Buffalo Bills vs Baltimore Ravens NFL Divisional Round Game Preview

Written by Mykail Mereau

The rematch of the Week 4 matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens takes place in the divisional round of the NFL postseason on Sunday night this time being in Orchard Park. We take a look of the preview matchup in the clash of the two heavyweight teams that feature the two top MVP candidates of this season quarterbacks Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.

The battle of the two MVP candidates: Josh Allen & Lamar Jackson

The two best quarterbacks from the 2018 NFL Draft class, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson face off again for the second time this season. Last time these two quarterbacks met against each other was way back in Week 4 of the season, when Allen and the Bills came to Lamar’s building on the road in Baltimore on a Sunday night football matchup. Where the Ravens completely steam rolled Buffalo of a whooping scored 35-10 and handed the Bills their first loss of the season. Lamar had a total of 210 yards with 156 passing yards and 54 rushing yards with three total touchdowns, two in the air and one on the ground. While Allen had a total of 201 yards with 180 passing yards and 21 rushing yards with no touchdowns throughout the game. But a lot has changed since that Week 4 matchup between Buffalo and Baltimore, the Bills went out to go get Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns and the Ravens went on to grab Diontae Johnson from the Carolina Panthers. Both quarterbacks are having a sensational MVP caliber seasons, setting their cases for the MVP award this season. But which one of them is the true MVP for this season? Lamar is having his best statistical season in his career with a total of 5,087 yards in passing yards of 4,172, total touchdowns of 44 with passing touchdowns of 41 and rushing touchdowns of 4 with a 119.6 in passer rating. Allen is having his best season to date with putting the team on his back with no superstar wide receiver on his team. Allen has a total of 4,262 yards in passing yards of 3,731, total touchdowns of 40 with passing touchdowns of 28 and rushing touchdowns of 12 with a 101.4 in passer rating. It’s clear that Lamar has the better overall stats than Allen this season, except that Allen has the better win-loss record than Lamar and less turnovers with Allen having eight total turnovers with six interceptions and two fumble losses, while Lamar having nine total turnovers with four interceptions and five fumble losses. It’s a very tight race for the MVP award between these two all-pro quarterbacks coming into high anticipated game for all the marbles. But I believe that the winner of this game will have a more edge to grabbing the MVP award. Will it be Lamar Jackson capturing his third MVP award in his career or will Josh Allen finally have his first MVP award in his career? We will find out after Sunday’s matchup when both quarterbacks will be looking to punch their tickets to reach the AFC Championship game for the second time in their careers with one game away to New Orleans of going to the Super Bowl between them.

How will the Bills defense contained Derrick Henry throughout the game?

The Bills defense had a tough time slowing the Ravens superstar running back Derrick Henry back in Week 4. It was one of the reasons on why Baltimore walkaway with the victory over Buffalo, Henry had 199 rushing yards with one touchdown, which was the first drive of the Ravens offense when he ran for 87 yards down the field to put Baltimore on the board. Buffalo had no answers at all on defense in stopping King Henry all night long. But it was obvious that the Bills defense had no Matt Milano or Terrell Bernard on the field during that game, but now since both of Buffalo’s top linebacker duo will play in the rematch from Week 4 hopefully the Bills will have answer in slowing down Derrick Henry this time around on defense. Now guaranteed, Henry wasn’t the only running back that have cause a lot of problems within Buffalo’s run defense this season. The likes of De’Von Achane, Breece Hall, Jonathan Taylor and Kyren Williams had their fair shares of running the ball down the Bills throat and keeping the Buffalo offense off the field. So this is a game that the Bills run defense needs to show up and find a way to contain and slow down the freak of nature that is Derrick Henry. Because if they don’t then this game will be a repeated of Week 4 all over again and can end up a lot worse than the last matchup between both teams.

Will Zay Flowers play on Sunday for the Ravens or not?

It’s very questionable on the status for Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers whether he will play on Sunday for the Ravens. Flowers has been dealing with a knee injury for two weeks and been out of action since then. He has missed practice five times this week, but has been working out despite the injury. Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh told the media that there’s a chance Flowers plays on Sunday against the Bills despite not practicing all week long. Last week the Baltimore offense didn’t really miss a beat without him on the field against their division rival Pittsburgh Steelers dominating them in time of possession throughout the game with the final score being 28-14 at the M & T Bank stadium. But it looks like they might need him in this upcoming game on the road in Buffalo going up against a very stingy Bills secondary. So we will know the decision from the Ravens coaching staff by the end of the week, whether or not if Flowers is going to play on Sunday at Highmark Stadium in the biggest game of the season.

Final Prediction: Bills 35, Ravens 31