For the second year in a row, the Ravens are 0-1 after one week, but this time, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. For the 17th time under John Harbaugh, they squandered a double-digit lead in the second half. Even if such a lead isn't necessarily safe against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills, it is a worrying trend.
Worrying enough for one veteran Ravens beat writer to call them "an impossible team to trust". That's the argument Jeff Zrebiec posited for The Athletic following Baltimore's opening-game letdown. They held a 15-point lead with under five minutes to play, but couldn't move the ball in the fourth quarter.
This is in spite of the fact that the Ravens had one of their better offensive games in years through three quarters. They seemed to score at will, putting up 40 points and finding points on nearly every drive. That is until they stopped scoring -- stopped even moving the chains.
After a 46-yard Derrick Henry touchdown three minutes into the fourth quarter gave the Ravens a 40-25 lead, it all fell apart. The Bills didn't even score right away, failing to reach midfield on the ensuing drive. But Baltimore went nowhere on the next drive -- indeed, went backward, punting after under two minutes of possession.
Allen and company responded with a three-minute touchdown drive, cutting the Ravens' lead to eight. But then on the next possession, Henry fumbled, putting the Bills in field goal range. They scored another touchdown in just under a minute. Missing the two-point attempt to tie, though, they still needed help, with under two minutes to do it.
To their credit, the Ravens proved hospitable guests, able to do little while clinging to a fragile lead. Henry gained just one yard on first down, and a Zay Flowers end-around went nowhere. After Lamar Jackson completed a pass to DeAndre Hopkins for six yards, John Harbaugh punted on 4th and 3 from his own 38 with 1:33 to play.
And you know how the rest of the game went, the Bills, minus one false start, managing to stay ahead of the chains. Two big passes set them up inside the Ravens' 20, and Matt Prater hit the game-winning 32-yard field goal as time expired. And the Ravens lost for the first time ever while scoring 40-plus points, which is admittedly no easy feat.
While the Ravens appear to blow a number of big leads, it's also true that they tend to play with big leads more often than nearly any other team. There was one season in which it felt as though they pulled Jackson out of nearly every game in the fourth quarter because they had such a big lead.
Even still, even against Josh Allen, there is never a justification for blowing a 15-point lead with under five minutes to play. It happens, sure. Not so often to Super Bowl-caliber teams, though, which is why Zrebiec finds the Ravens impossible to trust.
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