Buffalo Bills: Top 3 takeaways from Divisional Round win over Ravens

Home field advantage

It has been different watching the Buffalo Bills go on this historic run without the members of their ‘Bills Mafia’ fanbase during the regular season but their presence of 6,700 strong impacted the game.

Through this COVID-19 impacted season, many NFL games were played with only the quarterbacks thundering cadence echoing through the deserted hallways of stadiums. Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave the Bills the green light to host fans. While at a capacity much lower than a sell-out crowd, 6,700 Bills fans made the noise of 67,000 against the Indianapolis Colts. It was also the first encounter new Bills players have had with the mafia since being drafted to or singing with the Bills in the offseason.

The Bills Mafia gave Baltimore an earful all game long Saturday night. One drive, in particular, showed just how much of an impact the fans made on the game as Baltimore was called on enough false-start penalties that they were on their own goal line.

Being unable to communicate with each other and audibles due to the noise was one problem but the harsh Buffalo wind was another.

Forcing Baltimore’s Justin Tucker to miss two field goals (!) during the first half of the game. Justin Tucker has only missed a handful of field goals in his career and is touted as one of the best kickers to play the game. After missing from the 41 yards and against at the 43, he was only able to knock one through in the dying seconds of the first half from the 34. Tucker was not the only kicker to have a tough day at the office as Tyler Bass also found it tough to be accurate on such a gusty night as the swaying uprights of Bills Stadium resulted in a pair of misses from him as well.

Getting the ball through the air via throwing also seemed like a challenge. For Buffalo, the wind carried Josh Allen’s monstrous throws seemingly an additional 10 yards resulting in overthrows. In Baltimore’s case, the wind seemed to have the opposite effect, making receivers curl back to catch the ball.

Great Bills’ players of yesteryear have often spoken on how unique of a stadium Bills’ Stadium is. It provides a truly unique home-field advantage that hopefully, Buffalo will be able to utilize next week in the AFC Championship.