The Ravens beat the Bills this past Sunday 13 – 7 in a defensive battle. Here are some of our takeaways from the game.
The first game of the Bills season didn’t go as hoped for the team and their fans. There was a lot to takeaway from the game, but we’ll cover four of the most important topics in the following slides.
Bills defense played much better than last year
The Bills defense looked like the Bills defense of old, giving up just 13 points. The problem was the Bills offense looked like the Bills offense of old which is why the team came up short against the Ravens.
After missing the team bus, Jerry Hughes posted on Instagram about having to take an Uber to the game with teammate Zach Brown. Despite having to figure out his own ride to the stadium, Jerry Hughes was the defense’s best player with two sacks and six tackles. As usual, the overly aggressive Hughes couldn’t resist committing a penalty when he was called for a roughing the passer penalty in third quarter.
To his credit he did say there was no excuse, but just like Rex Ryan, there comes a point where Jerry needs to stop apologizing and start correcting his behavior. His aggressiveness is part of what makes him great, but he needs to dial back his aggressiveness at times in order to avoid committing costly penalties.
Jerry Hughes on roughing the passer penalty: "There's no excuse, I got to be better." Hughes thought QB Joe... https://t.co/0IwNlBXW6f
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) September 11, 2016
On the day, the Bills defense only gave up 308 yards. They recovered a fumble and should have had a pick-six which bounced off of Ronald Darby’s hands. In total, they had four sacks which would have made up 19 percent of their sack production for all of last year. The Bills didn’t just apply pressure on sacks, they also had six tackles for a loss and nine hits on Flacco.
The defense played very well which is an encouraging sign for a unit that struggled last season. They played a nearly perfect game, except when they got beat deep by Mike Wallace for the Ravens only touchdown of the day. A solid defensive performance is the one big positive takeaway for the Bills.
Now that’s we’ve discussed the one positive takeaway let’s talk about what happened to Sammy Watkins on the next slide.
Next: What Happened to Sammy Watkins?