In the days leading into the divisional round of the playoffs, there was a lot of discussion about the Ravens’ 35-10 win over the Bills early in the regular season.
The Ravens piled up 427 yards in that game with Derrick Henry running for nearly 200 yards on his own, so there were a lot of doubts about whether Buffalo’s defense could slow the Baltimore offense down enough for the Bills to pull out a victory. Bills players heard those doubts and they came out determined to prove them wrong.
They forced a pair of turnovers in the first half to help build a 21-10 lead in front of their home crowd. The Ravens got rolling in the second half, but linebacker Terrel Bernard knocked the ball out of tight end Mark Andrews’s hands for a third takeaway in the fourth quarter and that played a big role in a 27-25 win that sent the Bills to the AFC Championship Game.
“We have a lot of pride in ourselves, what we do here as a defense,” defensive end A.J. Epenesa said, via Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com. “Just speaking as a defense, we were told all week how they were going to do this, how they going to do that, and that just, I’d like to say, fueled us a little bit.”
The Bills are sure to hear more doubts as they prepare to go into Arrowhead Stadium for a matchup with the Chiefs, but Sunday’s win should provide them with plenty of confidence in their ability to get the job done.
Read the full article here
