The job was almost done.
The Bills had weathered a keyed-up M&T Bank Stadium crowd, another virtuoso effort from Lamar Jackson, a Ravens defense that showed signs of coming alive and monsoon conditions. The ball sat on the Baltimore 11, with John Harbaugh having burned his second timeout, first-and-10 coming and Josh Allen convening with Sean McDermott.
In the past, Allen might’ve ridden all that emotion right over to his coach. But not now, not with Buffalo on the precipice of doing what millions spent the week saying it couldn’t.
“They only have one timeout left,” the quarterback said to his coach. “If we get the first down, it’s over.”
“He knew right away,” McDermott recalled.
And when Allen said that, McDermott knew the game was, definitively, over, because the quarterback took that back to the huddle, and the Bills managed the final 1:50 of a 60-minute fight with a very game Ravens group accordingly.
We’ll get to the details on how Buffalo did it, but the important thing, the thing that struck those on the Bills’ sideline, was Allen’s demeanor in the moment—and that he did it after making the sort of breakneck plays that have become his trademark to get Buffalo down the field. There was a downfield touch throw to Dawson Knox for 20 yards on a third-and-2 that sparked the march. There was a Houdini escape on a scramble play, followed by an against-his-body bullet to Khalil Shakir two plays later, to put the Bills in field goal range.
Yet, through the whole thing, Allen kept his head about him, so much so that he was taking the lead on clock management at the wire. And McDermott was happy to cede it to him.
“He’s such a competitor to get us even into that situation to begin with,” McDermott said, leaving the stadium an hour or so later. “He loves to compete. And then what I saw today, in particular, Albert, was just he was so calm. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the ball, and then he knew exactly what the situation was as we got closer to the goal line.”
So in the huddle, he reminded Devin Singletary to hit the deck near the goal line if he sensed Baltimore was letting him score (which Singletary did). Then, on second-and-2 from the 3, he took the keeper off left guard and effectively hit the deck at the 1 to move the chains. And all that left was two kneel-downs and a chip shot to give the Bills a 23–20 win.
This was a big one for the Bills, and for Allen. They answered the bell, and in a way that doesn’t just silence their few remaining doubters. It also happened—through Allen’s calm—in a way that should serve them well three and four months from now.
