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Many factors contributed to and played a part in the Baltimore Ravens‘ deflating 23-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 4 such as missed opportunities to make plays, absolutely horrendous officiating, and less than ideal weather conditions. However, the most pivotal moment that ultimately decided the game came in its final minutes.
After his offense had marched down the field to the Bills’ four-yard line and chewed up nine and a half minutes of the clock along the way on 17 plays, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh made a controversial decision that many are calling highly questionable in hindsight.
Instead of trotting out the best and most accurate kicker in league history for a short field goal attempt, he could make in his sleep, he left Lamar Jackson and Co. on the field to try to score a touchdown to go up by seven points instead of settling for three and hope they don’t find a way to do the same or worse with little time left in regulation. Not only did the Ravens not come away with any points at the end of the long drive, the interception that Jackson threw in the endzone resulted in a touchback that set the Buffalo offense up at the 20 instead of backed up against their own goal line.
“I felt like it gave us the best chance to win the game,” Harbaugh said in a postgame press conference on October 2, 2022. “(If we score) seven, the worst that happens is if they go down the field and score – and I think we’ll get them stopped – the worst thing that can happen is you’re in overtime. But you kick a field goal there, now it’s not a three-down game anymore, it’s a four-down game. You’re putting your defense at a disadvantage because they’ve got four downs to convert all the way down the field and a chance to again score seven, and then you lose the game on a touchdown.
“I’m very confident in the defense’s ability to stop them down there with the ball on the two-yard line, so we have them backed up if we didn’t get it. It didn’t turn out that way, unfortunately, and we lost the game. So, hindsight, you could take the points, but if you look at it analytically, understand why we did it.”
Jackson wanted the ball in his hands with the game on the line and while they didn’t come out on top in the end, he fully supports his head coach’s approach to the situation and the decision he made.
“I was fine with it,” Jackson said in a postgame press conference on October 2, 2022. “If we had executed on third down, there wouldn’t have even been that question. Nobody would be disappointed. Next time we’ll get it.”
All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews loves the fact that his head coach trusts his players to execute and “put the game away”. He hopes to have more of those kinds of opportunities moving forward and appreciates Harbaugh’s aggressive style of coaching.
“I’m a dog. I like to attack. I like that he attacks too,” Andrews said in a press conference on October 2, 2022.
His fellow All-Pro and franchise cornerstone, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, didn’t speak with the media after the game but took to social media to express similar sentiments about his coach’s unwavering faith in his players on both sides of the ball to get the job done.
Veteran safety Chuck Clark said that the defense trusted and never doubted the offense’s ability to convert the fourth and goal for a touchdown and that his unit was ready to take the field no matter the outcome. Veteran offensive tackle Morgan Mosses had “no issue” with the decision either and was disappointed that they weren’t able to reward their coach’s faith and confidence in them.
“That’s our coaches having the utmost confidence in us, and when they call a play – whatever the case is, whatever the look is – it’s our job as players to execute,” Moses said in a postgame press conference. “At the end of the day, it’s our job to get in the end zone, and we’ve got to perfect those things.”
“We’re always ready, whenever it is, to take big chances [and] go for it on fourth down or go for touchdowns and put us in a better position to win,” veteran offensive guard Kevin Zeitler said in a postgame press conference. We have faith we can get it done. Obviously, it just didn’t happen that way this time.”
4 Crucial Turning Points Prior to the Decision
As critical as the decision to forgo the field goal attempt is now in hindsight, there were some other key moments in this game in which Ravens players didn’t make a play or made the wrong play and where the officials absolutely missed a call or made on one without merit.
1. Jordan Poyer DPI no call
The Ravens got the ball back with nearly three minutes left until halftime with a 20-3 lead and were looking to extend it but a clear and obvious pass interference on veteran wide receiver Demarcus Robinson by Bills’ All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer on third-and-5 from their 30-yard line. Had the penalty been rightfully called, it would’ve resulted in an automatic drive-extending first down. Instead, the Ravens were forced to punt on the next play which set the table for the next play on the list and the Bills’ first touchdown drive of the game.
2. Patrick Queen dropped interception
For the second game in a row, the third-year inside linebacker had a golden opportunity to record his first interception of the season for a timely turnover bounce of his hands and chest. His fellow third-year defender, defensive tackle Justin Madubuike deflected a pass at the line of scrimmage but Queen was unable to come down with a layup turnover with about one minute left in the second quarter.
Last week, he made a great break on the ball but dropped what would’ve been a 99-yard pick-six. After not making the play, the New England Patriots scored on the very next play and while the Bills didn’t score on the next play after his second bad drop, it allowed their drive to continue instead of stopping it in its tracks and they went on to score their first touchdown of the game to cut the Ravens’ lead to 10 points at halftime.
3. Brandon Stephens “roughing the passer” penalty
With just over two minutes left in the game and the Buffalo on the Baltimore 41-yard line and out of comfortable field goal range given the rainy condition, the officiating crew picked the worst possible time to give into the mewling of the quarterback that simply got tackled as he threw an incomplete pass. They wrongfully flagged the second-year defensive back for roughing the passer after tackling Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen and after the game told The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec, that it was for making forceable contact with the head or neck area but it clearly was not and even the former head of officiating, Gene Steratore, agreed that it shouldn’t have been a flag.
4. Odafe Oweh doesn’t allow intentional late touchdown
After the Ravens and the referees let the Bills march down the field following Harbaugh’s decision to bypass the short field goal, the defense was going to let running back Devin Singletary score on a first-down run from their 11-yard line. Everything was going according to plan on the play before Oweh tackled him at the three-yard line short of both the goal line and a first down. His teammates were clearly frustrated with him for the critical mistake and after the game, Harbaugh even confirmed that allowing the touchdown so that they could get their offense one chance was planned and that every defender was aware of it.
“When we were in the huddle, the call was to either strip the ball out or let him score,” Odafe Oweh said postgame. “I was trying to strip the ball out – watch film, you’ll see it – [he] fell down. If the call was let him score, I’m going to let him score.”
While there is no guarantee that the Ravens’ offense would’ve been able to put together a game-tying or winning drive but they would’ve at least had a shot with around a minute and 40 seconds to work with by the time they would’ve got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff.
Silverlining Takeaways
There are no such things as moral victories in sports when a team loses because a loss is still a loss at the end of the day. However, there were some positive takeaways from this game for the Ravens that they should be able to build off of going forward.
The biggest and most positive takeaway coming out of this game is that no Ravens player had to be carted off the field or suffered a season-ending injury. Through the first three games of the regular season, not a game went by where the team didn’t have at least one player sustain a significant injury that would cost them the remainder of the year. They had a few players get banged up in veteran inside linebacker Josh Bynes who returned to the game after getting shaken up, second-year wide receiver Rashod Bateman spent the final few drives watching from the sidelines although he still had his helmet on, and fourth-year running back Justice Hill suffered an apparent minor hamstring injury on the Ravens’ last offense drive after ripping off three chunk runs of 10-plus yards.
Hill wasn’t the only Ravens running back that looked impressive in this game. In his second game back since returning from his torn ACL injury, third-year pro J.K. Dobbins made his presence felt both as a runner and receiver out of the backfield. He recorded 63 yards from scrimmage on 17 total touches and got into the endzone twice.
Even though Oweh made the big mental mistake at the end and let Allen escape his grasp for would’ve been clutch sacks and tackles for loss, he made his fair share of plays as well. He stripped Singletary of the ball on the Bills’ third drive of the game in the first quarter to set up the Ravens’ offense with another short field. He also finally got his first sack of the season to force the Bills’ only punt of the second half that set up the infamous long march for no points.
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