The Buffalo Bills started their 2025 season with a big win over the powerful Baltimore Ravens, who were dominating the Bills for the majority of Sunday Night Football. Let’s face it, the Ravens should have won with no issue but crucial mistakes by them led to the Bills taking advantage of them and pulling out a massive win in front of their fans and the entire world.
Josh Allen showed the NFL why he is the defending MVP, throwing for 394 yards and scoring 4 total touchdowns. He was absolutely electric and without him, there’s no way the Bills would win this game.
While Allen is the main star overall, the Bills’ defense (which was horrendous) had a star of their own in defensive tackle Ed Oliver, and he got some well-deserved recognition from Adam Patrick of NFL Spin Zone.
Ed Oliver had an MVP-like performance vs. Ravens in Week 1
Patrick listed Oliver as a hero who “turned Week 1 into chaos”. Here’s a bit on what Patrick said about Oliver:
"Oliver had several impressive plays on Sunday, but none made as big of an impact as the fumble he forced late in the fourth quarter of the contest.Adam Patrick, NFL Spin Zone
Baltimore was attempting to run out the clock and figured a few handoffs to all-world running back Derrick Henry would be able to get the job done. But Oliver had different plans, as he forced Henry to fumble the ball and give Buffalo possession on the Ravens' 30-yard line."
Just when you thought the Ravens were going to close out the Bills, Oliver forced a fumble against Derrick Henry and it was the biggest turning point of the game. Without his presence making an impact, Baltimore would have run the clock out and gave Buffalo no chance at winning this game.
It wasn’t just the forced fumble that stood out from Oliver. He was constantly in the backfield creating pressure and he was tied with Taylor Rapp for the second most total tackles (6). He also managed to record a sack against Lamar Jackson.
Oliver has really grown as a player the last couple of seasons and he came up big for the Bills in this game. Even though Baltimore dominated the running game, Oliver made the big plays when it mattered the most.