The Bills are beaten by the eager Ravens, losing 35-10 on Sunday night

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The Buffalo Bills’ first loss of the 2024 season didn’t look particularly encouraging, losing to the Baltimore Ravens 35-10 in Week 4. Baltimore started the game well, forcing the Bills to punt early and immediately took advantage by scoring on the first play of their first possession. Things continued to escalate from there, with the game quickly slipping away from the Bills. Although a spirited second-half comeback reduced the deficit, it was all in vain in the end.

We’ll discuss the most inspiring part of the game (yes, technically I put something there), ask about the position group that needs starters back, look at players who need better performance, and discuss how incredibly irritating one very specific play was during this game.

The result is ugly. The game itself was largely ugly. It could easily have been a lot worse.

After the break, the Bills came out with a plan and played much sharper and better than in the first half, both offensively and defensively. Of course, it didn’t end well for them and there is a lot of criticism towards the players and coaching staff, but the game could have been over at half-time and they tied it until the end of the third quarter before that happened. he completely distanced himself from them.

Moral victories mean nothing, but an evening in which the Bills were clearly the better team early on showed that they were able to come back from a deficit in the second half. In terms of individual performances, Josh Allen was his usual self, and Dalton Kincaid was more involved than usual early in the season, finishing the season with five catches for 47 yards. Despite the brutal fall, rookie Keon Coleman was able to rebound with two big plays in the second half. Khalil Shakir also continued his good form, catching four catches for 62 yards.

Related: The loss follows the Bills’ discouraging Week 4 loss to the Baltimore Ravens

For the first few weeks, the Bills have been dealing with injuries they’ve had on defense. All-Pro linebacker Matt Milano was injured before the season with a torn biceps, elite cornerback Taron Johnson broke his hand early in Week 1 and starting middle linebacker Terrel Bernard suffered a pectoral strain in Week 2. Buffalo was able to practice, deal with those losses and play good football through the first few weeks of the regular season.

The Ravens clearly saw this weakness and attacked it time and time again, running into heavy personnel and just pounding the ball downfield. After a certain point, the Bills had to get out of their usual nickel defense and start playing with a “basic” three-linebacker look. Ultimately, it didn’t help much, and the question of when two of the most important pieces of the Bills’ defense will return remains open as the Bills will have three tough games ahead of them. Signing Taron Johnson, Terrel Bernard, or both over the next few weeks will be crucial to getting the Bills’ defense up to a manageable level. Until then, the Bills need to find a way to cover players like Baylon Spector and Cam Lewis and hope that’s enough.

The general belief among NFL analysts, fans, etc. is that if you have a good quarterback, offensive line, and defensive line, you will be competitive in any game you play. The Bills were uncompetitive on both sides of the ball on Sunday.

The offensive line was outplayed by the Ravens defense early on, and the defensive line was the better team for most of the game. The first few weeks, the Bills’ play was a big plus as they were able to control the offensive line and run the ball effectively to control the tempo of the game. Defensively, they put pressure quite consistently and found the net. Something like this simply didn’t happen in Baltimore and it decided the fate of the game quite early. While this is certainly not a cause for concern (in the sense that it probably won’t be that bad for the rest of the season), it was a major issue on Sunday and needs to be addressed now; No time can be spent on problems with either line, they must be corrected and fixed by the end of next week.

Related: 4 takeaways from the Bills’ embarrassing loss to the Ravens in week four

There really isn’t anything else that could be put in this spot, is there? All the momentum shifted to the Bills after forcing two Baltimore threes and getting to paydirt to start the second half, and they were in Ravens territory, moving the ball efficiently and methodically. The last thing they needed to do at that point was shoot for the moon and steal yards, but that’s exactly what they did, sparking a sort of flea-flicker involving Curtis Samuel and Josh Allen that resulted in an Allen fumble. Regardless of the plan, regardless of whether they were in the right position and whether they got the defensive looks they wanted, there was simply no reason to call such a play.

Joe Brady has been rightly praised since he took over as offensive coordinator after Ken Dorsey was fired last year. Part of the reason he was more successful than Dorsey is that Brady seemed to have a really good feel for the game and how it was unfolding as the situation unfolded in front of him. That simply wasn’t the case on Sunday, and it was never more evident than when he called this trick play that not only resulted in a turnover, but also blew up his superstar quarterback. These kinds of things simply cannot happen or be allowed to happen because such mistakes are too costly.

The Buffalo Bills will face the Houston Texans next week at NRG Stadium at 1 p.m. The Texas team started the game well, matching the Bills’ four-game record, but had difficulty achieving a 3-1 record. All the headlines will be about former Buffalo winger Stefon Diggs and his first chance to play against his former team. That being said, this is a potential game where the Bills can rob the Texans, exploit their weaknesses, and bounce back from a tough game against Baltimore. However, if they lose two in a row, things will start to get more complicated.

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