills in the regular season.

Safety Taylor Rapp kicked things off early with an interception, outside linebacker Von Miller recovered a fumble, and linebacker Terrel Bernard caused and recovered a fumble.

“Biggest play of the game, bro. Not even close,” Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas said of the play by Bernard, who Phillips carried off the field in celebration.

On the 216th birthday of writer Edgar Allan Poe, whose work the Baltimore Ravens are named after, the team poetically fell to another Allen as the Buffalo Bills beat them 27-25.

It was the latest instance of exceeding expectations for the Bills, written off by many as a rebuild project before the season even began and an underdog at home for the first time in franchise history.

“We don’t listen to the outside noise, but everyone was saying this and that about us and that we didn’t have enough talent, weren’t good enough to be in these positions and, our guys just continue to work hard and we’re internally driven,” Allen said to the press postgame. “We love each other, and I think you saw how much we played for each other there.”

The Bills ran a clean and conservative offense that leaned on the run game in the snowy conditions of Orchard Park Sunday night.

Allen went 16 of 22 for 127 yards passing with two rushing touchdowns, guiding the team to touchdowns on three of their first four drives of the game.

Buffalo would take a 14-7 lead by the second quarter and keep the lead the rest of the way.

Much like the outside noise about the team, their head coach had a similar perspective about their fans.

“Our guys heard it all — they heard it all week long. We’re not big enough, we’re not strong enough. Not talented enough. Whatever it is, they heard it,” Sean McDermott said.

The Bills had a win by way of complimentary football, with their defensive unit playing consistently strong while forcing three Ravens turnovers including two from Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson.

“We gave our defense a chance to go make a play,” Allen said of Sunday’s win. “We made a play there at the end. I’m just so proud of our guys.”

With the win, the Bills advanced beyond the divisional round of the playoffs where they’d exited the postseason for three consecutive years.

It will be the second conference title game that McDermott and Allen will have gone to, once more returning to Kansas City for a chance to redeem a 2020 loss in the AFC Championship to the Chiefs.

The Bills have won four regular season head-to-head matchups with the Chiefs with Allen under center and were the only team to beat them this season at home. During that time the Chiefs have beaten Buffalo in all three of their playoff matchups.

The Bills will look to avenge a 2020 AFC Championship loss next Sunday against their AFC rivals to take their place in NFL lore.

But to get there they needed to beat Baltimore first, and they did just that. Quoth the Raven, nevermore.