The Baltimore Ravens will travel to Buffalo on Sunday night for the divisional round of the playoffs against the Bills, as the Ravens look to get back to the AFC championship for the second straight year. Sunday will be a rematch of week four, when the Ravens rolled passed the Bills 35-10. It will also be a rematch of the 2021 divisional round that saw the Bills come away with a 17-3 victory over the Ravens to move on to the AFC championship that year. Sunday night is expected to be a battle with two MVP candidates in Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen at quarterback and weather expected to be a factor, with game time temperatures projected in the single digits.
Both teams enter Sunday very healthy with the Ravens listing wide receiver and return specialist Deonte Harty (knee) as questionable Harty is still in his 21-day window to return from injured reserve. Fellow wide receiver Zay Flowers (knee) did not practice for the second straight week and is listed as doubtful. It an unfortunate blow for the Ravens offensively as they hoped Flowers would be back after missing the teams wild-card win over the Steelers last week.
For the Bills they only have one injurie designation for running back Ray Davis (concussion). Davis was limited in practice all week and is currently listed as questionable for Sunday.
Players to Watch:
Nate Wiggins
Rookie first-round pick, cornerback Nate Wiggins should have an increased role come Sunday night as he looks to help slow down a Buffalo Bills team that ranked inside the top 10 in passing yards per game. With the continued struggles of cornerback Brandon Stephens it will be hard to ignore the production Wiggins has given the Ravens in a much more limited role compared to Stephens.
When the Bills and Ravens faced off in week four Wiggins recorded two tackles and one pass deflection, in at the time only his third career game. Since then Wiggins has recorded a pick-six and has 13 pass deflections, tied for 13th most in the NFL. Wiggins plays with an edge to him that will be beneficial to the Ravens secondary as they look to slow down Josh Allen and that Bills offense.
Keon Coleman
Another rookie to watch out for on Sunday night is Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman. While Bills receivers like Khalil Shakir and Amari Cooper will get most of the attention by the Ravens defense. Coleman will need to be a player the Ravens don’t lose track of as he has the ability to make explosive plays down the field. Coleman racked up 29 catches for 556 yards, and four touchdowns to go along with a 19.2-yard average per catch.
Coleman had four catches for 51-yards in the Bills loss to the Ravens this season. While his numbers don’t jump off the page in his rookie year, Coleman has seen an increase in targets as the year as gone on as he saw 17 total targets in the Bills final two regulars season games. With just one catch last week in the Bills wild-card win over the Broncos, you know the Bills and Allen will look to get Coleman involved to take some pressure off the likes of Shakir and Cooper.
Prediction
Both the Ravens and Bills are much different teams compared to when they faced off in week four. The Bills have gotten healthier especially on the defensive side of the ball since that matchup while the Ravens have improved from one of the worst ranked defenses in the first month of the season to one of the best statistically by the end of the season. Quarterbacks Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have separated themselves from the rest of the MVP hopefuls and it just makes sense that these two teams would face off in one of the most anticipated divisional round playoff games in recent memory.
Sunday night will be much closer than it was when these two teams played in the regular season, as both teams have gotten better, and with a shot at reaching the AFC championship. I think because of how poor the weather will be, both offenses will lean on their running games as passing in this one may be limited. With that being said if it comes down to a time of possession game and leaning on the run game no one has been better at running the ball as a team all season than the Ravens. Coupled with the fact the Ravens defense is one of the best at defending the run. I think the Ravens break the will of the Bills defense, control the tempo offensively, and get a couple stops defensively and that should be the difference in the game. Ravens win 24-20, and head back to their second straight AFC championship.
Line: Baltimore -1.5
Over/Under: 51.5
All-Time Record: Baltimore leads series 7-4 (Playoffs Buffalo leads series 1-0)
Last Meeting: 9/29/24 Baltimore 35-10 (Playoffs 1/16/21 Buffalo 17-3)
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